Over the past few years the music industry has grudgingly made spectacular changes. Grudgingly refers to the record companies. Spectacular is referring to opportunities that have been afforded to unsigned bands. All of this was done by the beloved Internet. The world wide popularity of Napster, and mp3 format, forced the music industry to change quickly. People wanted to get their music song by song. Napster created a temporarily free avenue for anyone to do this. Unsigned artists could do the same thing. They could convert their original music to mp3 format and make it available on Napster for people to download and listen to all over the world. It was primitive, but still the greatest thing to happen to unsigned bands to date.

Since the commercialization of mp3 format, use of the internet for unsigned bands has not progressed the way musicians had hoped. There are several different sites on the web where musicians can sell their music. Those same sites have setup fees, barcode fees, and they charge an average of about 45 of the selling price. This means that expenses come to a grand total of 85 for all of the hard word, dedication, love of the art, and creating something from scratch. This is not fair to the artists or the fans.

Most web sites do absolutely nothing to earn their fees. Your music is available for purchase but that is pretty much it. They are providing no real service at all! They are more concerned about creating a community then selling music. In most cases, the community is not buying music. Don't get me wrong. Communities are great. They are just useless when it comes to selling music. In order to sell CDs you have to integrate the web with the real world. These sites need to promote the bands and the music. When is the last time you saw a real world advertisement for a web site that promotes unsigned bands. I would venture to say that you never have. This has to change for unsigned artists to get any real recognition for their music. Most the web sites that claim to promote unsigned bands are in it for themselves and not the bands.

The moral to this story is simple. Find a site that will provide more than just a URL that is lost on the web. Find a site that is a tool for promotion. Find a site that will actually offer affordable avenues to get your music physically in the hands of as many people as possible. Find a site that really cares about the music!