Amanda Palmer was a street mime by day, and one-half of the music duo The Dresden Dolls by night. On April 30, 1012, she and The Grand Theft Orchestra did something that no music artist had done before. They had put their newest album up as a Kickstarter project, and asked fans to pledge and donate only as much as they felt willing to part with to help support them. What should have had a limit of $100,000 had garnered a whopping $1,192,753. Amanda, her band, and her husband Neil Gaiman continue to sign albums, mail goody packages to fans, and play in homes ans at events of fans around the world who have pledged to support her album.

This risk had proven to be a successful gamble for her, and now shines as a big possibility for many other artists out there. Could this be the death of the recording label? No one knows for sure, but this could well be the future of the music industry.

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If you and your buddies are starting a band and want to get the word out, it’s always a great idea to do the footwork, get in touch with some of the local bars and events planning in the area, and so on. However, if you’re not utilizing social media on the internet, isn’t it high time your band did?

Social media is one of the best ways to create interest among potential fans and listeners, and to create a following while you’re at it. If you have a Facebook page or a personal twitter account and have a ton of friends who follow your activities, so can your band. Twitter is great for generating buzz in real time while being a sounding board to some of your potential fans who tweet about how much they like your music. Retweeting their tweets means a lot, and shows credibility. Having a Facebook page will let your band break any particular news in more than 140 characters. You can post gig dates and venues, tour dates, and even appearances on TV. You can also give your followers sneak previews or listen-ins to some of your singles and some behind-the-scenes footage to make them beg for more. Using social media is a good way to go beyond your music and give your band a specific personality beyond stage presence.

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This article will address some of the many reasons why your band is missing out if they haven’t yet set up a MySpace profile.

One of the main reasons you should get your band onto MySpace is that its free of charge to promote your music and you can gain instant recognition for your music and build a substantial fan base which could lead to you being discovered by a major label or give you the ability to sell your debut album a lot faster.

Many Bands are already utilising MySpace so if you don’t already have a MySpace profile then the chances are that you will need to learn how to work the basic functions quickly so that you don’t waste any more time getting your band name out there and sharing your music will the millions of MySpace users that are just a click away.

One thing that many bands simply skip over is that you can embed other elements of promotion into your MySpace profile, for example many bands simply use the MySpace comment and bulletin system to announce things such as album launches and dates of their latest gigs.

Most bands don’t realise the power of embedded a newsletter opt-in form on their profile, this allows you to collect e-mail addresses of your closest fans, this will you allow you to e-mail them the latest news on your band and you can sell them something directly via e-mail.

I’m sure if you implement this you will be ahead of most of your competition that don’t make full use of MySpace as a promotional platform.