DB: “I notice that the work of mine that tends to be downloaded most is the typical stuff, the hit singles, older Talking Heads material....”

                -Boing Boing,  David Byrne launches internet radio station

“The music company continues to take ninety-four percent of the gross for promoting and distributing music, and the twelve-year-olds who take zero off the top do a better job... The result is, let us say, that when music under the present system leaves the production studio and passes through six hands, it isn't in the store yet. Whereas, in Stanley Milgram's United States, after six jumps, everybody who wants the music has it.”

                Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the death of proprietary culture, Eben Moglen

Professor Moglen was half right. Even if your music is, for sake of argument, no more than 6 short, digital hops away from everyone in the world, who’s going to try to find your music if it’s unknown? This concept is vividly clear to any indie band that has been in the trenches for any length of time. Just trying to get more than a handful of people to come out to your first shows is extremely difficult, no matter how good your group may be. You are unknown at that point, and you have to prove yourselves.

While twelve year olds might do a better job distributing music, they would never have heard of the groups that they were distributing if it weren’t for the promotion machine behind the majors. Professor Moglen makes a good point that people do share things that that they enjoy if it’s free to share, but there is a lot of material out there competing for attention. Advertising makes a big difference in this competition. When you think of the number of fantastic musicians, for example from the Jazz era, which languished in obscurity only to be finally “discovered” when they were senior citizens (after innumerable recordings on major labels and live shows at the most prestigious of venues), you may realize what a difficult task it is to be noticed. One other way to look at it is to imagine a Google-like search bar with all of the music in the world that you can find. What are you going to search for? It will most certainly be something that with which you're already familiar.

Outside of an exceptional junior high word-of-mouth campaign, Moglen's twelve year olds can only help you so much. They're more likely to promote Britney Spears than your band. With distribution knocked down as a major barrier, promotion is now the biggest issue left for indies. That is where indies must focus their efforts, especially since commercial radio is still locked out. Having a quality product is not enough, you need promotion.

There is already a lot of information out there about how to advertise your band.  Of course, you should do these things. We certainly do. These include putting up posters, sending out announcements to your mailing list, and setting up a quality website.

However, in this section we want to share what we've learned that is unique, items that you won't find anywhere else. What follows is a series of anecdotes all related to the same promotion lesson. In other words, this will not be a step-by-step, what to do guide, but it should give you ideas about how to promote yourselves.

In the end, we hope these are useful to you, but we also hope you will be able to share some of your ideas with us some day. After all, our goal with this guide is to find like-minded individuals who also want to share their experience with us, and also with others who read this site. We'll continue to update this section as people send us ideas. Please, if you have an idea for us, send it in or add it! As you already know from just reading the guide this far, we indie bands are all in the same boat.

Next: Networking

Back to The Indie Band Survival Guide Ebook Home

DB: “I notice that the work of mine that tends to be downloaded most is the typical stuff, the hit singles, older Talking Heads material....”

                -Boing Boing,  David Byrne launches internet radio station

“The music company continues to take ninety-four percent of the gross for promoting and distributing music, and the twelve-year-olds who take zero off the top do a better job... The result is, let us say, that when music under the present system leaves the production studio and passes through six hands, it isn't in the store yet. Whereas, in Stanley Milgram's United States, after six jumps, everybody who wants the music has it.”

                Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the death of proprietary culture, Eben Moglen

Professor Moglen was half right. Even if your music is, for sake of argument, no more than 6 short, digital hops away from everyone in the world, who’s going to try to find your music if it’s unknown? This concept is vividly clear to any indie band that has been in the trenches for any length of time. Just trying to get more than a handful of people to come out to your first shows is extremely difficult, no matter how good your group may be. You are unknown at that point, and you have to prove yourselves.

While twelve year olds might do a better job distributing music, they would never have heard of the groups that they were distributing if it weren’t for the promotion machine behind the majors. Professor Moglen makes a good point that people do share things that that they enjoy if it’s free to share, but there is a lot of material out there competing for attention. Advertising makes a big difference in this competition. When you think of the number of fantastic musicians, for example from the Jazz era, which languished in obscurity only to be finally “discovered” when they were senior citizens (after innumerable recordings on major labels and live shows at the most prestigious of venues), you may realize what a difficult task it is to be noticed. One other way to look at it is to imagine a Google-like search bar with all of the music in the world that you can find. What are you going to search for? It will most certainly be something that with which you're already familiar.

Outside of an exceptional junior high word-of-mouth campaign, Moglen's twelve year olds can only help you so much. They're more likely to promote Britney Spears than your band. With distribution knocked down as a major barrier, promotion is now the biggest issue left for indies. That is where indies must focus their efforts, especially since commercial radio is still locked out. Having a quality product is not enough, you need promotion.

There is already a lot of information out there about how to advertise your band.  Of course, you should do these things. We certainly do. These include putting up posters, sending out announcements to your mailing list, and setting up a quality website.

However, in this section we want to share what we've learned that is unique, items that you won't find anywhere else. What follows is a series of anecdotes all related to the same promotion lesson. In other words, this will not be a step-by-step, what to do guide, but it should give you ideas about how to promote yourselves.

In the end, we hope these are useful to you, but we also hope you will be able to share some of your ideas with us some day. After all, our goal with this guide is to find like-minded individuals who also want to share their experience with us, and also with others who read this site. We'll continue to update this section as people send us ideas. Please, if you have an idea for us, send it in or add it! As you already know from just reading the guide this far, we indie bands are all in the same boat.

Next: Networking

XJ: “You've said that from an artist's perspective, one creative challenge of a cultural shift towards downloading individual songs is that when we're choosing what to download -- whether for free, or from fee-based services -- we tend to pick tunes we already know we like. Can you explain what you mean?”

DB: “I notice that the work of mine that tends to be downloaded most is the typical stuff, the hit singles, older Talking Heads material....”

                -Boing Boing,  David Byrne launches internet radio station

“The music company continues to take ninety-four percent of the gross for promoting and distributing music, and the twelve-year-olds who take zero off the top do a better job... The result is, let us say, that when music under the present system leaves the production studio and passes through six hands, it isn't in the store yet. Whereas, in Stanley Milgram's United States, after six jumps, everybody who wants the music has it.”

                Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the death of proprietary culture, Eben Moglen

Professor Moglen was half right. Even if your music is, for sake of argument, no more than 6 short, digital hops away from everyone in the world, who’s going to try to find your music if it’s unknown? This concept is vividly clear to any indie band that has been in the trenches for any length of time. Just trying to get more than a handful of people to come out to your first shows is extremely difficult, no matter how good your group may be. You are unknown at that point, and you have to prove yourselves.

While twelve year olds might do a better job distributing music, they would never have heard of the groups that they were distributing if it weren’t for the promotion machine behind the majors. Professor Moglen makes a good point that people do share things that that they enjoy if it’s free to share, but there is a lot of material out there competing for attention. Advertising makes a big difference in this competition. When you think of the number of fantastic musicians, for example from the Jazz era, which languished in obscurity only to be finally “discovered” when they were senior citizens (after innumerable recordings on major labels and live shows at the most prestigious of venues), you may realize what a difficult task it is to be noticed. One other way to look at it is to imagine a Google-like search bar with all of the music in the world that you can find. What are you going to search for? It will most certainly be something that with which you're already familiar.

Outside of an exceptional junior high word-of-mouth campaign, Moglen's twelve year olds can only help you so much. They're more likely to promote Britney Spears than your band. With distribution knocked down as a major barrier, promotion is now the biggest issue left for indies. That is where indies must focus their efforts, especially since commercial radio is still locked out. Having a quality product is not enough, you need promotion.

There is already a lot of information out there about how to advertise your band.  Of course, you should do these things. We certainly do. These include putting up posters, sending out announcements to your mailing list, and setting up a quality website.

However, in this section we want to share what we've learned that is unique, items that you won't find anywhere else. What follows is a series of anecdotes all related to the same promotion lesson. In other words, this will not be a step-by-step, what to do guide, but it should give you ideas about how to promote yourselves.

In the end, we hope these are useful to you, but we also hope you will be able to share some of your ideas with us some day. After all, our goal with this guide is to find like-minded individuals who also want to share their experience with us, and also with others who read this site. We'll continue to update this section as people send us ideas. Please, if you have an idea for us, send it in or add it! As you already know from just reading the guide this far, we indie bands are all in the same boat.

Next: Networking

XJ: “You've said that from an artist's perspective, one creative challenge of a cultural shift towards downloading individual songs is that when we're choosing what to download -- whether for free, or from fee-based services -- we tend to pick tunes we already know we like. Can you explain what you mean?”

DB: “I notice that the work of mine that tends to be downloaded most is the typical stuff, the hit singles, older Talking Heads material....”

-Boing Boing,  David Byrne launches internet radio station

“The music company continues to take ninety-four percent of the gross for promoting and distributing music, and the twelve-year-olds who take zero off the top do a better job... The result is, let us say, that when music under the present system leaves the production studio and passes through six hands, it isn't in the store yet. Whereas, in Stanley Milgram's United States, after six jumps, everybody who wants the music has it.”

Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the death of proprietary culture, Eben Moglen

Professor Moglen was half right. Even if your music is, for sake of argument, no more than 6 short, digital hops away from everyone in the world, who’s going to try to find your music if it’s unknown? This concept is vividly clear to any indie band that has been in the trenches for any length of time. Just trying to get more than a handful of people to come out to your first shows is extremely difficult, no matter how good your group may be. You are unknown at that point, and you have to prove yourselves.

While twelve year olds might do a better job distributing music, they would never have heard of the groups that they were distributing if it weren’t for the promotion machine behind the majors. Professor Moglen makes a good point that people do share things that that they enjoy if it’s free to share, but there is a lot of material out there competing for attention. Advertising makes a big difference in this competition. When you think of the number of fantastic musicians, for example from the Jazz era, which languished in obscurity only to be finally “discovered” when they were senior citizens (after innumerable recordings on major labels and live shows at the most prestigious of venues), you may realize what a difficult task it is to be noticed. One other way to look at it is to imagine a Google-like search bar with all of the music in the world that you can find. What are you going to search for? It will most certainly be something that with which you're already familiar.

Outside of an exceptional junior high word-of-mouth campaign, Moglen's twelve year olds can only help you so much. They're more likely to promote Britney Spears than your band. With distribution knocked down as a major barrier, promotion is now the biggest issue left for indies. That is where indies must focus their efforts, especially since commercial radio is still locked out. Having a quality product is not enough, you need promotion.

There is already a lot of information out there about how to advertise your band.  Of course, you should do these things. We certainly do. These include putting up posters, sending out announcements to your mailing list, and setting up a quality website.

However, in this section we want to share what we've learned that is unique, items that you won't find anywhere else. What follows is a series of anecdotes all related to the same promotion lesson. In other words, this will not be a step-by-step, what to do guide, but it should give you ideas about how to promote yourselves.

In the end, we hope these are useful to you, but we also hope you will be able to share some of your ideas with us some day. After all, our goal with this guide is to find like-minded individuals who also want to share their experience with us, and also with others who read this site. We'll continue to update this section as people send us ideas. Please, if you have an idea for us, send it in or add it! As you already know from just reading the guide this far, we indie bands are all in the same boat.

Next: Networking

XJ: “You've said that from an artist's perspective, one creative challenge of a cultural shift towards downloading individual songs is that when we're choosing what to download -- whether for free, or from fee-based services -- we tend to pick tunes we already know we like. Can you explain what you mean?”

DB: “I notice that the work of mine that tends to be downloaded most is the typical stuff, the hit singles, older Talking Heads material....”

-Boing Boing,  David Byrne launches internet radio station

“The music company continues to take ninety-four percent of the gross for promoting and distributing music, and the twelve-year-olds who take zero off the top do a better job... The result is, let us say, that when music under the present system leaves the production studio and passes through six hands, it isn't in the store yet. Whereas, in Stanley Milgram's United States, after six jumps, everybody who wants the music has it.”

Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the death of proprietary culture, Eben Moglen

Professor Moglen was half right. Even if your music is, for sake of argument, no more than 6 short, digital hops away from everyone in the world, who’s going to try to find your music if it’s unknown? This concept is vividly clear to any indie band that has been in the trenches for any length of time. Just trying to get more than a handful of people to come out to your first shows is extremely difficult, no matter how good your group may be. You are unknown at that point, and you have to prove yourselves.

While twelve year olds might do a better job distributing music, they would never have heard of the groups that they were distributing if it weren’t for the promotion machine behind the majors. Professor Moglen makes a good point that people do share things that that they enjoy if it’s free to share, but there is a lot of material out there competing for attention. Advertising makes a big difference in this competition. When you think of the number of fantastic musicians, for example from the Jazz era, which languished in obscurity only to be finally “discovered” when they were senior citizens (after innumerable recordings on major labels and live shows at the most prestigious of venues), you may realize what a difficult task it is to be noticed. One other way to look at it is to imagine a Google-like search bar with all of the music in the world that you can find. What are you going to search for? It will most certainly be something that with which you're already familiar.

Outside of an exceptional junior high word-of-mouth campaign, Moglen's twelve year olds can only help you so much. They're more likely to promote Britney Spears than your band. With distribution knocked down as a major barrier, promotion is now the biggest issue left for indies. That is where indies must focus their efforts, especially since commercial radio is still locked out. Having a quality product is not enough, you need promotion.

There is already a lot of information out there about how to advertise your band.  Of course, you should do these things. We certainly do. These include putting up posters, sending out announcements to your mailing list, and setting up a quality website.

However, in this section we want to share what we've learned that is unique, items that you won't find anywhere else. What follows is a series of anecdotes all related to the same promotion lesson. In other words, this will not be a step-by-step, what to do guide, but it should give you ideas about how to promote yourselves.

In the end, we hope these are useful to you, but we also hope you will be able to share some of your ideas with us some day. After all, our goal with this guide is to find like-minded individuals who also want to share their experience with us, and also with others who read this site. We'll continue to update this section as people send us ideas. Please, if you have an idea for us, send it in or add it! As you already know from just reading the guide this far, we indie bands are all in the same boat.