How to Promote Your Band

Category: Developer Community, Category: Tutorials Posted by Tarik, Mar 3rd 2010 2:30PM

With SXSW 2010 coming up in a few weeks, what better time to start thinking about how to promote your band. In fact, if you plan on attending SXSW, the Winamp team will be there as well. Stop by the Wnamp/AOL booth and say hello. We're having a Winamp meet-up where our product and development leads will be presenting to developers and music-minded entrepreneurs on how they too can build a bitchin' band skin & promote themselves using Winamp and SHOUTcast.

Build A Bitchin' Band Skin with Winamp @ SXSW 2010
Monday, March 15
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Brazos Loft
411 Brazos Street, Suite 108
Austin, TX

RSVP
winamp-event@corp.aol.com

Even if you're not going to SXSW or if you're not in a band, why not promote your favorite artist. Better yet, if you're a developer looking to make some extra cash, there's pretty good money in developing skins.

To get inspired, there are some cool skins in our gallery: Linkin Park, Godsmack, Metallica, Foo Fighters, REM, & Bon Jovi... just to name a few.

Official Linkin Park Skin by Petrol Designs

Not only can you build a skin that has a unique look and feel that fits your band's image, but use our APIs and build out some Online Services (web apps) so your fans can interact with you. For example, build a skin so that it has your Twitter and Facebooks feeds integrated into your player. Although it's not a "band" skin, the Vodafone Zoozoo skin has a pretty slick Facebook integration.

What you'll need to get started:

Step 1
Check out our skins gallery for inspiration. In particular check out some of the band/artist skins (as mentioned above). You'll also want to pay attention to popular skins or skins with extended functionality. Don't just focus on how it looks, but what it can do. Make sure you add social integrations such as Twitter, Facebook, & MySpace. Winamp's a media player after all, so have links out to your band videos, SHOUTcast (or other streaming) radio stations. Include band bios, tour dates, or exclusive content.

Step 2
Visit the Developer Network page. This is pretty much the starting off point for anyone interested in developing for Winamp.

Step 3
You can navigate from the Developer Network to the Skin Developer Wiki. The wiki gives step by step instructions on how to create Classic Winamp Skins as well as Modern Winamp Skins. You'll also find links to other references:

Download the Winamp Skin Development Pack
XML Reference
Winamp Forums: Classic Skins
Winamp Forums: Modern Skins
Winamp Forums: Skinning Tips & Tricks
Winamp Forums: Art & Design

Step 4
Once you've built your skin, upload it to Winamp.com and start promoting it.

Email This

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1. I am a composer of serious music -- not pop, rock, hip-hop, grunge, heavy metal nor other trendy tripe. To some such as myself, music is an art form, not just a means of promoting celebrity. I don't have a "Band" to promote, but need to reach others who actually appreciate music, not just those who wish to make themselves famous as performers. What venues do you have to offer to me as a composer -- not to make money (although I certainly wouldn't object!) -- but to reach others who actually want to hear something other than that which keeps them in the mainstream of the raw sewage of pop "culture"? I see absolutely NOTHING indicating AOL has any desire (much less respect) for anything but that which advances the sale of pimple cream and other mass-marketed punk-junk.
P.S. No, I'm not that old Krank who just objects to "that noise these young people are listening to TODAY".I couldn't stand the pop poop of my teenage peers then either. I just happen to be a musician.

Posted at 3:11PM on Apr 1st 2010 by Donald Meyer