Yes! Reading! A paperback book – how very old school of me huh? And a good read it is too – i’m only on chapter 3 at this point, but allready i’d recommend any new band or artist to go out there and buy a copy of this – it’s that good!
But I digress – my point is this: “Doing it yourself doesn’t mean doing it alone” (Direct Quote from Chapter 2, P19) Unless you’re really really rich, really really talented or really really lucky, you just don’t have time to do all the online marketing needed to get those fans buzzing (and even buying) about you, your band, your music and your live performances. Not if you’ve got a full time day job, maybe a wife, maybe a family, friends, a social life – and just because you’re in a band, those other things are not any less important!
Instead, just like ever before, you need a strong “virtual road crew”, working behind the scenes on your Internet marketing, producing and promoting your content. But today – that’s a lot easier to get than before. no more of having to sign a long contract with an agent or god forbid, a label, only to get screwed on your big fat advance and make under 10 cents per piece of music sold. No – nowadays what you need is someone who “gets it” and not just that, can do the stuff that would take you 5-6 hours a week, in a couple or less, because they’re bloody good at what they do!
Sound like a business pitch? Well - perhaps in a way it is, but more importantly its pointing you in the right direction. Sure we’d love to handle your online marketing, but we’ll still love everything you do if you do it yourself or work with someone else. The simple fact is, now more than ever is a bloody great time to become a musician – recordings more affordable than ever before, getting product into the eyes and ears of your fans has never been easier and jeez – look at how many different sources you can use for free to get your talent out there now. You don’t need a label! If you can find some savvy tech people to handle your online branding and marketing and a manager that actually gets the changing face of the industry, new distribution and promotion models etc – you’ll do just fine!
Oh - the one negative review I will give to this book is their guide to “Setting up a band website” Actually, the first 5 pointers are spot on (except we’re not listed on their web designers list 
But come on, telling you to keep the site light on information – that was fine when we were all using AOL, netscape and Dial up -shit, even mobile phones have decent browsers and fast connection speeds now. No – put plenty of relevant content on there, and keep updating it as often as you can! And “upload your pages” – oh no, please stay away from HTML! not that there’s anything wrong with it as such, but putting your bands website into a solid CMS like Wordpress will cut down your website updating and maintenance time by hours! No more messing around in Dreamweaver trying to get divs etc to float right, etc etc etc – make Wordpress your website best friend!
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