What websites should I be on? (Part 1)

Jun 4, 2008

What websites should I be on? (Part 1)

Wiki

When you’re thinking about ‘Getting your music out there’, there are quite a few choices. We’ve already covered MySpace, to a certain extent – though it’s worth mentioning a pretty good bit of coverage about How to Promote Yourself on MySpace on Wired.

You’ll notice that Wired article is a Wiki. That is to say, it’s an online article that anyone can edit. If you have useful things to contribute to that article, you should absolutely go and make changes. This is a large part of how the web is grown these days – by leveraging broadly distributed knowledge. And it also reminds of us of one of the most important sites for musicians these days: Wikipedia.

Wikipedia pretty much universally comes up in the top ranking search results for any given topic. If there’s a page about your band on Wikipedia, that will be one of the default places to look when people are searching for you. Your page, your MySpace page, your Wikipedia entry.

Image via WikipediaThis particular fact was brought to my attention by David Sherbow of MPTrax.com when we met at a blogging conference in Chicago recently. There’d been an article about it in a recent issue of Billboard magazine and while they made it clear that it was important, they may have understated just how important it is.

But here’s the thing: while it’s crucial that you’re findable on Wikipedia, AND it’s true that anyone can just log on to Wikipedia and write or edit an entry – it’s considered bad form to write your own entry. Really. You just look like a bit of a plonker. Wikipedia strives to be objective, impartial and balanced. Very difficult to do that when you’re writing a self-hagiography.

So a good idea is to ask someone who knows a bit about your music, and can put in a little bit of time giving some biographical detail, maybe upload an image or two and (ideally) take responsibility for tending your Wikipedia entry.

Further reading:
There are a few books that are worth a read on the topic of the phenomena of wikis and the power of community-contributed content online (I’m not a fan of ‘user generated’ as a term): Wikinomics is a good place to start, and Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody should definitely be next on the list. I just polished them both off over the weekend, so this is fresh on my mind.

There are other sites to concern yourself with, and I’ll deal with those in later posts – but for now, go and spend some time recruiting your wiki-authors and get yourself up on one of the most read, most findable and most actively engaged-with websites on the planet.

And, of course, this gives me the cue to ask the same thing of you. Last I checked, there was no Wikipedia entry for New Music Strategies – or for me, for that matter. I’m not going to do it for the reasons stated above, but I’d consider it a real honour if you thought it was worth your while starting a Wikipedia entry about what I do.

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14 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post

Paul

it’s interesting that i use wikipedia all the time and never thought of doing this myself… Thanks Dubber!

Also while we’re on the subject of Wikipedia, I thought i’d pass along a good helper for writers block. I have used Wikipedia several times to “jump-start” song ideas… I just type in the subject of the song and read the article (notebook in hand) and jot down the phrases that catch my eye. This has been a great help for me in finding interesting ways to phrase lyrics and has spawned a couple of ideas too. If you dont have an idea for the subject of your song hitting the “Random article” link can also get your creative juices flowing… just a couple of thoughts that i though other songwriters would appreciate.
-phv

Jun 4th, 2008
Carl Morris

Not only is it bad form to edit your own entry, it could also cause embarrassment if you get found out. This applies to employees of several high-profile companies who were found out using the WikiScanner.
http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr

Useful advice though.

We live in a post-Wikipedia world and often if you’re not listed, you’re totally invisible to many… (Un)fortunately for many journalists under time pressure it’s not only the first source but the last and only source they consult. Look up last year’s Ronnie Hazlehurst / S Club 7 debacle for further Wikipedia embarrassment.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/03/wikipedia_obituary_cut_and_paste/

Jun 4th, 2008
Milton

I had looked at doing a Wiki for my music back in 2006…guess what stopped me?

Yep, it was the fact that it did not feel right to write about myself.

That combined with the fact that I just did not think I had enough music made to warrant a Wiki at the time.

Now that I have had two years to build up my music stock pile I guess I just need to find an author. Not an easy task.

Jun 4th, 2008
Unsigned Band Promotion

Great blog BTW

Just a note of caution here, Wikipedia does not look kindly on any old band posting an entry. Wikipedia welcomes established bands only!! I’ve known a few bands who have been asked to, well… go away

luv
ian
XX

Jun 4th, 2008
Mark Gibson

I hate sitting on the fence but I think that there are as many con’s as pro’s with wikipedia.

As Ian said above “Wikipedia welcomes established bands only!! IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve known a few bands who have been asked to, wellÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ go away”.
This really means that he people that need a wiki listing the most are the least likely to get one.

Also I agree that they don’t like you writing your own page and there again we have a problem for the small act. An established or label supported act is more likely to have access to a “PR machine” of some sort which can look after and maintain things like wiki pages. Small acts don’t and therefore run the risk of being “plonkers” as you put it.

Having said that… if you can manage to swing a decent listing in wikipedia THAT LINKS BACK TO YOUR REAL SITE, then it will help greatly in your search engine rankings.

Jun 5th, 2008
Milton

I have been gathering information over the last couple of years about the benefits of building my own dedicated website.

Unfortunately I am not tech savvy enough to build the site myself…As a result, I have also been soliciting like minded peers who are tech savvy enough to help me.

Through this process I have learned several things:

1) I wish I had learned more about web design / HTML

2) Lots o my peers / friends are tech savvy, brilliant at it even.

3) Many of these people have sites, make great music but see no noticeable results due to their domain.

and 4) The reason for this I think is because the social networks have gained prominence over dedicated sites (for many reasons).

Strictly regarding “unknown” artists:

The social networks offer all the functions of a dedicated site with the added advantage of built in traffic. They offer convenience and there are several that are “useful” (as opposed to the multitude that are not) like Last FM, iMeem, Amie Street, and even Myspace.

For the artist without a budget beyond a few hundred dollars a year to spare, the social networks offer a realistic and promising alternative to domain anonymity.

Google offers the most legitimate of the “free” options for web pages or blogs thanks to the way they structure the domain listings, i.e.:

http://www.ultrameek.blogspot.com

or

http://www.ultrameek.googlepages.com

Sure their brand is in the listing but they had the foresight to put the artist / bloggers name first. Unlike Myspace and many others who stick it on the end.

My point in saying all this is that I believe that there are very economical ways to create a web presence for your music (especially if you are HTML deficient like me).

A dedicated domain is always the way to go if you are capable. These alternatives mentioned above give folks like me complete control over our content and schedule of implementation.

I am not suggesting in any way that total control equals a great web presence (just visit any of those URL’s I posted!)…But that is the individuals responsibility to make it worthwhile…And I hope I develop those skills soon!

It is important to note: This is also the perspective of an artist with a full time day job, wife, and father of two with not a lot of time to spend making (much less) marketing music.

Jun 5th, 2008
Randy Fullerton

Wonderful article, and spot on in my humble opinion. I have participated in a limited amount on wikipedia, and I have done one page for a blues harp player friend of mine. The most important thing to remember about wikipedia is the fact the website requires references from established magazines, newspapers, or something similar. However, you can’t copy/paste straight from the articles because that creates a copyright violation. You have to do a write up and just use the material as references. The artist can not be quoted, unless it comes from an already published source.

Well worth the effort, but it’s just that…an effort. And if the artist is just getting establishe, probably not the best place. But wikipedia is definitely a database not to be dismissed.

I participate in a an online collaborative wiki radio station Whole Wheat Radio.
http://wholewheatradio.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

It’s basically a wiki based Internet radio specifically for independent music. It’s listener/artist based and both participate in building and maintaining the database and in the daily programming of the station. However, we’re not near as strict as wikipedia! Wiki definitely has a learning curve, but it’s here to stay and wikipedia has proven the popularity of grassroots, contributor oriented parking spaces on the web.

Always enjoy the information from “New Music Strategies”…great work and I hope to see you in my Reader for many, many years to come!

Randy Fullerton (a.k.a. atuuschaaw)

Jun 5th, 2008
Mike Pearce

Great advice about WIkipedia, but I’d just like to repeat/re-inforce a point already made here – they do have notability guidelines, and I suspect that unless you can get enough people editing and updating your Wiki page, an editor will spot it an stick a notability ‘order’ on it.

Mind you, I suppose if you can get enough contributers….

Mike

Jun 5th, 2008
Rich Newman

Concerning notability. I had posted some info about our band a few years back and they pulled it with a polite note about the notability.

But there is a back door. If you find pages on other artists or subjects where you have respecable web pages to link to, then it’s perfectly legit to add those links in the appropriate pages.

As far as feeling like it might not feel right … well I don’t understand that, as long as you keep anything you write to facts and history.

Jun 11th, 2008
Stephen

There was a very well-written and well-referenced article about my band posted yesterday and got already got pulled today for notability reasons. I strongly disagree that Wikipedia should be the first website your band SHOULD be on.

The self-appointed Wiki-police need to get lives.

Aug 26th, 2008