State of Mind of The Art - The Polyvibe Blog

Top 10 Indie Music Marketing Tools

Published on January 2, 2009 in Article, Blog and Resources. 1 Comment Tags: indie, Marketing, Music, music marketing.

syndicated from Hypebot:

Top 10 Indie Music Marketing Tools

Every week brings the launch of another online service to connect musicians and fans. Beyond spending endless hours on MySpace and Facebook, what are the best affordable online tools to communicate with fans and monetize the relationship? Here are our picks in no particular order:

1. BANDZOOGLE – It all starts with a great web site and these guys give you the tools to build one quickly. If your site doesn’t do everything Bandzoogle does, ask your designer why or switch.

2. SONICBIDS – Easily and affordable. Create a robust emailable electronic press kit (EPK) with bio, photos, mp3′s, videos and more.

3. CD BABY – The granddaddy of D.I.Y. music empowerment. Sell your CD’s and downloads in a large community that supports indie music.

4. NIMBIT- A one stop shop to help you sell CD’s, DVD’s, downloads, merch. and e-tickets with very fair commissions. Plus great tools to spread the word.

5. GYDGET - Everybody’s got widgets, but these guys get it right by enabling you to grab your info, music, and video and spread it across the net. Free.

6. REVERBNATION – Communicate with fans, build a street team, get widgets and Facebook apps, sell stuff. Tools do do it all and most of them free.

7. TUNECORE - Affordable flat rate digital distribution to all the major download sites worldwide with no strings attached.

8. TUBEMOGUL – You made a great video for a $23.57 budget. Now what do you do with it? Simultaneously upload to 18 sites including all the biggies then track performance. Basic service is free. (Bonus: A list of viral video sites.)

9. ARTISTDATA – Update tour dates on your website, MySace, Pure Volume, Last.fm, Jambase, Pollstar, Sonicbids and more all at once plus submit tour dates to local media.

10. MOZES, BAND TXT ALERTS (tie) You could use Twitter to communicate with fans, but not everyone wants an account. Every cell can accept text messages. Mozes is free (carrier rates apply) and robust, but pays for itself with ads that could upset some. Band TXT Alerts costs a little, but takes a way the ads.

bluhammock’s Jaylaan Shares “What Is Working?”

Published on December 18, 2008 in Article and Blog. 0 Comments Tags: hypebot.

Syndicated from hypebot:

bluhammock’s Jaylaan Shares “What Is Working?”

In conjunction with US. independent music trade group A2IM (American Association Of Independent Music), we’re asking indie professionals: In this fractured media landscape, what is working? What outlets and tools are helping your artists build an audience?

In this third installment Jaylaan Ahmad-Llewellyn, the founder of indie label bluhammock music (KaiserCartel, Cary Brothers, Swati, Val Emmich and more) responds:

“I think that this is an interesting question because it begs the question of what do you consider ‘working.’ There is building an audience that buys music, an audience that attends shows, and simply building awareness that you even exist as an artist…

click here to read more…

The Indie Band Survival Guide

Published on December 4, 2008 in Blog and Resources. 0 Comments Tags: Community, indie, music resources.

Indie Band Survival Guide

IndieBandSurvivalGuide.com is an open community created by indie musicians. It’s the place to share all the practical information, tools, and resources that’s available to indie musicians with one another. Think of this site as your band’s back office – a place to plan, share knowledge, network, and otherwise help you promote your music, get heard, and ultimately, win fans.

Little Scale + Milkcrate

Published on December 4, 2008 in Blog. 0 Comments

syndicated from The Secret Life blog

If not, you’re missing out something fierce.

From the illustrious Sebastian Tomczak comes Little Scale + Milkcrate.
These guys mod old game systems (Sega Master System, Genesis, Game Boy, etc.) into music making devices.
They have an ongoing project called Milkcrate:

Milkcrate is not a band or a particular group of people. Milkcrate adds a further set of constraints of space, time and materials to create music within.

The rules…

The objective of milkcrate is to write, record and produce as much music as possible, creating a completely finished product within twenty- four hours of beginning the session
No member of the group is to leave the environment, within reason
All materials and raw sources used to create music must be explicitly non- musical
All the materials must fit inside or on a milkcrate
There is a limit of one milkcrate per person
At least one member of the group must be productive at all times

These rules are modular in nature; milkcrate sessions may have additional constraints, so long as they do not break the existing ones.

Check Little Scale out HERE.
Check out Milkcrate HERE.
They just put out 2 videos of their most recent Milkcrate sessions, as well as the downloadable audio.

Milkcrate 27 part1: