Moving on...

Hi anyone who may happen to read this.

I just wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know that I realized last week that it has been 6 months since I put out an episode. I tried to get one out in April and talk to Rob Balder about the benefits of giving your music away, but Rob got sick the weekend I saw him and we couldn't do it.

Since then other things have come up. We sold our house and are now moving. I'm trying to finish up my new album. And I've started a new podcast for The FuMP.

It's obvious to me that I don't have the time to do justice to this show so I'm just going to end it.

Lately I've taken the stance that "if it's not directly helping my music career it's not worth doing," and while this podcast may help it also may not and I've got other things to work on that I know will help.

So thank you for all the feedback you've given me since starting the show. And good luck, everyone!

If you want to contact me for any reason please email spice AT suddendeath DOT org.

->Later.....Spice

Episode 5 - Some Services You May Find Helpful

Show notes:

Welcome back. Happy new year!
- Where have I been?
- After episode 4 (interview with Randy Chertkow) in September I got busy with a freelance job
- Finished up in mid December, then the holidays

Feedback
- read email from Doug Hanna about giving away music
- will do that next time

Things That Helped Me
- not sponsored, just like them and use them
- PaperMart.com
- great if you sell a lot of CDs
- sell CD mailers (roughly $.20 to $.30 each)
- Must buy in lots of 100
- 2 kinds: single CD and 1-4 CD
- for 5 or more CDs I use Priority boxes from the post office
- (show stuffing CDs into each)

- Endicia.com
- previously:
- print out address, return address, stuff, stick
- take to post office and hold up the line for 45 minutes
- now: print one label that includes address, return, and postage
- just drop them off at the post office
- $15/mo, so only good for high volume
- allows you to print postage right from your computer
- buy postage which is credited to your account, then deducted when you print
- you will need a scale, requires active internet connection
- can customize templates and print on various labels
- I use Internet Mailing Labels from Staples (2 to a sheet)
- (print out test print)
- don't need to tape single CD mailers closed with those

Episode 4 - Interview with Randy Chertkow

Show notes:
Randy Chertkow is a musician with the band Beatnik Turtle and co-author of The Indie Band Survival Guide. Randy and I ran into each other at DragonCon this month and he was kind enough to grant me an interview.

Send feedback to workingindiemusician@gmail.com.

Episode 3 - The Facebook Debacle

Episode 3 show notes:
- welcome to episode 3! (feels weird to be at 3)

Feedback
- from Jonathan Romley of Artist Force
- moderator of the panel I talked about
"I enjoyed your video. I also hoped for some more insightful vision of the future than I was able to extract. You've made a good point – often, our guess is as good as the next well informed social media fanatic. I wish you the best with your vlog."

- from Doug Hanna, filmmaker
"Love the show- Keep it up!

I don't have a music Facebook page, but what I find from a Facebook Fan Page for my films and movies is that it does get you a few new fans. Facebook makes a big deal about anything anyone does so if someone becomes a fan of "Bob The Singer" it will come up on all of their friends home pages that says So-and-So became friends with "Bob The Singer". You might get fans that way."
- goes on to talk about some of the general benefits of having a fan page.
- This happened to me with The Leviathan Chronicles.

So I Set One Up
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Devo-Spice/116693183739
- the set up sucked
- browser crashed 6 times while trying to upload photos
- discography application kept erroring back to photo album application
- after completing the photo album the discography application still didn't work
- uploading music requires that you prove you're who you say you are by faxing them a copy of your drivers license, then takes a few days to approve
- I was approved, but still don't know where users can play the songs I uploaded

Was It Worth it?
- maybe
- 121 fans, as of now, roughly 1/3 of friends on personal page
- however, many fans are not friends, possibly half, so I am reaching new people

Don't Invite Friends?
- couldn't figure out how to invite friends, so I asked a friend
- she said don't, she hates when bands invite you to become fans
- then volunteered to do it for me
- I posted on Twitter, cross posted to my status

Set Up on TheSixtyOne.com
- easy process
- must have separate account as listener, can't be both artist and listener
- makes a game out of listening to music and discovering new music
- several friends jumped onto it after I did and have become hooked

Question
- What web sites do you use to promote your music, and how well has it worked out for you?
- send feedback to workingindiemusician@gmail.com

Episode 2: The So-Called Marketing Experts

Show notes:

Feedback
- like it, but don't record in front of a waterfall

ASCAP New York Sessions
- I'm not happy with ASCAP, but that's a whole other show
- I attended New York Sessions back in March, wasn't worth it, but I'm glad I went
- I attended the Marketing from the Driver's Seat panel - basically do it yourself marketing
- panelists:
Moderator - Jonathan Romley - Founder, CEO - ArtistForce
Reed Calhoun - Director, Artist Relations - ArtistForce, Artist - Rock Kills Kid; Songwriter - Plain White T's
Jonathan Eshak - Artist Manager, Brett Dennen, The Walkmen - Mick Management
Irving Fain - Director, Digital Marketing & Content - Clear Channel Online Music & Radio
Lawrence Peryer - President - 23 Omnimedia
Thomas Silverman - Founder, CEO - Tommy Boy Entertainment
Lucy Weber - Publicist - Swift PR
- the panel went over the usual stuff: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- 2 people then asked "what's next?"
- THEY COULDN'T ANSWER
- That's when I realized they don't know any more than I do
- So what do they have that I don't?
1. money
2. connections
- this realization was encouraging and discouraging at the same time

Question for you
- Has setting up a Facebook fan page for you helped?
- Are you getting any new fans from it, or is it just another place for your existing fans?

Feedback to workingindiemusician@gmail.com