If you’re like most musicians from humble beginnings, you likely don’t have a very large pool from which to gather money to support your dreams in the early stages. Here’s a collection of affordable, often free, resources to help you get your feet off the ground and save as much money along the way.
Music Hosting
BandCamp - Probably the industry standard for music hosting among independent artists. Simple, reliable and easy to use for both the musician and the fan.
Merch
BigCartel - BigCartel is the perfect musicians ecommerce solution.
How to Screen Print Your Own Shirts - There are tons of companies who you can pay to do this for you, but there’s nothing more punk than doing it yourself. Every band or artist should have a DIY run of merch early in their career. It’s a right of passage. ;)
Website
BandZoogle - “Band Websites That Work.” A little on the expensive side for some artists, but if you’ve got the spare cash this is a good all in one option to help you get a website set up.
SiteBeginner - If you’re looking for an even more affordable option, I highly recommend following SiteBeginner’s guide to creating a website. Following the steps outlined here, you can have a fully functional website that is totally flexible and will allow you to maintain complete control over your online presence for between $2 and $3 per month.
Social Media
Facebook - duh
Twitter - you know?
Instagram - okay. :)
Of course you should have a presence on each of the above, that’s a given. Below are some tools to help you manage your pages on each of those platforms.
Facebook Page Insights - Stats, charts, graphs and tools to help you more effectively leverage your Facebook profile to market your musician or band profile.
FollowerWonk - you can use this tool to dig into your Twitter analytics as well as other handy things like finding other artists to network with in cities you might be planning on visiting or finding music bloggers to reach out to.
Crowdfire - schedule posts, and manage all of your profiles in one place.
Tweetdeck - Track your Twitter engagement and organize your profile.
Graphic Design
Canva - Canva is an incredibly simple to use tool to help you create logos, cover photos and so much more. They even have standardized templates for pretty much any image size or format you could possibly need so you can be sure you’ll always have the correct dimensions, file format and resolution for the platform you’re planning to publish an image on.
Networking
Indie on the Move - Book shows and get in touch with promoters in new areas.
WorkFrom - If you’re on the road, chances are you might have a little bit of downtime and you’ve probably spent hours between cities with virtually no reception or internet access. WorkFrom can help you find a location where you can hang out, grab a bite to eat and catch up on some of the business side of things.
Finances
Recording Your Music is the First Step, Do You Have Enough Money for the Second?
Monthly Budget for Musicians Template