Online communities

There is an ever growing amount of online communities for bands and musicians.  Some are very good, some not so.  The good news though is that the not so good ones tend not to last very long.  Most, if not all, of the good sites are free and i would even go so far as to say that if they are not, then stay away.  The good ones are also run by people who have in interest in music, love music and want to see genuine talent.  Although some are making money, bear in mind that when they started it was all done by people giving their time and believe me there will have been a lot of work done with no financial rewards.  Not something you do if you are in it for a quick buck.

Probably the best bands community is ukbands.net  The site features areas to put your music, forums, good articles, gig announcements, promoter areas, music industry information.  In fact just about everything you may need.

mp3unsigned.com is another good site.  They hold competitions which is a great way to get your music heard.  As with ukbands you can upload your tracks, photos and bios to your profile and there are numerous forums.

rockstarlottery.com  is basically as the name suggests, although not nsuch a lottery!!  Again it is packed full of interesting discussion, articles, etc and band bios with tracks.

amplifeye.com is also a very very good unsigned community

myspace.com is something the majority of people reading this will know about.  It is basically a huge collection of website pages - not just for bands and musicians but many bands use it.  Easy to sign up and build a basic web page - you can put your band information, contacts, etc up there and the site comes with a free player to make listening to your tracks easy.  Others can add your site to their lists making it a community of similar minded people.

musicjobs.com is fairly self-explanatory from the title.  Describes itself as the premier online community for music industry professionals.

indie911.com is a network which enables you to sell your music online and also features a network of musicians

garageband.com describes its aims as redifining how music is discovered and promoted.  Commercial success for some artists has been achieved.

ctgmusic.com is a free community page sharing MP3 and music source files.

mp3charts.com is a fairly well known site where bands and artists can upload their music.  The site tracks number of plays of each song.

digitalwhammy.com allows you to public your music online for free and when you reach a certain number of listens per quarter you get revenue on the number of plays.

bandspace.com  is a site along the lines of myspace but with seemingly more features.  Songs and videos can be uploaded and revenue earned.

The jazz site is a great website for, strangely, those involved in jazz.  Database, gig information, articles, discussion etc.  It is a UK site

Auralgasms - good place for new artists, bands, etc. Online radio channel as well

Band family tree - free site with free registration. The idea is for musicinas and band members to record their time with bands, etc

Beat surrender - online music magazine

Big noise - showcasing independantly released music

Birmingham music - resources etc for, strangely enough, the Birmingham music scene. Birmingham ,UK that is. Online radio channel, forums, etc

Broadjam - not a UK site but for musicians all over the world to upload music, gig details, reviews, etc. You can also sell CDs there

Brum punk scene - fairly self explanatory but it is to promote the punk scene in Birmingham

British underground rock bands - unsigned band directory

Cardiff underground - gigs and events in and around Cardiff

CD baby - US site where you can sell your CDs

CD unsigned - Sell your music in their online store.  They do all the administrative side of it

Clish - for alternative music centred in Scotland

Damn pest - forums, news, gigs, etc

Emu bands - for unsigned bands of all genres and locations

Ents24 - whats on guide for a host of UK entertainment and you can add your events, gigs etc

Ezfolk - good folk music site with resources for that genre of music.  MP3 hosting and packed full of links to other sites.

Fairplaymusic - unsigned band community and as with the good ones, you can upload information, music, profiles, etc

Fastfude - for musicians and bands centred in Northern Ireland - not genre specific so a good place for all

Forming bands - self explanatory. In essence resources and contacts to help in finding musicians to form bands

Funk network - UK site for funk bands and musicians.  Resources for a host of connected services as well.