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

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

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

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 

45: Gig Swap

Network with other bands in person and online to set up gig swaps with other artists to play in other cities. You host them when they come to your town and they in turn host you.

- Emily White

We are strong in some areas and other bands are strong in different areas. So, we often trade shows so that bands open each other shows and build tours around them to tap into multiple fan bases.

- Michele Samuel

47: At Live Shows Employ Mobile Text Short Codes, Mobile Phones or Google Voice

Walking around with an email list requires manpower, time and generally does not get a great result. But, if you could have the fans text you during your performance and stay in touch with them that way. We use a short code and have the fans text to it during the performance. When they text they receive a link to download free tracks. We capture their text number and then keep in contact and get permission to continue a relationship with them after the show. The return has been a minimum of 25% of the audience.

- Michele Samuel

Offer up a Google Voice number from stage where folks can text in their email address. Or a mobile # where people can text their phone numbers straight to you. Next time you play in that area you already have a built in text-messaging list.

- Emily White

48: Create Moments, Capture And Engage Audiences, Don’t Just Sing And Play Songs

Your audience wants to feel something, not hear something. When people are moved, they remember and want to buy those moments to take home and relive. It’s about how you and your music affect people. Give your audience something to think about.

The audience wants to forget about themselves. There are onstage skills, tools, and techniques to win an audience, and to keep them captured and engaged and wanting more. It’s all about an emotional connection with people!

- Tom Jackson

http://onstagesuccess.com

49: Exceed Your Audience’s Expectations Without Changing Who You Are

Like a great restaurant, your customers (audiences) have expectations. If a restaurant doesn’t figure out what the customers want, the restaurant will go out of business,

- Tom Jackson

http://onstagesuccess.com

51: Know Your Role in the Band Onstage

Know what your audience expects. Players on a great football team need to know their roles in order to be successful. It’s the same with a great band. A great quarterback/front man is a leader. The wide receiver/ lead guitarist knows he’s supposed to deliver the touchdown. The lineman/ drummer holds down the fort. There are specific skills and roles for each person to know and work on in order to be great as a group onstage and win the audience.

- Tom Jackson

http://onstagesuccess.com

52: Meet & Greet: And Sign Autographs Till There Is No One Left Waiting

Sign and hang out and engage with folks post-show. Stay at the merch table till you have met every single person that wants to meet you and sign merch. That personal touch will be long remembered after you leave and those fans will bring their friends the next time you come through town.

- Emily White

www.whitesmithentertainment.com

71: Activision’s “Guitar Hero” Not Calling You For A Synch Deal? Join The New Rock Band Network Yourself!

Rock Band is a multiple player video game. The game licenses music from famous artists (like the Police) and currently you can buy music from many named artists to compete with. The creators of Rock Band are opening up the platform for all musicians to submit songs in the game. Rock Band will sell your tracks for you using their powerful network but you must hire a programmer to program your music to synch with the game. I think the potential is there for an unknown artist to rocket to the top in this whole new median. I wouldn’t be surprised if people start writing songs that go with this game. It’s a brand new opportunity to put your music in a place where it can bounce around and find it’s feet and find your future fans – someone will be getting famous as the first rock band from Rock Band.

Watch the how to video here: http://creators.rockband.com/

 - Jonathan Coulton

www.jonathancoulton.com

80: The Chillcast: The Largest Podcast For Chillout & Electronica

The Chillcast is a weekly music podcast featuring. Hand picked podsafe music hosted by Anji Bee, vocalist of Lovespirals. Anji Bee is a Southern California vocalist, lyricist, podcaster and vidcaster. She is one half of the indie band, Lovespirals. Anji’s podcast gets tens of thousands of downloads per show and Anji is always looking to discover great new artists in the genres listed.     

Genres: Chillout, electronica, worldbeat, soul, and jazz. http://www.thechillcast.com

- Ariel Hyatt

www.arielpublicity.com

84: Get A “Take Five” Feature Interview on All About Jazz , one of the largest Jazz Por- tals Online

If you are a jazz musician looking to get some extra exposure look to All About Jazz. They have a free way for you to further raise the awareness of your music and your- self if you would like to be featured on this wonderful site it’s very easy. Just logon and fill out their online questionnaire and get instant content to add to your press kit/ Sonic Bids profile. All About Jazz will promote your Take Five questions and answers on the AAJ home page and link to it from your AAJ musician profile.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/submit_take_five.php

- Ariel Hyatt

www.arielpublicity.com

85: Join the Remix Culture at CCMixter

Letting people remix your songs is an exciting way to get exposure for your music. Go to sites like ccmixter.org, put up your tracks, and see where your music can go. The tracks will be released under Creative Commons licenses, which allow people to re- mix your music, although you’ll keep the original rights, and they’ll have to attribute if they use your music. Some bands have been so successful at this that they released entire albums of remixes of their music. And the remixers of course promoted it to their fans.

- Randy Chertkow

http://randycon.org/

86: Twitter Karma: Piggyback Off Similar Bands on Twitter to Grow Followers

When you target new people to follow, it is always wise to make sure they already like your genre of music. If you somewhat sound like Radiohead, wouldn’t it make sense to target the followers of their various Twitter profiles? For the people who do not follow you back, check out Twitter Karma. It allows you to ‘bulk unfollow’ anyone who has not followed you back; it’s a great tool for Twitter maintenance. http://dossy.org/ twitter/karma/

- Chris Gesualdi