Hello, I'm an aspiring artist, and in my own opinion, I suppose it would be a good idea to get some feedback from people that I don't know, and also at least get my name and face out there in a positive way so that when I start to try and sell albums or promote performances, people will (hopefully) be like "Oh, that girl? I like her..."

I know quite a few musicians post many many videos on YouTube of cover songs and sometimes a few of their own songs. However, I don't know if posting my own music would be a good idea, because people can easily download it and distribute it elsewhere. They could even turn the video into an mp3 and just listen to it on their iPod.

I dream big, but when I'm starting out, I would like people to actually BUY my music, and not just rip it from around the place. So what do you guys think?

I can't offer any advice from personal experience but I'm convinced by the article linked below. In summary, if you have 10,000 fans, you have a good living as a musician. It doesn't depend on stopping people copying your work, rather the opposite.

sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/music-lessons.html

Julian

A friend of mine was threatening to put one of my original works on a bit torrent site and I was angry but then he told me that him and his buddies always find new music that way and if they like them then they attend concerts and if they like even more songs then they buy the CD. He proceeded to forward my song to several of his friends which I was upset about at first... but then I got several CD's pre-ordered out of the deal so sometimes it's not such a bad thing to "donate" a song in the right places... something to think about. Also if you just perform your song on YouTube, not putting the mastered recording up, they'll get a feel for the song... they may steal it... but they may also want the finished product. Take Marie Digby for example, I found her on YouTube, thought she was amazing, I'd put her channel on all the time while I was in the kitchen. Then one day Capitol Records picked her up and all of a sudden she had a pre-order CD notification on a music video on her channel... I bought the CD of course. But all she did in all of her music vids was just play guitar and sing in front of a camera.