You are a musician or a fan of music. You want to get on social networks to reach out to fans or keep up with your favorite artists? Where do you go in this day and age? Well, what do you know – we happen to have some wonderful ideas! The 7 social networks we listed below are all places where you can share and present your music while engaging with fans and fellow musicians to get feedback and improve your skills. Most of the time, you don’t have to pay anything, either! Does it sound fantastic or what? Okay, here they go….

1. Facebook

Facebook is the social network that does everything, but not particularly great. You can share and sell your music with the best of them, present yourself and your art as you see fit, and reach out to literally billions of people. But on the downside, very little of your activity actually makes it to people’s feeds unless they are devout fans subscribed to your page. The sheer number of users competing for attention results in a screwed signal-to-noise ratio, and Facebook is taking advantage of that by expecting you to pay for promoting your posts. So if you want to play the Facebook promotion game right, be prepared to throw some money around.

2. YouTube

YouTube is for videos, but it’s a de-facto music streaming platform that gets away with having so much music, both original and copyrighted, it’s not even funny at this point. If doing videos is your thing, there’s nothing quite like YouTube out there yet. However, you must have a very strong attitude to be able to handle all the jerks spewing nonsense in the comments. If the bile is directed at your music, it may feel immensely hurtful and personal. So put on your flame suit before embarking on your video streaming journey.

3. Drooble

Drooble is a social network built for musicians from the ground-up. The site is on a mission to unite musicians from all over the world so they can gain more exposure, reassurance, and experience. Thus, every piece of functionality is free to use, including promotion tools like album reviews and radio spotlights. User-shared content is limited to music, feedback, and musical discussion – which means no baby pictures and dank memes will ever stall your attempts at sharing and discussing your art. If you ever get stuck on your musical journey, pay the Communities section a visit to ask questions and get advice from those that made it on the other side. More great stuff is coming, stay tuned!

4. Reverbnation

Reverbnation is another place where you can share and present your music. Fans leave feedback and monitor your gig listings so they know the time and place for your upcoming show. Reverbnation’s platform provides many useful metrics for your songs and audience if you like the data-driven approach. It also has the means to distribute your music across the most popular streaming sites and sell it directly to fans. Reverbnation is 100% music-focused but requires a paid monthly subscription to get the best user experience and the most out of the website.

5. Bandcamp

Bandcamp is the Internet’s most significant marketplace for self-produced, self-published original music. Musicians can put a price on their songs, EPs, and albums or give them away for free and “pay what you want” arrangements. They are also able to engage directly with their fans and fellow artists, as well as enjoy useful music discovery tools to find great new artists.

6. Instagram

As a photo-sharing website with heaps of users, Instagram is especially useful for those times where you feel like saying it all with a picture. Music has an important visual component to it, so maintaining a strong presence on Instagram is quite essential these days. Besides, if your fans can’t get enough of your music, they surely feel the same about your other pieces of art – like the photos you take or appear in. Better get on that Instagram, then, unless you couldn’t care less about the attention!

7. SoundCloud

Last but not least, SoundCloud is the de-facto place on the Internet to freely dump your music for the masses to listen to and share. Still going strong after nearly being brought to the ground, the free music streaming website is as relevant as it’s always been. Granted, SoundCloud isn’t so great for keeping in touch with fans and fellow musicians, engaging in discussion, or any attempts at promoting and selling your music. It’s mostly a listening experience and you have to be okay with that when you start uploading your tracks.

That’s it! Musicians such as you, or anyone deeply interested in music have their choice when it comes to social networks and audio platforms. Keeping up with all of them may be a bit of a chore, though, so choose the most fitting places for your goal and spend your time there wisely!