netnik's guide to putting music on the web

HOW TO GET YOUR
MUSIC ON THE WEB

FREE WEB SPACE
All of the companies listed offer FREE web space. (Why pay more?!) All have either a browser-based way of creating your content or FTP - some offer both. Most let you create a website with no knowledge of HTML. Of course, there's a catch. Some put banner ads on your page. Some frame your page and have ads in a separate frame. Some will entice your with "premium services" (which you may want). Some just want you with a vague idea of selling you something later. Some may suddenly disappear along with your site. (Hey, you better get my site back up! or I'll stop paying you nothing!) My advice is 'check 'em out!' Be sure to read the "Rules and Conditions". See what features they offer and what restrictions they impose. Check out other sites they host. These companies are trying to please you. You can find one (or more) that's right for you and set up your outpost in cyberspace by spending a little time and no money.

NAME OF SERVICE	SPACE OFFERED + COMMENTS
321Website!	10 MB - options for shopping cart ($)
Angelfire	5 MB - "fastest page creation without all the blather"
BigAssWeb	5 MB
CyberCities	25 MB
The Deck	1 MB
Digiweb FREEWeb	10 MB
The DJ Cafe	5 MB - offer Real Audio servers
Escalix	5 MB
Fiberia	11 MB
Fortune City	20 MB
Free Speech	25 MB - Political. Offer streaming audio and video.
FreeServers	12 MB
FreeYellow	12 MB
Geocities	11 MB
gURLpages	11 MB - for gurls!
Homestead	12 MB
HotBot Homepages	5 MB
indydesign	.3 - 1.5 MB
IntelCities	3 MB
Internet Trash	10 MB - no restrictions on content
Netcolony	2-35 MB
Netscape Sitecentral	11 MB
ROTFL Online	2 MB
SpaceLynx	10 MB
Spaceports	?
Spree	?
Tons of Stuff	21 MB
Tripod	11 MB
Web Provider	5 MB
WebJump	25 MB
WhoWhere? Pages	5 MB
Xoom	Unlimited
ZyWeb	2 MB

"I just want people to hear my music" -anonymous

The web is a revolution. You can make your music available a world-wide audience. (Or just give your fans another way to find out when you're playing.)

There are lots of computer audio formats. Right now two seem to have the widest acceptance on the web: with RealAudio, you can offer quickly downloading samples of your songs; with MP3, you can distribute CD-quality music. The following links will get you the tools and knowledge needed to get your music out there on the world wide web by spending a lotta time and no money.

Real Networks is giving away free their RealAudio Producer, a little program that can take your digitized music and encode it in RealAudio format. You can find it at their main page at www.real.com

The music industry is in an uproar right now over MP3. "Piracy!" they scream. They tried, but failed, in court to stop the release of the Rio, a walkman-like device that uses MP3 files instead of CDs or cassettes. You can see what it's all about at mp3.com. Here they have lots of songs by independent artists, in addition to links to the encoders and "how to" files that you can use to ride the mp3 wave to the top of the charts. Once you create your MP3 file, you can upload it to mp3.com and make a litle web page for your band there.

INFORMATION & TUTORIALS