Making a mark in the music business is the dream of many young bands and musicians and, unfortunately, it isn't as easy as it sounds.
The world is packed with talented people who are prepared to put a lot of time and effort into achieving their dream and this can be discouraging for aspiring performers.
However, if you're dedicated and still dream of the big time, then don't be put off by t he competition, instead you should look at all of the new and innovative ways you can share your music and connect with people.
These days, there are more ways than ever to make sure your music is heard.
The ready availability of technology that can make home recording a viable choice rather than a desperate measure, has meant that bands don't have to wait until they can afford time in a recording studio to make rough cuts of their songs.
Instead, a home produced record can be make in the comfort of the musician's own home - a great way for fresh new bands to get their music down.
What's more, many people particularly enjoy listening to music that has been created solely by the band without any help from professional recording technicians, even though the production values are typically much lower.
Able to make records without the support of a record label, bands are also increasingly finding ways to distribute them without one too.
Not only can promos CDs and tapes be taken along to be sold at gigs, but now it's easy for bands to sell their music online, with the help of services such as PayPal.
Trusted checkout tools such as these mean that bands can easily insert the option to buy their music on their sites and that customers feel confident they aren't about to be scammed.
However, to sell music online bands really need to make sure they have an online presence.
While the majority of bands will want to set up a few pages of their own, one of the most cost effective ways for bands to get their profile online is for them to make use of social networking sites.
A number of these sites have devoted considerable resources to making them an attractive place to music fans and bands, offering functions such as the ability live to stream songs at no cost to either the band or the listener.
Social sites are also all about sharing, and that means users come to them expecting to make new friends and find new things - perfect for bands hoping to pitch themselves.
Another good thing about social networking sites is the fact that even individual band pages tend to rank well in search engines, this is due to the sites weight as a whole.
A little of this weight is put behind each individual page and it's because of this that bands will sometimes see their social networking pages ranking higher than their own websites.
If they'd rather this wasn't the case, bands could think about employing the services of an SEO UK Company to make their own sites more search engine friendly.