Making your band profile look cool on myspace

Tips to pimp out your band’s MySpace profile to project a cool image and keep your fans coming back for more.

MySpace users are exposed to every imaginable style and genre of music and just as many bands to go with them. As part of your online music promotion, you should focus on creating your MySpace profile in a way that not only reflects who you are as a band, but in a way that will have the potential to spread virally to catapult your band to “most played band” status.

Remember, MySpace is a giant popularity contest, and your job is to become popular. It all begins with your MySpace profile which should be consistent with your band’s overall online music promotion strategy. It is very easy to get caught up in it and forget why you are there- to get distribution for your music and to promote your band.

One important aspect in having your band's songs become successful on MySpace is how you present yourself to potential fans. You want to create the coolest possible profile, without going overboard and have your band end up looking like a bunch of dorks. Follow these Do’s and Do Not’s for creating the coolest possible MySpace profile and succeeding in your online music promotion.

As a musician, it's the music that does the talking. So, the first thing to do is getting some of your tunes up there — but note that you must hold copyrights for them. After putting in some basic song information, it's time to upload the first track, which you can set to play as people open your page.

There are an almost unlimited number of ways to spruce up your page so that it reflects the individuality of your band and your music. Go ahead and pimp it out all you like but avoid cluttering the page. People like a page that is clean, loads quickly and is easy to navigate. Pimp it out and keep simple so that you can effectively promote your music.

There is no reason to spend a lot of money pimping out your page. There are hundreds of websites offering free MySpace layouts and all sorts of cool stuff to go with them. Just please avoid the dancing cursors and anything that makes the page take any longer than 20-30 seconds to load. You can’t promote and distribute your music online if your page takes forever to load. Try places such as Myspace layout sites to get your creative juices flowing.

Many bands, in their online music promotion, make the mistake of droning on and on. Keep it short and interesting. If people want to know more about you, they will ask. Giving your fans a chance to ask will help your online music promotion, and drive more traffic to your band’s web site.

You want to look cool, not like a bunch of dorks. Remember, one key to successful online music promotion is your band’s image. It is very important to keep that in mind with your photograph selection. Do not give in to the temptation to take those “fake candids” or that “brick wall line-up” shot (a major no-no!). Put your most attractive band member front and center. If you have unusual or quirky instruments make sure you hold them up in the photo and leave the vintage guitars in their cases. If at all possible, enlist a professional photographer. You are creating more than a photo; you are creating your band’s visual image.

I know, you may have ideas crawling all through your head of glitter and flames and dancing cursors (please no!) but before you commit to any layouts or extras its good idea to spend some time cruising bands on MySpace and looking at their pages to get a feel for how other bands have set up this important facet of their online music promotion. Even if you do not see something you love, you may see plenty you hate and this will give you a better foundation for what works and does not work in reality. Things that look cool on a free layout site might not really work for the image you are trying to project for your online music promotion.

Above all else, remember that this is about you getting exposure and distribution for your music. Online music promotion is all about getting found, remembered, heard and ultimately talked about. You are creating a promotional springboard for your band, so if you have chosen a layout that is generally bloated, busy, confusing or difficult to navigate, it is time to head back to the drawing board.
Having a cool MySpace profile is all about keeping it simple by always reflecting who you are so that your music can take center stage.