A lot of people are striving for the dream to get out of the day job and move full time into a career in making music.  I’ve sure you’ve heard stories of people using wild and crazy marketing ideas to get attention, big name bands breaking away from major labels and weekend warriors leaving the desk job behind to become full time musicians.

So how do you do it, with your band, with your strengths? Well there is no single answer, every artist is going to need their own unique approach and it’s up to them to find what that is. Obviously having great music is first and foremost, but you also need to get people to listen. One trick is using the skills you develop in your day to day jobs to your advantage, and design your marketing campaign around those strengths.  Things like getting the grammar nut in the band working on copy and the really friendly one working the email list after the show is obvious. However thinking outside the box is the best way to survive in a music business whose box is constantly changing.  One thing to think about is combining skills sets of the different members of your musical team to create something greater than the separate items. For example if you’re a web designer and your guitar player works in sales. You can design a functional and effective way of selling music online more so then most. If you have a carpenter, an electrician, and an artist, you can design your own lighting system, and a killer, totally unique light show. (more…)

So here is another Sonicbids how to video. For those of you who don’t know about it, we have an advanced search tool that you can use for drilling down in our listings to pull even more relevant gig listings. Narrated by our very own Tess, and in the background is the song “Montañas” by Taken By Name.

As an independent musician first you need to Produce your Music, second you need to Sell your Music and third you need to Support your Music. These are the 3 categories that MusicNomad uses to organize thousands or resources to help independent musicians.

In the second major category (Sell Your Music) MusicNomad has ranked the top resources to make you money.

Top Resources by Category

-Sell Your Music On-line – Song Cast Music, CD Baby, IODA, Broadjam, Reverb Nation
-Sell Your Music in Retail Stores – Stretch the Skies, ADA, AIMS, CIMS, Best Buy
-Sell Music to Cell Phone Users – Myxer, Cellyspace, Flotones
-License Your Music – Sonicbids, TAXI, Music Gorilla, Crucial Music, You License
-Sell Your Own Concert Tickets – Brown Paper Tickets, E-Tix, In Ticketing
-Sell Your Live Shows – Xumaii, Blue Microphone, Aderra, All Access Live
-Enter Contests – USA Songwriting, Sonicbids, Our Stage, Denny’s Feed a Band Campaign
-Buy/Sell Band Merchandise – Bandwagon Merchandise, Bandwear, Jakprints (more…)

The following is a great article from Andrew Dubber.  If you don’t know who he is then I suggest checking out his site newmusicstrategies.com. There is just a ton of amazing content on there for the independent musician, as he always keeps his thumb on the pulse of the ever changing music biz. I recommend checking out his free E-book as well about 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online its a fantastic read.

I would discourage worrying of any kind as a general principle. Worrying is a fear that something bad might happen — a negative emotional state with no external cause in reality. So on that basis, no — I wouldn’t worry about piracy.

I’d also suggest that piracy is not something that tends to happen on the scale that the mainstream media seems to suggest. Unauthorized duplication goes on, but not piracy. The idea that these two things are the same is one that major record labels tend to be quite fond of, but it bears no resemblance to either external reality, or what words actually mean.

Let me outline what I see as the differences between those two things. (more…)

So here is a nice little tour that will give you the rundown on what happens to a submission after you hit the submit button on Sonicbids. You get a good look at the inside of a promoter account, and get a rundown of the different status types.

Also last but not least enjoy the grooving upbeat sweet tones of Joe Cameron and the band with their song “lovely” check em out at sonicbids.com/JoeCameronMusic

As an independent musician first you need to Produce your Music, second you need to Sell your Music and third you need to Support your Music. These are the 3 categories that MusicNomad uses to organize thousands or resources to help independent musicians.

In the first major category (Produce Your Music) MusicNomad has ranked the top resources to help you play and be heard.

Top Resources by Category

-Influential Music Blogs – Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Gorilla vs. Bear

-Satellite Radio – Sirius XM – Indie Rock Station XM43

-Internet Radio – Pandora, Rhapsody, Jango, Last.fm

-Internet Video – YouTube, Singing Fool, Stickam

-Music Gear – buy online : Musicians Friend, Sam Ash, Sam Day Music

-Get a Website – Bandzoogle, Host Baby, dmusic

-Get a Social Network – MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, imeem, MOG (more…)