SoundCloud

For a free basic SoundCloud account, you can upload up to 5 songs a month in as high quality of a file as you would like. While SoundCloud doesn’t have the community features that some do, their inclusion of high quality audio makes sharing your music a pleasure. The community elements of SoundCloud are “Groups” where you can upload your songs to the groups playlist to share with like minded people. SoundCloud also offers very nice and simple social networking tools to help you connect SoundCloud to Facebook, Twitter, or whatever else you use. While SoundCloud offers the best in quality, it is mostly musicians on the site, so if you are looking for a mass of new fans this might not be the place to go, however it is a must in your online arsenal.

The Good : High quality audio files, community sharing
Needs Work : Artists profiles could be more full featured

The Sixty One

The Sixty One follows the same basic principal as sites like Digg, or Reddit… users of the community offer their votes or “<3’s” on T61 to move your music up to the front page.T61’s point system makes the site a great place for listeners to find new music and for musicians to get their music heard by offering rewards for hearting songs that you like. The site also gives listeners a limited amount of hearts based on their performance, so that hearting a song is a thoughtful process rather than just one that is done though habit. T61 also boasts community playlists where people can put your song up for 1000’s of willing listeners to hear. While T61 has gone away from its roots of primarily independent musicians, the amount of listeners has gone up dramatically.

The Good : Many listeners, great promotion system
Needs Work : Independent artists get overlooked for label artists

BandCamp

BandCamp is THE place to sell or give your music away online. While BandCamp does not have any social features, that’s not really what it’s for. BandCamp acts as a base site that is yours to do with what you please in terms of selling your music. You can keep track of an email list by having emails required for free downloads, or you can simply have the music free to download. You can also set up a required donation or have tiered pricing that determines the quality of files or extras received. BandCamp also has impressive stats tools to know who is listening and downloading your music.

The Good : Many options to sell your music
Needs Work : No community options

MySpace

While MySpace is old news at this point, the site is still one of the best places for artists to put their music and to gain fans. MySpace’s tools for adding shows and keeping in touch with your fans are really some of the best there are. Having a MySpace for your band is a necessity at this point and should be one of your main locations for sending soon to be fans.

The Good : Still many users, good promotional tools
Needs Work : User interface is ugly, declining in popularity

Facebook

Facebook’s semi-new Fan Pages are a great way for musicians to keep in contact with the people that want to hear their music. Facebook offers status updates so that your fans always know what’s up with your band. Facebook also includes an audio player in their band pages, however the authentication process is overly cumbersome and takes a long time to activate. Facebook’s band pages have a long way to go, but since almost everyone these days is a member, it is essential to have a band page.

The Good : Easy updates, lots of users
Needs Work : Audio player is poor, could use more music related features

Reddit: WeAreTheMusicMakers

The We Are The Music Makers sub-reddit is a great community driven place to share your music. This sub-reddit is a great place to have people not only listen to, but critique your music. You will find fans of all kinds of genres and many users are always willing to give new, free music a shot. The only downside here is that you have to have your music hosted somewhere else, however if you have gotten this far, then that really isn’t a problem. I would recommend BandCamp for free albums/songs and SoundCloud for people to listen and critique.

The Good : Users are always happy to critique
Needs Work : Audio must be hosted elseware

Last.FM

Last.fm is primarily known for it’s iTunes tracking information, however the site also has many features that will make your music readily available. By creating a band page in Last.fm, when users listen to your songs in iTunes, their information will be tracked and displayed on the artists page. This is a great tool for understanding who your listeners are. You can view their other favorite artists and use that information to know what audience to try and reach. You can also gauge the popularity of your songs which could come in handy while building sets to play live.

The Good : Best listener tracking information
Needs Work : Artist backend could use more features

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is an internationally available music streaming and discovery site, streaming up to 50 million songs to its 1,000,000 users monthly. One thing is for sure, Grooveshark is only going to get larger overtime. The artist back end is very full featured giving you controls that aren’t available other places, such as a “Sounds Like” tool where you can compare your music to other artists so that it is easier to find. Grooveshark is still new, so it’s kinks are still getting worked out. The backend is buggy or slow sometimes, however the tools are there to get your music heard!

The Good : Lots of users, polished look
Needs Work : Often slow or buggy