I’ve recently stumbled across a couple of blogs that have, as well as make me feel hideously under-productive, also inspired ideas and motivated me, as well as reassure a few inklings of my own.
The first site is New Music Strategies, run by Andrew Dubber, who provides a list of twenty tidbits of information regarding how to present and promote yourself as an online musician. Admittedly it’s not rocket science — most of the posts are pretty much common sense and should be reflexive for any musician with their head screwed on. But it’s great to see all these ideas bundled up in a neat list, though not complete or at all definitive — Andrew has already begun to expand upon the initial ideas present in greater detail, and also presented them in an essential free pdf.
The second site that has caught my eye and made it on to my newly-created blogroll, is Hometracked, a site dedicated to, as the name suggests, all things DIY music production, from production hints and tips to industry news and commentary. Quite a lot of material already exists on the site, but for now I’ll continue the theme and link to a follow-up interview with Andrew Dubber, discussing some of the points put forward in his ‘20 things…’ list.
It’s nice to see Andrew reflect my personal irk of 30 second track snippets — it does nobody any favours, and in my experience makes the listener feel short-changed when the full track doesn’t live up to the potential suggested by the snippet. (iTunes take note, and congratulations Bleep for showing how it should be done.) Also, it’s nice to read about the value of giving away music for free, provided in addition to that for sale.
Both sites are a goldmine for indie musicians. Feel free to discuss below or in the forum.
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