This post was originally published January 7 earlier this year. However, as with many articles on this site, the point remains valid. Reconsider – what are you doing non-musically to support your band?

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You are in a band because you offer something musicially to the group you are playing with. But what else do you bring to the table?

In this day and age, it isn’t enough to just play bass or just play guitar.

Having computer skills, the desire to oversee some online marketing endeavors, the ability to maintain or write code for your website, or simply the ability and desire to personally network in your local music community – these are all important additional traits that are helpful and necessary for young bands.

Every member must have a role.

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Brushing up on your writing skills may not be something you think about when you are working on sharpening your skills as an artist, but “7 Reasons Why Writing Well Will Help Your Music Career” by Mike Venti will make you want to add it to your to do list.

Sometimes, the person you are trying to reach will read what you have written before they will ever listen to your music! So it is worth the effort to take the time to ensure your writing will draw in readers in the same way that your music does.

The first benefit of writing well is that it can help you get more blog reviews.

Venti points out that to get a blogger’s attention, “you need to create a personal, well targeted email directed solely at [the specific blogger]. If your message looks like it’s been cut and pasted to 500 other blogs, you probably won’t get many reviews.”

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For those of you who missed part 1, you can check it out here.

Thanks again to Danny Dee for sharing some really great advice on Social Media Marketing and how to make it as an independent artist. For more info on Danny Dee, you can visit his websites http://www.digipendent.com/ and http://dannydee.com/, or follow him on Twitter, http://twitter.com/DannyDee.

YOU STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF ARTISTS HAVING A WEBSITE. CAN YOU TELL US WHY IT’S SO IMPORTANT FOR AN ARTIST TO HAVE A WEBSITE?

So it goes back to the whole thing of knowing exactly who your consumer, who your fan is, and being able to own that fan.

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This month Grassrootsy addressed a question a lot of artists have, “Where Do I Start? How Do I Get Album Reviews?”

I love this article for the same reason that usually attracts me to an article- it gives artists a good starting point to accomplish a goal.

Many articles discuss what artists should aspire to, but great articles show artists ways to work towards their goal.

According to Grassrootsy, step 1 is Mimic.

I like this advice because it’s premise is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

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I met Daniel “Danny Dee” Aguayo when I took a class on the music industry at SF State. He was invited by my professor to give a guest lecture at one of our classes.

I was blown away by his presentation to the class called “The Age of Engage: An Urban Guide to the Social Music Evolution” which addressed the changing state of the music industry and how artists can succeed in today’s music industry.

I recently got a chance to interview him, and find out a little more about his career, his website, and his advice for making it as an independent musician.
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I learned a lot talking to him and I think you will too.

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How to build your fanbase – and why the end of the traditional model is a good thing by Ian Clifford reminds artists of the fundamentals on how to build a fanbase – the key to any artist’s success.

According to Clifford, “you MUST build a fanbase to get started and to achieve anything – whether that is DIY and Direct-to-Fan success or the aim of getting signed. Either route will happen much more easily if you have built the fanbase yourself – that’s what other fans will see so they will want to be in the in-crowd – and it’s what agents, managers and record label A&R will see that will help take you to the next level.”

I like Clifford’s point that changes in the industry have made today’s recipe for artist success similar to the one artists used in the pre-MTV days.

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What has long been a theory of the changing music industry is that “jam bands” – bands that adopt an improvisional style that make each show unique – should have a strategic advantage adapting to the new economics of music.

This is because by adding value to the live show experience, fans would be more likely to pay to see multiple live shows and would be more likely to purchase recordings of those shows (since they are all different). With regular studio albums becoming less of an income stream, such live show value has achieved hightened importance.

As many people know, the “original” rock jam band was the Grateful Dead. And although pre-Internet, their experience and new business thinking for the time continues to be studied, and remains highly relevant.

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For this month’s blog post of the month I picked an article called How To Cover a Song – HFA by Rick Goetz of MusicianCoaching.com.

I like this article because it addresses a very basic business& legal issue that independent musicians should know how to address- how to obtain a license to cover a song.

A while back a musician friend of mine told me about he was recording a cover song. I asked whether he obtained a license. Cause you know, I’m dorky like that and I’m interested in licensing.

And this was his answer- No, but there are compulsory statutory licenses, right? They have to give you a license to record the song, so if the owners of the song noticed he’d recorded the song, he’d just start paying the statutory fees. *insert visual of my jaw dropping here*

In case any of you are nodding your head in agreement right now- Stop! My friend is WRONG!

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Everyone once in a while a posting resonates simply because it touches upon a basic truth. This recent article from Rick Goetz at MTT drives home the point of constiency and continuing forward with the goal in mind, relentlessly.

VolumeEleven.net and other websites like it have been created to help musicians get the most out of their time and energy spent on the business side of music. DIY has created this need.

Nevertheless, there is still no substitute for a focused goal, and the hard work and determination to wake up every day and help yourself get there.

Most successes in life are achieved because of little incremental advances taken on a daily basis.

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Guitar Tree

I recently read a Wired interview with industry veteran Tom Silverman about the state of the music business and the plight of independent artists. He points out the difficultly of developing new music and touring while also holding down a real job.

The article is definitely worth a read.

It also remimded me of a past V11 article (see below) that requires revisiting, and highlights how, despite new ideas, new companies, etc., not much has really changed in the past few years…. basically we really are not there yet, and I don’t think anyone knows for sure what “there” is and when or if we will ever get “there”…

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