Discussion Thread

what a help!. THANK YOU BEATNIK TURTLE!!  i was in the bookstore lookin around i was ognna buy some political book from saun hannity and i wondered over to the music section and started lookin around and they had one copy of indie band survival guide. i was a little curios cuz i wanted to get my band going. and i wasnt goona get it but i saw. why can't i just use myspace? on the back. and iwas like this could be helpful. and i bought it. and i don't regret it. hopefully i can make it all happen. its pretty overwhelming all the stuff thats in there that i have to do.

i'm digging that starwars song btw.

i probably should have spelled things right.

Hey, you're welcome! Especially for saving you from having to buy a book on politics.

Anyway, yeah, I can see how it can be overwhelming. We developed that stuff over a decade, and did it piecemeal. Our goal was to make it so that no one had to re-learn the stuff that we did over the years. But seeing it all at once might seem like a lot. There's no need to do it all right away, at least.

And, for that matter, we're always working on our own stuff constantly. We're working on T-shirts right now, actually, having ditched our earlier designs.

Seems like a damn good book.  I've only skimmed it so far and I borrowed it from the library.  I don't buy books, but I read on the music industry as a hobby.  Yeah, I have some other strange hobbies too.  The website is coming along pretty good .  Actually a really good guide,  but definitely for the post-netters.  I'm from the 90's, so I can only imagine buying a van, throwing the equipment in, and RAAAAAAAAAAAWKING!

Eric,

Go to Tools-->Options-->Spellchecker.  On the Country list, choose IN.  This will automatically let your system know you are from Indiana and delete anything you try to send.

Thanks,

Fist

 

PS  I'm just kidding.

Eric,

Go to Tools-->Options-->Spellchecker.  On the Country list, choose IN.  This will automatically let your system know you are from Indiana and delete anything you try to send.

Thanks,

Fist

 

PS  I'm just kidding.

I just posted the same thing twice.  Shows you how bright I am.  Is this forum kind of slow or is it my computer?  I type things, but it seems to take a while to load?  Anyway, just a little bit of constructive criticism.  Also, it's a shame that Beatnik Turtle didn't get the Freecreditreport.com gig...I can hear it.  That shoulda happened.

I’m so glad I read this post. I’ve seen that book, even cracked it open a time or two, but have always ended up with a different one under my arm as I head home from the store. From reading your perspective, I plan to write that down on my to-do list and finally add it to my collection. Thanks for sharing your perspective and for re-reading it!

James

SuperBabyGuide

 Guys this book is fantastic..so far.  I will definitely post again when I'm completely finished.  It's the most complete marketing/promo book since Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson.  I organize a Musician and Artist network in Dallas/Fort Worth called CreativeSquat.org and the ideas you offer on things like website building and promotion are perfect for taking our site and participation to the next level.  I have also recommended this book to anyone that wants or needs to promote something...anything like a small business, event, art, and even those needing a complete handbook on self-promotion.  Your book would pair very well with U R a Brand by Catherine Kaputa.  I'm a fan and I appreciate all your hard work to get this published.  I wish you a ton of success.

 Guys this book is fantastic..so far.  I will definitely post again when I'm completely finished.  It's the most complete marketing/promo book since Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson.  I organize a Musician and Artist network in Dallas/Fort Worth called CreativeSquat.org and the ideas you offer on things like website building and promotion are perfect for taking our site and participation to the next level.  I have also recommended this book to anyone that wants or needs to promote something...anything like a small business, event, art, and even those needing a complete handbook on self-promotion.  Your book would pair very well with U R a Brand by Catherine Kaputa.  I'm a fan and I appreciate all your hard work to get this published.  I wish you a ton of success.

Hey, thanks so much! The fact that you recommend the book is the highest praise that you can give, and I can't tell you how much we appreciate it.

We see it the same way that you do. When it comes to the marketing, brand, publicity, and networking parts of the book, the techniques can be used for any purposes--and perhaps even more effectively than ever before because of the tools, resources, and sites on the 'net. Our point in the book, of course, was to talk about them as they specifically applied to music, and it's perhaps the stories and examples that we use that make them more vivid. (Something lacking in some of the general-business books that talk about those topics.)

In some ways, we wrote this book trying to cover all of the areas that caused our band to get stuck, and what we did in order to solve it (not just the brand and publicity stuff, but every area like recording, making an album, booking, etc.)  I think that it would be possible to do the same thing for all of those other creative areas. We loved your site, and I see how it could easily go that direction, and really help creatives solve their problems.

this book spoke to me from the new books section in my library.  And i have to say... it blew my mind!!! i took a music business class but the book we had was way out of date ( ex. don't send CDs because not all people have cd players yet!)  very 90's.  i recommend this book to all musicians.  musicians need to be on the web and "the guide" is a great reference to get your music heard in the post-net era!

Smokin'Joe of Anecoic

 Thanks Smokin' Joe. Thanks for the feedback about the book and keep us posted on how you apply what you've learned.  

What i have learned

1. all bands are welcome, so don't give up! - there is somebody out there that digs your music (not just your girlfriend!)

2. the internet puts control into the hands of musicians- for a long time the fate of a musicain was determined by people who didn't even like music!

3. anything the music industry can do- you can do better!

4. all musicians now have the power to make a living off there dreams (if they know the right channels - see: "the Guide"!)

i'm just starting these new techniques so i'll let you know how it goes.

one site that you forgot to include (you probablty got lots of these!) was reverbnation.com. check it out, it has a fan e-mail collector with the option to make street teams, a music/video player your fans can embed on the web sites (even myspace and facebook, in fact when you open a reverbnation account you automatically get a facebook account for your band), and lots of tips and tools ( a gig finder) to help.  NO I'm not working for them! I just find it very useful.  I added it to your "get heard " section.

Thanks Smokin' Joe - for your thoughts above and for adding the item!

Reverbnation is actually in the site, but the problem was it wasn't findable. That's our fault and we're definitely working on beefing up our search functionality. Our goal obviously is to help musicians filter, navigate, sort, and find the thousands of  resources we have on the site in any way that's most useful to them. We definitely know Reverbnation and write about them in the book, The Indie Band Survival Guide, and even more so in the upcoming book, The DIY Music Manual, that Random House will be publishing for musicians outside the US and Canada.

Thanks again - and if you've got any more thoughts or ideas, don't hesitate to log them at the forum here. It'll help us build this site which will in turn help all indie musicians...

 Hey guys!

Just wanted to chime in here. I bought the book 2 years ago after reading the great reviews on Amazon. When it arrived, I read the intro, got super inspired, was continuing to read on, but stopped. Why? Well, I was in the middle of classes at the time, getting ready to jump into a corporate ship to save and invest in my recording studio. I could foresee many months of ANXIETY with all the information contained within the book because I wouldn't have any time to act on any of it. Hope that makes sense. But that sure didn't stop me from purchasing a dozen copies for all of my musician friends/colleagues. :D :D

Anyway, fast-forward to now, my studio is almost complete! I re-read the introduction last night, re-inspired, and this time, I'm ready to absorb all the info. It's really cool to see that there is a lot of web-based sections within the book. The classes I was taking two years ago were for a Web Development program. Not a coincidence, as I knew early on, I would go DIY/Indie and being proficient with Web Development would contribute greatly in self-marketing and connecting with fans.

So I'm here! I'll be frequenting the site often to extract as much information and meet other Indie artists.

Thanks Beatnik Turtle!

You guys have seriously leveled the playing field.

DeyBwah

doing work at one of the best project for latest mobile software that have include too latest mobile software which you can't find any other place, to get this fantastic chance please visit us

 Hey guys!

 

Just wanted to chime in here. I bought the book 2 years ago after reading the great reviews on Amazon. When it arrived, I read the intro, got super inspired, was continuing to read on, but stopped. Why? Well, I was in the middle of classes at the time, getting ready to jump into a corporate ship to save and invest in my recording studio. I could foresee many months of ANXIETY with all the information contained within the book because I wouldn't have any time to act on any of it. Hope that makes sense. But that sure didn't stop me from purchasing a dozen copies for all of my musician friends/colleagues. :D :D

 

Anyway, fast-forward to now, my studio is almost complete! I re-read the introduction last night, re-inspired, and this time, I'm ready to absorb all the info. It's really cool to see that there is a lot of web-based sections within the book. The classes I was taking two years ago were for a Web Development program. Not a coincidence, as I knew early on, I would go DIY/Indie and being proficient with Web Development would contribute greatly in self-marketing and connecting with fans.

 

So I'm here! I'll be frequenting the site often to extract as much information and meet other Indie artists.

 

Thanks Beatnik Turtle!

You guys have seriously leveled the playing field.

 

Thanks Dey! Again, it's comments like this that keep Randy and I going. We continue to implement ideas, test them in the real world, and share what works (and what doesn't!) so we indies don't have to reinvent the wheel.

And...if you're looking for even more info beyond the books and this IndieGuide.com site, be sure to check out our monthly column at Electronic Musician Magazine called The D.I.Y. Musician. Randy and I are publishing new things there each month. Definitely worth a read!

Thanks again. Now I'm off to do some more researching and writing...!