We hear the term “indie” bounced around a lot these days. It’s become quite a trendy word (although some of us have been preaching about it for more years than most). So, let me ask you …

What’s your definition of indie?

Many people think of it as a reference to a musician, small record label or film company without an affiliation with a major corporation. That’s true, but I believe it has a much deeper meaning than that.

(By the way, “indie” is an abbreviation for “independent.” The “ie” at the end is the proper spelling, as opposed to “indy,” which is usually a reference to Indiana or Indianapolis — as in the Indy 500. There’s your grammar lesson for the day

I think of indie in much the same way I think of the term “guerrilla.” It’s more than a simple, surface-level reference to your financial backing. I believe it’s a state of mind and a way of life you must bring to your entire pursuit of music.

The best way to explain my angle on this is to use an acronym. So here’s my definition of I-N-D-I-E, with every letter standing for a separate concept (and I didn’t even use the word “independent,” which was tempting considering I had two I’s to work with).

I - Inspired
To embrace the indie frame of mind, you must be inspired. You have to know in your gut that music is what you are meant to do. You must become energized when writing, recording and performing your music. Hopefully, this is something you already experience fully, without having to force yourself to feel that way.

When this kind of natural inspiration comes over you, it’s a sure sign that you’re on the right path. And you will need this desire to carry you through the ups and downs of pursuing the independent music path.

N - Nontraditional
Indie musicians don’t mind learning about what has come before, and they are happy to listen to the “rules” that others say are required to have a successful music career. However, the smartest indie artists keep their minds flexible and constantly ask questions about how the supposed “rules” of the past really apply to them. They actually develop a mindset that seeks out the road less traveled. And when they spot a good idea that’s off the traditional path, they fearlessly go after it without apologies.

D - Determined
Successful indie artists are fixated on their goals and determined to reach them. They still leave room to veer from the original plan, when needed, but they are steadfast in their desire to produce more and better music, reach more fans, sell more CDs, etc. With this attitude, obstacles become short-term learning experiences along the road to higher levels of success.

I - Innovative
Being an indie means thinking outside of the proverbial box and looking at fresh opportunities from every angle. It means not promoting yourself the same way a thousand other acts have done it. It means being resistant to knee-jerk marketing tactics and open to new ideas and overlooked avenues for exposure.

E - Empowered
Indie musicians don’t wait for someone or something else to come along and rescue them. They don’t pray for a “lucky break” or to “be discovered.” They know to the core that the power to succeed with their music resides inside of them. And they understand that it’s their mission to tap into that personal power and use it to share their music with the world.

Let’s recap my definition of INDIE:

I - Inspired
N - Nontraditional
D - Determined
I - Innovative
E - Empowered

Print this article and pin it up where you’ll see it every day.

Being INDIE has nothing to do with what company you are or are not affiliated with. It has everything to do with how much you take control of your own life and take steps to build the kind of music career you deserve.

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Bob Baker is the author of “Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook,” “Unleash the Artist Within” and “Branding Yourself Online.” He also publishes TheBuzzFactor.com, a web site and e-zine that deliver marketing tips, self-promotion ideas and other empowering messages to music people of all kinds. Get your FREE subscription to Bob’s e-zine by visiting http://TheBuzzFactor.com today.

Beware! The following may initially upset and frustrate you but you need to read this all the way through!
Motivation. Where did it go? What? What do you mean? I spent all this time recording a new CD, manufacturing it and now playing shows. Just because it’s not selling the way that I want it to I’m not upset about it. Am I?

When you seem to lose your motivation for your music or your art it becomes a confusing time. As artists we become everything from frustrated and rattled by it to a state of mind where we are unmotivated and depressed. But where did it come from? You spent days and weeks writing songs and fine tuning them to capture the experiences and elements of life that have impacted you enough that you had to express them. Once you had them down the way you wanted them, you decided they had to be recorded in the studio so you could put out a new CD for others to hear them. After all, these songs are much better than your previous material. (Sounds familiar?) Then you made a decision to save money from your day job, borrow from friends or family or even pre-sell CDs to pay for the studio and manufacturing of your new CDs. Then after months of hard work and frustration in the studio, at work and with the manufacturer, your new CDs arrived. Boxes of them.

You gave some out to your family and friends or sold them a few of the initial copies. You sent out an emailer to your mailing list and said check out my new CD on my site and come buy one. Maybe a few did but not hundreds. Then you put them on other music sites that sell CDs. It should have sold hundreds or thousands of copies. After all they claim to have thousands or even millions of customers. But again that didn’t seem to work either. But that’s okay, you just need to play a CD release party and hit your mailing list again and send an invitation to the various press people about the show and hundreds of people will show up! However that didn’t work the way it was supposed to either because most of the initial 1,000 CDs are still sitting there on your floor.

The next step you tried was to hire a radio promoter or publicist (who really aren’t and who don’t care about CD sales). You paid them thousands of dollars to get you college or low ranking commercial stations to play your CD for a few weeks in cities and states where you can’t even travel to play shows or for 2-3 sentence write ups in publications that didn’t generate any new fans at your site or at shows. And now you are becoming unmotivated and frustrated because after they “supposedly” did their job, you still didn’t sell hundreds of CDs. Even after more shows in our hometown and more promotion to your mailing list you don’t seem to be selling very much!

If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone! This is what I hear from almost every artist that contacts me and wants me to help them. How do I fix this scenario so the artists become more successful? I work with them on the following.

1. This is your passion.
As artists the first thing we have to do is stop taking the rejection we receive as something personal. Instead of learning from what we are not doing to effectively tell people about the messages in our songs, we see them not paying attention or not wanting to hear our music as a personal attack. This includes the media not wanting to write about us or our upcoming shows or play our songs on the radio to people not coming to shows or even if they do, not wanting to buy your CD afterwards. The first step in solving the problems mentioned here is to stop doing what you are doing.

Throw away your press kit and one sheet that “supposed” publicists and radio promotion people think is right (but only signifies you as a non-priority that people can ignore) and create an Artist Profile. One that talks about who you are as an artist and what your music is about. Two, use what’s in your Artist Profile at shows. Don’t play the same shows as before, give people you. 45 minutes of music is not going to motivate people to buy CDs. Learn to interact with them before, during and after your shows.

2. Reconnect with the reasons why you wrote the songs.
What inspired you to work that crappy day job and save money to record these songs in the first place! What motivated you to keep going when it looked like you wouldn’t get the project done? Where did that go? Nowhere. It’s still inside of you! Just waiting for you to bring it out.

3. To reactivate your passion and inspire you to stop sitting around and making the same mistakes, we must change your focus.
You will now focus only on the things that will get people to shows, get you exposure in your home city and generate sales. First, a new specific marketing plan that will focus on how to double your fan base that actually comes to shows. Second, a small list of daily actions you can take with the limited time you have to promote your music. For example, researching the media in your home city and what are they writing about or what they are playing on the radio these days. Who is drawing most of the music fans in town to their shows and how are they doing it? You must focus on the things that will work right now. Mailing CDs around the country where you can’t put them in stores, play shows or won’t get enough attention that it will generate any online sales either isn’t.

4. Interrupt your pattern.
If you can’t think of new ideas sitting at home then do what successful people do, leave. Go to the gym (another place you promised to go to); go outside, to a coffeehouse, the park or go play golf instead. Change your environment and you will begin to remember what inspired you to take this path.

5. Understand that this is your passion. Not others.
You must communicate it to people whether in person or in writing. Who cares what other people think is right or wrong for you. Be bold and passionate. You wanted to influence people with your music and change them, do it by showing that same passion everyday! Hand out CD samplers every week so you can meet new people and let them know what you are doing. Play shows in new places.

The passion you have for your music is still in you! You just to find it again. Here’s two ways you can find it right now. One, my two audio books, Guide To Releasing Independent Records Part 2 (which is NOT the same as the first one) will give you new promotion and marketing ideas you can use in the next few minutes. It will also help you write your first draft of an Artist Profile and help you create the materials you need to talk about your music. My other new audio book, Understanding Who You Are As An Artist (which seems to be everyone’s favorite), will give you specific ideas of what you need to do to more effectively communicate your passion to people and get yourself remotivated when you are frustrated or depressed. Both of these audio books are designed for you to be able to take the ideas and work with them immediately. You can order them through this link: http://www.TSAMusic.com/products.asp

The second way I can help you is directly. The books will help you get going again and will be a great source of ideas you can listen to again and again, but sometimes you need someone who has been through it to help you create a specific plan. A plan that you can actually do and write the material with you and help you accomplish the things you want to do so you can sell the first 1,000 CDs and start to influence people in your home town like you wanted to. I have helped and continue to help thousands of artists in these very areas and help them get on the path they need to sell more CDs and accomplish what they want with their music. Call me at 951-303-9506 or mail me your CD and promo material to the following address.

Tim Sweeney
TSA
31805 HWY 79 South #551
Temecula, CA 92592.

Include a note or a copy of this email in it. I will be happy to review your CD and promo material and let you know how I can help you.

Best Regards,
Tim Sweeney

You’re in a band and everyone wants to get serious, but you’re not sure what to do? Here are some helpful suggestions:

PRACTICE. You will get nowhere if you do not have the musical ability to back it up. Even if you’re playing pop punk, you better be the tightest band out there, with the ability to sing. An energetic performance is what makes people take notice. If you aren’t confident on stage, it will reflect in your performance.

RECORD. Now you’ve got a good 8-10 songs together that are well rehearsed, it’s time to record all of them, find a friend or a cheap studio to record your best 5 or 6 songs, then take the 3 that came out the best and press a short demo CD that sounds like you. This is what will open doors and get the word out. The CD should look semi-professional, and include all your contact information on the disc itself. Remember, this is your demonstration, not your artsy full length.

ORGANIZE. Before you can begin to book shows outside your hometown, and be successful, get together a clean, easy to navigate website. Have as much fun as you want with it, but keep in mind that accessible information is essential. Have your mp3s online for free (www.purevolume.com is a good place to start). When booking shows, promoters will go right for the mp3s, and if they like them they’ll check out the rest of the site. Your website should be an online press kit that includes a short descriptive bio that describes what the band has accomplished. It should mention where the band has performed, any notable achievements (record sales, tours, etc), and the band’s goal (to play music and have fun? get across an idea? represent something? etc….) A hi-resolution press photo should be easily accessible from the site to be downloaded for magazines, newspapers, and flyers. A pre-made flyer is also a good idea; something for someone to download and just scribble the show information on. CONTACT INFO EVERYWHERE ON THE SITE IS A MUST. People have to be able to get a hold of you. Anything else on the site is extra…and people like extra stuff, videos, flashy animations etc… but none of that is essential. Now you will want to begin playing shows outside your area. Get some friends to help with booking, press, and public relations…and try to keep playing music the whole time.

BOOKING. Definitely about who you know. Start by playing weekend shows that are short drives away. Remember every city is a completely different crowd even if it’s only 45 minutes away from the next one. There is no need to drive across the country if people in your own state don’t know who you are. Pick 12-20 areas that are a weekends drive away from where you live, and contact other bands in those areas. They will be excited to play with another band that isn’t from their town, and will help you get a show if you return the favor. Start to play these places regularly, going back to the same town every couple of months. If one person sees you and really really likes the show, they’ll tell ten of their friends. After you’ve established yourself in these areas, you can book a tour of a week or two and play the same 12-20 places right in a row and actually make some money.

MAILING LISTS. Start one and have a sign-up sheet at every show you play, even if it’s your hometown. It’s the only way to make sure everyone who wants to remain informed stays informed.

BOOKING ETTIQUITTE. Don’t be a rock star. You’re one of ten thousand guys who’s in a band so why should a promoter pay you anything at all? Ask for gas money and offer to be as helpful as possible in terms of promoting the show, press kits, and news releases. If you’re not sure how to write a press release, go to http://www.cucliscommunications.com/newsrels.html and learn. Many promoters don’t care and will not promote your show so it’s up to you to fill the venue. After you’ve proven yourself in an area and are drawing a decent crowd to your shows you can ask for more money and actually get it.

MERCH. This is where you make money. Make inexpensive t-shirts, CDs, pins, stickers, etc. This is also your best advertising, people love when they’re asked, “What’s your shirt mean?” They’ll talk about when they saw your band play and that will get more people interested. It’s also what labels look for when they begin to seek out a band. They’re interested in who’s doing work on their own, and when they repeatedly see kids each day wearing your band’s shirt, they’re going to realize something’s catching on.

FUNDING. Everyone wants to be serious but never has any money. Well, credit can be a wonderful thing …if used wisely. Wait for a good deal from a place like Guitar Center, who are constantly offering one year same as cash sales. If you buy something on credit today, you don’t have to pay a dime for another year. But if you pay off the gear before one year has passed, you’re earning good credit and you haven’t paid a cent of interest.
Invest in some merch, stock up on shirts, and keep them affordable. You’ll make money if you sell them at every show. Even when only 15 kids are there, you could potentially sell 15 shirts and make $150. PLAY UNIVERSITIES. This is a good place for free exposure and LOTS of money. Universities have budgets they have to spend, so ask for a few hundred dollars, and you’re likely to get it in addition to food and a hotel.

BOOK A TOUR. Now that you’ve established yourself in 15 areas, begin to book a tour. Four months in advance is usually good timing. If you’ve played universities and made a decent amount in merch, you can probably afford a van and/or trailer. You’ll save more in gas if you spend the money and get a durable touring vehicle. If you’ve kept up your relationships with promoters in each area, booking a tour should be relatively easy. You already have your contacts and a good reputation. Avoid drives longer than four to six hours and keep in mind it doesn’t really matter if you zigzag back and forth as long as you have a show and are getting your gas money and food to eat.

ESTABLISH A CREW. A band can be it’s own management, promotion, and design team for a long time, but get a friend to go on the road with you. An extra person can help sell merch and change your guitar strings if you break one in the middle of a set. Get a few friends who are at home to be there when you need them. Shows will get cancelled when you’re eight hours away from home. Have your friends get on the internet and start making phone calls in case of such an emergency. Just because you’re stuck in a van doesn’t mean your friends are, too.

GET PREPARED TO TOUR.
PRACTICE! Get comfortable with your set so that you can have fun…you’ll be doing it every night.
GET YOUR VEHICLE ROAD READY. Any major repairs, or maintenance, oil changes, etc. Have a spare tire, a jack, and a first aid kit.
HAVE A CELL PHONE.
CONSERVE MONEY. You need to eat but you wont always get paid. Spend your money wisely. Groceries are the healthiest inexpensive option. You can get a loaf of bread for 99 cents and deli meat and some fresh vegetables or fruit for under $7 almost anywhere. If everyone eats you wont have any leftovers to store and you’ll feel good.
MENTALLY PREPARE. Throw the egos out the window. Force yourself to get along with everyone. You’ll be within ten feet of four other people 24 hours a day 7 days a week for as long as your on tour. Be prepared for that.
COMMUNICATE. If someone’s having a problem, talk it out immediately. Don’t let emotions build up to the point where they explode. Things like the way a person breathes will begin to irritate you. Get over it.
KEEP RECORDS. Keep a log of everywhere you go, who you played with, and contact information of everyone you meet. Keep track of who’s driving, who’s paying for what out of their pocket, and mileage. Save receipts. Eventually you might choose establish the band as a business. If you save your receipts you can get tax deductions later.

Now you’ve toured and made some money, what next?

KEEP DOING IT. If you’re doing things right and have the songs to back you up, you should notice an increase in attendance at your shows in areas you play periodically, and an increase in revenue. Keep going out a little farther each time to new places, and keep playing the old ones. Record a long EP, or a full length independently. Talk to recording majors at nearby colleges. Most will jump at the chance to record a full band. MAKE SURE TO GET THE RECORD SOUNDSCAN BARCODED. Be sure to copyright it and sign up with a licensing organization like ASCAP or BMI. You can track sales on the road with forms that are signed by the promoter to verify how many CDs you sold. Labels watch these stats religiously.

BE ASSERTIVE. Sending your CD to labels and waiting for a record deal is a waste of time. If you have a contact there, contact them, and then follow up on everything. If you get a buzz going, labels WILL come to you. Keep pushing your way onto bigger shows anyway you can. Keep sending out news releases and generating your name in print.

Remember, you’re unsigned but that doesn’t mean much. A band that believes in itself is more powerful than a label that believes in a band. It just takes a bit more work to get to the top. Labels can help, but the record industry is a dying one. You can reach a huge fan base through the internet and mp3s. You’ll make your money by playing shows and selling merch, not CDs. Remember that your music is the meat of your band, so CDs are important but not where you’ll make your profit.

Turn on the radio. Listen to it for ten minutes. Chances are, you are going to hear at least one mediocre song in that time. Imagine listening to it all day. The world is filled with crap and why would the FM airwaves be any different? There is something very important you need to understand before you go buy a nice comfy chair to sit and wait for the record companies to come to you; it isn’t like it is in the movies. In That Thing You Do, starring Tom Hanks from A League of Their Own, we watch a small town band blossom and catch every break in the music industry as they climb their way to the top. This doesn’t happen. Tom Hanks really doesn’t know anything about band promotion, and he isn’t going to help you no matter how many letters to send him! You are on your own out there. You need to make things happen. You need to push your music on people. You need to hustle. Sure, many people love to hear new music and get into new bands, but there are millions of fish in the sea to choose from. As a new band, you are not even a fish, you are the food that a bottom feeder eats! Fame and fortune may not be your ultimate goal, but if you are in a serious band or group, then getting your music heard is!

The first thing you need to do as a band is come up with a name. This is a crucial part of creating a successful group because it is the very first thing people know about you. You need to ask yourself, what do you want people to think about you? What kind of following do you want? Are you a serious band? A bad ass band? An emo band? A joke band? A fun band? A wedding band? Going outside the norms of band naming may seem to be the cool thing to do, but it will only get you so far and you may even find it to be the demise of your band someday. For example “John Denver’s Last Ride to Hollywood” may seem like a good idea at the time, but if you love it that much, you can always use it for a song name. (By the way, I just made up that name just now and if I’m ever in another band, I’m going to name it that, so don’t steal it! I’m trying to help you!)

Another factor to consider here is the number of members in your ensemble. The more people you have to deal with, the more personalities there are to clash, the more schedules there are to conflict and the more drama there is to go around. The more mouths there are to feed, the more people go hungry. (That last one actually has to do with having kids, try not to have too many children.)

The next step is easier said than done- Not sucking! You can promote your band 24/7 for the next ten years, go on a worldwide lounge and birthday party tour and spend millions in radio commercials but if your music isn’t good, you are wasting your time. What determines “good”? There is no set standard of good, but there are plenty of ways to find out if other people find you good. Now, you may say “Well, I don’t care if people like us or not, as long as we do, that’s all that matters! Yeah, rock on! Let live or die trying! East crew 4 ever yea! Rock till death do us part! Guitars! Yeaaaah!” This type of band, more power to them, but please stop poisoning the public with your shows and stop reading this article because nobody wants to hear your noise. If you are serious about your band and you can take some constructive criticism from friends, family and fans, you can develop a sound that makes everybody, including yourselves, very happy.

Once you have this accomplished then practice makes perfect. Using a garage or basement is fine, but a practice space is ideal. Some areas have practice spaces for rent in big buildings, but this can be expensive, especially for a new band that needs to practice a lot. My next piece of advice to you will be the first in this article that condones possibly not-so-legal activities and I urge you to exercise caution when doing so. Get in a car and drive downtown, look for any abandoned buildings or warehouses. Next, find a way in, brute force seems to work well, but be sure to cover your tracks. Night time is usually best for these excursions but daytime missions always make for less suspicion from onlookers. Make sure this building has electrical hookups of course, unless you have a generator. Go nuts, jump around, pay loud, play proud. If the fuzz does show up, the only thing you can say is “We thought we could..” This excuse offers a semi-decent chance of not going to jail, especially if you are compliant and polite with the officer. The wonderful thing about higher education is students can do whatever the hell they want. If your college has a music department, then it has practice rooms. These rooms are generally occupied during the day, but many can be signed out for night time or weekend use by permission or breaking and entering.

Now it’s show time. The best way to land a first gig is to make a press kit and/or website. Each will have contact information about the band, its members, pictures, lyrics, news, reviews, etc. A promoter friend of mine who has booked everybody from Atom and His Package to 50 Cent once told me the best press kits are in a glossy two pocket folder with the band’s logo on the outside cover. Inside should be packed with information, music samples or a demo, reviews, articles, bios, pictures (8 x 10 printed on photo paper), cd with high-resolution logo file, link to your site and anything else you can cram in there. Press kits tend to be more effective with promoters than websites because it gives them something to put in their files so when a spot fill is needed for a show, they can just thumb through their collection. If yours sticks out from the rest, guess who’s folder their thumb just may stop at! A website is basically an online press kit only in a fun for the kids version. Your domain is your playground. You can make it whatever you want. You can rant your views, share your stories, upload your pictures, anything your heart desires. Just remember, what you put on your site is what new visitors will see and in turn, what they will base their first impression of your band on. A decent logo that you keep throughout the site and on all merchandise, flyers, etc is extremely effective in creating the facade of being bigger than you are. But this is a first step in the direction this article is going. Make people think you’re good, and they just might! It would be great if it weren’t the truth but it is. People may not even give a band a chance if their website is made in AOL hometown and has spelling errors up the wazoo and broken links and pictures randomly placed throughout the pages. Work to get a decent website made for your band, whether it be through friends, yourself or a design company, while at the same time presenting yourselves as down to earth and approachable. Message boards, or forums, are a great way to stay in touch with your fans and for them to stay in touch with each other. It is also an effective arena for feedback about your band, shows, site, and music. Go to shows, ask around and seek out the promoter and hand them your press kit, shake their hand, give them five, whatever. Do what it takes to make sure that goes home with them, even if you have to seduce them and leave it on their night stand in the morning.

Wait a second, up there, I mentioned a demo. Well then you better hurry up and get one done! What you do is take the computer microphone that came with your new Dell computer and cram your band in your bedroom, hit start on Windows recorder and you’re all set! I’m kidding folks! I’ll be here all night. Table nine, your pizza is ready. Ba dum ching! Moving along, you need to get yourself in the studio. DO NOT half ass this recording! Start with the internet. Do a search for recording facilities in your area. Don’t settle for anything above $40 an hour. (Probe owner for, and be aware of, hidden costs and charges incurred after you finish recording) Pitch in your money and get it done. Arrive at the studio well-rehearsed and prepared to minimize time. If you are in a rock band, don’t forget to break stuff and be ill-mannered while in the studio. Also, very important, bring with you to the studio a sample of a band or style that you would like to sound like for the producer to reference. When that middle aged bald dude is up all night on a 3-day bender mixing your demo tracks, who knows what he’ll do to your masterpiece, so give them something to go by. Don’t be afraid to barter with these companies either. If you have any skills like web design, landscaping, house painting, babysitting or even knitting, ask if he’ll cut you a break on the price for an exchange of services. Give it a try, contact as many studios as you can find, and don’t give up, because recording is expensive but vital. Another means of recording is home recording but quite different than described in the beginning of this paragraph. You can find a cheap 8-track recorder on ebay ($150-300) or borrow one from a friend. Definitely a good band investment if you all throw your pennies in. Don’t rule out buying a kick ass one from a music shop, using it for one weekend, wrapping it back up, and returning it as an unwanted gift for a full cash refund.(Works best with large chains that won’t feel the hurt as much) You’ll need microphones too. Get a drum mic kit and, use a ball mic for the guitar amp, and go straight through with the bass and vocals. This device won’t produce the quality that a professional recording session would, and certainly isn’t recommended for full-length cd production, but may be fine for your demo. When mixing your tracks, try and have someone who knows what they’re doing but isn’t in the band and wasn’t in the studio with you. See what they come up with, you just may be impressed. The demo itself should be at least three songs and if you have a track that you are not so confident about, put it in between the better ones. Start strong and end strong. Recording can be extremely tiresome, tedious, and stressful but the payoff is worth it and you will look back on it as one of the best times you had with your band. I promise.

Next on the agenda is merchandise. Be careful with this one! Yes, we do want everyone to think we’re bigger and better than we are, but spending a wad a cash to do it defeats our purpose. You can get stickers from stickerguy.com for like 30 bucks. End of story. Forget the t-shirts, mousepads, coffee mugs, and thongs for now. If you really think people will buy it, set up a cafepress.com account for free and put a link on your site. Otherwise, keep your merch table pretty simple when you first start out. As you gain a following, shirts and patches may not be a half bad idea; extra cash and promotion. If you plan on making a living from paid gigs, you have another thing coming because the most you’ll get half the time is a free meal or drink, if that. Some promoters pay gas money for out of towners, some venues sweeten the money pot a little, but don’t get used to it. Selling stickers and demos at shows and such might bring in a bit of revenue but don’t spend it at Denny’s! Going to Denny’s with your band mates is just something that needs to be done every now and then, but keep the bill within your budget! Open up a free bank account for your band and put all earnings from merch sales, shows, robberies, couch cushions, etc in there. If anyone in the band ever needs something, like a drum pedal or new strings, the money is there. It will also be useful for gas, website fees, tour expenses, merch refills, and perhaps a van someday.

At your shows, it is very important to be cordial to the other bands playing. Watch their sets, bob your head, and talk with them afterwards. Not just small talk, take it a step further. Make friends. The more shows you play, the more contacts you make. These contacts just may help you land a spot on a tour or split album someday.

Flyers are a tool that seems to be reserved for show promoters only and the sacred design is in their hands and can only be used for activities approved by them. This is not true. Flyers are used by promoters because flyers work. You don’t have to be advertising a show to make a flyer. Go ahead and advertise YOU! When your demo comes out, make up some quarter sheet ads for it with the band logo and web address and hand them out at the mall, at school, at work, in the city, skate shops and, most importantly, at shows. Let your target audience know you exist. Stand by the door and and try to be nice when you hand them out, I’ve crumpled many a flyer that was handed to me by a douchebag. Your quarter sheet flyers mean that four people will know about your band that didn’t before with the use of only one sheet of paper. Take ten bucks, goto Kinkos, get it done! It doesn’t hurt to leave piles of flyers on tables in food courts, parks, or any other high-traffic public places. Tape them to the wall above urinals in men’s bathrooms if you have to! Go home every night and watch the hits on your site counter skyrocket. Band promotion is a business, you have to think of your potential listeners as the customer. They aren’t going to come to you, you need to goto them! Also, when you are on the bill for a show, get a copy of the flyer, make your own copies and get out there and hustle! Give them to businessmen, punks, girls, boys, kids, adults, cops, robbers, bums, addicts, teachers, whatever it takes!

The internet offers us an infinite number of opportunities and resources to get the word out about our band. I won’t elaborate too much on this considering this article was written exclusively for BandAttack , which specializes in that sort of thing. One thing that even BandAttack won’t tell you though is how to advertise…. guerrilla style! This involves lying and cheating and everything bad in the world so please don’t continue to read if you are against such things. First tactic, go on message boards and promote this new band you found. (Which is actually your band) For boards you have to register for, think of a user name that doesn’t relate to your band and use a different email address as well. EZboard.com offers tons of boards that login under one single name. All you do is type “music” in the board search and goto town on the results. This has worked for me in the past:

“It’s me once again.. I’ve stumbled upon yet another band that has been topping my personal playlist for the past few days and I just had to share. They are called ______________ and I recommend them to anyone. I’ve never steered you guys wrong before, trust me. I think you can check them out at www.purevolume.com/____________ or something like that..rock on! Until next time…

-Kevin M.
SoundChex Production Services, inc.”

You see, the users of that board have no idea that you’ve never posted on there before and they simply assume by your language that this isn’t the first band you’ve flipped over and told them about, so they trust you and will more than likely check out the band. Copying and pasting a post like this on several message boards every once in a while will really start to drill your band’s brand name into people’s heads. The fake company title at the bottom is crucial in people trusting your credibility as a music connoisseur. You may get banned from many boards if the moderator picks up on your evil scheme, but don’t be discouraged. Make a new account and keep on going.

Another powerful tool is to show the world who you are friends with. If a band they like has your web link on their site, well then they just may check you out. So send an email to tons of sites offering a link exchange. Many will bite, some sites even say “submit your link” right on there. This will require you to have a LINKS page on your site and scratch backs where scratching is due, but it’s all in the name of promotion. To take it a step further, make web banners for your site and ask to exchange them with other sites. Don’t expect big time sites to say yes to you as most of them charge for ad space, but at the same time, don’t sell yourself short, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Band directories and such work the same way, but again, BandAttack will take care of that for you.

Use pureVOLUME.com to see how many people have heard your music. In fact, link to your PV page right from your site instead of hosting your own mp3’s. It gives you a constant running tally of how many people have taken an interest in your band. However, there are many sites out there like pureVOLUME, but less known. Use these sites, such as SoundClick.com and Fronder.com to post your band’s mp3’s and boost them yourself. Yes, I know it sounds dirty, but the sad truth is eat or be eaten. Starting out now, your band doesn’t stand a chance against the other artists who are racking up the hits on those sites. So simply, go and vote for yourself, listen to yourself, download yourself and basically make yourself popular. This will increase people’s tendency to take you seriously and give you a chance, where as being a band with only a couple hits and downloads, may get simply skipped over. You should only have to use this tactic for a short period of time, then it will naturally continue on its own. This is best accomplished in a computer lab with multiple workstations or on a single computer, changing your IP address and deleting your cookies each time. Your ultimate goal is to get heard. If you are confident in your music, then you know people will like you if they give you a chance. You need to do whatever it takes to get that chance. As time passes, word of mouth will do this work for you.

When it’s time for the big leagues, send demos out to radio stations all over the country. About 50% of these will end up in the trash, so try and find college stations and smaller stations pertaining to your genre. Enclose a piece of paper personalized to each station telling them you would like your music played and a short bio, etc. Put a sticker in there too. Even if they don’t play your song, maybe they’ll at least put your sticker up in the studio or toss it in a prize bin. It all counts as promotion. Also tell them what song you think is your favorite an/or what song others seem to like the most. Keep track of who you sent these to, wait two weeks, and email or call them all asking if they received your package. Be polite and stay confident. Don’t say “Are you going to play any of our songs?” Ask if they played any of your songs YET! A couple weeks later have your friends call these stations, start slowly and sporadically at first, and request your song. When they call or email, they need to act as if they assume the station would have this song. Don’t rule out local stations either. In fact, some offer opportunities for local acts to play their tunes at a designated time slot. Call up and ask about it. Internet radio webcasts are easy to penetrate, but not many people listen to them. If you find a popular one here and there, submit your music or press kit and see how it goes. Radiotakeover.com has a pretty rad stream and Live365.com serves up thousands of user-run stations from around the world with tons of genres to choose from. Try contacting the moderators of stations like these to see how you can get your tunes played. Offering a banner ad or link on your site in exchange may be fruitful.

Another one of my underhanded, yet effective, tactics goes out to the AOL users. After about sixth grade, the novelty of chat rooms becomes pretty warn out. But don’t go canceling your overpriced dial-up service yet! Use it to promote your band! Go into chat rooms of any kind, Town Square, Music, Entertainment, Business, Middle-Eastern Factory Workers, anything and type this:

“dave, i think the site was www.____________.com… check em out dude… pretty rockin…”

People will see this message, not as annoying spam, but as an interception of a hot tip. At least 10% of that chat room will check out your site. There is no dave, but people will assume you’ve been talking to this dave the whole time and think nothing of it. It’s always effective to write your chat text in red as well. It naturally catches the attention of the human eye. (By the way, that 10% statistic, totally out of thin air, I have no idea what it is. It could be 100% for all I know. Just do it.)

Remember, by promoting our site, we’re promoting our band. Don’t forget about the ways other sites draw hits in. Submit to as many search engines as you can. Do a google.com search for Free Search Engine Submission. Pick through the results and you should find a legit one that will submit your site link to about a dozen or so of the top engines free of charge. Sure, they ask you to put a link to them on your site in return but don’t worry about it, they don’t check up on it. TrafficSwarm.com and sites like it are also pretty powerful tools but make sure those kind of sites link to your pureVOLUME page because those visitors are very random and tend not to stay for long if not interested.

To list the endless ways to promote your band would be nearly impossible. However, i’m certainly going to try! You have just read the first installment to my exclusive series, sponsored by BandAttack.com. Try to remember that the key to getting your name out there is putting it out there. Make yourself known. Paste your band everywhere people are, the internet, work, school, shows, everywhere! Gaining a following takes time and my tactics are guaranteed to speed up the process, but not make miracles. Be confident in your music and play any show you can get without violating your personal restrictions. If you continue to hustle and never give up and don’t get hung up on the downfalls, things will happen for you.

Songwriting contests, battle of the bands, radio station song challenges are all designed to promote competition between music artists. Instead of artists competing against one another, imagine if they worked together. I mean actually working together to promote each other’s shows and music. How many more CD’s and downloads would you sell if the music artists in your home city and state helped you promote your music?

This is the foundation of what Tim Sweeney teaches at Music Strategies. Why compete against another music artist when you can sell thousands of CD’s together? When artists work together they become more effective than any radio promoter or publicist they can hire. They begin to promote themselves based upon what is important to them and what the messages are in their songs.

Find out more about Music Strategies 2007 at www.musicstrategies.com