Name: StoryAmp
URL: http://www.storyamp.com

This new site brings together musicians and PR agencies in a grand way. If you’re an artist, you can turn to StoryAmp.com to create dispatches by uploading your music, bio, photos, videos and concert links. These dispatches can then be shared using any of StoryAmp’s press lists, and brought into the hands of journalists. That doesn’t mean they’ll write about you and your wondrous ensemble, but at least you’ll make your presence known to them. It’s a start.

And any way you look at it, using a site like this one is infinitely cheaper than trying to hire the services of a PR agency. StoryAmp can actually be used for free, and if you need to flex some additional muscle then you can sign up for a premium account. This will give you unlimited audio streaming, unlimited password-protected downloads and the chance to upload an unlimited number of photos and videos to be used in your dispatches.

StoryAmp, then, is an affordable service which automates all that can wear you down when trying to get a music pitch together, and puts you in a position where your art can be discovered much easier. It goes well beyond services such as PR Newswire (which is not really optimized for music coverage) and the Virtual Publicist (which all it does is to gather and sell the email addresses of music journalists). It’s decidedly worth a look.