Podcast: The Indie Band Survival Guide

You might have already heard of Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan's book – Indie Band Survival Guide. It’s full of helpful tips and insider information about how to make it in the music industry.

David Hooper from Music Marketing's Music Business Radio show made podcast interviews with the authors/musicians, which are available online.

Promoting your music with podcasts.

1. It’s the fastest, easiest way to get your music played online. Podcasters are always looking for new music.
2. How do I get my music on a podcast? Upload your songs onto a ‘podsafe collective.’ (like music music.podshow.com or podsafe.audio.org) or send an email to a podcast telling them you're a fan, and sharing your music.
3. Podcasters might even keep asking you for more new music for them to play if they like you (unlike most radio stations.)

   Promoting your music via the web and social media.

4. Social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace are good, but you have to have a website too.
5. If you have a blog, you can use your blog feed to update all your pages at once.
6. With Twitter, you can use services like 'FriendFeed' to automatically send a tweet including your blog title and a hyperlink to your latest post.
7. Remember to fill out your ID3 tags, so that your fans can find your music. LastFM uses these tags to find more of your music, and eventful.com uses them to tell fans if you’re playing in their area.

   Promoting your music via publicity.

8.  traditional media (newspapers, magazines,radio) require an old school press release, at least 3 months in advance. Tips: include a clear call to action, make your contact info easy to find, be concise and compelling, and mention recent and future projects.
9. New media (blog, podcasts, websites) aren't so interested in formal communication. You can send them info closer to the event. Expect blunt honesty from them about your music.
10. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace) is a 24/7 task, with instant feedback. You should engage with it as much as possible, and interact with pictures and videos.

    Promoting your music via online concerts.

11. Use social media to connect with your audience, take them behind the scenes. Communication used to be a form of broadcasting to your fans, but now it’s a conversation. You can use services like Ustream to record yourself in the studio and show your fans, for example.
12. if a venue has an venue has access to the internet, try using ustream.tv or livestream.com to stream your concerts.
13. Use a high quality microphone to make sure the audio quality is good too!

    Promoting your music via merchandising.

14. Try out designs and logos online first, with 'print on demand' services like create space or lulu.com. They have no startup costs, are free to use, and make you money on every sale. You can also see what is most popular with your fans.
15. Once you find the designs that sell, you can do a mass print out to take with you to shows or on tour.
16. Merch is not just about T-Shirts – be creative. Another example mentioned in the podcast is the possibility of making books -  you can use photos, set lists, etc, on lulu.com, and email fans on your mailing list telling them they can buy a souvenir of the gig they saw last night!
17. The online method saves you dragging round lots of heavy merch too...Which tips do you find the most useful? Do you have any other ideas to share?

Promoting your music via merchandising.