Press Room
If you are a member of the media or press, this is the page where you can download images and information regarding IndieGuide.com, our books The IndieBand Survival Guide and The DIY Music Manual, and authors Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan for use in your reports.
For more information, or to schedule an interview with the authors, please contact us.
- IndieGuide.com Overview and Background
- About The Indie Band Survival Guide and The DIY Music Manual Books
- About the Authors/Founders
- Past Press Coverage
- Quotes and Testimonials
- Downloadable Images to Use
- Contact Indie Band Survival Guide, LLC
IndieGuide.com Overview and Background
The Goal: A Home For Everything Related to Music Creation and Promotion
With the advent of the web, worldwide distribution, and digital recording, there's never been a better time to be a musician. The problem is there's no home on the web to collect all the useful resources, tools, services, information, and websites that can help musicians. What we need is scattered across the multiple sites, books, catalogs, forums, or stuck in musician's heads. It's disorganized, not easily accessible, and often goes lost.
The site is constantly evolving and in development. What if there was a place on the web where all this knowledge could be stored? What if any information surrounding the act of making music were located all in one place? Open? Searchable? Commentable? Editable? Now there is. And together, we're building it.
About IndieGuide.com
IndieGuide.com is a free and open resource based on the book that shares all the practical information, gear, sites, and resources that are available to musicians, growing and changing as much as the new indie music environment does. Think Wikipedia edited by musicians, with ratings and comments just like Amazon. Add to that an automated link checker to make sure you don’t waste time on resources and information that has disappeared. And since it’s open, it grows and adapts as often as the new indie environment does. Join up, keep track of and share your gear collections, and help your fellow indie musicians all at one site.
IndieGuide.com Facts
- IndieGuide.com tracks over 200,000 music resources worldwide and continues to grow.
- IndieGuide.com is an open and free resource created for and by indie musicians to help musicians get their music created, distributed, noticed, heard, and sold.
- IndieGuide.com has thousands of registered members.
- IndieGuide.com was conceived while writing The Indie Band Survival Guide and The DIY Music Manual.
- IndieGuide.com was founded March of 2008, before the two books were published.
AboutThe Indie Band Survival Guide and The DIY Music ManualBooks
The Indie Band Survival Guide
The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual For The Do-It-Yourself Musician (St. Martin's Press/Macmillan; 336 pages) is the ultimate reference for US and Canadian musicians looking to record, distribute, market, and sell their music. Musicians, Randy Chertkow (by day, a tech expert) and Jason Feehan (by day, a lawyer) cover every step of the process and lay out practical steps to get your music heard, noticed, and sold so you can win fans worldwide.
The DIY Music Manual
The DIY Music Manual: How To Record, Promote, And Distribute Your Music Without A Record Deal(Ebury/Random House; 320 pages) is The Indie Band Survival Guide tailored to the UK, European, Australian, and New Zealand markets. For instance, the law affecting musicians and the ways in which to get played on the radio are different than in the US and Canada.
Chapters to both books:
- There's Never Been a Better Time to be a Musician
- Part I: Get Prepared
- Your Network
- Your Brand
- Your Website
- Your Web Presence
- Your Albums and Merchandise
- Your Rights
- Part II: Get Fans
- Get Noticed
- Get Booked and Play Live
- Get Distributed and Sold
- Get Played and Heard
- Get Publicized
About The Authors/Founders
Randy Chertkow
Professionally, Randy Chertkow is an Information Technology specialist with over fourteen years of experience in enterprise-class Fortune 100 companies. He has a Bachelor's in Business Administration in Information Systems from University of Iowa and a Master’s of Science in Computer Science: Data Communications, with a secondary concentration in Artificial Intelligence from DePaul University, where he graduated with distinction. Randy has played music all his life, including jazz, rock, and classical music. His instruments include baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, flute, Bb and bass clarinet, guitar, bass, and anything else he can get his hands on. He started at the challenging New Trier High School Jazz program and went on to study jazz at Berklee College of music and then completed a Perfect Set course at the Bloom School of Jazz. He writes, records, and performs with Beatnik Turtle as well as performing with theater companies around Chicago. Randy also writes Sci-Fi and fantasy (dreamofanotherworld.com), and about computer topics (effectivemonitoring.com).
Jason Feehan
Professionally, Jason Feehan is a practicing corporate attorney that works for a multinational executive search firm. He plays guitar, keyboards, sings, records, engineers, and produces. He founded Beatnik Turtle in 1997, growing it from a four-piece band into an eight-piece rock machine with a full horn section and a recording studio all its own. Unfettered by a formal music education, he often learned to play instruments as he wrote the music, and used nearly anyone in arms-length who could play or said they could play a musical instrument. He is a very prolific songwriter and has written close to a thousand songs, three of which are actually not too bad.
Beatnik Turtle
The authors' band, Beatnik Turtle, has released over 400 songs within 18 albums. In 2007, they succeeded at the self-imposed challenge of releasing a song for every single day for a year, throughout 2007, at TheSongOfTheDay.com. They have written music for TV shows, commercials, films, podcasts, theater (including Chicago's Second City), and have licensed music to Disney/ABC Family. If you are curious what they sound like, click here.
Past Press Coverage
- Mention/Recommendation on the show, "Happy Hour" (Fox Business News)
- Interview with Matt Pinfield on his Morning Show
- Book review from Publishers Weekly
- Book review from Blogcritics Magazine
- Book and site review from Eventful
- "Book tells struggling musicians what they need" at Journal Star of Lincoln, Nebraska
- Book and E-book review from hypebot
- Book review from uncrate
- "Indie Band Survival Guide Now in Book Form" at boingboing
- Book review from Ariel Publicity
- "Web Promotion for Independent Musicians" at eMusician
- Indie Band Survival Guide Episodes 1-6 on YouTube.com/IndieGuide
Quotes and Testimonials
“Finally! A comprehensive and practical guide for musicians that explains how to navigate today’s music world without a label. A must-read!”
- Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby and HostBaby
"I’ve seen a lot of books over the years; I’ve worked on every side of it….You have the most up to date reference book for young musicians.”
- Matt Pinfield, radio and MTV/VH1 television personality
"Their wonderful handbook for indie musicians quickly drew attention from the likes of Billboard magazine, the Associated Press and even Professor Lawrence Lessig…They've effectively produced a take-along, dog-earable handbook so anyone can follow in these well tread footsteps. "
- Boing Boing - Read the complete article
“Weighing in at 329 pages, it is jam-packed full of incredible information. The Indie Band Survival Guide is a book that all artists, independent or not, need to own.”
- Ariel Hyatt, author, publicist, and founder of CyberPR - Read the complete article
"The reason the guide is so good is simple...It’s written by a pair of musicians, Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan...I’ll be recommending for years to come."
- Journal Star - Read the complete article
"Because this lively book offers such essential guidance in these changing times, no band should be without a copy."
- Publishers Weekly - Read the complete article
"Full of practical advice, it would be very popular in any public or academic library."
- Library Journal - Read the complete article
"Chertkow and Feehan’s detailed and well organized book is essential reading for both veteran and budding independent musicians.The two authors certainly have the experience and background to craft such a book."
- Blog Critics - Read the complete article
"If you are a DIY musician, seriously consider picking up the print version - beyond its endorsement of CC it is full of useful knowledge on the intricacies of the music industry."
- Creative Commons - Read the complete article
”They have collected a wealth of information and tools to help the indie band in getting recognized and their music distributed to their fans and, more importantly, the rest of the market."
-Cybergrass - Read the complete article
"This is a practical approach to an impractical career…The steps you need to take are all here."
- Curled Up With a Good Book - Read the complete article
The Wire Interviews Co-Author Randy Chertkow - Read the complete article
"A great resource for those who are in an independent band, and are looking for ways to get yourself into the ears of listeners who want to hear your music."
Downloadable Images for Use
IndieGuide.com Logo
The Indie Band Survival Guide Book Cover
The DIY Music Manual Book Cover
Picture of Author, Randy Chertkow
Picture of Author, Jason Feehan
Advetisement Pieces
Contact Information for Media
Please use the contact us form located on this site, and we'll get back to you!