Magnet Media

Jason from Insomnia Radio sent me word of an interesting service they're partnering with called Magnet Media. Something I've been wondering about for a while now is how an independent artist (or band) is supposed to keep up with all the online services that allegedly promote a band.

For $50 a month Magnet Media hooks you up with a "Personal Promoter" who according to the promotional services list does the following:

They'll manage your email lists, post to blogs and music sites, send out MySpace â„¢ bulletins, and communicate with you directly to find out where you're playing next. In addition they will:
Add to Garageband.com
Add to Zuzula.com
Add to Podsafe Music Network
Add to Purevolume
Add to music.download.com
Add to Podsafe Audio Network
Add to Sonicbids EPK (pending artist approval)
Add to Last.FM (under artist name AND Magnet Media group)
Add to SonicGarden
Add to YouTube (music videos)
Add to Google Video (music videos)
Add to iSound.com
Add to Muze
Add to SnoCap-sell music directly from Myspace
Submission to select Live 365 DJ's
Registration for ''Global Battle of the Bands'' (artist approval)
NACA (National Assoc. of Campus Activities) Entry for Conventions/Showcases (artist approval)
Add discography to www.discogs.com
Add band wikipedia entry
Add information to www.musicbrainz.org which Last.FM pulls data from.
Submission to Association of Music Podcasting (over 85 music podcasters)
And more…

It's an interesting service idea, though many of the services listed I've never heard of or consider to be fairly worthless from a promotion aspect. I'm also not sure why you would pay $50 a month for this as about 98% of the items on that list are one-time submission services.

They also offer an artist website (domain name included) and fan email lists. Who owns the domain? Is hosting included? If you quit Magnet Media do you keep all your accounts and email lists?

They also list press releases. Are those free? They list "distribution opportunities" but don't say if they're included or you have to pay extra. "Opportunities" sure sound extra to me.

I think there's a fair amount of money out there for this kind of service, much like what's going with the smaller advertising services like FM Publishing and The Deck.

Lately I'm into the idea that record labels should be services that musicians subscribe to. But I'd have to feel they actually know what they're doing for me to invest in them and put myself and my email lists into their potentially inept and/or evil hands. Uploading my bio and video places is convenient but not really worth paying for (disclosure: I'm cheap.)