Indie Band Survival Guide Blog

Spread the news about your band with inexpensive stickers. Click here to learn how to make stickers.

A great slogan captures the essence of your band. Click here to learn how to write a tagline or slogan.

SongClash labels itself as the ultimate online battle of the bands.

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.

Check out the latest links added this week to the Indie Guide!

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

A great mastering job will take your album to the next level, but it is expensive. Click here for some tips to learn how to save money in the mastering studio.

Great newsletters keep your fans consistently up-to-date on your upcoming events and new merchandise without being spammy. Click here to learn how to write and effective newsletter.

Fifty100 is an online music distribution site that is different from a lot of other distribution services.

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.

Check out some of the newest links added this week to the Indie Guide:

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

Every band needs a catchy and quick way to describe the sound of their music to press outlets and bookers. Click here to learn how to write your band’s music description.

It takes a lot of time to make and edit videos, and you want them to look great when you put them online. Click here to learn how to put videos on YouTube that look and sound good.