The Nashville Music Council aims to seek recognition from all genres, not just country.

With over 7 million registered users in Europe, it’s hard to ignore Spotify’s presence in digital music.  Although many bands are skeptical about how much Spotify can help them financially, there are some positive stories coming out of Sweden.  The Local, a Swedish news site, reported Spotify’s royalty payments rose 800% to songwriters over the past 12 months.

If a band wants to use Spotify to gain more European fans, they can do so through TuneCore.  But first, the band needs to see how it can actually benefit them.  At the root, it’s understanding how to leverage free content to maximize paid content.  Simply stated, just by holding certain songs outside of Spotify, bands have a greater chance of monetization while gaining new fans.

Maybe your band already

What is JamLegend?

Imagine a free version of Guitar Hero that lets you compete with Facebook friends, and have the ability to upload your own music? It’s pretty awesome, and it’s called JamLegend.

JamLegend lets users play guitar or drums on their keyboard. If the user has a Guitar Hero controller, they can easily plug and play. The game requires no programming from the user to play their own songs. After uploading a song, JamLegend automatically detects rhythms and pauses within a few seconds.

Bands can apply to start their own profile pages at https://www.jamlegend.com/platform/info. It is a great way to engage with fans. The possibility of contests, awards and giveaways are endless. More bands should be doing it, especially in the rock genre.

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SXSW is always an exciting time in the music industry – it’s the perfect way to get ready for the summer because companies, bands, filmmakers, etc. always show off their goods and launch new projects. Stickybits is no exception to that rule. Poised to take location based social networks to a new level, Stickybits uses mostly open source programs to capitalize on something that every product has on it: bar codes. I love the concept because how often have you stood in the grocery store aisles comparing products and just needed someone to give you advice on which product is better? Enter Stickybits. All you need to do now is scan the bar code and read what other people who have used the product have to say about it

Over 71,000 gigs were booked last year on Sonicbids, a website connecting promoters and musicians.  On June 14, 2010, ArtistData became a part of the Sonicbids family.  The founder of Sonicbids said it best, “If Sonicbids is all about booking gigs, ArtistData is all about helping you market those gigs.”

ArtistData is a tool that helps synchronize updates and tour schedules across a wide variety of websites.  ArtistData saves musicians time from having to log in to each social networking site separately.  Since its creation, ArtistData has posted 3.7 million updates.

The free features of ArtistData will remain free, and better yet, the $24.99/month features are free until September 1, 2010.  These features will be available to all 245,000 Sonicbids and 25,000 ArtistData members.  Sign up now to