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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

shuffler: internet radio that takes songs from MP3 blogs

CDCentric: CD and DVD duplication

Uaradio.net: streaming radio playing indie artists only

Indie Pool: Canada’s largest CD manufacturer

Radio Paradise: listener supported online radio

Their nimbitOMT widget lets you sell physical CDs, downloads, tickets, and merch from any web presence. nimbitSKIN gives you a storefront that can be branded with your own colors and images. There is also a special Facebook application that allows you to sell from a Facebook fan page. On the marketing side, this site helps you collect fan information and connect with them through messaging. Different levels of these services are available and some cost money.

If you give Nimbit a try, we want to know if it helped you sell music and connect with fans. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Mojam: live event search site, add your shows

Guitar Chords Guy: guitar instructions and song chords

Search Engine Optimization Journal: SEO and marketing blog

Music Festivals Only: a listing of over 700 music festivals

Search Engine Watch: everything you could want to know about SEO and online marketing

Get inspired by reading the lyrics of the day as well as interviews and articles about the greatest songwriters in the business. Head over to the Biz section to find information about licensing, publishing, new media, and promotion. Enter their songwriting and lyrics contests for the chance to win guitars, microphones, and strings! They also have a bimonthly magazine available for purchase.

If you check out American Songwriter, we want to know if you learn anything about the songwriting process. Leave a comment or a site rating for others here.

Click the Learn tab and you will find helpful articles that will teach you about preamps, audio mixers, digital recording techniques and more. The blog features video entries with tips for aspiring engineers and producers. If you have specific questions, fill out the contact form and your ideas could become the next article or video.

If you check out Audio Mecca, we want to know if it helped you with your home studio. Leave a comment and site rating here.

Audio Mecca: instruction and tips for home recording

All About Jazz: social network for jazz artists

Music Forte: sheet music and songbooks, and a music community

TuneFad: site that compiles album reviews

Echoboost: online radio that plays only indies

House concerts create small and intimate settings for your shows and can help fill gaps in your tour. If you have some days between concerts, you can look to add more shows by contacting some house concert hosts. This site can help you find hosts in the area you will be, and can help you host your own shows. In order to play live more, you could open all of your house concerts and play for new audiences every time.

If you check out Concerts In Your Home, we want to know if it helped you book or create a house concert. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This is a site where you can browse millions of streaming songs (and your music!) in order to create your own internet radio station. Start by  creating your own DJ name and adding your songs to your station. Audiences with similar tastes can tune into your station and you can listen to your friends’ programming as well. Best of all, this site provides easy one-click sharing to all of your social web presences like Twitter and Facebook. It’s a fast and easy way to give fans access to your music online.

If you give Blip.fm a try, we want to know if you like using it on your web presences. Leave a comment and a site rating for others here.

Songwriting Scene: a songwriting blog

American Songwriter: songwriting magazine and lyrics contest

American Songspace: networking for songwriters

Concerts In Your Home: a site that promotes house concerts and their hosts

Acoustic Music Scene: blog posts for songwriters

A membership with this site will get you started with an online press kit as well as physical press kits. Create your own ringtones and then sell them along with your other merchandise with your very own store front. They even have an events application that you can use to promote your upcoming gigs.

If you check out TuneLaunch we want to know if you found any of their free services helpful. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Band Vacancies: find new band members

FindEvent: event listings and promotion

Forming Bands: musician’s wanted site

TheMusicPages.com: music classifieds and gig listings

The site also features collaboration features that let you share and create music with other users while still retaining your copyrights. If you are concerned about your songs being downloaded without permission, you can even add anti-piracy protection to your tracks.

If you give EMERAZ a try, we want to know if you used them to copyright your music. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

ToneHappy Syndication: blog and Twitter syndication services for musicians

EMERAZ: online copyrighting system

SongVote: collaborative playlist creation

YouMusic.com: music sharing web presence

CaptainCrawl is an index of music blogs and posts. Simply type a keyword into the search bar, like a genre or a band name, and get real time blog results. Find blogs that review your genre of music or have talked about similar artists and try submitting songs to the writers. Also, if you write a blog of your own, you can submit it to this index.

If you check out CaptainCrawl we want to know if it helped you find relevant blogs. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Hype Genius: marketing for your web presences

Rainmaker PR: public relations and artist development company

I Should Be In The News: volunteer PR pros who offer free help

Creative Entertainment Group: booking, promotion, and management services

Door2Door: radio promotion and publicity for Australian artists

Post a request for anything you need: things like studio time, graphic design for your website, or publicity help. Then others will submit bids to win your business. You get to browse their profiles, read feedback from previous users, and select the winner you want. After you have worked with them, leave feedback for future users.

If you check out DigiMusicBids we want to know if you were able to find professional music help that fit in your budget. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

DigiMusicBids: an online auction site for artist services

CaptainCrawl: a music blog index

Brady Cases: custom guitar cases and more

Firefly Productions: a London based video production company

Musicians Page: musicians for hire and forum

Linux Sound is a huge directory of links to all kinds of Linux software and hardware for making, recording, and editing music. On the left-hand column you will see the many categories like loop making software and file converters,  each filled with a ton of links listed alphabetically. Most of the software listed is even free — or at least includes a free demo — and most of the samples are royalty-free.

If you use Linux and check out Linux Sound, we want to know if it helped you find great music software. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Make special VIP bracelets to give out at your live events. If you throw your own shows or do house concerts, you can give these out at the door as proof of paid admission. Prices start at as little as $17 for a batch of 500 wristbands, and this site has daily specials. You can print your band name on silicone bands (think LiveStrong bracelets) and sell them at your merch table too.

There are lots of possibilities, and if you give Medtech Wristbands a try, we want to hear all about it. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

The Unsigned Guide: industry contacts in the UK

Roadogz.com: venue listings

DIY Guitar Repair: learn to fix your own guitars

Medtech Wristbands: make wristbands for upcoming shows

Action Embroidery: pro embroidery for your merch

Check out the various battles listed by genre of music. If you’ve been stuck in a bit of a songwriting rut, these contests could help spark some new ideas! Prizes are provided by the sponsors and concert promoters, and you could also get performing opportunities at live SongClash events. Listeners are rewarded with points for comments and interactions, so you will get lots of feedback.

If you participate in a contest on SongClash, we want to hear about it. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Popscene: San Francisco indie venue

Rhino Silver: online distribution and web presence

TopoftheOx: UK band competition

TuneLaunch: free online press kit and events app

SongClash: participate in battles and win prizes

You can create a free profile page that has many interactive tools. When you want to sell music you pay a monthly fee of $15, regardless of how many tracks you end up selling. You get to keep 75% of the sales and the site takes the remaining 25%. However, unlike most sites, they invest a portion of their share into marketing you! Best of all, this site is non-exclusive and you retain all of your rights.

If you give Fifty100 a try, we want to know if you sold any music. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Fifty100: non-exclusive online distribution

Concerts Unlimited: sound and lighting services

The UMS: music festival in Denver

Oozer: social network for booking bands

Get Playlists: social playlist site

QR codes are similar to bar codes that you can print on your CDs, posters, and merchandise. Anyone with a camera phone and the proper app can take a picture of the code and instantly be directed to your website. This is already a popular marketing technique on billboards and ads in the UK and Asia, and is gaining popularity elsewhere.

If you check out QRickit we want to know if you made any codes and how you used them. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

AudioMelody: free music and audio software

QRickit: Make your own QR codes

Loopmasters: sounds and samples

Linux Sound: music software for the Linux operating system

AudioMulch: virtual studio software

Their site designers are fluent in all the web languages needed to make the site of your dreams. Also their multimedia division has placed music in ads, so there might be a chance to get your songs licensed. Lastly, they are experts at growing followings on web presences. Simply fill out a form under the Contact tab describing what you need and they will get back to you with a price quote.

If you give StationOne a try, we want to know if their services were affordable and right for you. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

MADE: articles for indie musicians

StationOne: web design and development

Bands In Town: concert listings by location

DMB Pedals: cool guitar pedals

Outliered:  music magazine that focuses on new media and technology

They offer full service distribution and artists get to keep 100% payout on all net royalties with a pro account. You only pay a flat monthly fee and get to keep everything else no matter how much you sell. A basic account lets you keep 75% of your royalties. Both accounts get you digital distribution, physical distribution, ringtones, wallpapers, and a customized widget.

If you use 101 Distribution to distribute your music, we want to know if you’d recommend it. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Press Release Network offers a wide range of press release distribution services. You can start distribution services based on your location, from a local to global reach. And you can narrow in by industry to send press materials only to entertainment outlets. Click on the Media Circuits link to see the giant list of outlets with which they have connections. This site also has its own PR wire too.

If you give Press Release Network a try, let us know if you found their services affordable and reliable. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Austin-Network: events and music in Austin, TX

The Music Ninja: music blog the posts about indies

NuMuBu: create a web presence and share your songs, videos, and more

Audio Gumshoe: indie music podcast

Indie Christmas: one indie song posted every day

All of the songs added to Have A Sync are available in full-track streaming so that music supervisors can hear the whole piece. Nearly any track can be licensed directly online for publishing rights. Contracts can be reviewed and accessed anytime online as well. The intuitive search program lets users find music by mood, instrumentation, and more.

Check out Have A Sync and let us know if it was any help to get your music licensed. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Indie Rock Talk: forum for alternative indie bands and labels

Have A Sync: music licensing online

NYC Music Spaces: search engines for practice space in NYC

Atlantis Music Conference: annual conference and festival held in Atlanta, GA

Seeqpod: MP3 search engine

However, a healthy dose of competition and a friendly community of musicians could be just the things you need to get into the habit. Guitar War puts you against other guitarists in playing competitions. You will receive feedback and critiques that will help guide your practicing so you focus on what needs work. Keep practicing and entering new competitions,  and try to win!

If you try Guitar War, we want to know if the competitions helped you become a better player. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Senzoo is a fan funding platform that allows you to collect donations from your listeners.  All you have to do is sign up, which takes less than a minute, and paste a code into your website. You’ll have a new donation widget and can start collecting immediately. You can also integrate this account with your Twitter and Facebook pages. Best of all, it is free to join and use, you incur fees only when you receive donations.

If you give Senzoo a try, we want to know if it was easy to use and whether you received any donation. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Senzoo: fan funding platform to collect donations

Get eXposed Music: free press for bands

Freelicks: free online guitar video lessons

Indie Update: blog for indie musicians

Losing Today: indie music magazine

Guitar War: an online guitar playing competition

This service is free and sign up is very quick. This web radio community features all user created shows. Shows are also pieced together to create radio stations that have a continuous stream of music that people can listen to around the clock. The DeeJay Console lets you mix audio from your microphone with songs and sound effects. There is even a free library of sounds that you can use.

If you give Spreaker a try, we want to know if you made a radio show. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Spreaker:  user generated radio shows

Next Big Sound: web statistic reports on your fans and presences

YouTube Partner Program: program to help earn revenue on your YouTube videos

YouTube Rentals: sell your videos on YouTube

Networking Musician: social network for musicians

You can post a melody, bass line, keyboard part, or anything that is original and unfinished. Other users can add onto your song with their own riffs. You can also search the site for existing ideas other people have posted that you might be able to use in your project. If you don’t need any help, you can always get creative and help others by adding your own parts.

If you start a collaboration project on Rifflet, we want to know how it went! Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Packages start at $79 and can cover all kinds of creative works like music, lyrics, photos, software, visual art, and writing. This service was started by copyright attorneys, so they know what they are doing. They also guarantee your works will be copyrighted perfectly, or you get your money back. Once you give them your information and pay the fee, your papers will be submitted to the US Copyright Office within 24 hours for quick processing.

If you give Click And Copyright a try, we want to know if they took the hassle out of copyright forms for you. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

We’ve also created a new coupon feed, if you’d like to keep track of the deals in your reader.

You can sign up to receive daily alerts whenever you are mentioned on various platforms and blogs.  They also have a real time buzz widget that displays the latest mentions about you. Post this widget on your blog or website to show off what people are saying. Both of these services are free!

If you give Socialmention a try, we want to know if it helped you find feedback about your band. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

abmp3: free MP3 search and download site

Radian6: social network monitoring and management

Click and Copyright: service that will do your copyright paperwork for a fee

Songdad: a music and music video search engine

Socialmention: find real time mentions of your band on social platforms

Simply create your own account and click the “Add Event” button in order to submit your gigs to the listing. Besides shows, you can post other events like an album release party or CD signing, etc. You can save your events and other shows you wish to attend in your personal datebook and then send your listings out to friends and fans.

If you check out Eviesays, we want to know if you submitted any of your gigs to it. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

ArtistData is a data syndication site made specifically for bands and music artists. This site allows you to sync many of your social networking accounts together for easy updates and edits all in one place. You can also submit your events to this site and they will post them to the calendars of multiple show listing sites. Also, this is free but they have even more features for a monthly subscription fee.

If you give ArtistData a try, leave a comment and a site rating here.

Artist Direct: create a web presence and share your music

PR Log: press release distribution services

eviesays: aggregated event and entertainment listings

SonicLiving: music discovery site

PR-Inside: PR wire and resources

Musi-Cal: free concert and festival listings

Simply write up the kind of help that you need, this process takes no more that one minute. Most posts receive responses within a few hours, sometimes minutes. You can find people to help you with web design, marketing, writing, legal questions, and more. The site also helps you track progress and communicate with your workers. You can even schedule online payments upon completion of certain tasks.

If you give Elance a try, we want to know if you found help for band projects. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Elance: outsource creative, legal, website, and business work to freelancers

DeviantArt: online artist community where you can find original art

MacIdol.com: community and music hosting for Mac user musicians

Slacker: personalized streaming radio

Threadless: crowdsourced T-shirt designs

Create an account and then upload the songs and tracks you are writing. Each song will get its own “room” that is like a chat room. Other users can join the room and add their ideas, sounds, vocals, whatever! When it is to your liking, you can export the final product from your room and you now have a brand new song. You maintain all of the rights to your work and can distribute it anyway you want.

If you give Tunerooms a try, we want to hear about your collaboration experiences. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

First start a contest and describe what you need and then set your price. The only rule is that your price must be at least $250. You will get anywhere from 30-200 responses from freelance artists and you get to choose the winner. You will own the full rights to the new art and can use it however you want, and you will get a full refund if you are not satisfied with the submissions.

If you give DesignContest a try, we want to know if it helped you get affordable custom art. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

DesignContest: freelancers compete to make the best logo for you; you pick the winner

GeniusRocket: browse, pay for, and secure rights for creative designs

crowdSPRING: name your price for custom logo and graphic design

LogoTournament: describe your needs and let designers duke it out to create the best graphics

99designs: logo and website designs with over 170,000 freelance artists registered

This site allows you to post what you are looking for — clips, accompaniment, mixing, etc. — and crowdsource ideas. You will get responses to your requests and when you find something that works you can buy the sounds from the composer. You can also submit your music to other people’s posts and earn some money.

If you check out Minimum Noise, we want to know if you helped other musicians or found the sounds you needed. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Minimum Noise: place to find crowdsourced music clips

Rifflet: community that helps you finish songs

Tunerooms: collaborate with other musicians online

wemix: give and receive feedback and collaboration with others online

YourSpins: mix and remix songs and enter them into contests

EarMaster provides the best-selling ear training software online for both Mac and PC users. Ear training helps you to identify musical intervals. The software costs $60 and up, but if you don’t have the cash check out the Interval Examples Chart Generator, a free ear training tool. To see the software in action, watch their ear training videos.

If you give EarMaster a try, we want to know if it helped you as a musician. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

CD Unsigned is an online CD store for unsigned, independent artists. All you have to do is fill out some band information, designate preview songs, set your price, and then mail them five CDs. Note that it is based in the UK so all prices are in British pounds. For every sale they take a £2.00 GBP commission, similar to CDBaby. Artists from all over the world can sell here too.

If you give CD Unsigned a try, we want to know if it helped you sell any CDs. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

hEARd: non-profit promotion services for indie artists

Ear Master: ear training software

Hit Quarters: a network of music industry professional contact information

CD Unsigned: online CD store based in the UK

Battle of the Bands: annual competition to play on the Warped Tour

If you need a website, they will host it for you. They can also design your website and create  art for your album. Forget about confusing and lengthy paperwork because their legal team will register your copyrights and trademarks as well as secure UPC barcodes for your CDs. Then you can sell and distribute your CDs and MP3 downloads.

If you use DMusic for any of their independent musician services, we want to know if it helped you. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Don’t forget to bookmark Check Here First and check it before you buy gear. We always keep that page up to date, and we might have a coupon for exactly what you’re about to buy.

Coupons

Musician’s Friend – Click here to save up to $500 Instantly During Presidents’ Weekend Event at MusiciansFriend.com (coupon PREZ, exp: 2/15)

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Deals

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AudioStreet: free music hosting and band profile

BandHub: site hosting and creation for bands

IndieBandSites: site building for musicians and e-commerce set up

Audiogalaxy: free web space for music hosting

DMusic:  music hosting, legal, distribution services and more

This site lets you create a profile of your information that festivals, venues, and individuals looking for live music will be able to search. Click the Performer Signup tab at the top to begin creating your profile. You will be able to list important things like gigging radius, genres, and range of fees. This service is totally free and people interested in your music will be able to contact you directly.

If you give PartyBand.US a try, we want to know if you booked any gigs through the site. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Thounds gives all of your music ideas an organized home and lets other users add to your clips. Record directly on your computer or iPhone (they have an app!) and publish your tracks. Other users from around the world can add their own tracks to yours for some collaboration. Best of all, since they are saved online you can access your sounds from any computer. You can also publish your songs on your social networking profiles for everyone to hear.

If you check out Thounds, we want to know if you had fun posting ideas and collaborating with others. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

The Banded: create a profile and stream your music

PartyBand.US: a site for artists, bands, and DJs to register to get booked for gigs

Thounds: a network where you share your music ideas

Swift.fm: music search engine that finds music through Twitter

Tonestac: site that offers radio and marketing services for indies

Don’t forget to bookmark and visit Check Here First if you are going to buy any music gear. We update this page regularly with all the coupons and deals that we find to save you money when you buy gear.

This interview has very interesting questions such as:

• Should the process of becoming a successful band be all about getting the attention of a label, or are we at a point where thriving indies should be saying no to label attention?
• We talk a lot about building an ‘alternative industry’ to that of the major label-dominated corporate dinosaur. What would you want that alternative industry to look like?
• On indieguide.com, you talk a lot about alternative revenue streams that the average indie band can pursue. Are the days of earning a living off selling CDs and mp3s over?

Click here to check it out and see Jason and Randy’s answers.

Click here to get %15 off any single item $299 or more using the coupon WEEKEND15. This expires 1/31 so act now.

Check Here First is a feature of IndieGuide.com that collects all of the music coupons that we run across as we do our research. Bookmark Check Here First and visit before you make any gear purchases, because we might have the right coupon for what you’re about to buy.

When your work gets published on this site it is made available to fans immediately for sharing, copying, and remixing. You set your own prices for everything and you get to keep 100% of the money you make. Use widgets to spread the word about your songs all over the internet. The site is currently still in private beta, but you can check out a sneak peek now.

If you check out SellYourRights, we want to know if you would want to offer your music there in the future. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This site picks songs from artists of all genres and challenges users to create music videos for them. Your music videos are then entered into a site-wide contest for the best videos. Contest winners can get up to $4000 cash and are featured on the homepage. You can discuss the video making process with other musicians and video creators on the forums too.

If you check out Genero.tv, we want to know if you were inspired to make any videos of your own. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Hitlab: analyzes songs to see if they have hit potential

Genero.tv: music video hosting and sharing site

Fuzztopia: web presence for your music, still in beta

Livekick: live concert search engine

SellYourRights: give away your songs for sharing, mixing, and collaborating; still in beta

Imoosi: music and artist search engine

Check out the different sections of the site designed for songwriters, lyricists, and fans. Poets post their words and you can turn them into songs. Get feedback on your songs from other writers by using this site as a testing place for new tunes. Upload your original songs and you can distribute and sell them from the site also.

If you check out ClownBasket, we want to know if you got any tips or feedback on your songwriting. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

MyBandStock offers a “crowdfunding” technique that helps bands make money by allowing fans to become involved directly in the creative process for a fee. There are web and mobile applications that allow users to become a part of an artist’s music-making process. Depending on how much a fan gives they can gain access to things like VIP opportunities or video chats with the band.

If you join MyBandStock we want to know how you got fans involved in your music. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

ClownBasket: forum for songwriters

Garage Punk: directory of punk music podcasts

preAmped: a concert listing site

MyBandStock: place where fans buy access to their favorite artists

gigzee: find upcoming gigs

Kunaki: CD printing services

Simply head over to the site and it will load the regular Pandora page, but with a toolbar added to the bottom. Whenever you want to share a song with your followers, click the toolbar and it will post a tweet announcing the song you are hearing at that moment. Check the box at the bottom and a shortened link to the song will be posted as well so everyone can take a listen. Share your music tastes with your fans and begin dialogues with them about your favorites.

If you give Dora! a try, we want to know if you liked sharing your music with all of your followers. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

There are search tools that allow you to find other artists to collaborate with for music and gigs. Book your next tour by searching for bands that need opening acts throughout different cities. They will help you in owning your own URL and building an online brand that is strong and recognizable. Send mailing list updates and write blogs to connect with your fans and interact with them on a one-on-one level.

If you check out DigABand we want to know if you found any of their resources helpful. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This site sells a screen printing machine that will let you print your own designs. And you can do more than T-shirts, as this machine can print designs on nearly any flat surface. You could make bags, sweatshirts, posters, anything you want. Although the initial start up cost will be high as the product costs $400, over time it will save you in manufacturing costs. The site features step by step videos to get you started making your own merch.

If you have used a Yudu printer, we want to hear about your experience with it. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

bandfrag: join a band and find band mates

Squidoo: DIY overviews on all subjects, including music

Dora: Pandora, Twitter, and Bit.ly combined

Yudu: learn how to print your own shirts at home

Smeex: promote and sell music online

DigABand: build an online brand and grow your fanbase

Formerly known as Haystack, this site is a place for web designers to put up a portfolio of their best work. You can browse for artists based on their location and price range. This way you can find designers that you like without worrying if they are within your budget. You can save all of your favorites to go back and compare them later. When you’ve picked a designer, contact them easily to begin your project.

If you give Sortfolio a try, we want to know if you found a great, affordable web designer. Leave a comment and site rating here.

If you have a new song to share with your followers, you can gift them with a free MP3 download. Or maybe you have a new track that you would like to share with only your closest friends. You can set some files to private in order to share them with only one person at a time. Create an instant street team by sharing a PDF file of a poster for an upcoming show and then asking your followers to print and post it around town.

If you give FileTwt a try, we want to know what kinds of files you shared and the response you got from followers. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Your membership is totally free and with it you get a profile to network, promote, and book shows online. The site is currently in beta, so it only has venue information for the cities of LA, NYC, and London. They are planning on expanding and encourage artists from everywhere to sign up. Right now they are looking to promote bands and tours on their homepage; all you need is a filled out profile and to follow the instructions here.

If you give Artist Rise a try, we want to know if it helped you find venues and book gigs. Leave a comment and site rating here.

At the merch table they had a song list of about 15 B-sides that had never before been released. Every fan could make their own customized album by writing down the songs they wanted, in the order they wanted, for $1 per song. The band provided slips of paper, fans wrote down their playlist, and a friend at the merch table with a laptop went to work burning CDs during the set. I thought this was a great idea; letting fans pick the songs and the price for a one-of-a-kind souvenir. At the end of the show we picked up our customized CDs to find that they had all been decorated beforehand by the band during their idle hours on the road.

If you have seen any standout merch ideas or have used any yourself, we want to hear about it. Share your ideas with a comment or write to us here.

You can view charts for MTV video plays, radio plays, Napster subscriptions, iTunes downloads, Last.fm trends for songs and more. The song data is very detailed, you can even view it by city. You can select multiple charts to display at a time to compare side by side for a totally customized experience. Save your unique selections to compare the same sites whenever you want.

If you give BigChampagne a try, we want to know if data from BCDash helped you track your music and others’. Leave a comment and a site ranking here.

Coda.fm: a bit torrent site just for music file sharing

Beats Per Minute Calculator: songwriting tool to determine the BPM of your songs

FileTwt: share files with your followers over Twitter

Artist Rise: social network for bands to find venues and book gigs

BigChampagne: web analytics to track downloads and online streaming of your music

Free Music Archive: library of music that can be downloaded for free under Creative Commons licenses.

The site is also a social playlist community where you can create and share playlists of your favorite songs. Import already made lists from your iTunes account and others can listen to it and save it. Popular lists get featured on the homepage of the site. If you have your own songs on iTunes, create a playlist of your own songs for users to sample. You can play songs from your playlists when you go out to bars and restaurants that have a TouchTunes enabled jukebox. If you control all of your own recordings and compositions, you can submit your songs to become part of the rotation.

If you check out myTouchTunes, we want to know if you were able to share your music through their playlists. Leave a comment and site rating here.

This community boasts over 4,000 members who are actively sharing their music, projects, and advice.  You can discuss virtually any topic that is music related, but the most popular threads are on the technical side. Talk about your recording process, favorite software, and the latest gear. Post your events to the site calendar and check out the glossary page for definitions of technical words. Membership and all the features are free.

If you sign up at Studiotrax, we want to know if you found the forums helpful. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

myTouchTunes: Internet radio jukebox

Musician Coaching: Consulting and instruction for indie artists

Studiotrax: Forum for musicians and producers

The Echo Nest: Music analysis and song recommendation site

Rocking Over 40: Online community for musicians over 40

The online designer page will help you get started creating your own shirts. Choose a shirt style, the color, upload your graphics and add text. Then you can preview your design before placing an order. Besides T’s you can also personalize sweatshirts and mugs. There is no minimum amount to order and shirts start at 3.99 GBP. Check out the “Special Offers” tab to see special seasonal products and sale items.

If you give Quality Tees a try, we want to know if they helped you make great, affordable T-shirts. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Their illustration services have provided bands with images for websites, posters, logos, album art, merchandise and more.  They can also help you tie together all of the visual components of your band with their brand management services. Buy a one-of-a-kind font for your band name that will make you more memorable. To make your own merch, browse through their collection of royalty-free graphics. You can pay a one time fee and use these images for any of your art needs.

If you give Go Media a try, we want to know if you liked their design and branding services.  Leave a comment or advice and a  site rating for others here.

This site allows you to post links to pictures that you take from your computer or camera phone on your Twitter profile. The service is totally free and requires no separate registration process. You simply use the same user name and password as your existing Twitter account. Keep your fans up to date with picture updates. Show them the recording studio, backstage, your tour van, what you are eating for dinner, anything! Simply take photos on your phone and send them as an email to the special TwitPic email address that you will get. Whatever you put as the email subject becomes the photo’s caption and it gets posted to your Twitter page.

If you give TwitPic a try we want to know how you use it to connect with your fans. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

TwitPic: Free service that lets you share photos on Twitter

Evil Twin Booking: Philadelphia based booking agency

Quality Tees: T-shirt printing service in the UK

Tim Latham: Professional mixing engineer

Yfrog: Photo sharing for Twitter similar to TwitPic

The people behind Eventbrite believe that independent bands should also be able sell their own tickets without being price-gouged.  With your membership you receive all the tools necessary to publish a ticketing page for your events. There are also features to spread the word about your event, like free email marketing, and promotional widgets and tools. You can integrate the information with your Facebook and Twitter pages also. These services are free to use and a fee of 2.5% is collected only when tickets are sold.

If you give Eventbrite a try, we want to know if they helped you sell tickets to your shows. Leave a comment and site rating here.

First you create a profile then add your information and upload your MP3s. The Indie will promote you through managing your social networks on Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace, and Friendfeed. They also have connections to promote you through offline networks like their cable TV show. You can submit music for licensing opportunities and even sell DRM-free digital and mobile downloads on their partner sites to make some money. Every time you use the site you earn Indie points that can be redeemed for ad space that will further promote your music.

If you sign up with The Indie we want to know if they helped you with music sales and promotion. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Here you can find new music and videos in the rock and metal genres. You can also submit you own news, links to your MP3s and video clips to the site. This promotion is totally free and works just like a PR wire. They will not host any of your media, you must have it hosted elsewhere and linked to the site. When you have added information to this site, your band name will be listed in the artist directory and will show up in user searches.

If you submit your news to Rock And Metal Dot Com, we want to know if it helped you get free exposure. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Unlike a lot of T-shirt printing services, you do not need a minimum order and there are no set up fees or screen fees. They have a lot more to offer than plain Tees as well. You can order sweatshirts, baby onesies, v-necks, polos, and more! Most orders are printed in 24 hours or less and any order over 25 shirts ships anywhere in the US for free. They have designers to help you make your shirts look great and you can also browse large collections of fonts and clip art.

If you give One Hour Tees a try, we want to know if they helped you make great, affordable T-shirts. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Studio One Printing: custom screen printed T-shirts

Jeff Finley: graphic designer for posters, album art, and more

One Hour Tees: fast T-shirt printing and design

Go Media: graphic design for websites, logos, and more

Martha Hipley: Illustration & Design: graphic designer for gig posters and album art

This company provides different levels of promotion and distribution services depending on what you need. They market your music to radio stations, record distributors, dance reporters, and many other media outlets. These services are all on a national level. RCI will also manufacture and sell your merchandise and pay you all the royalties and profits that you earn. Every week you will receive a detailed report of their progress so you can track the results.

If you give RCI a try, we want to know if they helped you secure radio airplay. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This is a great sign! When business magazines that used to exclusively cover just the big-I Music Industry have finally begun to talking about musicians doing it themselves, you know that the change has finally hit the mainstream.

What they do cover, by the way, are a smattering of the services that musicians can leverage to do it themselves, something that we at IndieGuide.com diligently track for musicians, categorizing the thousands of resources in a way that’s practical for artists. What is clear based on articles like this is that there’s no more singular Industry; instead, there are industries around music. And the ones in control are the artists.

This company specializes in remastering your MP3s to make them sound like better quality, high definition tracks. Transforming your songs into top end audio files will certainly please your audiophile fans. Check out the sound samples to hear the difference between regular and remastered songs. This company will also make you a customized music store with your own URL where you can start selling tracks. It is non-exclusive, they do all the formatting and paperwork, and you get to make money. All of the distribution services are available for a flat fee of $25.

If you give Your Local HD Band a try, we want to know if they helped you master your songs and sell MP3s. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Indie Guide # 1: How to Make an Inexpensive Demo

Indie Guide # 2: Making Your Music Stand Out

Indie Guide # 3: Getting Your First Live Show

Indie Guide # 4: How to Pack Your Shows

Indie Guide # 5: Commanding the Stage

The fact is that recording is done almost entirely on computers now, so your project can be done anywhere in the world by anyone. Then the masters can be transferred easily over the internet back to a single person. Then they can mix it down and bring it in to their studio. Hiring a musician through this site can be cheaper than hiring someone in person and bringing them out to a studio. Your session can even be done over a live video feed so that you can direct the musicians.

If you give SessionPlayers a time, we want to know if they helped you find talented session musicians. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Create garments that go way beyond typical T-shirts like hoodies, tank tops, blankets, and tote bags. Here you can also make buttons in either 1″ or 1.25″ styles that are priced as low as 25 cents a piece. Also check out the vinyl stickers that come in fourteen different sizes. The more you order, the bigger the discount. Since buttons and stickers are fairly inexpensive, try giving them away to fans when they purchase CDs and merch as an incentive. On this site the possibilities for customization are nearly endless.

If you order merch from Arneson Impressions, we want to know if the products were great and the prices fair. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

RJO Artists: A PR, artist development and management company

Arneson Impressions: Personalized merch products including shirts, stickers, and buttons

Heavy Roc Music: Recording, artist management, and publicity services in NYC

Rock And Metal Dot Com: Rock and metal music news aggregator and PR wire

MixxMade: Community of indie artisans, look here for all original merch and art

Your Local HD Band: Music production company that specializes in remastering

Check the article out here.

Guitar Center – Click here to get 15% Off Any Single Item (up to $500 Discount) Only on Black Friday at Guitar Center using promo code BLACKFRIDAY

Guitar Center – Click here to get 10% off Fender Brands at Guitar Center. Use promo code FAN (11/27-11/30)

Music 123 – Click here to get 20% Off a Single Item at Music123.com using promo code BLACK (Expires 11/30)

Music 123 – Click here to save 10% on Rogue Gear at Music123.com. Use promo code ROGUE29. (Expires 12/3/09)

Music 123 – Click here to get 10% off Fender, Squier, Gretsch and other brands of Guitars at Music123.com using promo code FANME (Expires 11/30)

If you find any offers or deals that are appropriate for Check Here First, just contact us so that we can add it for other musicians.

Hope this helps! Click here to check it out.

Add as many songs, music videos, and concert clips as you want as there is no size limit for your uploads. Personalize your profile with your own images. There are no fees to start your store, just sell your songs and merch and keep 80% of all the profits. Your songs and videos could be highlighted on Grindstop’s site radio and online TV channels. With a free membership you can also make a forum to communicate with fans and build an EPK to get more gigs.

If you give Grindstop a try, we want to know if you liked their free services and if you sold any songs or merch. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Grindstop: Web presence where you can sell music and merch

Rory Carruthers Mixing: Mixing services for indie artists

Session Players: Find musicians for recording sessions

MP3 4U: A place to share free Mp3 files

RCI: Radio promotion services for bands

Many replication companies require a minimum order of 1,000 CDs, but Sire Press does not have a minimum. Try them if you want to make discs for a limited edition music project. Check out the specials tab to see what kind of deals you can get on CDs or full packages of products. They also make silk screened posters, 7″ covers, buttons, and more. From now through December there is a discount for all ECO packaging.

If you give Sire Press a try, we want to know if they were quick and affordable. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This service is supported by all of the major US carriers and most cellphones can open the media files. Signing up for an account is completely free and your media messages are priced in credits. Each credit costs 5 cents and sending messages ranges from 1 to 10 credits depending on the type of file sent. Check out their new feature that allows you to turn your RSS updates into text messages for fans!

If you give CellySpace a try we want to know if it helped you sell mobile content. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

You can set up any of your blogs hosted by blogging platforms or publishers to be syndicated. You can even syndicate things like your Flickr photos and more. This means that fans can subscribe to your updates and news aggregators can pick up your feed and spread it to many more readers. FeedBurner is now a part of Google, so you can now incorporate Google AdSense into your feed and make some money off of advertising.

If you give FeedBurner a try we want to know if it helped you get your fans more involved. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Your band needs a logo, and they have professional graphic designers to help create the perfect icon for your band. There are web designers to make a professional, interactive website for you. And if  your band already has a site, they can help it become more effective with SEO techniques. They can also help you make branded merchandise products that feature your logo. You can view a full portfolio of past marketing projects and sites and logos that they have designed.

If you check out The PRstore’s services, we want to know if they helped you market your band effectively. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Austin Music Foundation: Outreach and educational programs for musicians in Austin, Texas

Tour:Smart : Book with advice for getting gigs and touring

Dr. Music Promotion: A German music PR agency

The Lowry Agency: A full service band management company

PostRank: Social bookmarking and page scoring site

On your profile you can sell as many tracks as you want. You can even create discount and coupon codes to send out to your mailing list or fan club to give fans a special incentive to buy your songs. Any of your merchandise can be sold on here as well and you can even sell tickets to your upcoming shows. Add all of your gig dates to the calendar so fans know when and where to catch you live. You’ll get paid every business quarter for your sales via a secure PayPal transfer. One note: StayIndie does not have open registration, you must submit music and be approved to get on the site.

If you give StayIndie a try, we want to know if it helped you sell music and merch. Leave a comment and site rating here.

This company features quality, durable vinyl for their banners at 95 cents per square foot. Choose from mesh, flex, pressure sensitive, and backlit vinyl. They offer free graphic design services to make your back drops look great and capture your band’s image. All of the banners are printed at 150-300dpi which is clearer and more vibrant than most large format printers who usually print at about 70dpi. They are also printed on seamless vinyl, rather than multiple panels for a sleek and professional look. Shipping is  included with your order!

If you give Billboards Etc. a try, we want to know if they helped you make a great banner or back drop. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Free shipping on orders over $99 at MusiciansFriend (coupon: BIGG, exp:11/30)

Just do this:

1. Click Here to go to MusiciansFriend.

2. Click on “View Cart” at the top of your screen.

3. Enter the promo code “BIGG” in the Promotional Code area, and click apply.

4. Order more than $99 and you’ll get free shipping.

Hope this helps!

All you need to do is upload your own original songs on TwtMuzik and enter the song and audio details. You sign in with your Twitter account information, so filling out a new registration is not needed! The site will host your song and create a small URL all in one step. It will even post your song message  automatically to your Twitter account. Your fans can then click the link and be directed to a site where they can stream your song for free.

If you give TwtMuzik a try, we want to know if it helped you share your music on Twitter. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

If you have already secured a gig or two that requires a road trip, you should take advantage of the trek and play in as many other cities as possible. TourSavant can help you plan tours around existing dates and formulate a route designed specifically to your needs. First add any gigs you already have, then list your start and end dates & cities, then add cities where you want to play. Next you will be given a mapped out route and suggested venues for your tour, all in about 4 minutes. Check out the informational demo video here.

If you check out TourSavant we want to know if you think it would help you plan your tours. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Twtmuzik: A tool to share music on Twitter

Avid Beauty: A music & entertainment podcast community

Billboards Inc.: A large format printing service

TourSavant: Tour planning and booking website

StayIndie: Make a full profile and sell music downloads

The are a lot of distribution sites out there, but this one has a special feature:  a dual-download music store. This means that fans get to download your songs twice, once on their computers and one on their phones, for one price. Now people can hear your music on all of their devices without paying twice or dealing with annoying cables to transfer songs. Best of all membership is free and there are no start up fees to being selling your music.

If you give 3PM.fm a try we want to know if it helped you sell downloads to your fans. Leave a comment and a site rating to help out other indie musicians here.

Use their handy search button that lets you find festivals by its name, state, and artists that play there. If you are looking to get booked for live festival gigs this would be one place to start researching festivals that are looking for music like yours. Find all of the fests near you that would be realistic to play. Check out previous festival performers to get a feel for each fest’s musical taste and read reviews written by concert-goers for honest feedback. If you have played at a festival in the past and it isn’t listed, you can add it to the site. Membership is totally free and gives you access to forums and a whole festival community.

If you check out Festival Family, we want to know if you were able to find any helpful information on festivals. Leave a comment about the site and a star rating here.

You can choose to give some songs and ringtones away for free or charge for others. You may also sell your merchandise, but you are responsible for all the fulfillment and your sale price must have shipping costs included. Best of all, you keep 80% of all music sales and 85% of all merchandise sales. Madeloud uses PayPal for all of its sales, so your fans will have an easy and secure way to buy your music and merchandise. Membership is free and if you join now you currently get free unlimited upload space as well as waived listing fees.

If you give Madeloud a try we want to know if they helped you sell music and merch. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Head on over to Twables and log in with your Twitter account information. Then you will be redirected to a page with a list of Twitter applications. Scroll down and click the “fb140″ application. This will then log into your Facebook account and find all of your friends who have linked Twitter to their profiles. You can then begin following all of them with one button click. Since they are your friends on Facebook, they will most likely also follow your updates on Twitter. There are plenty of other free Twitter apps on this site you can try also.

If you give Twables a try, we want to know if it helped you get you more Twitter followers. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Adam Fleishman: Graphic design  services for your posters, sites, and albums

IndieBound: A database of independent booksellers for music and industry books

JL Entertainment: Full service booking agency and live event promotion

Madeloud: Social network for indie bands

Rapid Repair: Fast repairs for iPods and MP3 players

Skiddle: Guide for live entertainment in the UK

Twables: Free tool to find Facebook friends on Twitter

The Indie Show is a reality television competition where you stand to win a recording contract worth $5,000 and one whole year of free music video promotion. Entry into the contest is completely free, you just have to register and add information to your profile. You can submit a song that will be critiqued by the site community and a music video for a chance to be broadcast on the weekly music video countdown show. You can sell your songs from your profile for 99 cents a piece and keep 50 cents of every sale.

If you sign up with the Indie Show, we want to know if you got anywhere in the competition or sold some downloads. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Program all of your songs into this app and they can be ordered by duration, harmonic relation, and tempo. This will help you create the perfect, balanced setlist for a great gig. When your setlist is done, you can email it to your band mates and gig hosts directly from the application. Setlist Monkey has a built in metronome that can help count you in from one song to the next, streamlining your band practices. You can purchase this at the iPhone app store.

If you give Setlist Monkey a try, we want to know if it helped you create and share great setlists. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

On this blog you will find information on designing, displaying, and selling your merchandise both online and while on tour. First start at the Beginning Your Music Merch tab to read tips before making anything to avoid common mistakes. Learn about how to work with graphic designers to get your desired look and how to calculate the amount of merch you need to order. If you are going on tour, check out the Touring tab to learn more about selling at clubs. The steps of the merch process are covered here and the writers are constantly adding more.

If you check out the Cut Merch Blog, we want to know if you found any of its posts helpful. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

The pros at BandMark can help you create a positive brand and reputation for your band. If you already have these, they will help you update and revamp it! You will also find help for creating new web presences as well as using them to target new and existing fans. These new presences can be time-consuming so they also offer inbox, fan-mail, status update, news, and blog management. Basically anything that you need help with online, they do it. Fill out a quick form indicating the services you want and your budget and they will send you a quote. Easy.

If you give BandMark a try, we want to know if they helped you with your branding, marketing, and management needs. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Band With a Mission: Artist development services

Festival Family: Database of festival information and reviews

BandMark: Social media, marketing, and management services

Pappae: Online mixing and mastering services

Spunky PR: Press release writing and publicity services

Cut Merch Blog: Posts about music merchandising, design, and selling

Randy and Jason contributed to it, along with other indie brains like Derek Sivers, Tom Jackson, Jonathan Coulton, and many many others.

The story behind it is kind of funny: Ariel ran into an article called the Billboard maximum exposure list that had items on it that were impossible for all but the top artists out there. With ideas like: Get on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Saturday Night Live Performance, and Cover story in Rolling Stone, it’s a mystery as to who would find this list useful, since if you can make those happen, it’s not like you need to turn to a magazine article for exposure ideas.

Her idea: Let’s make a list that’s actually useful for musicians. This is the result.

Derek Sivers is the founder of CDBaby.com and hostbaby.com. His personal website covers Muckworks, his latest project, as well as having a very useful blog.

If you check out Derek Sivers website we want to know if liked it. Leave a comment and a site rating here. ]]> http://blog.indieguide.com/?feed=rss2&p=843 0 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=839 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=839#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:32:22 +0000 Katelyn http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=839 Music Xray provides artists with free tools and services to improve their songs, find opportunities for their music, and get promoted. On this platform musicians and music industry professionals get to interact for mutual benefit.

Music Xray allows the artist to expose their music to industry pros who can offer not only various opportunities like gigs and licensing but also song critiques. The artist can embed an Xray widget into their website or blog for others to listen to, comment on, fill out customizable song surveys, watch videos, setup passcodes for users wanting to download songs, track web presences along with many other features. Music industry professionals get their own private drop box with features that make is easy to manage these submissions and communicate back to the artist and charge fees if they wish to do so.

If you check out Music Xray we want to know if you used and liked any of their tools, services, and widgets. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Atomic Audio: Online mixing and mastering services

Setlist Monkey: iPhone application to make setlists and plan rehearsals

Shore Fire D.I.Y.: Music publicity services

Internet Content Publishing: Article writing and syndication services

The gaming industry is growing really quickly and every game needs sounds. You will upload your music and arrange it into collections that users looking for music can browse. They will be able to hear previews and bookmark your songs to come back to later. All of the licensing is handled by Gamecues and users can pay for your songs and gain clearance in just a few clicks. You still retain all the rights to your music except for where the customer has paid to use it in their game unless you specifically sell all of your rights to a song.

If you check out Gamecues we want to know if any of your music gets licensed for a video game. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

If you are looking to play more intimate gigs like parties, house concerts, and private events you might find a lot of opportunities here. With your account you get a booking widget that you can embed anywhere. This tool will allow fans to book you for shows directly from your website, MySpace page, Facebook fan page, or even YouTube videos. You set your fees and control what dates are open on your calendar. Whenever you and a fan agree on booking a show, each party pays a $10 fee. The site does not collect any additional commissions. There is also an e-vite system so that you and your fans can invite friends to the shows and spread the word.

If you give LiveMusicMachine a try, we want to know if it helped you book more shows and connect with your fans. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

They regularly represent music of all genres and styles. As a publisher they issue and negotiate licenses to place your songs into TV, commercials, and film. They also handle the collection and distribution of royalties as well as keep detailed records of everything. Check out the Placements tab to get a good idea of the types of projects that have used music from this publisher. Then head over to the Music Wanted tab to view a listing of current projects that need music. If you think your songs should be considered for placement, click on the Submit Music tab, follow all of the directions, and send in your tunes.

If you give NOMA Music a try, we want to know if they helped get your music licensed. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

The Indie Show: Independent artist contest

DigiMaster Faster: Mastering services for flat rates

HighDef Duplication: CD duplication, replication, and packaging

Live Music Machine: Fan generated booking resource

The Indie: Music distribution and promotion services

Wibiya works with all the major blogging sites like Wordpress and Blogger. It helps you itegrate, manage, and track third-party applications on your blog. It works with Facebook Connect to help you build and connect with your online community. You will be able to share your tweets over multiple presences and get your updates out to more people. Track all of your applications with their analytics and then add and remove apps with just one click. Best of all it only takes about two minutes to set up and add to your site.

If you give Wibiya a try, we want to know if it helped make it easier to manage all of your applications on your blog. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

With this program you can copy, cut, and splice sounds together and change the speeds and pitches of recordings. Add extra effects like echo and phaser sounds while removing hisses and other background disturbances. You can work with the following formats: Ogg, MP3, WAV or AIFF files. Up to 16 channels can be recorded at once at up to 96 kHz. There are also a bunch of plug-ins that can be used with this software. Since this software is open source, people are constantly updating and adding to the features.

If you give Audacity a try, we want to know if it helped you record and edit audio. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

When you sign up on this site you get scored on the following areas: viewers, fans, social plays, conversations, and radio plays. The viewers score comes from how many hits your web presences have received. Your fan score comes from how many fans, friends, and followers you have on social networking sites. The social plays score counts how many times your songs have been streamed and played online and the conversation score counts how many times your band is mentioned across various social networks. All of these scores combined make your brand score and from there you will see what areas need more focus and get help to improve your scores.

Currently Band Metrics is in private beta, but you can head over to the site and request and invite. If you give it a try we want to know if it helped you improve your web visibility. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Uploading and registering your songs is really easy and takes only a few minutes. Best of all, you get to keep 88.5% of all of your sales which is more than the average cut artists get from digital distribution services. When fans purchase songs from Trackseller, they do not have to complete any complicated registration process nor do they have to install song downloading software. Also, all of the music sold here is DRM-free and can be transferred and played on all types of music devices.

If you give Trackseller a try we want to know if they helped you sell music and if the site was easy to use. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

GimmeSound: Online music distribution and web presence

FlashNews: PR Wire for entertainment news

Music Jobs: Worldwide job listings for musicians

Wibiya: Tool bar to manage widgets and applications on your site

The only rule is that you must publish your albums under a Creative Commons license and be willing to share it for free. This will open you up to new fans as well as podcasters and webcasters looking for music for their shows. You can also download as much music from other artists as you want. Jamendo boasts a huge catalog of music with well over 24,000 published albums. If you are looking for feedback on your music, active users will write reviews and give you comments. Grab a widget and share music on all of your web presences!

If you give Jamendo a try we want to know if it helped you share your music and receive feedback. Leave a comment and a site rating here to help out other curious indie musicians.

Here you will find articles, links and tips for the music business, recording, and touring. There are also pages devoted to product news and information on drums, bass, guitar, synthesizers, and vocals. Pages are updated about twenty times everyday so there is always something new to learn. Also, Musformation encourages crowdsourcing, so you can submit articles you find. You are also welcome to start discussions and leave comments on any of the postings. The clear buttons at the top make it very easy to navigate the site and find the information you want. Lastly, everything is totally free for you to read and use.

If you check out Musformation we want to know if you found any useful information on their sites. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Upload up to three songs on your online press kit and add videos, bios, press, photos, tour dates, and more. Then you can start sending music securely to radio stations everywhere. If you have a specific campaign for an upcoming tour or album release, you can create extra profile pages that are more specific. They will guide you in how to email your press kits out to radio stations. Click the Opportunities tab to find contests to enter and book gigs. You will also receive access to their resource center that has tons of information for bands seeking radio airplay. And all of this is completely free!

If you give AirplayDirect a try, we want to know if they helped you get your music on the air. Leave a comment and a rating for the site here.

Since it is using your existing store, there is no need to upload all of your pictures and re-write your product descriptions. Once registered it is easy to plug your store into your other channels like Facebook, Blogspot, and MySpace. Your fans will be seeing your same original store no matter what site or web presence they are viewing. All of your personal data and that of your customers’ remains private through your original seller account. Best of all, Sellit does not charge for this service at all; it is free.

If you give Sellit a try, we want to know if they helped you sell your merchandise easily on multiple channels. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

All About Trademarks: Learn about trademark law

Bass Player Magazine: Articles and lessons for bass players

Sellit: Put your existing online store onto your web presences and blog

LawGuru: Intellectual property and copyright information

Central Entertainment Services: Booking agency in NYC

Bags Unlimited started as an archival supply and storage company for serious music collectors, but now they have branched out into merch. Their custom printed shirts are made with high-quality, 100% preshrunk cotton Gildan brand T-shirts. Orders can be filled within 7-10 days.  Bags Unlimited also offers custom screen printing for CD, 45 and LP jackets. All printing is done in-house, so printing order are filled within two weeks. Here you can also find  archival supplies like cases, sleeves, cleaners, mailers and acid free storage boxes for all of yours CDs, cassettes, and records of all sizes.

If you give Bags Unlimited a try, we want to know if you and your fans were happy with the merchandise. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Using this site will get your tracks placed on all of the largest and most-used digital music marketplaces like iTunes, eMusic, Amazon MP3, Napster and a lot more. Not only will your tracks get sold, but DashGo also monitors how well your songs are doing on your social media web presences. They check out how many plays and visits your band gets on sites like MySpace, IMEEM, and Last.fm to make sure your marketing plans are working with fans. You will be able to see all of your stats on your profile dashboard. Lastly, there are other marketing services offered like promotion to digital retailers, blogs, discovery sites, and social networks. Every band can customize their membership to suit what they need.

If you give DashGo a try, we want to know if they helped you with marketing and digital music sales. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This company distributes your music and other press materials throughout its network of about 5,500 radio stations in 77 countries around the world. You upload all of your information and music and their team puts together a release sheet with everything radio programmers need to know. Then they send out your information and whenever a station shows interest, you will be notified. When you get a notification, send your CDs to the interested stations. The network of stations includes satellite, college, and commercial radio as well as club DJs looking for new tunes. Prices for the promotion services differ depending on genre and range from about $250-500, and your listing lasts for six months.

If you give RadioDirectX a try, we want to know if they helped you get played and reviewed by radio stations. Leave us a comment or a site rating here.

AirPlay Direct: Free online press kit and radio promotion services

Musformation: Resource site with tips, gear information, and music business news

Trackseller: Digital music download management

Evolvor: Blog about music marketing, A&R

Indie Music Publicity: Blog with publicity and promotions tips for artists

Buzzsonic: Blog about Music Industry 2.0 topics for DIY artists

When you upload your videos, you have the option of syndicating it on your choice of over two dozen video sites like YouTube, Blip.tv, and Break.com. Their uploader accepts seven different video formats, although MOV and MP4 are recommended. All of your tags, notes, and information will appear on the video sites as if you uploaded manually on each site. Get to know your viewers better with TubeMogul’s video analytics and feedback features. You will get charts on your video plays, fan interactions, and more. This way you can track trends and see what people like the best. Another handy feature: you can export all of the data charts to Excel and save them.

If you give TubeMogul a try, we want to know if you found it easy to get your videos published all over the web. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

This client works on Windows and allows your fans to download any file-type found on several popular P2P networks. It connects all of the following networks: EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Gnutella2 (G2). Putting your music up on all four of these at once will save you time while giving you the most exposure. If you are new to P2P networks, there are wiki help pages, user forums, and a tech support page to guide you. Shareaza is totally free and contains no spyware. There is no registration to fill out and you get all of the features for free, no paid upgrades required.

If you give Shareaza a try, we want to know if you found it easy to work with and how fans responded to the free music. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Every member artist gets a personal home page, streaming audio and video, tour calendar, photo gallery, news blog, email list management, and more. You can even create a custom online storefront to sell physical and digital merchandise to your fans. Fans can participate on the open forums to discuss their favorite bands and songs. This site is an online database of more than 500,000 artists, featuring a ton of free music videos and song plays. Lastly their online shopping mall of CDs and music merchandise is full-service, meaning that you won’t have to worry about transactions and fulfillment.

If you give Ultimate Band List a try, we want to know how it helped your band and if you would recommend it to others. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

On this site the admins write articles about topics like record labels, band promoting, and music industry updates. But members can contribute articles in the form of their own blogs. Share your successful ideas with other artists and browse through blogs that others have written. If you have questions, head over to the message board and ask the entire musician community for advice. There are threads for different instruments and musical genres. You can also participate in the Battle of the Bands contest and organize your fans to vote for you.

If you check out BandFocus, we want to know if you learned anything or connected with any musicians. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

3PM.fm: Online music distribution and mobile distribution

Ardour: Software for mixing, recording, editing, and collaborating

Blogarama: Blog directory and search engine

VST Synthesizers and Free Music: Free synthesizers, effects, and songs

Blogdigger: Blog search engine

MadeLoud: Network for indie and underground bands to connect with fans

Jamglue makes it simple to mix songs with their Flash-based mixing station that lets you edit and save directly from your browser. If you have no previous mixing experience, the mixer is easy to use and there are plenty of directions provided. To get inspired, listen to some other members’ songs. Under each song you will find links that let you grab the music to remix it or add it to a mix you are already creating. Other users can become fans of your work, favorite your songs, and leave reviews. Copy and paste codes into your website and web presences and your mixes will be embedded for everyone to hear.

If you give Jamglue a try, we want to know if you had any luck collaborating with other artists or creating your own great mixes. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Digital transmission includes everything played on internet radio, satellite radio, and the audio channels included in a digital cable subscription. If you have been a featured artist on any such program or hold the copyright to a sound recording that has been played digitally, you can claim royalties. However, you cannot collect any of your royalties until you register officially with SoundExchange. This process involves a bit of paperwork and takes about 90 days to finalize, but the membership is completely free. If you aren’t sure if you are a featured artist, check out the Unregistered List tab to find a huge list of artists who can but have not yet applied for membership. If you are an artist and also the copyright holder, sign up as both to get all of the money you are owed.

If you sign up with SoundExchange we want to hear about the membership process and if you got any royalties. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

You get one gigabyte of memory for free, which is usually enough room for about 4,000 photos. Take pictures at all of your shows and easily organize them into albums. You can also tag all of your photos geographically. You’ll be able to see a global map of every city that you’ve played and fans will easily be able to find pictures from the shows they attended. You can tag all of your band mates and friends in photos too. Picasa includes photo editing software that can help you fix common lighting, red-eye, and color issues in your pictures. Create slideshows as part of your press kit and turn your favorite photos in to wallpaper and collages then share them with your fans.

If you give Picasa a try, we want to know if you would use it as your main photo hosting and sharing account. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Bandlist.de: Leading social network for German, Austrian, and Swiss bands

Counterstream Radio: Online radio station that broadcasts songs written by U.S. composers

Music Emissions: Album review and music recommendation site

World Intellectual Property Organization: Global association that oversees intellectual property laws

Songrila: Music player that lets you sell your MP3s

Sire Press: CD and DVD duplication

You can record your ideas with GarageBand, Pro Tools, or the program of your choosing and then upload the tracks to the site. Then invite other users to help add on to your song. Or if you just want to add onto others’ work, join groups for the instruments you play, genres you like, and software you use to find appropriate collaborators. There is a Kompoz Radio podcast where the songs resulting from online collaboration are shared. You can receive comments and feedback on your collaboration from the community too. Some users will host contests to add to or remix their songs. Some of the prizes for these contests include CDs, guitars, music books, and more!

If you give Kompoz a try, we want to know if you participated in any great collaborations. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

Your profile contains a full online press kit. You get room for a 25 picture photo album and 25 MEGs of music and videos with a basic membership. Daily statistics about who has viewed your profile are available to see whenever you want. Send a monthly newsletter out to update your fans about upcoming live events. All of the artists on this site are rated by people who have used their services in a 5-star rating system. The more successful gigs you have, the higher you will rank and be more likely to book even more gigs in the future. The basic membership starts at $59 for three full months, but there are other levels with more options and storage space that are also more expensive.

If you try GigMasters, we want to know if it helped you book more gigs. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Viddler accepts uploads in WMV, MPEG, M4V, AVI, and MOV formats.If you have a webcam, you can record videos directly onto the site. This would be ideal for posting tour updates and vlog entries for your fans. You can customize your player any way you would like. Brand your video player with your logo and your distinct band colors. Your player can even be linked to your website and you can insert comments and tags throughout your videos. Your fans can leave timed comments, video comments, and even submit your clips to Digg. There are even opportunities for you to earn money off of your videos.

If you give Viddler a try, we want to know if it helped you share your videos online. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Supernova: band battles, prizes, and social networking for indies

Tryxo: Online music distribution

Indie-Verse: Indie radio station, album reviews, and contests

The Indie: DRM-free distribution and promotion services

Current Music: Upload and share music video content

PunkNews: Aggregator for punk, ska, and metal music news

Symphonic Distribution: Publishing, marketing, distribution, and licensing services

When you link your avatar with an email address, your new Gravatar icon will be displayed on accounts that uses that address. These avatars are globally recognizable, so they will work  on all of the leading blog sites. This will keep your avatars consistent from web presence to web presence without you having to worry about uploading it manually. You can even rate your avatar similarly to the way movies are rated as G through X. On sites that enforce a rating level, your avatar will not be shown if it is not allowed. Good thing is that all of this is free, and to sign up you just need an email address. If you have a Wordpress blog, you can sign up for Gravatar through that account too.

If you give Gravatar a try, we want to know if they helped you create a cool avatar. Leave a comment and a site rating for other indie musicians here.

Their prints range from a standard 8.5″x11″ to 13″x19″ in size. The cheapest flyers start at only ten cents apiece! To start your order, use their easy online form where you specify paper size, thickness, single- or double-sided, and the quantity. After that you send them your custom art by email. PrintKeg can work with images in the following forms: PDF, JPG, AI, flattened PSD, TIF or EPS. Make sure you give these options to your graphic designer beforehand if applicable so that everything is in the correct format. Orders ship out in 24 hours or less, and if you place your order before 11AM EST your order will be print and ship that day! They guarantee satisfaction, so if there are any problems they will reprint the order for free or provide a full refund.

If you give PrintKeg a try, we want to know if they helped you make affordable posters or flyers. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

There is a contract that you must sign to use Flotones, but it is non-exclusive and does not take away any rights to your songs, album art, or mobile content. Additionally, there are no activation fees to start your membership. Flotones then sends your mobile content to major distributors like CDBaby and Jamster for your fans to buy. You get paid for each download minus transaction fees and commissions, that averages to about a 50% payout for artists. You also don’t have to wait around forever to get your earnings, as you will get paid monthly.

If you give Flotones a try, we want to know if it helped you make money off of your mobile content. Leave a comment and a site rating here!

Sign up is really fast and simple as you can use your existing Google, Yahoo!, or AOL account to start your membership. After joining, you can upload and publish all of your podcasts here. In order to make money, you can look through advertising campaigns and get invited to participate in one. The new ads in your podcast will generate revenue. There are no contracts or commitments to any advertiser. Blubrry also offers valuable statistics on your podcast audience. They will even post your new podcast episodes to Twitter, an iTunes feed, and your Wordpress powered blog. All of these basic features are free, but there are extra upgrades that have fees.

If you give Blubrry a try, we want to know if you published your podcasts and made any money. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

You can search through types of festivals beyond just music events like craft fairs, holiday fests, and trade shows, as most of those are looking for musical entertainment too. Festivals.com will give you all the key information like the location and dates of every festival. You can even see who has performed previously at each festival to get a feel for the type of genres that are wanted. There will also be contact information like a website or email address where you can find more detailed information on how to apply as a performer.

If you check out Festivals.com we want to know if it helped you find some events where you want to play live. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Collaboration is done offline in your own home or a studio and then you can exchange new tracks through the site. If you do not need additional musicians, you can make a private collaboration area to manage your current work. StudioTraxx can also help you make money through their e-commerce platform. You can actually purchase and book time with musicians, engineers, etc. for your own projects and you can be booked in return. The site occasionally runs promotions where you can win cool prizes like free mastering or mixing services.

If you check out StudioTraxx, we want to know if it helped you collaborate with other musicians online. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Dragon Licks: Music licensing site

CTW Promotions: A MySpace promotions agency

Howiewood: Radio promotion services

Gravatar: Site that helps you make avatars

Commentful: Service that tracks blog comments

Unsigned Artists Radio: Streaming radio stations featuring indie artists

Learn all the basics you need to know on the SEO terms glossary. Here you can find definitions for internet jargon and the meanings of popular acronyms. The internet marketing section describes different types of SEO and the best techniques to use with them. You will also find a list of risky SEO techniques that should be avoided. There are three separate tutorials on the site about keywords, on-page optimizations, and off-page optimizations. Check out the SEO Consultants link to read criteria you should look for when hiring the help of a professional. Following these tips could end up saving you valuable time and money.

If you check out Measuring Up, we want to know if the site answered any questions you had about SEO. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Creating a survey is very simple and you are guided step by step through the process. Customize your surveys with one of twelve skins or your own pictures and insert the HTML codes right into your site or web presence profile. Poll results are reported instantly and there is even foreign language support to reach fans from all over the world. You can make as many free polls as you want and the voting number is unlimited. If you upgrade to a premium membership that costs money, you can even track individual voters by region and detect fraudulent votes.

If you give Polldaddy a try, we want to know if you got valuable information from their free polls and surveys. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Sticker Junkie provides easy to create and order bumper stickers sold in bulk. Prices start at $25 for 100 simple black and white stickers. Stickers can have up to three lines of text and graphics and up to sixteen colors. The built-in sticker generator will help you create your own design step by step. If you are stuck on wording or design, check out the recent orders page for some inspiration. Sign up for the mailinglist to receive promotional codes and information on upcoming sticker contests!

If you give Sticker Junkie a try, we want to know if they helped you make cheap stickers easily. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Tarnius Music: Digital distribution where you keep 90% of the profits

MP3 Song Plays: Software to increase your MySpace song plays

Community Musician: CD Manufacturing, producing, recording, and digital distribution

Viddler: Place to upload, publish, and syndicate your videos on iTunes

iMusician Digital: Non-exclusive digital distribution

Pantone Colors: Custom color standards for printing packaging and merchandise

With this software you can edit, retouch, and enhance your photos. Instead of paying someone to fix your band photos  or live concert pictures, you can do it yourself with GIMP. You can also save your images in many different formats like the common JPG, GIF, and BMP and the less common PIX, CEL, and MNG. If you are not familiar with Photoshop or digital photo editing in general, there are detailed tutorials to guide you. Learn how to create your own logo or remove red-eye from pictures and a whole lot more.

If you give GIMP a try, we want to know if it helped you create and edit your own images and pictures for free. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

One unique feature of this player is that it allows you to insert advertisements into your videos. With this you have the opportunity to make some cash every time your video is viewed. This software supports streaming live videos, so you can even broadcast your concerts live on the web. The player is completely customizable and you can even watermark your designs and copyright your flash player. There is also a free video to flash converter, so your videos will be put into the correct format. Version 2.0 is free for users, and there is also a premium version that costs about $100.

If you give the Moyea Web Player Pro a try, we want to know if it helped you put videos onto your website easily. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

You can also track your ecommerce sales and see how well your email or banner campaigns are doing. You can even see a report of how your campaigns affect your sales. These statistics are important for you to measure how strong your band’s web presence is and to identify areas that need help. Google has a lot of features on here, and some might not inerest you at all. Create a customized report to view only the stats you want to and in the order you prefer. It is fairly easy to integrate Google Analytics into your website, and they have very detailed instructions if you run into any problems.

If you give Google Analytics a try, we want to know if you were impressed with their free web stat tools. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Anything special you have to offer can be turned into a “jamseed”. You could sell a live performance recording of a fan’s favorite song or autographed album with a personalized message. Some songwriters will even compose an original song dedicated to a fan. You get to pick your prices for all of your items and services. Everything you post on here remains your own property, as Jamseed will not take away any rights. Also, all payments are handled through PayPal’s secure site so none of your financial information is stored on Jamseed. You can keep the profits from whatever you sell, or set up a charity account and everything is donated to the charitable organization of your choice.

If you try Jamseed, we want to know what kinds of personalized items you offered to fans. What were their favorite types of merchandise? Leave a comment and a site rating here.

SkreemR: MP3 search engine that lets you make ringtones from found songs

Deezer: Music streaming site that shares ad revenue with artists

MP3 Realm: Search for songs and clip and narrow results by duration

Project Playlist: A social playlist site built off of MySpace music

Lala: Social playlist site with a catalog of over 6 million songs

Songza: Search for songs and play them with their online jukebox

You can make a free account at this site and request articles about your own band and links to your MP3s to get posted for some free publicity. There is a Watchlist feature where fans add their favorite artists and are notified every time new articles are posted about the bands on their list. You can use this feature to your advantage by adding your band to your watchlist so that you know whenever someone else posts news about you.

If you sign up with Cloudspeakers, we want to know if your music got any free promotion. Leave a comment and a site rating to help other indie musicians here.

Band Letter takes care of everything except the information you provide that goes out in each letter. They manage your list of subscribers, putting them into lists by location, industry and more. You own your list of subscribers and can view it whenever you want. Every month you will get a reminder to put together all of your news and messages for the next email. They will create your newsletter and send it out on time from your own address. Pricing can be customized depending on the number of your subscribers, but their basic plan is around $40 per month.

If you give Band Letter a try, we want to know if they provided professional mailing list services. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

The site has a built-in tuner so you can hear each individual note and then tune your guitar accordingly. There is also a separate bass tuner as well. After you have tuned up, read lessons that introduce you to guitar basics like scales, music theory, and strumming patterns. The Chordbot will help you figure out how to play chords of all types and inversions. Under the Video tab you can watch clips that teach you how to play numerous popular songs. If you have any questions or want to engage in some guitar talk, head on over to the forums and post a thread.

If you check out How To Tune A Guitar, we want to know if you learned anything about guitars. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

When you list an event, you can invite all of your fans and manage the guest list all online. Your shows can be made public to the whole world, or private and invitation-only. You will be able to network with other bands who publish events and even cross link your shows and guest lists with each other. Events Listed lets you sell your tickets online too. Turn your fans into a street team by having them sell tickets for you. Create multiple levels of commissions for fans so that they have a monetary incentive to sell tickets. You’ll be able to process payments and track all sales and hits. Lastly, you can easily post all of this information on your other social media profiles.

If you try Events Listed we want to know if they helped you publicize your shows and sell tickets. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

TuniPop: Place to sell merchandise and self-manage

Sputnik Music: Music and musician forums

Junkytees: T-shirts and hoodies

BandFocus: A site with message boards and a battle of the bands competition

Keep Music Alive: Forums for bands and musicians

PickTheBand: Online fan-run record label

TabCrawler: Message boards for music creation and recording

Securing your spot in this directory will help to protect your name and avoid future legal problems. If you are trying to come up with a band name, you’ll want to check here using the search function to make sure that name is not already taken. Every year the site publishes all of the registered names in the Worldwide Band and Artist Directory which is distributed to all the major record labels as a guide to band names around the world. Registration costs a one-time fee of $12. This will also give you access to some business tools and software.

If you register on Bandname.com we want to know if the process was quick and easy. Leave a comment and a site rating here to inform other indie musicians.

There is a lyrics contest where you can win professionally recorded demos of your original songs. Enter your music video for a chance to win $500 and global distribution of your video. The singer/songwriter contest is an international competition where past winners have gone on to license their music on TV and work with established producers. These contests are judged by a panel of executives and creative directors of the world’s biggest music companies as well as songwriters and producers. Check out their blog here for the latest contest news.

If you enter a contest on We Are Listening, we want to hear about your experience. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

In a couple of clicks you can easily upload and save your catalog. Use their SoundOps interactive studio to master all of your tracks online. Signing up with them will allow you to license your music on CreativeCommons and then sell your music through Bandcamp. Under the Promotions tab you will find tools to start your own campaign to gain fans. You will get weekly feedback reports on how many times your songs are streamed and added as favorites by users.

If you give Grooveshark a try we want to know if it helped you gain fans and promote your music. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Musicians can use the yearly conference that NACA puts on to perform in front of the student activities committees from many universities all at once. The event is held every February and a few thousand people attend representing around 450 schools. There is a fee for musicians to perform at a showcase at this conference. However, some participants have reported that they can make back that fee within a few shows, with the rest being profit for them for the rest of the year. There is also the Block Booking tool that allows schools to book talent and network with artists online throughout the year.

If you take a look at NACA, we want to know if they helped you get gigs at colleges. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Beatport: Distribution for electronic and dance music

Data Disc: CD and DVD duplication and packaging

Insound: Online store for indie musicians

Tumbplay: Mobile content provider

bopaboo: Salesplace for DRM free music

Zigned: Digital distribution and merch salesplace

Overplay: Musician network for promotion and exposure

We’d love to hear your comments, so check out the site, and feel free to write us.

Meanwhile, we actually have a lot of features planned in the next week, so be on the lookout for the changes. More as we work on it.

There are no setup fees for printing projects and no minimum amount on CD orders. CD label designs can be printed in black or color with text and images. They don’t use stickers and the labels are guaranteed high quality and smudge-proof. There are six different styles of CD inserts to choose from and eight packaging options. They have paper wallets and flexible plastic jewel cases. With your online account you can manage all of your songs and album artwork and easily reorder projects in a few clicks.

If you try Disc on Demand, we want to know if they helped you make CDs or DVDs quickly at an affordable rate. Leave a site rating and a comment for other indie musicians here.

Fill out the search bar detailing the type of design services needed, your budget, the project deadline, and specify a location if necessary. There are nearly 11,000 graphic designers and 13,000 web designers listed in this directory. Along the top of the page you can find links to more directories of companies and individuals who can help you with your website or press kit like search engine optimization experts, photographers, and flash animators. Check out the more detailed list of services you can search through here.

If you check out Freelance Designers we want to know if you found a good designer to help you with your web projects. Leave a site rating and a comment here.

On this site you can encode and send your music in over a dozen formats to please all types of listeners. The artist dashboard gives you total control over all of your media and your copyrights. Besides distributing to other outlets, IODA lets you create your own storefront where anything from your catalog can be sold directly to fans. Check out the Promonet which is a promotional music distribution network. It will help you send songs to podcasters and bloggers who are always looking for new music. You will also be able to view real-time statistics about your sales and song plays.

If you give IODA a try, we want to know if they helped you distribute your music. Leave a site rating and a comment here.

Click on the Publications button and you will see topics on the left hand side. The Performance Insider and Social Media Insider topics will have news sites and blogs for you and your band. Check out the demographic and media research reports to target your campaigns to the right audience. The site has a community of marketing professionals who could offer you help or advice. If you want in-person marketing information there is a calendar of events and conferences that you can attend. And if you are looking to hire a professional, you should post a job listing on the classifieds page.

If you try MediaPost, we want to know if it helped you with your own marketing projects. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Better Than The Van: Find a free place to stay when you’re on tour!

Events Listed: Promote events on all your social media profiles

eReleases: Press release writing and distribution services

MasterWriter: Songwriting software

Free Ear Trainer: Free ear training tools and exercises

Marcato Musician: Software to track band communication and gigs

sfcLive: Weekly podcast and internet radio station

Through this partnership they have a huge network capacity, allowing for a high volume of releases to be publicized daily. Many free PR wire sites use e-mail as their main, or only, source of sending releases. But PRFree uses more methods like satellite, syndicators, aggregators, media databases, search engines, and more.This gets your news in the hands of more people and can increase the effectiveness of your press releases.

If you give PRFree a try, we want to know if they helped you get free publicity. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

The services offered here are similar to YouTube, but there are some additional useful features. The site keeps back-ups of your files so that you can always download them again or even allow your viewers to save a copy. There are more specific privacy options on Vimeo. You can password protect your videos, so only those knowing the code can view them. This would be ideal if you wanted to host special content only for members of your fan club or other VIPs. You can even hand select other users to be the sole viewers of your media for even more control. They support HD videos for great quality and you can share them on social networking pages and your own website.

If you give Vimeo a try, we want to know if you liked their video features. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Try using this software to record and edit your own podcasts in addition to your music. You can also digitally remaster your old songs with their noise reduction features. GoldWave lets you save files in a number of formats including wav, wma, mp3, ogg, aiff, au, vox, and more. If you have issues with the program its help file is integrated with tons of extra online information. Buying this software will run you about $50, and all further updates of the program will be free. There are also a bunch of free helpful plug-ins on the site that will work with this software.

If you try GoldWave we want to know if you liked it and would continue using it for your audio editing needs. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Plugola is a full service social music community for indie artists of all genres and music fans. Membership is completely free and with it you can distribute both your music and videos at your own set prices.

You get to keep all rights and control over your song catalog. You can also send fans notifications about upcoming shows and releases. Basically, you are creating your own web presence. This is a great place to start if you are looking to create a tight network of supportive fans. The site is set up to encourage music fans to be interactive and involved by giving them the power to promote their favorite artists. You can become a featured artist by getting high rankings through their cheat-proof user voting system.

If you try Plugola, we want to know if you liked all of their free features. Leave a comment and a site ranking here to inform other indie musicians. ]]> http://blog.indieguide.com/?feed=rss2&p=711 1 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=707 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=707#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:59:46 +0000 Katelyn http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=707 Here are some of the newest links on the Guide!

Music Biz Center: Gig classifieds, musician forums, and music business articles

Taso Hountas: Live music photographer in NYC

101 Distribution: CD and video distribution

Band Central: The online band manager

Awdio: Broadcasts live music performances

GIMP: Free software similar to Photoshop

Nova Music Services: Marketing and publicity for indie artists

Oasis Disc Manufacturing: CD and DVD replication

The flat fee for using these services is $9.95 per month and everything is included even storage space for photographs. They have over 300 templates you can pick from to create appealing e-mails. You will also get statistical reports on how many subscribers open and click through your messages. Membership even includes auto-reply options and RSS feeds. iContact is white-listed with most major ISPs meaning that your messages won’t end up caught in spam filters. Other mailing list services will charge separately for all of these extra features.

If you give iContact a try, we want to know if you made great newsletters and e-mail blasts with it. Leave a site rating and a comment here to inform other indie musicians.

Customize your profile with your pictures and song clips. It is important to upload your best quality photos and audio to get more responses. Make sure to fill in all of the information on your profile like genre, location, song list, and price range to improve your rank in site search results. Signing up for a premium account will bring you to the top of search results and will also give you access to other artist services at Bandmix.com. The premium membership will run you $10 per month.

If you give Gigleader a try, we want to know if it got you booked for gigs! Leave a comment and a site rating here.

All of the pictures hosted here are organized into categories like abstract and nature photos. You can search for more specific results or just browse through the categories. Upon viewing a photo you can see how many times it has been viewed, the file size, how many times it has been downloaded, and its user rating. If you find a picture you want, it can easily be downloaded to your hard drive as a Jpeg. If it is a particularly large picture you can even download it as a Zip file which is compressed.

If you try the Free Photos Bank, we want to know if you found great album or website photos. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Ricall is also used my professional music supervisors and advertisers as a search engine for songs to license. Their library currently has over three million songs from over 25,000 artists, both major label acts and unsigned indies. They do all of the work by shopping around your songs to interested supervisors. Basically, this site simplifies the licensing process for both you and those looking for new music.

If you try Ricall, we want to know if you got music licensed for a film or commercial. Leave a site rating and a comment to help other indies here.

Onstage Success: Instruction for better live performances

Recording Magazine: Resources and reviews for recording musicians

Songramp: Music social network where you can share songs and write blogs

Latin Noise: Digital distribution site for Latin music

Masters of Songfu: A song competition modeled after the Iron Chef

SongwriterUniverse: Song evaluations and a monthly best song contest

It’s popular around the web and since it is open-source you are able to modify it. There are multiple types of players, including a play button, a player with rewind and fast-forward buttons, and other embedded options. There are also a variety of playlist options including the useful capability of linking a song to a web link. This will allow you to let people preview a song and then go to a site to purchase or download it. You can also customize the image that appears. This is an alternative to the Wimpy Player, which has more features but costs money.

If you give XSPF a try we want to know if you were able to get your songs on your website. Leave a comment and a site rating here to help out other indies.

This service costs about $6 per month and then a one time fee of $20 for each album that you add. After that, you get to keep 100% of the royalties from your sales. You can go from month to month without having to be locked into a contract. Registering your music with them will also get you free UPC barcodes which are necessary for tracking your sales worldwide. You will also get a free storefront where you can show off pictures and your upcoming tour dates.

If you give Songcast a try, we want to know if they helped you sell music online. Leave a site rating and a comment here.

They offer built-in templates so that you can easily add store components by checking them off on a list. You can also get crafty with your custom own designs. Customers will be able to purchase items with PayPal which is fast and secure. Each store’s transactions are protected by SSL security as well, so your fans are always protected. ProStores offers inventory management and marketing tools including an automated Google Base feed. You can try it for free for a whole month and after that packages start at $30 per month.

If you give ProStores a try, we want to know if you got a great storefront out of it. Leave a comment and a site rating here to help other indies like you.

Fans can watch all these videos for free and only need to register with the site to view all the media available. There are neat live chat features where fans can interact with you while watching your videos. Send out a notice in your mailing list that there will be an online “meet and greet” where they can ask questions and discuss your music. Set up your own internet venue in order to start streaming live concert footage. It’s impossible to play a show everywhere, so streaming your concerts is a great way to keep those who live far away connected.

If you give SyncLive a try, we want to know if you successfully streamed any concerts. Leave a site comment and rating here.

CellySpace: Create, send, and sell content to mobile phones

PRS Forums: Paul Reed Smith guitar forums

Music Connection: Music trade industry website and magazine

Songs to Write: Tips and instruction for beginning songwriters

ArtistServer: Get heard online, make sales, and promote your band

Alternative Press: Magazine for new releases and reviews of alternative music

Create your artist profile easily with the given themes that you can customize with your own pictures and logos. You can move around the sections of your page so it looks unique and not like other cookie-cutter template profiles. If you need a new bass player or are looking for a recording studio, check out Unsigned’s musician classifieds. Registering and making your own profile is free!

Unsigned is still in beta, so you can try it now and tell them what you like and what you’d like to see in the future. If you try it, leave us a comment and site rating here.

Upload your song directly onto the site or you can enter a URL. You can also enter the location of a YouTube video and Audiko will extract its sounds for the ringtone. Then choose the fragment of the song you want as the ringtone, which is usually part of the chorus and about twenty seconds long. Then you can download the snippet on your phone, save it on your computer, and post it onto your site or blog. You can download as many as you want on your desktop as an MP3, onto iPhones, and in AMR format for older phones.

If you try Audiko, we want to know if you created ringtones for your fans. Leave a site rating and comment here.

Podcasters from all over the world browse the site to explore music that’s been uploaded. This way they have a guarantee that the song they select is cleared for use on their show. You get to retain full control and rights over your songs. It is completely up to you how to distribute, broadcast, license or sell your music. Make sure when you upload music that you are putting up the best version of the song and that you really want to license it. Currently, you cannot delete or change any songs that you upload onto the site. So keep in mind that it will be up and available for a long time.

If you try Podsafe Music Network, we want to know if you got licensed in any podcast or webcast. Leave us a comment about the site and a rating here.

Check out the details here.

Chris B’s Music also has a large selection of guitars, basses, violins, microphones, and keyboards. If you buy from the site or get your free strings, we want to hear all about it. Leave a comment and site rating here.

Besides music, this service will let you sell practically anything you want from event tickets, CDs, and posters to books and T-shirts. There are no set up fees or transaction fees and you can begin with memberships starting at only $5 a month. Buying merch will be easy for your fans because they take PayPal, Google Checkout, TrialPay and many more payment options. E-junkie also has no bandwidth restrictions or transaction limits, so you can keep selling items until they’re sold out.

If you want to give E-junkie a try, they offer a free one-week trial. Let us know how you like it by leaving a site rating and comment here.

They are currently offering a free pickholder filled with five free .88mm black guitar picks to anyone who fills out the form! You can find the form here on their contact page. It will take about two weeks to receive your picks and pickholder in the mail.

Every time you publish something, subscribers get a text message with an embedded phone number that is used to retrieve the news. They can then hear the whole podcast on their phone, save their spot if they need to come back, and browse through all of your other updates. They can also forward the text to all of their contacts who will also be able to listen. It’s free for both you and the users, works on every phone that can receive texts, and is super fast. You can even receive statistical feedback through their metrics tools and fans can leave audio feedback for you.

If you try Foneshow, we want to know if it helped you keep in close contact with your fans! Leave a comment and site rating here.

Instead of just plain text, your users can leave video comments and rate discussions. Also, good discussions do not have to fizzle out as your fans can respond through email and text messages. You can promote involvement in the site discussions by sharing them on your social networking pages with customizable widgets. The point is to turn participants into your band’s community members. Disqus gives you great administrative control as you can moderate discussions on multiple sites at once and receive statistics about usage.

If you give Disqus a try, we want to know if they helped you get your fans more involved. Leave a site rating and comment here.

The special thing about Media Pik is that their merchandise can help you share music online. Upload songs to their distribution site called Jamroom and specify your selling price. Order download cards and you can sell them at the show. Try offering the cards for free with the purchase of other merch as an incentive.  Fans can go home and download the MP3s while still being able to keep something tangible with your band’s name on it. Also, check out their fun pick cards. This is a plastic sheet with four pop-out guitar picks on it. Each one can have a different picture or logo. You can download the template and make yours easily.

If you give Media Pik a try, we want to know if they helped you make fun and unique merchandise. Leave a comment and site rating here.

Immediately bookers, venues, festivals and more will start seeing your band in the search results when they look for acts to book. They will easily be able to contact you to begin negotiations and arrangements. Over 71,000 major label, indie, and unsigned artists are registered at this site. And right now there are more than 168,000 show dates that need live acts!

If you give Band Booking Genius a try we want to know if it helped you book any gigs. Leave a site comment and rating here!

PR Lady: Professional publicists who give personalized PR advice to musicians.

The Music Bridge: A music clearance, licensing, and supervision company.

RocketRadio2: An internet radio station.

The UK Copyright Service: Registration and information about copyright in the UK.

F3Music: File hosting and storage space made specifically for MP3s.

Jamwave: Place to put up your music with streaming radio station and daily chart rankings.

Find out what time of year to start a campaign, which types of contacts to target, and eight more insightful tips!

Check it out here.

They offer different levels of services to promote your site and search phrases. However, if their packages are out of your price range, they will negotiate prices case by case. They have a satisfaction guarantee so if they do not meet your SEO agreement, you are not liable to pay them. If you want to become your own optimization expert, they even offer training. Lastly, you can feel good about using Beanstalk because they regularly donate SEO services to non-profit charities.

If you use Beanstalk SEO we want to know if they helped your site improve its ranking, we want to hear all about it! Leave a site comment and star rating here.

Besides disc copies, they sell other products you can use as merchandise too. Sell your albums on USB keychains and MasterCopy will do the USB duplication for you. Get bulk full color posters in virtually any size at great prices. They will also print your business cards, flyers, and calendars. Best of all, they guarantee to beat any competitor’s price by 3%. Submit a form to get your price quote today.

If you give CD MasterCopy a try, we want to know if they made fast and affordable CD copies and merchandise. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Instead of plain text directions, these tutorials are are all video instruction. Learn how to use all the functions of GarageBand, ProTools, and FL Studio to create great songs. They also have prepared lessons for Logic Pro, Sonar, Digital Producer, and more. You can order these tutorials in hard DVD form or as digital video downloads. Whenever software releases a new version or updates, their lessons are also updated as well. If you buy a tutorial and it is later enhanced with new features, you can also upgrade your purchase for way less money than buying a new package.

If you give the Digital Music Doctor a try, we want to know if their video tutorials helped you. Leave a comment and site rating here.

Major Contracts: Make an online press kit to send music to their network of A&R reps, producers, and managers

Practice with A Purpose: Find volunteer gigs and in the Chicago area

ArtistData: Sync ten or more of your social networking accounts together for easy updates and edits

Fun with Discs and Downloads: Music industry blog written by the CEO of Audio & Video Labs, Inc.

Digital Music Doctor: Tutorial videos about how to use audio software

UniSong Contest: International songwriting contest

If you are looking for a logo or personalized graphics, they have a design team ready to help. You can send in ideas using their Sketch Pad tool and then view all of their creations from your online account. Cut Merch’s inventory management system lets you forecast costs, project sales, and track shipments. If you are looking for shirts, check out their limited time offer. You can get 100 heavyweight black T-shirts with a one-side print with up to three colors for $398. A similar offer for 100 white T-shirts is currently $298.

If you try Cut Merch we want to know if they helped you make great merchandise. Leave a comment and site rating here.

This service lets fans sign up directly from your MySpace page and personal website. You can also sign up people in person at your live shows. You can categorize your subscribers into regional lists and send touring messages to the people living in the areas where you will be performing. When you send texts, fans can respond to them and their messages will show up in your online text inbox. This service runs on a monthly subscription: $20 per month for less than 5,000 subscribers and $40 per month for over 5,000 subscribers. With your monthly payment you may send unlimited messages to your fans.

If you try Band Txt Alerts, we want to know if you liked the messaging services. Leave a comment and site rating here.

Use this site to browse through blogs. Hype follows thousands of blogs; you can view the full listing here. You’ll find bloggers who specialize in writing about your genre of music and would be more likely to write about you. You can also browse by blog popularity to target the pages with the most traffic. Create an account with Hype Machine and you get your own dashboard. Here you can save all the blogs you submit music to as favorites and easily see if they are writing about you.

If you check out The Hype Machine we want to know if it helped you find blogs where you can submit your music. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

You will earn a 10% commission on each song sold that is distributed by secure PayPal transactions. And you can keep track of your profits with sales statistics. Your membership includes access to their existing catalog of almost three million songs. The services start at $120 per year and go up from there depending on what extra features you would like or if you select a premium membership. Some extra features include the OnTour widget, integrating your store into an existing site, and custom flash banners.

If you use StoreBlocks for your marketplace, we want to know if it helped you sell songs and make a profit. Leave a comment and site rating for other users here.

Check it out here!

Artist development services include help with copyright paperwork, song consultations, CD artwork and replication, and business training. They will also help you form marketing, business, and strategic plans. Indie Extreme’s web resources include an online shopping cart, fulfillment services, bookkeeping, inventory management, and more. You can customize your own package by picking a level of help and then adding on extra enhancements a la-carte style. To begin, submit the online form and someone will contact you within 24 hours to discuss exactly what you need.

If you give Indie Extreme a try we want to know if they gave you access to the resources you need. Leave a site rating and a comment here.

In addition to apparel and stickers, Branders makes keychains, cell phone accessories, tote bags, calendars, and a lot more. They even have a line of eco-friendly shopping bags and travel mugs as well as biodegradable products. If you register now you can request free samples to check out the quality of their merch first-hand before you buy. They even have free artwork enhancement to make your items look as great as possible. Also, registration includes a $50 store credit on your first order, so you can get more stuff!

If you check out Branders, we want to know if they helped you make great merchandise for your fans. Leave a site comment and rating here.

Performer Mag: The largest musicians’ trade publication in the United States

BandForger: Free listings for local musicians

Bandit A&R Newsletter: Free monthly news about companies searching for talent

GrowVision: Graphic design for web & print marketing

Bandname.com: The worldwide band name registry

Killer Tours: A worldwide directory of hardcore music shows

Mspot: A mobile entertainment & ringtone provider

This form lets you designate and keep track of who wrote what, who owns the recording, and who is the publisher of a song.

Click here to download the agreement!

With this software you can create a marketplace, image galleries, a mailing list, and wiki pages. You can even designate some of the content as members only! The basic package is free to try while other features can be purchased. There is also a web stats program that is included in all levels of membership to provide valuable site feedback.

If you give ExpressionEngine a try we want to know if it helped you create a great band website. Leave a comment and site ranking here.

This is a very small company, so if your music gets played you will not earn any royalties. However there are benefits to being a part of this project. If your songs get played on the station, you will be added to the performing artists list as well as the song history catalog. These listings have buttons that will lead fans to your personal web page as well as places where they can buy your songs. KC Cafe Radio lists information about its artists’ gigs so you get free show promotion as well. There is also a request button, so listeners can ask for your music to be added to the radio lineup.

If you join KC Cafe Radio, we want to know if your songs got played! Leave a site ranking and comment here.

Set your prices for all of the music and products you want to sell and then you can start selling worldwide immediately. This service has no up-front costs or inventory fees. You may place this storefront on your personal site, MySpace page and more. Fans can browse, listen, and purchase from the storefront without ever being navigated away from your familiar site. Audiolife even handles processing, shipping, and returns while giving you real-time statistics on your sales. They do take a small portion of your sales as payment for their services, like 30 cents per downloaded song and $3.00 per downloaded album.

If you give Audiolife a try, we want to know if their storefronts helped you sell more music and merch. Leave a site rating and a comment here.

You can post your resume and links to your press kit for university event planners to find. You can even post your tour schedule so colleges can try to book you along your route. Also, search through job listings and apply directly for gigs that sound good! The association hosts yearly conferences and workshops all over the US where you can apply to play in a showcase. These gigs will expose you to the very people who plan campus concerts.

If you check out the APCA, we want to know if they helped you get gigs on college campuses. Leave a site ranking and a comment here.

ArtistShare: A site where fans fund artists’ recording projects in exchange for access to steps of the creative process

PayPal Donations: Set up a button for fans to donate money

Elektro Labs Indie Rock Links: A resource of links geared towards indie rockers

Bandstocks: Fan investments for recording projects

Fizy: A song and music video search engine

CASH Music: Coalition of Artists and Stake Holders

Gamecues: A digital sound library and licensing site for the video game industry

Megaprint specializes in large format and full color printing. They make vinyl banners that will last up to 5 years even if displayed outside in direct sunlight. They print everything in high quality 720 dpi and can even work with graphics in both Mac and PC formats. There are banner stands available to make sure that you can proudly display your band name at every venue or merch table. Check out their handy pricing charts to see how much various poster sizes and materials will cost.

If you try Megaprint, we want to know if they made you quality banners and posters. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

If you want fans to be able to tape your shows, simply create a free profile and add your band to the list. You can specify whether you allow audio or video taping or both. You can also permit access to the soundboard. It is good for setting the record straight and being perfectly clear on what you allow. Fans can search through the database of bands for specific genres and bands that are actively touring right now.

If you check out Bands That Allow Taping we want to know if you added your band to the list. Leave a site rating and comment here.

You can use this for online collaboration when you want to send your song ideas and tracks to other musicians. Also, send an album to venues to get booked for gigs. You could even send folders of photos and videos as special gifts for fans. All you have to do is upload your files, enter the recipients’ email addresses and send them. The recipients will receive an email with a link that leads them to a downloading page. You can send files up to 100MB for free.

If you give YouSendIt a try, we want to know if it helped you. Leave a comment and site ranking here.

Currently you can sync up over thirty different accounts. These include photo hosting sites like Flickr, social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, and blogs like Livejournal. And you do not even have to log into Ping.fm to update profiles. You can send updates by email, texts, and instant message too. This service is free, and although it is still in beta you can use it now. They are working to have video updates soon!

If you give Ping.fm a try, we want to know if it made maintaining your web presence easier. Leave a comment and a site rating for other users here.

Scriggle-it: Software to help you add subscribers to your mailing list from multiple places.

PocketFuzz: Sell ringtones and send texts to fans

U.S. Small Business Association: Counseling, financial assistance, and more for small businesses

Audio Disco: A music video aggregator

Ripple9: Send updates, music, and videos to fans via texts, email, and more

Unsigned Band Web: Create a profile with your photos, videos, and artist radio station

Panjea: Collect all your videos into one personalized channel and embed it on your site

As an artist, you get to build your own secure, customized song catalog that receives constant exposure to music supervisors and agencies. You have total control over your catalog as well as your submissions for licensing. Every week you will get a list of song projects with details about what kinds of songs music supervisors are looking for at that moment. All projects that you may enter into through this site are non-exclusive, so you will have the freedom to work with other companies.

If you give SongCatalog a try, we want to know if you got licensed! Would you recommend it to other artists? Leave a comment or site rating here.

Check out their CD templates, fonts and design tips to help you make an eye-catching album cover. They will help you with distribution and mastering services as well. If you need other merch, Disc Makers offers posters, postcards, and music download cards. Currently you can get 200 download cards for only $98. If you plan on burning a lot of discs, you may purchase your own CD duplication machines and printers that start at $199.

Disc Makers has you covered in many areas. If you give them a try, tell us how it went by leaving a comment and site rating here.

The main users of the site are entertainment buyers who use it to find talent for venues. Through your profile they can see all the important information they would need to book you. AnyGiG has a database of venues that you may search by state. Use this to book your regional or national tours. Also, you will have the information that you need to contact venues and send them your press kit. A basic membership is totally free, and the professional account is only $99 per year, but you can try it for a limited time absolutely free!

If you give AnyGig a try, we want to know if it helped you get more live shows. Leave a site comment and rating here.

If you opt for a partial copyright, you can make settings and decide what your fans can do. You can give them permission to burn your songs to CDs, make their own remixes, and move songs from their computer to devices. You could work on getting fans more involved with your music by holding a remix contest. You might get some really fantastic results! If you release all copyright, your fans can do pretty much whatever they want with your songs.

If you use FreedomMP3 we want to know if you enjoy the copyright control. Leave a comment or site rating here.

JukeboxAlive: Music hosting and sharing plus mailing list service

Business and Nonprofit Gateway: A government site with information and resources for business owners

MyMusicSite: Place to sell your songs and ringtones

eSession: A network to find session musicians

Song Of The Year: Song and lyric contests with over 600 winners a month.

Musician Promotion Tips: Information resource on marketing and promotion

Paramount Songwriting Contest: Home of the Nashville International Song and Lyric Competition

You can sync all of your updates to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, so even people not signed up to receive texts can see the latest news. There is a counter so you can see how many people have viewed the story online and on their phones. They can also leave comments, so you get to hear feedback directly from your fans. You may also edit your updates by computer if you need to make any changes later.

If you give Whrrl a try, we want to know if it helped you inform and connect with fans. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

Pump Audio has secured over 80,000 successful placements for independent artists and labels, and these placements have earned millions of dollars in revenue. Whenever your songs are licensed, you get to keep 50% of the fees earned from your music. And you will also earn performance royalties in some cases. The best part is that you get to keep all of the ownership — publishing rights and masters — of your music. Every deal made through Pump Audio is non-exclusive meaning that it will not limit or prevent you from being able to work on other licensing deals with other companies.

If you try Pump Audio, we want to know if they got you licensed and paid! Leave a comment and a site ranking here.

Ustream.tv is a video sharing site where you can broadcast concerts and recording sessions for your fans. All you need is a webcam and a microphone.

It is completely free and within minutes you can be sending live video all over the internet. Give your fans a glimpse of the studio so they can see your latest work. You could start a weekly program where you can answer fan questions, film a tour journal or whatever you think your fans would tune in to watch. There are multiple tools also available to help you get the best audio and visual quality.

If you try Ustream, we want to hear how your video broadcasting went! Leave a comment and a site ranking here for others to read. Beatnik Turtle used it to film the recording of their latest album; you can check out their Ustream page here. ]]> http://blog.indieguide.com/?feed=rss2&p=513 0 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=510 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=510#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:42:39 +0000 Katelyn http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=510 Here is a sampling of the newest and best links added to the Indie Guide:

Echod Graphics: Customized vinyl banners and vinyl mesh printing.

MS-PRO: Network for music supervision and licensing professionals.

Rootz Media: An artist network that specializes in lifestyle marketing and image consulting.

GIGNATION: Network to find and apply for gigs.

broadjam: Network where you can get licensing opportunities for film and TV.

UE3 Promotions: Publicity, music licensing, and radio promotions company.

J Distribution: Physical and digital distribution for independent music.

They offer two packages for radio promotions. The first one is for thirteen weeks of promotion and digital distribution to licensed radio stations. The second package includes the same promotion and distribution with ads at Live365 which is an aggregator of over 6,000 stations plus mentions LiveWire’s newsletter. These packages start at $500. In order to get started, you must have a copy of your CD with artwork, band biography, publishing information, web site, and your contact information.

If you try Online Radio Promotion’s services, we want to know if they helped you get plays. Leave a comment or site ranking here.

There are even forums where you can post links to your music and ask others to review it. Not only can you get help and advice from other indie musicians, you can use the social networking tools and create a profile. This will help you find collaborators and people who offer recording services.

If you give Tape Op’s message boards a try, we want to know if it helped you answer any questions you had. Leave a site rating and comment here.

Unlike most mailing list providers, Champion Sound lets you add new subscribers directly from your phone. Instead of telling people at the show and hoping they will remember to sign up later, you have it covered right there in person. You can create multiple lists and separate fans by city or whatever you want. Another neat tool is the mobile guest list manager. Make your guest list of VIPs for a show and check off people right on your phone as they arrive. They also offer web stats, so you can see how many people read and click through your newsletters.

If you give Champion Sound a try, we want to know if you like their e-mail and mobile services. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Tatango: A text and voice messaging service.

How to Podcast: Site with podcasting instructions, tips, and more.

MyBlogLog: A tool for building a contact list from your blog readers.

AnyGig: Find venues to perform at and list your gigs.

bandBUZZ: A free social network where you can upload music and get reviewed by fans.

Band Chemistry: A free musician matchmaking site.

Champion Sound: Free mailing list and guest list management tools.

Upload your logo, artwork, and specify colors for printed postcards that come in many sizes. These are perfect for tacking to a community bulletin board or placing in the local coffee shop. OverNightPrints also makes custom t-shirts printed on 100% cotton. If you are a studio musician or teacher, you can also order business cards here. Most products are guaranteed to be shipped within one day. If you are interested in postcards, check out the site now because they are currently on sale for 30-50% off.

If you give OverNightPrints a try, we want to know if you got great customized products. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Also, IndieGuide.com is now on Facebook! Become a fan and get all the latest updates. Check us out here!

Like everything on our site, you may download this E-book for free and share it with all your musician friends! Click here to get the Eventful E-book.

And, like our site, it’s free. So download, print, and share the E-book with all your musician friends. Also, if you’re not on ReverbNation yet, be sure to sign up.

Click here to download your free ReverbNation E-book!

Anytime someone texts your keyword to TextMarks’ number, they are added to your message list and will receive your latest message instantly. You can also place a sign up widget on your website and profiles to gather more subscriptions. Send out album alerts, show info, and coordinate events. Unlike most similar services, the users can also send messages to each other and create a text message chat room. You could create a separate keyword for just your band members so everyone can send each other updates. Text plans start at only $9.95 a month, so you can fit it in your budget.

If you give TextMarks a try, we want to know if it helped you spread information to your fans and each other. Let us know with a comment and a site ranking here.

99 Dollar Music Videos: Video sharing site of homemade, budget music videos

Fresh Hot Radio: Music discovery site that plays songs gathered from net labels and music networking sites

Learning Music Monthly: Music publication available in print and online forms

Live on 35mm: Concert photography by Valerio Berdini

mspot: Mobile entertainment and ringtone provider

Pure Solo: Free recording software and professional backing tracks

Soundrangers: Sound effects, royalty free music

AristoMedia: Radio/video promotion and new media marketing for musicians

MusicContracts offers a wide range of online contracts that can help you solidify your deals and protect your rights as a musician. Here you can find basic contracts for film & TV licensing, concert booking, artist management, music publishing, and distribution deals. And that’s only the beginning. Each contract costs an average of $30 to $50 which is definitely less than lawyer rates. Plus, you can download them instantly in PC or Mac formats if you need it right now.

If you give MusicContracts a try, we want to know if any of the contracts helped you. Write us a comment or leave a site rating here.

There are a lot of networks out there where you can take care of the basics: create a profile, upload songs, and post your gig calendar. But Artistopia lets you do even more important things like setting up slide shows, publishing news releases, establishing a fan base, building professional press kits, and managing your new and existing business relationships. They also offer classifieds to help you find collaboration partners, gigs, and equipment.

If you give Artistopia a try we want to know if it helped jump start your music career. Leave a comment and a rating here.

Levelator is free audio software that evens out the audio levels inside your podcast or sound file. It contains compressor, normalizer and limiter features to get the best sound quality for your project. The software works on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It is extremely simple to use; just drag and drop your audio file and it instantly starts working. You’ll have a great sounding file in minutes.

If you try the Levelator we want to know if it helped you fix your audio problems. Leave a comment and site rating here.

There is no software to download, so after creating your free account, you can start streaming video immediately. They have a special Entertainer account for performers so that you can upload a profile banner. You can easily embed your video onto your web page and social networking sites in multiple sizes ranging from 160×160 to 820×490. Broadcasting videos on your personal site won’t hog your bandwidth either, as Stickam takes care of it. You will also be able to see real time stats on how many people are watching you.

If you give Stickam a try, we want to know if it helped you connect to fans with live video. Leave a comment and site rating here.

Buzzbin Magazine: A rock and roll magazine with news and reviews.

Bonxo: An web music store where you can sell CDs and downloads.

Mozy: A storage site where you can back up all your music and photo files.

MyFonts: Thousands of fonts for your album covers and website.

NOMA Music: A publishing and licensing company

1001 Free Fonts: Free fonts in both Windows and Mac formats.

Twisten.fm: Searches through Twitter to find tweets about music.

Creative Freedom New Zealand

eMusician

Open Media Review

Bring The Noise

The Album Project

Christian Music Zine

Rock Star Life Lessons

State of Mind of The Arts

OCA Research Review

uncrate

Denver Indie Rock Examiner

ElectricMustache

A big thanks to everyone who wrote about The Guide!

They print CDs as they are ordered and handle the shipping for you too. You no longer have to worry about any inventory taking up your valuable space. If you have a live DVD or songbooks, those can be manufactured and purchased on demand as well. This company is owned by Amazon, so you can even sell MP3 downloads too, all from the same account. If you want to try this, do it now! CreateSpace is currently waiving their proof copy fee, so you can start selling for free.

If you try this service, we want to know if it helped you eliminate excess merch and make more money. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

Indie Gate gives you the resources to set up a merchandise storefront that is completely yours and free of branding. When you send in your album they will create a music player of songs that customers can listen before buying. Selling singles as MP3 downloads doesn’t cost anything extra. If you want to sell your other merch, all you have to do is send them the stock. Indie Gate takes 20% of each sale and you get to keep all of the rest. If you ever have any problems, customer service from real people is just a call away.

If you give Indie Gate a try, we want to know if it helped you sell albums and make money. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

Give away cards at your shows so that fans can download your latest single. Put a whole album on the card and sell them at the merch table. You could also give them to venues or agents to book some gigs. The customized cards come in all shapes and sizes from standard business card to laminated badges and postcards you can mail.

If you are interested in Dropcards, you can request a free quote on the price of your order. We want to know if they helped you increase your fan base.  Leave a comment or a site ranking here.

The USA Songwriting Competition: International contest with lots of cash and merchandise prizes.

Picturesurf: A photo hosting site with widgets for posting galleries on your blog.

Jay Blakesberg: Live concert photography and music portraits based out of San Francisco.

Songwriting Business: Informational site about your rights as a songwriter.

SOPROQ: A French Canadian association for indepedent music producers.

Exposure Room: A video hosting site.

The SEO Help Forum: A free form where you can get help on search engine optimization problems.

Your songs will receive votes and feedback from a massive community of folks like you. You can also share your thoughts with other artists about their songs. You can search their database of user posted songs and download as many of them as you want with no fees and it is 100% legal. Popular featured bands and newly added artists get mentions on the homepage, which is great exposure.

Honc can get you some constructive feedback and help you with your songwriting. If you give it a try, we want to know if you liked this free site. Write us a comment or leave a rating here.

In one account you can create and maintain your main page, blog, music player, merch store, photo albums and much more. This site provides simple and easy to edit templates that look sleek. Even if you know nothing about creating a website, you are covered. Through Bandzoogle you can get your own personalized URL and email addresses, which will make your band look very professional and focused. Best of all, you will also get statistics about your site visitors and track what people are doing on your pages.

If you give Bandzoogle a try, we want to know if they helped you make a great website. Write a comment or leave a site rating here.

Here you can write and submit your own releases and articles to this network. Your announcements appear on their site without paying any fees at all. They also offer distribution of your press releases with guaranteed placement and other publicity services that can reach up to 30,000 individuals a day. The cheapest package starts at only $9.99 for thirty placements.

If you give Mi2N a try, we want to know if it helped spread the word about your music. Leave a comment or a rating here.

You can design USBs that are printed with your band’s signature colors and logo. They can be fun bracelets or key chains or even novelty drives that look like a Swiss army knife or tiny guitar. Best of all, they are extremely portable; your fans can carry your music with them all the time, plug them in to any computer, and easily transfer files to MP3 players. A fan wearing a USB bracelet with your name on it is a walking advertisement for your music.

Custom USB offers a ton of options to suit your style and can get your order processed and shipped in 24 hours. If you try this site, we want to know if you got some great new merch. Leave a comment or site rating here.

IMNZ: Independent Musicians of New Zealand music association.

Impact Artist Promotions: Publicity and promotions for indie musicians.

Beanstalk SEO: Professional search engine optimization services.

Creative Entertainment Group: Management, publicity and booking agency based in NYC.

Free Pixels: Large collection of free and low-priced stock photos.

Indie Power: Distribution and publicity company for indie bands.

StudioTraxx: Online musician-for-hire and collaboration site.

Here you can find photos of nearly anything you can imagine. And you can do whatever you want with them. Design your own album art, create other merch like posters, or make eye-catching flyers for your next show. Wikimedia Commons also has sound and video clips that you can use in your songs or music videos. With nearly four million media files, there is probably something for you.

If you check out Wikimedia Commons, we want to know if it helped you. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

You can easily create sign-up forms and put them on your MySpace profile and homepage. You can schedule messages to be sent in the future, so that sending newsletters to your fans works within your hectic lifestyle. All of your saved data and messages can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. You can even target special messages to fans based on their location. This is perfect for announcing tour dates to locals. Best of all, this messaging service is totally free!

If you give FanBridge a try, we want to know if it helped you get in touch with fans. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

The premise behind this method is that everybody wins. By putting your music on here, you can give fans free and legal MP3s without having to worry about losing out on profit. Listeners get music they want for free without piracy or annoying DRM.

If you put your music on We7, we want to know if it helped you make money or increase your fan base. Leave a comment and site rating here.

iJigg: Social network for listening to and critiquing songs.

LifeWay Worship: Search engine for Christian music.

Wiggio: Stay connected with your bandmates through messages, calendars, and conference calls.

Frets for Rent: Guitar rental service for when you are traveling.

Six Apart: Customized blog development and other blogging tools.

Song.ly: A tool that lets you post MP3s to your Twitter updates.

Webshots: Photo hosting site.

Type in your band name, album or song titles right into the front page and see instant results of what people are saying about you right now. It is cool to read what Twitter users are thinking about your work. Not only that, but you might find valuable fan feedback without having to spend the time and money writing and sending out surveys. Use it to research what others are saying about new sites and resources too. You can also download and embed a free Monitter widget, so that you can check new posts all the time.

If you give Monitter a try, we want to know if you liked it. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

The research for the DIY Music Manual was fascinating, because the UK is truly different than the states in some areas. Naturally, the internet and web is the same, but the media doesn’t require three months of lead time like the US does: they will publish within weeks. And fans there currently still buy CDs, something that has all but evaporated in the US. We’re jealous.

We hope to visit the UK soon, but don’t have solid plans yet. If you are interested to have us come out there, feel free to contact us! We’d love to know so that we can plan our trip.

With Drupal you can create a blog about your latest projects, forums for your fans to discuss your music, pages of music videos, and photo albums. You can even create social networking portals and merch stores. This software eliminates the problem of having to use other sites for each of these types of pages. Now all of these things will be in one place and you will have total control of it and of your brand.

If you give Drupal a try we want to know if it helped you make a great website for your band. Leave us a comment or a site rating here.

It might sound a bit cheesy, but winning this award is not silly. It comes with $20,000 and countless opportunities. Past winners have received top of the line gear, mentorships from music stars, writeups in national magazines, and gigs at huge music festivals like Lollapalooza. And all of these things would look great on your press kit.

If you give FameCast a try, we want to know if it helped you increase your fan base or win prizes. Write a comment or leave a site rating here.

This site also features audio editing services done by experienced sound engineers. There are production services for your podcast featuring voice over professionals and sound editing. Lastly, there is a handy composers directory if you need to hire help to write music for your songs.

If you give Media Music Now a try, we want to know if their music catalog and audio services helped you. Leave a comment or a site rating here.

]]> http://blog.indieguide.com/?feed=rss2&p=362 0 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=357 http://blog.indieguide.com/?p=357#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:27:16 +0000 Katelyn http://blog.indiebandsurvivalguide.com/?p=357 Here are a few of the newest links on the Indie Band Survival Guide:

Billboard Publicity Wire: A press release distribution service.

EconMusic Conference: Conference that focuses on the key economic issues of the digital music industry.

Shore Fire: An online public relations and publicity firm specifically for musicians.

Fairtilizer: A DIY community for artists and labels that offers services for distribution, promotion, and web stats.

American Composers Forum: An association that supports composers with grants, commissions, and performances.

Audio Disco: A music video aggregator that finds media from blogs and podcasts.

The Featured Artists Coalition: A group that protects the interests of musicians credited as featured artists on sound recordings.

Putting your music on a podsafe collective gives you the chance to get free promotion and to have your music reach a whole new audience. This site has a community forum where podcasters request music and you can talk strategy and songs with other artists. There are also work for hire opportunities to write theme songs for podcasts and more. Before submitting any music, make sure to read the terms of service carefully. By agreeing to the terms you are granting podcasters a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive license to use your music.

If you put your songs on Podsafe Audio, we want to know if it helped get your music featured podcasts. Leave a comment or a rating here.

This service has collected a network of about ten thousand music journalists, reviewers, radio programmers, and music site editors who are waiting to hear about the latest news. When you send Beat Wire your press release, they distribute it throughout their network. They specifically target the top writers and decision makers to make sure your press releases make the biggest impact. You can even have them write press releases for you. Best of all, they will work within your budget instead of charging a standard fee like most other places.

If you give Beat Wire a try we want to know if it helped you to get some press. Leave a comment or a rating here.

First of all, Bandwear has an impressive list of products from screen-printing and embroidery for T-shirts and more to vinyl stickers, full-color posters, and glossy photos. They even have graphic designers who will create logos and artwork for your merch. And instead of spending your rehearsal time filling orders, you can let them handle it quickly and professionally. Bandwear will even help you set up a storefront on your website for online sales.

Bandwear sounds like it has a lot to offer, so if you try them out we want to hear all about it. Leave a comment and a site rating here.

If you already have videos up on YouTube you can import and incorporate them into your new show. You can also record voice narration, make slide shows of your latest photos, and record directly from your web-cam. SplashCast will help you to organize all of your media in one place and easily embed it on your site.

If you give SplashCast a try, we want to know if it helped you connect better with your fans. Write a comment or leave a rating here.

lulu:  A self-publishing site where you can create books, calendars and even ringtones.

SongNation: A network where songwriters can discuss and critique songs and get them licensed.

Pombity: A text messaging service that lets you send messages directly from your computer.

SoundOut: A site where you can get input on your songs from fans to gain marketing insight.

Text Boom: Site that sends text message alerts, contests, and trivia games.

Songpull: A social network of songwriters offering reviews and advice for each other.

Thumbplay: A mobile content provider that can send ringtones, realtones, videos, and games.

Upload your songs onto your profile page and site members called Scouts will review and rate your music. Good reviews will get you showcased where serious investors, fans, family members, and anyone else can choose to invest money in you. In return they get exclusive updates about your progress and free tracks of finished songs. You could also earn some extra money by reviewing others’ music as a paid Scout.

Slicethepie has helped many bands finance their albums, and it could help you too. If you give it a try we want to know if it helped you raise money. Leave a comment or rating here.

Whether you are looking for a band mate or looking to be in an existing band or just trying to find a studio musician or soloist, this site has you covered. You can search by home location, touring locations, instruments needed, skill levels, and genres. You even have the opportunity of earning some extra cash by referring all the musicians you know to the site through the affiliate program!

If you want to jam with others or improve your musicianship Music Mates is a good place to start. If you try out this free service, leave a comment or a rating here.

Host your music here and it can be sold in Wav, mp3, and Ogg formats, so fans have choices. Whenever someone buys your album, you split the profit with BeatPick 50/50. Everyday the company sends songs out to media companies looking to license music. They also promote your music by writing reviews, playing songs on podcasts, and sending music to radio station partners. There are also opportunities for you to get hired to write songs on commission.

The best part is that your agreement with BeatPick is non-exclusive, so you keep all your rights and you can get out of this contract after giving a 30 day notice. If you give this site a try, we want to know if it helped you get licensed and sell albums. Write a review or leave a comment here.

After you have made your new tones, you can set up a store and sell your media directly to fans. This only takes about fifteen minutes to set up and you can link to your store on your main website or social networking pages. In order to create any media, you must purchase credits that cost $1.99 each. For about $20 you may purchase unlimited credits and make as many tones or wallpapers as you want.

The content you can create on Phone Sherpa is compatible with many cellphones and carriers all over the world, so you can connect with fans living anywhere. If you give this service a try,  we want to know if it was successful! Leave a comment and a site rating here.

Boost is designed to help artists get discovered by fans from all around the world. Each song is sold at a standard price of 69 cents which is thirty cents lower than the pricing of the average iTunes song. This is done specifically to encourage fans to try out new bands.

Better yet, Boost shares all of the profits 50/50 with the artists. This is a good chance to make some real money from selling your music online. You will also get your own profile page that you can use to link to your main website and social networking pages.

If you try selling your tunes on Boost, we want to know how it went. Leave a comment or post a site rating here.

Since Song Fight is free you won’t win any prizes or money for a great song, but participating in these contests will expand your songwriting abilities. And a winning song would look good on your resume or added to your press kit. You will also have the chance to hear what other songwriters are working on and how they interpreted the same song titles.

If you decide to try writing songs for Song Fight, we want to hear how it went. Leave a comment or a rating here.

The My PPK website boasts an impressive list of features for your press kit that includes audio and video streaming, PDF downloads, and formatting options to send in HTML, plain text or print. You can customize your own theme and create banners that will direct people right to your EPK. If you leave any fields empty, they are automatically removed so no one will ever see blank spaces. Best of all, tech support is available every day of the year.

If you create a press kit with My PPK, we want to know if it helped you. Write a comment or give a rating here.

Register for this site and you get to create a profile complete with photos, songs, and videos that you upload. Check out the musician classifieds to see if people in your neighborhood are looking for someone just like you. Then you can preview their songs and videos before messaging them.  BandMix even has forums so you can participate in discussions about touring, the music industry, gear and more.

If you give Band Mix a try, we want to know if it helped connect you with other artists. Write a comment or drop a rating here.

Through the groups, forums, and chat functions you will start networking with other musicians. You can start a jam session and invite other users or even join existing sessions and start making music online right away. Indaba even offers an in-browser mixing console to finalize your work.

This site holds regular contests for great collaboration work and remixes, so you could even win some money, publicity, or real studio time. If you try out Indaba, we want to know if you liked it. Leave a comment or rating here.

Wax.fm: A place for DJs and record enthusiasts to locate vinyl albums and stores.

Txt Impact Mobile Marketing: Mobile marketing SMS messaging services.

Surrge: A site where fans can also be promoters by referring others to your songs. Even better, both you and your fans/promoters make money when songs are downloaded.

Studio Pros: Mixing, mastering, musicians for hire, and more.

Fancorps.com: A social network for managing and growing your street team.

Toolbox Studios: A company that makes music videos, graphic design for CD covers, and professional photography for bands.

drop.io: A file sharing site where you can send and receive media.

USA Band: Instrument and accessory rentals.

When you post an event, you are creating an e-flyer that is automatically added into the site’s search results. You can customize the event with pictures and videos both before and after the show has taken place. There is no limit to the number of posts you make and you can set privacy options for invite-only events. People who go to your shows can later rank them, providing you with valuable feedback from your fans.

If you give EventOrb a try, we want to know if it helped get more people to your shows. Write a comment or leave a quick rating here.

It is free and easy to set up, just copy and paste the code into your MySpace page. Even better, your fans can help you spread the word by getting the code and adding it onto their pages as well. If you want a way to connect fans to your music and merchandise but do not know anything about writing code and creating widgets, this is the perfect place to start.

Even though Gydget is free and simple, major label artists like Deftones and Beyonce use it as well as indies. If you give them a try, we want to hear if it worked for you. Leave us a rating or comment here.

30 Day Challenge: Free lessons and advice on making profit online.

Band Letter: Mailing list service designed specifically for bands.

Artists House Music: A resource for career musicians and music entrepreneurs.

Indie on the Move: A database of venues with ratings and reviews by real touring bands.

Musician Wages: Blogs, forums, and classified ads to help find gigs and form long term careers in music.

Qik: A site that lets you broadcast videos taken on your phone over the web.

FanDoodle: A web presence that lets your fans become your publicists by advertising your songs with customized widgets that direct people to your music.

indieKazoo: Create your own merch storefront and keep 100% of your sales revenue.

Your network will have its own main page and every member has a profile, just like MySpace and other social sites. On your main page you can start discussions, send out notifications, and post your upcoming gigs. This is all free, but for a more professional look you can upgrade by removing advertisements and having your own domain name for a monthly fee.

If you give Ning a try we want to know if you and your fans like it. Leave a comment or site rating here.

Unlike some sites offering similar services, RouteNote does not charge a start up fee and they use a non-exclusive agreement so that you still control all song ownership. Currently their retail partners include eMusic, SNOCAP, LimeWire, iTunes, AmazonMP3 and more. They do charge 10% of your net revenue from download sales.

RouteNote launched just last June and has already worked with over 500 artists plus those top distributors. If you give this service a try, we want to know if it helped you sell music. Leave a comment and a site ranking here.

This means you can publish your videos, songs, and pictures to REMOTV and let your fans access it from their computers or phones no matter where they are. It is a handy tool to expand your fanbase further into the mobile arena and stay connected.

Although it is still in beta, you can still sign up and try out all of the features. If you give REMOTV a try, let us know how it went by writing a comment or giving a quick rating here.

Through this site you get a widget featuring all of your products from music to ringtones, shirts to sheet music. This widget storefront can be embedded onto your main website, MySpace page, or wherever you like. The best part about this store is that your customers are never redirected to an outside site, and even payment transactions occur on your site.

If you give thebizmo’s branded microstore service a try, we want to hear about your experience. Leave us a comment or a site rating here.

ricall: A music licensing website.

TakeLessons: Find music lessons all over the United States.

Zvents: A site where fans can look up concert listings.

Band Booking Genius: A site that will help you get gigs.

INgrooves: A digital and mobile download sales place with marketing services.

PLORF: A music search engine.

EventOrb: A place to promote your live shows.

Your Skoggins profile functions as an electronic press kit that can be sent in email form to venues. Another handy feature: create a tour map with all your gig dates and embed that on your website or MySpace page, so fans have a visual of where you will be playing next.

If you give Skoggins a try, we want to know if you had any luck getting booked for a gig. Leave a comment or rank the site here.

Bandvista hosts your music with their built in MP3 Player feature. You can organize and post all of your videos and photos with them too. You will also be able to add your gigs to a calendar and then send reminder messages to your fans through the mailing list feature. Last but not least, fans can purchase your merch through your own storefront.

You can try Bandvista for free for 30 days to see if it’s right for you. If you give them a try please rank the site or post a comment here.

Bowling Green News

Ariel Publicity

Future of Music Coalition Blog

Lincoln Journal Star

Publishers Weekly

boingboing

The Wire

Blogcritics Magazine

Underground 2 Mainstream

zed equals zee

Fun Anymore

A big thanks to everyone who has written about the guide and the site!

Having a message board is a great way to create a strong community of active online fans. They will feel like part of your band’s creative process and have a personal connection with your music. You can also use message boards to gather information about your fans and strengthen customer support. Start a discussion asking everyone if they have a favorite song and why. You might find some interesting and inspiring answers.

If you set up a free forum with Aimoo, we want to hear about your experience. Write a comment and rank the site here.

Musician’s Friend: A site with a huge inventory of instruments, gear, and accessories.

Music Notes: A place to purchase, download, and print sheet music instantly.

Qtrax: The first legal free file trading site. You get paid from advertising revenue when people share your songs for free.

Openfilm: A site that hosts videos made by independent directors. A good place to host your music videos.

ZoJack Worldwide: Online music distribution service for reggae artists and bands.

MilkBoy UnLabel: A site that offers nearly all the products and services that a major label does that will work with your indie budget.

BeatPick: A site that licenses songs for TV and film. If your song is licensed, you get 50% of all profits.

NoiseTrade.com: An MP3 distribution site that lets your fans choose how much they wish to pay for downloading songs.

The site allows you to host 150MB of music which is usually about ten songs. Every time someone downloads a song you earn 10 Euro cents that gets deposited into your PayPal account every quarter. You also can create a profile, read reviews and discussions about your music, and track your real-time downloads and earnings.

If you decide to distribute your music on Openpot, tell us what you think. Leave a message and a site ranking here.

When you play live shows, give out these cards or you can even sell them to make a little extra money. When the fans go home they get online and download the songs for free and then listen to them anytime. When they register, you will receive valuable information about them like where they live and what music tastes they have. You can even send them updates and more song codes through their volumMonster account.

This site sounds like such a fun idea, we want to hear about it if you give it a try. Send in a comment or post a rating here.

When you join this site, you create an online press kit that will be sent to music magazines and independent labels and more. The cost of your membership depends on how many times you want your press kit submitted, anywhere from 25 to 2000 submissions.

musicSUBMIT notifies you who receives your press kit and when, so you are always in the loop. If you give this site a try, we want to hear how it went. Leave us a comment or rank the site here.

Every band wants to be reviewed by good music bloggers. You can search through Elbows to find bloggers who write about similar artists or the same genre of music that you play. Instead of sending your songs and press materials to any blog music blog, send those things to the people who are more likely to write about you.

This will save you time and hopefully get you more press about your work. If you check out the blogs on Elbows, we want to know what you think about the site. Leave a comment or rate the site here.

Massify is a network where you can pitch your music video ideas to filmmakers, directors, and actors. Any person who is crucial to a music video shoot can be found through this site. Even if you do not know anything about making videos, help can be found here.

Give Massify a try for your next video project and see if it works for you. If you try it, we want to hear all about it; give us a comment or a rating here.

You can customize shirts in any color and style from short sleeved to women’s cut, hoodies, and long sleeved zip-ups. Besides Ts, Spreadshirt offers custom bags, hats and buttons, so you could use it for virtually all of your merch needs. Spreadshirt lets you keep all of the profits, they only take out exactly what the apparel costs to make.

This site already has one review on the Indie Band Survival Guide, and if you check it out we want to hear your opinion as well. You can give a rating and post comments here.

RADUS: A social bookmarking and networking hybrid site.

Mufin: A music search engine. Type in the name of your favorite songs and find similar songs you might like.

Polldaddy: A site to make polls and surveys.

RoyaltyShare: A service that helps manage your song catalogs and process royalties.

8tracks: Another mixtape site where you create and share playlists of your favorite songs.

Hobnox: Audiotool: Music software with a drum machine, bass simulators, and a ton of special effects.

You can search through venue listings that detail locations, how much the rooms cost to rent, and how many people each will fit. HouseConcerts.com even has a booklet available by mail order on how to host your own concerts. If you are interested in performing alongside other artists, there is also a list of singer/songwriters who frequently play house shows.

If you try out HouseConcerts.com we want to know if any of the information there helped you. Let us know by writing a comment or reviewing the site here.

The site has over 20 different compilations of drum sounds separated into genres like Rockin’ Blues and Acoustic R&B. These tracks can be purchased online in a downloadable form if you need them quickly. However, if you want physical CDs or multitrack DVDs, they can be ordered from Yahoo! These sets average about $40 depending on the style of drumming.

The site offers a ton of positive reviews from past users including some people working for major record labels. If you give Drums on Demand a try we’d like to hear how it went for you, so leave us a comment here.

With Muxtape you would upload files from your computer onto the site, which is what got them in trouble with the RIAA. However, with Mixtube your mixtapes are created using the sounds from videos already hosted on YouTube. The whole song player looks nearly identical to Muxtape’s old model, with the addition of a tiny embedded YouTube video at the bottom (per YouTube’s terms of service).

Because it is done through these YouTube videos, Mixtube has fast playback speeds. Even cooler, you can type in your YouTube account name and instantly create a playlist of all your videos. The only problem you might encounter is if the videos you selected are eventually removed from YouTube.

Mixtube is free, so you should give it a try. Of course, if you do we want to hear about it, so drop us a note here.

They specifically cater to independent musicians and artists with fewer than one hundred different products for sale. The site does not take a percentage of your sales; instead they have monthly fees. There are three levels of monthly fees, the most expensive of which costs $20 per month and offers the highest product limits and the most customization options.

To use Big Cartel, you have to have a Premier or Business PayPal account in order to get the money you earned. This has its ups and downs. You will receive secure and fast money transfers, but they will be subjected to PayPal fees.

If you are looking to make a storefront and check out Big Cartel, let us know what you think by rating the site or writing a comment here.

5min: A video hosting site that specializes in do-it-yourself & instructional clips. It also offers some video editing services.

OnTour: A widget that tracks the tours of your favorite bands, so you won’t miss a show.

StoreBlocks: Merchandise storefronts with many program levels and design options to fit just what you need.

FreedomMP3: A site similar to Creative Commons that allows you to designate what kind of copyright protection you want for your songs and then share them with others to collaborate and remix.

Mint: A financial site where you can create budgets and manage your band’s music sales & expenses as well as pay bills.

Speakerheart: A digital distribution site where you can set your own prices for your MP3s and even turn your songs into ringtones.

A site called The Music Business Calculator has designed two different calculators to help you get a good idea your profits and losses for performing a show and making an album from start to finish. More importantly, these guidelines will help you remember oft-forgot expenses like album cover art fees or single-show props.  The album calculator will even give you a prediction of how many albums you need to sell to break even, at both retail and wholesale prices.

No two albums or concerts are alike, so it’s almost certain that you will have a unique cost not listed on these music business calculators. Try them out to see if they were accurate or are missing something, and let us know what you think by leaving a comment here.

A site that will help a lot, especially for first-time podcasters, is My Podcast. This site will guide you every step of the way, and it’s all free. First, they offer software for recording your podcast episodes. When you are finished, My Podcast will publish the episode, put it up on your profile page, and add it to their massive directory of other podcasts. After that fans will be able to listen to your episodes. And you can make as many as you want; My Podcast has no storage or bandwidth limits!

Of course, there is a small catch. The recording software automatically allocates breaks in each of the episodes to insert advertisements. My Podcast states that they never use spyware and promises sophisticated and clean advertisements. But, having ads in your podcast does provide one benefit: for every listener who tunes into your podcast you can share in the ad revenue. The more popular your podcast, the more money you earn.

Of course, there are many other ways to make and distribute a podcast, but if you try out My Podcast, we want to hear how it went. Make sure to rate the site or drop a comment here.

Moblyng has software called “The Moblyzer” which lets you turn media that is already posted on social networking sites or widgets into mobile messages. These messages — which can contain URLs, pictures, videos, and more — can be sent directly to your fans’ phones. Creating a free account on the site lets you make and save photo slideshows, like the best shots from last night’s gig.

Moblyng’s messages are supported by many types of phones, and most importantly, the service is completely free outside of the regular messaging and Internet costs of each individual’s cellphone plan. We tested this by creating a Moblyng account, making a quick slideshow and sending it to ourselves. From the beginning of this process to receiving the message on my phone, the whole process took six minutes total. So this is a free way to keep in touch with fans without any huge time commitment.

If you give Moblyng a try, we want to know what you think about it. Click here to rate Moblyng or add comments to the page.

We only had 750 words which was just enough to introduce the idea of the topic. Naturally, we go into much greater detail in the book, as we believe that podcasts are, as you know from our prior posts, the new radio of the internet. We think that it’s one of the best places for musicians to get their music played.

The KnowTheMusicBiz.com blog had a lot of very practical advice in prior articles, which makes it a good place to check out in general. Thanks to David Rose for inviting us!

If you are not yet a member of Just Plain Folks, you should join. It’s free, is well-established with over a decade of history, and has a massive community of musicians that are organized around Brian’s simple tagline: “We’re all in this together.”

The site’s most active part are the message boards where musicians are constantly sharing information, trading gigs, commiserating on topics that are of interest, and organizing themselves in local areas. Indeed, there are chapters of JPF that’s local to many metro areas, and they often have showcases, one of which Randy attended last night and met some very interesting musicians.

Beyond these meetings and showcases, they also have their own awards for music that is free and unrestricted to join. They have over 100 categories of music, and have to date received over 500,000 albums. If you can believe it–and we can now that we talked with Brian–they really listen to all of them. The ceremony is a big event that brings musicians all over the world to LA, where it’s held.

Members of the organization get discounts at companies like Discmakers, and Brian writes a regular newsletter that is well worth reading every month, as he covers news and information that are of interest to musicians all over the world.

We’re members, and considering that it’s completely free we think that it’s a no-brainer to join as well.

This blog’s focus is on practicality, and so while we are talking about a policy issue here, we’re covering it here because issue of Net Neutrality will have a direct effect on you, and it’s being discussed now in legislation in the US. We’re going to tell you what it is, why it matters, and how to act.

Net Neutrality, in short, is the concept that none of the traffic on the internet should be favored above others by the network carriers, which is the regime that currently holds sway. Those network carriers are the ones that handle your internet service like AT&T and Comcast. Today, you can visit any website or download anything from the internet, and it costs the same. Without Net Neutrality, these large carriers could charge different amounts of money depending on where you get the content.

Now, imagine that we lose neutrality, what does it mean to musicians? Well, large labels, and other media companies will work with internet carriers to be exempt from any special charges for their own content to be delivered at high speed. But a user might have a limit of the amount they could download of anything else. And if they went over that limit, she would either get much slower access, or start getting charged similar to the way that your cellphone charges you by the minute once you use up your minutes. Even more troubling, some visions of a world without Net Neutrality have carriers deciding which websites you can visit, and which ones you can’t.

This would mean, in effect, that your own music will cost people money to download, whereas the large media companies, labels, and content creators would be free to download. The internet has been the reason why all musicians are finally coming to a level playing field. If Net Neutrality disappears, this will evaporate.

They want to turn the internet into pay-for-play.

Don’t let this happen. All you need to do is go to the Future of Music Coalition Network Neutrality site, Rock the Net, to learn more and stay informed. When the time comes if this comes up for a vote, join your voices with the other musicians on the site, and show them that it’s an issue that means something to you. Tell them how this will impact the arts. So far, the ones controlling this message are the large carriers, and they only talk about the business opportunities that they will be opening up. Naturally, they don’t talk about the ones that they are closing as a result.

Your job is to get that message out.

Seems some of the syndications are blocking the videos, so please click on the image above to watch the video.

Stay tuned for a new episode every week!

What’s a press wire? Imagine, for a moment, that you are a journalist. You want to write a story about something new, not something that other news sources have written about. So instead of trolling news sites, you will end up trolling news wires to see what’s up-and-coming, rather than what’s already out. These wires supply them with an endless amount of possible leads. There’s no reason your press release can’t be one of them. Especially if you can make it really enticing to them.

Make sure to make your title a strong tease. That title is key. If you want to see what a wire looks like, check out Flashnews, and pay special attention to how these stories present themselves. Flashnews is slightly different in that their own staff writes the releases here, although they might get the idea to write it from press releases submitted to flashnews itself. Because they wrote those stories, you can see the punchy language they use for each one. And the stories that they write, which you can’t read unless you pay them, are exceptionally short. They have just enough information to give the journalists that use it the idea for a story. If you can’t imagine your press release standing out against the other stories on this site, you’ll need to work on it some more.

Using free wires yourself is usually as simple as just cutting and pasting your press release into a box, and hitting submit. The pay wires vary quite a bit in what they do for you, and you will need to explore each one. Note that one of the publicists that we interviewed for the book, Janelle Rogers, has said that she often gets the same results from the free ones as the pay wires, so a lot of times will just skip the pay ones. Still, at times, some of the pay wires have features that you may wish to explore.

We have a list of PR wires, both free and pay, here at the IndieBandSurvivalGuide.com. We recommend at a minimum using Mi2N.