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Podcasting as a promotion tool
As podcasting's popularity continues to increase, it's value
as a promotional tool, especially for emerging musicians
continues to increase. Creating a podcast is easy, and with
podcasting's increasing popularity comes increasing
competition into the podcasting market for companies
wishing to provide you with their podcasting services.
Podcasting itself is a very simple concept. You start by
recording your show and/or song and then convert it
digitally into an MP3, or WMA file. You then upload
your podcast to a web hosting or file service, and then
create a syndication feed (often called RSS). There are
many free services available for creating your RSS feed;
most notably there is FeedBurner.com. These are the two
basic steps to creating a podcast; they're quick and simple.
For up and coming musicians podcasting is both an easy
and cheap promotional tool; for those who are not very
do-it-yourself tech-savvy types there are several free
all-inclusive podcasting services, which are often supported
by cut-in advertising, and there are many other great
low-cost options available which are often advertisement
free. Not only is podcasting easy and cheap, but it is also
a great tool to be able to reach niche markets, which is
especially valuable for new indie artists and bands. Nothing
is more important to aspiring artists and bands than to get
your name and sound out there to your new audience.
The most important part of promoting your podcast is to make
sure that you get yourself listed in as many web sites that are
dedicated podcast portals/directories. Another good idea is to
sign your self up for an Artist's profile on MySpace, or a profile
on any of the other many available "community" web sites. It's
virtually impossible for someone to find you during a web search,
but by listing your podcast in one of the many podcast
portals/directories, you are ensuring that your audience will be
able to find you.
Although it seems counter-productive to give away music for
free, podcasting is an important tool for artists to get out
name, and sound, recognition. With a web audience ever
hungry for music entertainment, reaching out to your niche
audience has never been easier.