Indie Band Survival Guide Blog

This link is especially for our independent musicians living in Canada. Indie Pool is the largest CD manufacturer in all of Canada.

If you need CDs in a hurry, their nine day or less guarantee will help you meet that concert deadline. Besides making CDs, DVDs, and CDRs for independent bands, this company also provides distribution services and radio promotion. The basic distribution package will make your album available at major retailers like iTunes and will get you registered with Gracenote. The basic radio package includes distribution, gets you a bar code, and sends your CD to 30 radio stations. There are more services and options you can add to these packages too.

If you give Indie Pool a try, we want to know if it helped you make great CDs and get distributed online. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Check out some of these links on the Indie Guide!

GotSeen.com: web presence with streaming music TV

52 Weeks of Practice: a book to organize and track practicing

Active Bass: site for bass players that has a tab builder

WikiRecording: a free user-made guide for home recording

PD Info: royalty free and public domain music

House concerts are shows thrown in a person’s own home. They are fun and offer a unique setting with new audiences. When booking a tour, you might find yourself with empty days where shows at venues couldn’t be booked. Filling the gaps in your tour with house concerts could net you some extra cash. Click here to learn how to get booked for a house concert.

As you know we post all of the good music deals we run across on our page, Check Here First. But we just ran across a really good one that’s good for just a couple days that you might want to check out.

Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale at GuitarCenter.com! Exp. 8/29

The standard format for music on the web is the MP3. If your songs are not in this format, you are losing out on huge audiences that play, stream, and download these files. All you need to start are your songs, an MP3 encoder program, and a media program that plays MP3s.  Click here to learn how to encode MP3s for maximum playability.

If you need some cash for a project, consider collecting money online with IndieGoGo.

This site lets you safely collect money from anyone — friends, family, followers, strangers, etc. If you need money to finish a current recording project, you can also use this site to pre-sell your album. This way you can start recouping money before the recordings are finished. As an incentive to donate, you can even offer your fans fun perks like signed albums or stickers. You’ll get detailed funding reports to see how much people are giving and to gauge levels of interest in your project.

If you give IndieGoGo a try, we want to know if it helped you raise money for a project. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Check out these new links recently added to the Indie Guide:

Altavoz Distribution: online and physical album distribution

IndieGoGo: raise money online

ClubCreate: sound library to make songs online

Limbo Films: independent video production company

Reelmix: web presence that connects filmmakers with talent

Everyone is busy, and it can be really hard to schedule a time to work out your sets for upcoming shows. Sites like Google have free online tools that let you create and share documents with other users. These setlists can be viewed and edited by everyone in the band allowing for easy online collaboration anytime. Click here to learn how to make a shared setlist for your band.

Music conferences bring in lots of people and playing at one can give your band instant exposure to all of them. You will also gain live performance experience and could find a lot of new performing opportunities.  Click here to learn how to book at music conferences.

If you are looking to print CDs, check out the wide variety at CDCentric.

This company specializes in bulk CD and DVD replication with runs starting at 500 discs.  There are multiple packaging options from standard jewel cases to paper sleeves and slim CShell cases. Ground shipping is always free and you can manage your account and projects online. Lastly, if you sell all of your albums, there is a 10% discount on reorders to stock up again.

If you give CDCentric a try for your next printing project, we want to know if you liked their service and prices. Leave a comment and a site rating here.