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

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guests Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan  authors of The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual For The Do-It-Yourself Musician and The DIY Music Manual: How To Record, Promote and Distribute Your Music Without A Record Deal . They're also founders of the free and open musician resource, IndieGuide.com. 

By day, Randy is a tech expert and Jason is an attorney. They are lead members of Beatnik Turtle, an indie band with over 12 yeard of experience, 18 albums, a song that was licensed to Disney for a commercial campaign, a TV theme song, many years of live performances, college-radio and podcast plays, theater shows, music videos (one of which aired on SpikeTV), Web sites, and a completed "Song of the Day" project where they released one song per day for one year.

Good day Randy and Jason and thanks for participating in our interview. 

Norm: 

What motivated you to write your books, The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual For The Do-It-Yourself Musician and The DIY Music Manual: How To Record, Promote and Distribute Your Music Without A Record Deal?

Randy:

Well, we originally wrote the book to scratch our own itch. When we first started over 12 years ago, we didn't see any books that really answered the practical questions we had as we built our own band. The answers we did find were in magazines, on the web, in other musician's heads, or just techniques that we had to figure out on our own. We decided to share what we'd learned in a fifty thousand word, 101-page PDF we called The Indie Band Survival Guide which we released from our band's website free for anyone to download and share. Besides just trying to put something out there that other bands could benefit from, we also hoped to spark a discussion with other indie musicians so we could collectively solve the problems facing indie musicians together.

Jason:

The amazing thing is that because we shared it for free, it was picked up all over the blogosphere, and the next thing we knew, Billboard Magazine wrote a feature article about it. From there, it was picked up by the Associated Press, Reuters, and a host of other traditional media publications. All of this press gained the interest of a literary agent that thought it would make an excellent book. 

Randy:

They had figured out the same thing that we discovered as we tried to find resources on how to succeed on our own: most of the books out there were either about how to get signed to a music industry that really no longer exists anymore, or were laments of how the old music industry was dying or changing. Of the more recent ones, while they covered some topics, few of them gave much practical advice about what we found ourselves doing daily, such as how to use websites and web presences to promote our music. And absolutely none of them of them talked about recent topics such as how to get played on podcasts, run an indie PR campaign that includes the new media, or how to run your own college radio campaign from beginning to end--something that our band did every time we put out a new album.

We also found that most of the books assumed that other people would handle things for you, which is not true for an indie musician. So questions like how to copyright your music, how to get your music distributed on iTunes, how to get fans to come to your shows, and how best to create merchandise weren't covered in depth, even though they are critical topics that indie musicians need to understand.

Jason:

So although we didn't set out to become authors, we felt it was worthwhile to release this, and decided to work with St. Martin's Press/Griffin to release a book under the name of the original PDF, The Indie Band Survival Guide. This book is a complete rewrite of the original, free online version--the result of an additional year of deep research, thinking, and writing. And, it turned out that this information was not just wanted in the US, because Ebury/Random House commissioned us for a second version of the book aimed outside the US. So we wrote The DIY Music Manual for them which is not only an updated version of the US book, but also the legal chapter has information on copyright and trademark law in the UK, EU, and Australia. 

Norm:

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Jason:

That you can't just stop there. We were adamant that the book focus on "what to do, how to do it, and why to do it". We decided very early on that the "where to go and who to talk to" questions, which really changes almost daily, wasn't appropriate for the book. This is what sparked us to create the book's companion website, IndieGuide.com. Our book easily could have become a big book of hyperlinks -- pages and pages of where to upload your music, who can distribute it, where to play out, where to copyright it, etc. Of course if we had done that, not only would the book be double the size (it's over 300 pages as it is), it would have gone out of date quickly -- like many of the books in this space we didn't find useful -- ones that were out of date by the time the book hit the stands. 

So, instead of letting this happen, we set about creating a website called IndieGuide.com which would share all this information with everyone -- for free.

Randy:

IndieGuide.com is an open community that allows anyone to update and add to -- much like Wikipedia -- so it's a living database.To date we have over 120,000 resources, sites, services, and tools to help any indie musician make the most of their music and win fans worldwide. And it's a living database. Any musician can add links to it, so it will keep up with this fast-changing music world, and adjust to changes as they happen. Oh, and all of the links can be rated by musicians, so that you can share and find out what's good and useful and also warn others of what's not.

Jason:

The website is a natural next step for us to continue to help indie musicians share what they know with each other. Plus, we're in a band and this is the site we wish existed when we started out. It's what we spend most of our free time doing nowadays, that is, when we're not working on music. 

Randy:

And even though it's for musicians, the resources and tools we're collected there can help any creative person that wants to share their work.

Norm:

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

Randy: 

We live it. Everything we've written about in the book we've actually done ourselves or is the result of interviewing other successful indie musicians. We are living, breathing indie musicians trying to do everything we write about in our very active band Beatnik Turtle.

Jason:

Plus, it helps that Randy's in I.T. and I'm an attorney. We're fortunate in that our day jobs are two disciplines that really are shaping the new music industry today. We brought all of our expertise to bear when we sat down to write the books.

Norm: 

Why do you think your books are important books at this time and whom do you think will benefit from them?
 

Randy: 

We live in an exciting new world, where if you want to share your work -- no matter what you do -- you can get an audience. This is not just because of the web, although its certainly the biggest factor. Previously, in what Jason and I like to call the "pre-net" days, you would have "pre-filters", or gatekeepers, who would decide if your work would even be seen by anyone else. In music, the pre-filters were labels. In writing, publishers, newspapers, and magazines were the pre-filters. And for video, TV stations and movie studios made the decisions about what would and wouldn't be seen. 

These pre-filters used to hold all of the power because the channels to reach an audience were extremely expensive. There were only a handful of radio stations and TV channels, and they were carefully controlled.

Now, anyone in the world with an internet connection can get any song that we release within minutes if they request it. And it can go beyond the internet, because that song could get played in a dance club, or in a restaurant. Blogs and podcasts have taken the pre-filters out of journalism and radio shows. Services like CDBaby.com and Tunecore.com have opened up digital and physical distribution for CDs and music. YouTube and blip.tv have taken the pre-filters out of video. Lulu.com and createspace.com have taken the pre-filters out of book publishing, DVD distribution, CD distribution, and others.

Jason:

So, there are no channels anymore, and creative works can be shared by anyone, and can be enjoyed by anyone that finds them. Once that happens, the same questions come up: How do I get an audience in this new world that has no channels anymore? Especially when I am competing against every other creator out there for people's attention. How do I deal with copyright? Publicity? Distribution?

These are the questions that we answer in our book which is focused on music. But these techniques can be used by anyone.

Norm:

You noted that you both have full time day jobs. How are  you able to juggle your music and writing careers with your full time occupations?

Jason:

We actually tried making a time machine, but when that didn't work, we learned that sleeping wasn't really as important as they try to make you believe.

Randy:

Actually, we're really motivated in spreading this information. And, there's something about having a day gig that forces you to get even more out of your night gig. You tend to make better use of your time.

Norm:

What are the most effective ways to promote Indie musicians through the Internet?

Jason:

The answer to that kind of question changes depending on the latest website or service that has the momentum on the internet at the moment. But the key isn't the particular service so much as it is to have the goal clearly in mind: getting an audience. All of the various services and websites just help you connect and build a larger audience. And the techniques vary.

So, on MySpace, it's friending people, which tends to get them interested in your music. On Twitter, it's following others, which usually leads to them following you. On Facebook, it's creating a band page that they can be a fan of. On ReverbNation, it's about using their street teams, and music widgets. On Eventful, it's using their demand widgets. All of these have ways to expose your music to people you've never met before, that would never get to hear your music otherwise. A comprehensive strategy is to have a presence in all of these places -- all free by the way -- and to use them to grow your audience. 

Randy: 

And what you need to remember when you do that is that the connection between a musician and his or her fans is a very personal one. If you have a Twitter account, which is my favorite right now, you need to tweet about personal stuff along with the music. If you use any of these just to "promote" or "sell", you won't be seen as genuine. We tweet things like how we broke a guitar string, or when we're going into the studio, or rehearsing, or even thinking about a show. Sometimes, we tweet about problems we're having, sites we discovered that are cool, or what music we're listening to right now, even if it's not ours.

Norm:

When organizing a tour, what in your estimates are the most important ingredients? As a follow up, how can musicians take full advantage of the Internet when planning the tour?

Randy:

When you tour, you should plan it at least three months in advance. Perhaps four. If you have enough time, you can do a coordinated college radio campaign scheduling in-studio interviews, ticket giveaways, and airplay. You can also run a press campaign (which, in the US, requires at least three months lead.) Touring is one of the few times you can get press to sit up and pay attention, because you'll only be there for a short time, so it's well worth doing a coordinated campaign.

Jason:

When it comes to the Internet, make sure your calendar goes up in all of your web presences, like MySpace, Reverbnation, and your website. But you should definitely use Eventful to both put up your upcoming tour calendar, and give people the chance to demand that you play in their area by using their powerful Demand widget. (It's free!) It's a complete game-changing service: when enough fans demand you come play their town you'll want to tour there -- because you know the audience will be showing up! There's a lot to this free service, so if you're a touring band, we recommend downloading our free guide we wrote that explains how best to use Eventful's free service: http://www.indieguide.com/eventful. 

Randy:

Also, we knew of a band that always schedules house concerts at intervening cities, so they had shows scheduled at stops both to and from their shows. This got even more fans involved and interested, gave them more money, and, in their case, crash space.

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and your books?

Randy: 

IndieGuide.com. That's our home base. 

Jason: 

Of course, the books are on sale in bookstores across the world and online through sites like Amazon, but yes, IndieGuide.com is the best place to get more info -- not only about the books, but just for your indie music career since it's a free resource. 

Norm:

What is next for Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan?

Jason: 

Much of our time is spent enhancing IndieGuide.com to make it a place where musicians can go to get all the information to do it on their own. For example, just one of the features we're adding is a comprehensive how-to feature that answers questions such as the ones you have above on how to tour and answering them in a concise, step-by-step way, tied closely to all of the links and resources we've found. When we finish this, you can go to our site to get answers to common questions like: How do I copyright my music, how do I sell music on iTunes, how can I make merchandise for $0, and how do I put on a live internet concert?

Randy:

Also, we're doing freelance writing for magazines such as Electronic Musician Magazine, doing radio work with II (musicbusinessradio.com), and we've been guest teaching at the Chicago-based Music Industry Workshop (miworkshop.com) which is a music business school. 

Music-wise, we've been playing live lately, but also working on our next two albums, and will be releasing those in the next 6 months. And...there's actually even more projects, but we can't unveil those quite yet.

Norm:

If you were starting all over today as a musician, what would you focus on?

Jason:

The answer to that question is the same as when we started: the music. Although there are a lot of things that you need to do in order to succeed as an indie musician, the music is the most important part.

Randy: 

But after that, you should really record some of your music first, because it's through your recorded music that fans will discover you today. From a practical standpoint, you also need to choose a good band name that no one else has yet so you can get a unique web domain. Then, you need to build your site and start a blog. From there you need to get your band name "out there" on the web by creating free accounts at sites like ReverbNation, MySpace,  Eventful, Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed. There's more than that of course, but then that's what IndieGuide.com is for (see our Web Presences category -- http://www.indieguide.com/category/view/Web_Presences_Social_Networks) You will be weaving all of these web presences into a tapestry of places to put your music and connect with fans, and many of them can be updated from a single location that syndicates the feeds so it's easy (we'll have a how-to that covers this!).

Meanwhile, offline you need to start finding places to play your first shows, if you're inclined to play live. 

Jason:

And there's many other things to do once you get there, which is why we created

IndieGuide.com so that musicians can easily find all the sites and services they can use and how best to use them.

Randy: 

But the main thing is, if we had to start all over, we'd feel lucky, because there's really never been a better time to be a musician.

Norm:

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors
 
Jason: 

Thanks Norm.

Randy: 

Thank you.

Click Here To Read Norm's Review of The Indie Band Survival Guide

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