Internet Marketing of Music

Bandwidth costs money. It doesn't matter who you are, your bandwidth is costing, and that's indisputable. So, why are there so many Online Music Distribution websites, out there, willing to host Independant Music and let it eat up bandwidth, all day long, for free? I ask this question because I am genuinely puzzled by some aspects of this 'Internet', this relatively recent phenomenon... Now, I am willing to accept that some people love music to the degree that they want to help it along it's way, and if they happen to have a dollar or two, and some spare capacity on a server, they might want to host their own music, and maybe some friends' music, to spread it around a bit, to a new audience. That's fair enough. But, there are literally hundreds of these websites...many offering superb facilities, in order to make musicians rich and famous, a 'star', all for free, and promising not to ask for a dime when they become one...

Now, because Indie Musicians, in their own perception, are nearly all 'stars in training', and, generally, have little money, the idea that someone might help them make a lot of it, and help them get that elusive 'Record Deal', is very appealing. And, of course, it's also well known that the Internet is the best and easiest way to reach untold millions of sympathetic ears, all of which belong to people who are as anxious to spend their money on your music as you are to take it... So, the Musical hopefuls and wannabe's flock to these Online Music Distributors websites, and upload their music and their band or personal propaganda like crazy.

What no one has told these apprentice Mettalica's, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to many of them spontaneously, is that, mostly, the people frequenting these OMD websites are other apprentice musicians, as anxious as they are to promote their wares...in other words, they are all promoting more to each other than to a more beneficial and receptive audience.

So, to return to my original question..why is there so much investement in these OMD websites? What do the proprietors get out of it? Answers on a postcard...