Getting your music online

Getting your music online

She might not quite match Lily Allen's meteoric rise from the wrong side of a computer screen to mega popstardom, but when young British pianist and composer Helen Jane Long was snapped up by Warner Classics and Jazz earlier this year, the classical world sat up and took notice.

Encouraged by the success of her MySpace page, the 32-year-old from Hampshire sent a demo CD to the label and was signed 'almost instantly'. Granted, Long isn't headlining festivals yet, but in classical terms she has a very bright future ahead. So if you want to follow her lead and take your music online, where do you start?

With 1.4m music profiles established by April last year, MySpace is generally the first port of call for artists keen to embrace the online music revolution. Each profile can feature up to four tracks, which visitors can play, stream or download.

London-based René Gruss has been using the internet to promote his music for five years. 'My priority was accessing the different social networks quickly and building a fan base,' he says. He puts his online success down to the time he spends on MySpace and other networking sites like Facebook and Bebo: 'Each one is a world unto itself. Just dealing with the messages can get too much so you have to invest your time.'

'My priority was accessing the different social networks quickly and building a fan base'

There are dozens of other music-hosting websites out there: try the BBC's Blast showcase (www.bbc.co.uk/blast) or, if you're looking for some constructive criticism, the spnm's Listening Room (www.spnm.org.uk/forum) invites you to upload and discuss your music with other music fans.

Gruss, 47, also recommends online video as a useful tool and is planning a regular video journal. You can upload videos (such as concert footage) to dozens of video-sharing websites like YouTube, Yahoo! Video and Google Video for free.

Another option is getting your music played on internet radio stations or in podcasts. For this, try contacting a presenter - or even setting up your own station or podcast if your particular brand of Balkan-inspired baroque minimalism isn't well covered. It's easier than you think, especially if you use ready-made sites like Live365 (www.live365.com) and Liberated Syndication (www.libsyn.com) - and if you do a good job you could soon become known as the champion of that niche.

It's all very well uploading your music and videos, but how do you make it more than just a vanity project? Something of an online music veteran now, New Zealand-born Gruss saw no substantial return when he first started uploading his music: 'A lot of people think that you bung something up and viral marketing kicks in and things happen, but it doesn't just happen like that. Unless you put in a lot of time you'll get nothing.'

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