"Formed a band,
We formed a band.
Look at us -
We formed a band.
Honey pie, I don't know when it started
Just stop buying your albums from the supermarkets
They only sell things that have charted…"

(Art brut, formed a band, 2005)

As part of last.fm's affords to make some real changes and take part in the musicians and the music lovers life's, they have recently launched a new project called NOW FORM A BAND. The new initiate is here to show you how to produce, promote and distribute your music, without spending a load of money, and without lots of other people getting involved. It has tips; tricks, interviews and basically everything an anonymous band needs in order to move their ass and start promoting her music properly!

The blog's goal is to encourage new and young musicians to keep them doing their thing without having them to wait for a record label to come and "save them". The blog seems to be a very supporting environment for the D.I.Y music industry when one of the tools they are promoting is, off course, the last.fm basic features like promoting music to new people, upload tracks and also offers some power campaigns to target individual songs to specific sets of listeners. But it's not all about last.fm – they are promoting lots of freeware digital applications which allows you to record and mix songs without hiring an expensive studio or mix engineer. Or places to put your music on sale around the web and more.

Some kind of an anonymous cool band

I guess FORM A BAND can really be a nice start for new musicians who want to know more about home recordings and cheap distribution options. It still needs to thicken their content and build a community around it (for now the FORM A BAND group on last.fm contains 82 members) But we at 8hands say kudos to this kind of project! And now go and FORM A BAND. Good luck!