“making a myspace music page. Gross.”

After posting these words on Twitter, I was invited to write the blog post you’re currently reading. Lesson number one: social media clearly brings opportunities that wouldn’t exist otherwise. So in addition to a MySpace page, go get yourself a Twitter account! You can follow me there if you like: @candybilyk. (Note: you can follow MXTabs on Twitter, too! @mxtabs)

In all seriousness, if you are in a band or make music of any kind that you are interested in marketing, you should really have a MySpace Music page. I know, it is probably the least secure site ever to hit the internet, as well as one of the least user friendly and most confusing for a lot of us. Clearly I have my reservations about it, but it is a powerful tool and if you use it effectively it can go a long way towards getting the word out about your music.

Not convinced? Just think for a moment about those “crazy kids” (as their parents might call them) who spend hours on MySpace every week or even every day. Think about the people with pages that play music as soon as it loads. Now think about how that music could be your music. Immediately a whole new audience has been exposed to you! If they like what they hear, they will probably follow the link from the player to your profile, perhaps become your “friend,” and perhaps buy a cd or go to a show or concert. While you definitely have to put some effort into getting yourself seen and heard, MySpace is a great way to get others to spread your music for you.

This is my journey in the month of February: to make two MySpace Music pages (one for my classical music, and one for my new music project called Pomme de Terre), to spread my music, and to gain a following of 200 “friends” for each profile by the 28th. Welcome to my journey! I hope you learn something from my successes and mistakes, and create or enhance your own profile as well.

But how does it begin? How do you find friends and make connections on MySpace? Find out next post in the MySpace Diaries! In the meantime, I invite you to add me on MySpace and watch in real time as the mysteries unravel: http://myspace.com/candacebilyk and http://myspace.com/pommedeterre.