Authors: Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan
Publisher: St Martin'Griffin
ISBN: 13: 978-0-312-37768-7: 10:0-312-37768-1

Click Here To Purchase The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-It-Yourself Musician

Musicians, managers, bookers, labels, promoters, recording engineers, music teachers, music-video directors, filmmakers and anyone else who works with music are extremely lucky that Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan have chosen to share their many years of know-how in the music business in order to reveal how you can spread your music to the world.

The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual For The Do-It-Yourself Musician shows the way as to how to use all your talents that you already have and supplement them with tools, techniques, and a network of people to almost do what major-label bands have done in the past. Chertkow and Feehan rightfully point out that we have now entered a world where the musicians are in command and the numerous middlemen who separated the musicians from their fans is now slowly disappearing. It is now up to the musicians to find out how to capitalize on this change, and here is where the guide comes in very handy. In essence, the Guide is a map for musicians to use in the real world and one they could often refer to.

The authors are lead members of Beatnik Turtle, an indie band with several years of experience, more than a dozen albums, a song that was licensed to Disney for a commercial campaign, many years of life performances, college-radio play, several podcast plays, theater shows, TV theme songs, music videos, Web sites, and a completed Song of the Day project where they released one song per day for one year. In other words, they know what they are talking about, and they are not “babes in the woods.”

As mentioned in the introduction, the guide is about doing as it ties in with such themes as your network, band, website, web presence, albums, merchandise, your rights, getting noticed, booking, playing live, obtaining distribution, selling, being played and heard, and getting publicized. However, in order to reap maximum benefits from the guide, it is essential that you don't merely think about the how-to steps, but you must act on them.

What is primarily emphasized throughout the book is that the heart of the new music era is the Internet's capability to instantaneously spread music among all people all over the world. The vast majority of your fans will likely be those who discover you online. And to these people, you will only be known through your music, name, and identity you convey through your Web site, logos, photos, blogs, videos, avatars and other such devices. In other words, as the authors state: “they will only know you through your brand. While you can't meet everybody, your brand will.”

There are also other factors such as better encoding for small music-file sizes, peer-to-peer file sharing, faster computers, and broadbend connections. With this in mind, and as the authors state: “Stop worrying about a music industry and start focusing on music fans. They're out there. You must need to win them over. That's what the Guide is all about.”

In all, The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual For The Do-It-Yourself Musician provides a resource for anyone associated with the music business that is looking for a comprehensive perspective as to how to succeed in today's new music playing field. The content is readily accessible and the authors' knowledge and obvious enthusiasm shine through every page as they deliver plenty of detail and analysis. Although, there is no index, the subtitles and many references to websites help make the book a first-class handbook.


Click Here To Purchase The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-It-Yourself Musician