New Year, New Ideas

01
January

  The new year is upon us! In the Spirit of change/resolutions/starting over, I propose that all the musicians reading this come up with a visible change in the way they spread their music. Here are a few ideas… (trying to keep posts shorter so its not too much to read in one sitting) Book Yourself. Then Book [...]

3 Big Mistakes That Artists Make

31
December

The below suggestions have probably appeared on Grassrootsy in various posts, but last week I thought I’d loosely keep tabs on artist emails and FB messages and tweets  just to see what people are still doing these days.  Here are a few… 1. Falling off the map What!?  Who are you?  Oh…I almost forgot because [...]

Is Myspace Dead? Well…

03
December

Ok, there are a rumors that Myspace is dead. And yea…I sorta believe that.  But, it’s important to remember that people will go where the information is. A website is a website. Many artists are still treating  Myspace as their official site…and for good reason. Myspace is fully customizable and I truly believe this is [...]

Mailing Lists & Social Networking

28
June

Think of Your Mailing List as a Gateway Drug. If you’ve read Grassrootsy for any amount of time, you know we stress the importance of having a mailing list at your shows. Well, given the rise of Facebook and Twitter among musicians, your mailing list might not be the most important way to communicate with [...]

Random Tips & Tricks #3

08
June

To read the first two blogs in this series visit:  Random Tips & Tricks #1 and Random Tips & Tricks #2 TIPS FOR LIVE SHOWS Before you perform, put a couple business cards on each table in the venue.  The information might not be important to anyone until you perform.  When they hear you, they’ll pick your card up [...]

Innovative Advertising – Some Things To Consider Trying

20
May

Oh advertising!  Is it really worth it as a musician?  Well, it depends. Where are you advertings? What are you advertising? And do you have money? Of course you want to try to get as much free publicity as possible.  If you can do it for free, definitely go for that option! When you do [...]

An Interview With Brianna Lane

15
April

Folk/Americana artist Brianna Lane is an independent musician based out of Minneapolis, MN.  She’s the author of three self-released, full-length albums and tours full time.  She’s opened for several National touring acts including Dar Williams and The Weepies. Brianna is one of the few artist I know who has had success with acquiring patrons (i.e. individuals and organization who fund [...]

Incredible Resources You’ve Never Heard About #1

13
April

In the last month, some new and interesting websites have been passed on to me so I thought I’d do a post on new and underrated music resources for independent artists. If you are aware of other resources please post them in comments…and give Grassrootsy readers a short description of what the they’re all about [...]

Stand-out Artists and What We Can Learn from Them #2

25
March

To read the first post in this series, visit Stand-out Artists and What We Can Learn from Them #1 Artist #1:  Wisdm O.N.E Wisdm O.N.E.  If you keep in mind the fact that your music travels much faster than you do, it will hopefully make you think twice about how much emphasis you put on the production [...]

Creating Value: Is your Music Worth Something?

02
March

  Ok, so the point is…if you’ve got something to consume, you need consumers.  Consumers can be music purchasers, show attendees…basically anyone who is willing to be spoonfed your tunes. Stuff it in their faces! (jk) The number one question is How do I get people to buy me?  Here are some suggestions Giving Value [...]

Making the Best of a Good Situation

26
February

Promoting yourself is like adding links to a chain.  When one opportunity is over, make sure it has the potential to lead to another. Today’s post is all about capitalizing on a good thing. As I mentioned in the Just Do It post, when something good (or big) happens, you can’t just stop there. You have [...]

Helping Yourself #4

18
February

Read the other blogs in this series: Helping Yourself #1 Helping Yourself #2 Helping Yourself #3 Today I went to re-visit Derek Sivers’  ”Nobody’s going to help you“  blog. Make sure to read this blog if you haven’t already.  Its got some excellent thoughts and excellent reader comments. Here’s comment by a frustrated reader… Response # 6,780 by Karsten Schwardt “If I [...]

An Interview with The Lost Sea

16
February

  The Lost Sea is an indie folk/rock band based out of Pittsburgh PA.  They currently receive over 600 song plays daily on their myspace and last week they were ranked #1 on ReverbNation’s folk charts. Go TLS!  So i thought I’d email frontman Sean Atkins to get some ideas on how they spend time promoting themselves.   Here are [...]

Creating Content – Giving People Something to Talk About – Part 2

05
February

To read the first part of this blog, visit Creating Content #1. Here are some additional ways to create content for your website(s). Widgets I used to be extremely skeptically of using widgets on my page but everyone is using them these days and they are such a great way to simply beef up your page(s). What’s a [...]

Creating Content – Giving People Something to Talk About – Part 1

04
February

Creating content can be hard to do when you’re just starting out.  How do you get people to visit your website or myspace if you have nothing to put on it?  How do you get your CD reveiwed if you don’t have any way to prove its worth listening to?  Here are some ideas… Endorsements [...]