Indie Band Survival Guide Blog

Check out this glowing review of the Indie Band Survival Guide by Mack Sabbath at Rockthought.com. We only found out about this when we took a short break on the new project that we’ve been working on to see what was new in the world, and ran across it.

One of the better quotes:

Randy and Jason don’t mess around with this sucker. At all. They make it clear as glass right up front, that this is a book about doing. And they proceed to throw the entire kitchen sink at you with each and every step involved as an Indie band/musician. Soup to nuts. No joke. From getting started, to getting noticed, being heard, and winning fans (and making money) – it’s all covered. And they cover it in easy-to-read bite-sized chapters and chunks.

We are so glad that the IBSG has continued to get great NEW reviews even a few years after it came out. But we’re moving on to the newest project, and that’s why this blog will be quiet again for a while as we get back to work. We’ll be announcing it in the next few months and start sharing new info soon. Stay tuned!

Hi everyone — Randy and Jason here. We’ve got some good news. We’re officially working on the next big writing project and are going into research, interviewing, and well, hibernation mode. We wanted to tell you because we’ll be focusing all our energies that way so we can “give it our all” like we did with this IndieGuide.com site and our books, The Indie Band Survival Guide and The DIY Music Manual.

So, expect more great things to come. You may have noticed that we’ve put the IndieGuide.com blog, some of our social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google +, etc.), and the free How-To’s on “pause” for the time being. That’s because we’re changing things up going-forward as we share our research. Of course, we’d like to hear your feedback as well as we work to elicit ideas, get your success stories, thoughts, and ideas.

In the meantime, the great community here at IndieGuide.com will continue to add sites and services and keep things warm as we’re working on the next project! Of course, we will be monitoring the site and responding to email should you need us.

Thanks everyone for the great emails, comments, compliments, and advice you’ve been sending us. We definitely appreciate it — it keeps us motivated and it’s the very reason why we’re rolling up our sleeves now and diving into research and writing for you!

We’ll keep you posted!

Thanks,

Jason & Randy

We’re constantly reading books and doing research about what to do next to promote our band, and get new ideas on how to market our music. But we’ve been disappointed with most books on the topic. This is because many books in this space date back to before the Internet and fall into what we like to call the “Prince Charming” school of thought. That is to say that all you need is to find that label, and your life will be perfect after that. Back then, labels were usually the only way to succeed, so this is somewhat understandable, but these books aren’t really that useful anymore.

What’s amazing is that, even now, books come out that spend most of their time talking about how the “music industry” has changed without talking about how to deal with it or give practical advice on what to do.

But there’s always exceptions.

One of these exceptions was the standout book by Bob Baker that came out in 1995 called the Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook. This book had real practical advice that we put to good use as a band. (There’s a reason why it was seen in the movie “School of Rock”!)

Bob Baker has now released a new book called Guerrilla Music Marketing Online. The book contains 129 free and low-cost ideas to promote your music, and each is the kind that you can immediately start implementing. The best books get you to scramble for a piece of paper to write down what you need to do next, and this one will have you looking for it — like it did for ourselves. We got a ton of ideas reading his book and because of this, we definitely recommend his latest book.

Click here to get the book. If any of the information in the book helps you out, we want to hear about it. Leave a comment!

Group buying is all the rage lately with sites like Groupon and LivingSocial offering daily discounts and spawning dozens of other copycat services. I’ll admit that I love the bargains (maybe a little too much sometimes), but there have not been many music related deals from those sites. This article on Hypebot debuts four new sites with daily music discounts. These services span a range of music products from equipment to merch bundles to concert tickets and more.

Click here to read the full article. Will you subscribe to these music deals when they are available? Leave a comment!

Disc Makers has done it again; you can now download a free PDF guide on how to license your music. It is packed with helpful tips that can help you license your songs and make some money. Here is an excerpt of one tip:

Have non-vocal versions of your songs ready.
It’s always good to have instrumental versions of your tracks available, especially when you’re getting started as an artist. After you do the mix, just have your engineer do a pass while taking the vocals out. You don’t have to press CDs of those, but you should at least have them in your library. That way, if there’s a scene where the vibe is right but the music supervisor doesn’t want vocals, he or she can still use your tune.

Click here to download the free PDF. If any of the information in this guide helps you out, we want to hear about it. Leave a comment!

Over the last few weeks, we have had a couple posts about how to record your live gigs. Perhaps some of you are wondering why you should go through the trouble of recording all of those gigs. Check out this article from CDBaby with excellent reasons why you should document every live gig and share them with your fans.

You can read the full article here. If you record your live gigs and share them with your fans, we want to know which services you use to post clips. Leave a comment!

I recently posted part one of a series by DiscMakers about how to record your live shows. Part two is now out and it features nine different options for recording devices that fit your budget. From items you might already own to the latest portable recorders, there is probably something right for you on this list.

Click here for the full article. If you own any of the gear mentioned in the article, we want to know if you’ve had success recording your gigs. Also, if you have a gadget that this article left out, leave the info below!

It is not very hard to grow Twitter followers, but what is difficult is keeping those followers engaged with your updates. Check out this 6-part comprehensive Twitter guide brought to you by the folks at Make It In Music. It really does cover everything: fan involvement, posting media, using applications, and more. A very good and detailed read for musicians trying to self-promote and market.

Click here for all six parts. If you have any tried and true Twitter methods, we want to hear them! Leave a comment or tweet back at us.

A common musician misconception is that you have to hire an agent to get gigs packed full of fans. The truth is that in order to get an agent, you need to have those fans already and you need to sell a lot of tickets. Check out this article from Musician Coaching about what it takes to get an agent. Not only does it lay out all of the basics of agent-band relationships, it also includes some nice tips to boost your ticket sales.

Click here to read the article. Do you have any thoughts about getting an agent versus DIY gig booking? We want to hear about it. Leave a comment below!

Although not the most popular format for music, vinyl has a nice niche market for indie bands. From full LPs to 12-inches, there are a lot of options for singles or albums, however vinyl requires different mixing techniques than digital formats. Check out this article on Emusician with tips on how to get the best sound on vinyl.

Click here to read the article. If you’ve ever made vinyl records for your band, we want to hear about it. What techniques did you use and how was it received by your fans. Leave a comment!