2: Understand You Are in Two Related Industries

You are a songwriter/recording artist and need to record and release compelling music regularly (without fail). 2) You are an entertainer / performer. Your show MUST COMPEL those in the audience (no matter how few) to come to the next show with all their friends. On stage you are an actor. Your character may be yourself. But the character usually needs to be an amplified version of your normal self. Alternately, create characters.

- Rob Gordon

3: Lead A Scene

Position yourself as a leader. Put something together that doesn’t exist and get others involved.

- Derek Sivers

5: Be A Contrarian

Whatever other artists are doing in recording, performance and marketing…do the opposite.

- Tom Silverman

6: Build Your Network By Helping Others

Amber Rubarth is a 26-year-old singer/songwriter from Reno, who only started playing music five years ago, is now making a full-time living touring. She interned with a booking agent, to understand what’s she would need to do to get herself on the road. She was helpful to the agency and they in turn booked her as an opener for some high profile acts which helped launch her career.

- Derek Sivers

7: Have Professionalism!

No matter what level of “success” an artist is at, if he or she has invested time into refining and defining who they are and how they want to present their art to the world, that gets my attention. I discover just as many independent artists today as I do artists who have had extra help getting to where they are. What keeps my attention is, first and foremost, music that grabs my ear, but then the quality of the whole effort, which for me includes an artist website, not just a MySpace page, and the extent to which they have their ducks in a row, which now must start with an electronic press kit with high-res photos! I can’t tell you how many times I was able to run something in my magazine on an artist at the last minute, but a search online for a quality photo was not to be found and so they lost the opportunity.

- Erik Philbrook 

http://www.thebrilliantmistakes.com

8: Create Human Connection & Get In Community

Nothing beats face-to-face networking. And nothing beats a friendly email or a phone call from someone who knows I am a busy person but who nevertheless wants something from me, and can ask for it in a clear, casual and, yes, compassionate way.

- Erik Philbrook

An artist alone is in trouble – an artist in a community of artists has a chance. If you approach people you meet be they musicians or music business people with an at- titude of “how can I help us” rather than “what can you do for me?” you will get much farther much faster.

- Rick Goetz

9: Set Goals & Have a Plan

Create a plan for three months, for six months, for twelve months, and for your entire career (your biggest dreams). Set goals for each phase of your plan. Add dates and measurable action steps that you will be taking to get results during each phase.

http://tinyurl.com/arielgoals

- Ariel Hyatt

12: Don’t Measure Yourself Monetarily

 The key seems to be not to measure your indie music success by monetary standards and increased sales… I can’t measure mine that way at all… I don’t have anything for sale (yet)…. The key is asking yourself: How do these tools move you forward toward bigger things happening in your career?

- Jennie Walker

http://jenniewalker.com

15: Keep Good Company

Surround yourself both personally and professionally with people who will be straight with you. It is easy to lose the forest for the trees as an artist. You need people around you who you can trust and tell you when something you are doing isn’t working.

- Rick Goetz

16: Have Humility

It’s great that you have made this jump into the music business as if there is a net to catch you (especially when most of us are uncertain if this net will ever appear) that said – admitting what you don’t know and identifying the things you aren’t good at will make you make the right decisions in your art and your business

- Rick Goetz

18: Get Personal

I imagine this advice won’t apply to “concept bands” that have a specific theatrical act or image, but getting personal with my fans is what keeps me alive. Good music is barely enough to get fans to hand out 99¢ anymore; they have to be emotionally invested in the artist if that artist wants their loyalty. Don’t get me wrong, there can still be a “fourth wall” during a live concert or video, but real, meaningful connection with the fans is what keeps me in their heads after the show’s over (heck, even your “char- acter” can interact with fans in-character). I chat with my fans via Twitter, Facebook, matthewebel.com and matthewebel.net, and as many other channels as possible. The more I interact with them between performances, the more I stay fresh in their minds and the more inspiration I draw from them.

- Matthew Ebel

19. Hand Out A Business Card

I made a card with a little album art, a website address and email - nothing more - and handed it out to anyone who asked what I did, or who even smiled at me at my gigs. The result? Well, even a long-time friend emailed me to say he was embarrassed to admit he’d never bothered to listen to me before, but after pulling my card out of his pocket and going to the website, he just bought all three of my CDs. He brought two friends to my last gig.

- Dudley Saunders

http://www.dudleysaunders.com

21: Consistently Give Out New Material

Since I started posting either new videos or new songs every month, the open-rate on my emails has gone up drastically. And I’m getting emails from the friends of friends who have forwarded them on. I’ve been asked to do two high-profile benefits in the last month, one from someone who had never even heard of me before.

- Dudley Saunders

http://www.dudleysaunders.com

23: Interview Your Fans – Find Out What They Want

When I began asking them specific questions about who they were and what they responded to in my music, I noticed that lightly-engaged fans began to turn into evangelical fans. Plus, I began to see what actually made them care about my work - which was not at all what I was putting in my press releases.

- Dudley Saunders

http://www.dudleysaunders.com

26: Do EVERY Piece of Press Available

Screw Rolling Stone/Blender/Wired. Unless you’re a Top 40 household name, you haven’t earned their covers and you’re not gonna get ‘em. Be humble while reaching for the stars…there is no piece of press too small. More importantly, press leads to more press, so say yes to everything that serves your career goals. Also, ASK FOR MORE. If you have a song picked up on a podcast, ask them if they’d like to interview you. If they interview you, ask if they’d like you to perform live on their show. Ask for more; push it to the next level of exposure. It’s SuperSizing. Nine times out of ten, when their format allows for the deeper coverage I’ve asked for, they’ve given it.

- Phil Putnam

http://www.philputnam.com/

28: Get Involved With Your Home Town

If you promote your city your city will promote you. Probably won’t work in NYC, but maybe. Have you asked the mayor what you can do to help?

- Jason Walsmith / The Nadas

http://thenadas.com/blog

30: Create Amazing Music – Recorded and Live

Creating amazing songs/music and putting on a killer live show. That is the number one thing an artist needs to do. :)

- Emily White 

35: Create Solidly Crafted, Well-Produced, Mastered Broadcast-Quality Songs

Well-produced music will attract more listeners and media makers. People want to be associated with quality. So even if you are ridiculously talented, if you didn’t spend the time or money have your album properly produced, mixed and mastered it will be stopped at the door. You have to be willing to go into debt or come up with a creative way to raise funds to have your music fine-tuned in post production. It’s a step that should not be overlooked. 

  - Derek Nicoletto

Update on October 30, 2009 by ACMastering

You can record in your garage but when it comes to mastering (and yes you need to get your CD Mastered)  leave it to a pro.  Who wants a thousand CD’s with problems in sound or that don’t play properly?  

A fresh set of professional ears will do your CD wonders!  Your fans will love you all the more.

Sound Your Best,

Adrian Carr

ACMastering

36: Make Instrumental Mixes

Make mixes of your album without the lead and background vocals and throw your in- strumental tracks into the licensing ring. It doubles your available catalog and opens up opps for shows that do not use vocal music. If your w/vocal mixes are already copy written (if they’re not, seriously, I will beat you senseless when I see you on the street), you don’t need to register these instrumental mixes separately because the music on them has already been registered. An instrumental placement won’t get your voice out there in TV land, but it could pay for your next EP.

- Phil Putnam

http://www.philputnam.com/

38: Learn How to Rehearse

You know the rules to get a song on radio intro/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ bridge/ chorus, 3 1/2 minutes long, etc. But live those rules change…it’s a different medium. You need to find the moments in the songs and develop them during a rehearsal. Rehearsals are a great place to take chances and be spontaneous.

- Tom Jackson

www.onstagesuccess.com