After reading multiple blogs and books about music marketing on how to get a band famous, I noticed something disturbing: a lack of real world results from those techniques. Being an independent musician, I’ve decided to take the opportunity to document experiments in getting more fans, getting money, and improving the lifestyle of a musician in a band. This experiment will document a new band, starting from scratch, from everything on how to get members, how to get gigs, and what the actual financial outcome of these experiments are.
I am Chris “Seth” Jackson, a bass guitarist and composer. I am an average musician, working a day job as a software engineer, in pursuit of fulfilling my life’s dream of being a self-sufficient musician. This blog is to share the ups and downs of this adventure and, hopefully, find great techniques that everyone can use to achieve success in the extremely difficult world of music.
E-mail me: seth _at_ howtorunaband.com
http://twitter.com/howtorunaband
https://www.facebook.com/HowToRunABand
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Wow!
Great blog. Just discovered this. Will be glued.
Right on! Thank you! It’s going to be a long road, so I hope I can keep you entertained.
Hey there Chris (or Seth… whichever you go by)
I’ve been following your blog for the last week or two and have been absolutely LOVING your content and take on the music biz. I tried to find another way to reach out to you to chat but couldn’t seem to find any links. Are you on twitter or FB? Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@miccontrol) or via email jon.ostrow@miccontrol.com
Maybe there is a way we can work together!
Look forward to hearing from you
Jon Ostrow
MicControl
Chris or Seth. Doesn’t matter. I go by “Seth” or “Sethalicious” in my band, so I didn’t want people saying, “Hey! There’s no Chris in that band!”
Thank you for reading! I haven’t set up my official email yet, but you can reach me at sethalicious _at_ gmail.com. I don’t have an FB or Twitter yet because I’m not sure of the amount of time I can dedicate to those at the moment.
Look forward to talking to you, Jon! I’ll be checking out your site.
Sethalicious?!
Be warned: If I ever meet you, there will be serious ribbing about that
All ribbing is welcome! Haha! Anyone who has ever seen me play live knows I have no humility or sense of decency. For instance, I’m on the far right playing bass in this video. We’re dressed up as the Village People doing a punk cover of Macho Man for a Halloween show. Yep, I’m wearing assless chaps while some weird dude strips to his underwear in the audience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98_F9r6SgE
(grins)
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Nice one, Chris/Seth … or should we call you Chrisseth … ;)
Hahaha! Actually, a friend in high school called me ChrisSlashSeth. Hilarious!
Thanks, Catherine!
Seth!
I dig your experiments! This is great!
Thanks, man! Can’t wait to do some “myth busting”!
Hey dude! Sweet site you have going here. This is all stuff I wish I could show my last band, maybe they’d be moving a little faster if they saw it. I heard about this site on a marketing podcast today, and was stoked to hear you’re having a good time with it. Looking forward to more posts, see you then! – Aaron
Thanks man! Yeah, this blog is basically my battle plan for my new band. I brainstorm and write the posts, and then I have to reread them to take my own advice! :) It’s difficult to keep everything in your brain that you need to do on a daily basis. I’ve even caught myself over the last couple of days not taking my own advice.
Which podcast was this?
HEY SETH ,.. back in the day of the bubble in weston , i was your closest friend,.. i have often wondered where you landed from that cosmic trip of trips,.. now i see,.. BRAVO ! hehe sure better then being stuck in perp locker J at los alimos “where they made a copy of OUR bubble btw” peace ,.. signed THE WALKING WIZARD
Hey, Jon! Nice to hear from ya after all these years. I hope everything is going good for ya!
Hey diggin the blog and all the good reads!
got something for you to look ay http://www.redigi.com
Kind of Pi$$ myself about this idea …. that slim chunk of the pie we make as an artist just got smaller!
I’ve heard pros and cons of this service. Honestly, I don’t worry about things like that. You simply can’t control it.
Personally, I think creating great value for your fans and driving them to cool, exclusive offers on your own site is the way to go. Simply popping up digitial music on iTunes isn’t going to cut it.
For instance, what if you could create a great digital package of photos, videos, and eBooks with your music that fans can’t get anywhere else? Then sell it to them through a shopping cart on your own site. That’s totally possible now. You don’t have to send people away to iTunes or AmazonMP3 when you can sell directly to them through your email list and website.
I think that is the major transformation in independent musicians. Not relying on the mass consumer outlets and, instead, concentrating on your true fans and bringing them into YOUR world. It’s more difficult since you have to do it yourself, but you don’t have to give anything at all to the mass outlets that you don’t want to.
Redigi can do what it wants. I’m not worried if I know I’m building higher quality content and products for my fans than anywhere else.
Great blog.
I think we’re going to feature it.
Wow! Thank you!
Just read your distribution article. Sensible read, but not all of the distributors accelerate the cost.
“IndigoBoom Pioneers Flat Rate Digital Distribution
That link just lead to a news site and not your article. But I’ll check out IndigoBoom! I love hearing about different distribution services.