The Indie Artist X Project
Drumroll please....thank you....and welcome to the Indie Artist X Project! The Indie Artist X Project is a collaborative effort involving six sponsors (myself included) and hopefully you! The sponsors have identified an indie artist and worked together to develop a plan for the artist in question to promote a tour and new release on the cheap - you know, super indie style. The goal here is to see what is working, what isn't, and what areas of music marketing are most effective when it comes to reaching the fans. Each month, between now and October, we'll track the success of Indie Artist X for all to see. You can keep up with the whole project, from start to finish, here.
Each sponsor involved in the project has taken on a specific music marketing "channel" to handle (please bear with us as we complete the entries for the plans). Our rules are that we can't do any of the legwork for the artist, because as you know, most real indie artists have to know how to get their hands dirty, but we can offer guidance and direction. Where do you come in? We want your input into the plans for each channel and suggestions on tricks Indie Artist X might try. A list of sponsors is below. If you have an idea for a specific channel, hit up the sponsor.
Now, no matter how much you beg, plead or bribe, I can't reveal who Indie Artist X is until the end of the project, though you can find out a few clues if you read on. (Well, let's be honest, bribery MAY work - get in touch to talk numbers. I kid, I kid.) BUT - why can't Indie Artist X be you? The ultimate goal here is to develop a real, actionable marketing plan that indie artists can easily do themselves on an indie budget. You too can start putting the channel recommendations into action starting today. If you do, of course, let us know.
And now, meet your Indie Artist X Project Sponsors:
Andrew Goodrich
Artists House Music
http://www.artistshousemusic.org/
Channel: Fan Development
Bruce Houghton
Hypebot
http://www.hypebot.com/
Channel: Commerce
Cameron Mizell
MusicianWages.com
http://musicianwages.com/
Channel: Awareness
David Rose
KnowTheMusicBiz.com
http://www.knowthemusicbiz.com/
Channel: Artist Website
Heather McDonald
About.com Music Careers
http://musicians.about.com/
Channel: Influencers
Martin Atkins
Revolution Number Three
http://www.revolutionnumberthree.com/
Channel: Live Shows
Last, but not least, meet Indie Artist X:
The artist participating in the Indie Artist X Project is a talented, hard working independent musician who has had two previous records released by a small independent record label. He is currently not signed to a record label, does not have a booking agent or manager. He has a day job and is married. His goal is to make music his full time career.I hope you'll join us on this journey! Stay involved and share your ideas!
I LOVE this!!1 I would LOVE to contibute, as far as tell you folks what is and isn’t working for us, as well as find out more about how to expand on our craft, with the several genres our artists do. I’m a producer/engineer/songwriter who runs an indie label with my business partner, who is a producer/artist in his own right. We deal with about four or five different genres on our label, ranging from Hiphop (Both Niche and commerical; I say niche because it inst underground, but it certainly caters to a specific audience) to Pop, Indie, Electronica, Rock, and even Classical (Any tips on how to promot an Opera Singer?). We also want to know how to shop our songs to shows, movies and video games. I can’t WAIT for this to begin!!