The New DIY Musician’s Manifesto (What Did I Miss?)
June 15, 2011
Chris Rockett in DIY, The New DIY Musician’s Manifesto

What would you add to this list?

I will not blindly chase a record deal

I will never send music to anyone who has not asked for it

I will work on new music for an hour everyday

I know there is no such thing as “genius” but just people who have put in 10,000 hours of effort

I will treat my fans like royalty

I will build my mailing list everyday

I will never undersell my art and let people take advantage of me

I will embrace marketing every day and enjoy it

I will never engage in “car salesman” style marketing

I will focus my music marketing efforts or the biggest sites on the Internet

I will ignore anything that wastes time

I will have full engagement with my fans

I will sell digital music with no overhead

I will become friendly with people who can help me achieve my goals

I will not moan when other less talented people become more successful than me

I will take action on everything I learn

I will not be perfect

I will have 1000 true fans

I will create amazing value for my fans

I will go round after every show and ask people to join my mailing list

I will blog every day and get to know other talented bloggers

I will use google reader to keep track of everything that’s going on in the music scene

“Quality and consistency” is my mantra

I will never stop making music

I will produce the most amazing music the world has ever seen

I will see my job as finance for my music career and get the hell out of there ASAP

I will learn how to do simple web design so that I don’t have to pay through my ass all the time

I will track my progress every day and celebrate any success

I will test and track everything to get more results from the same amount of effort

I will have the sex and drugs after the rock and roll

I realize that fame and fortune don’t last

I will be nice to my band mates and make sure they have fun too

I will collaborate with amazing people

I will not print up physical CDs or vinyl until my fans are begging for it like hungry dogs

I will not blindly pay a PR company who promise the world

I will not play every shitty gig I ever get offered

I will put on my own amazing shows

I will take advantage of the many income streams open to the DIY musician

I will not travel 500 miles to play a gig for two people just because I like being on tour

I will seek out the best marketing people in the world and use their tactics in music

I will give my best work away for free

I will not talk about helping the 3rd world unless I really mean it

I will use the 80/20 rule to leverage my time

I will call my mother everyday

I will read every word on these amazing websites:

Tight Mix

Mic Control

The Buzz Factor

Professor Pooch

Wayward Musician

Grassrootsy

Thorny Bleeder

Michael Brandvold

Make It In Music

Gen-Y Rock Stars

Music Marketing [dot] com

Music Success In Nine Weeks

Music on the Make

Dotted Music

Passive Promotion

What would you add to this list?

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Chris Rockett (@MusicMarketingX) is a musician and music marketing consultant from London who uses Direct-to-Fan marketing tactics to help level the playing field between DIY musicians and major label artists.

Article originally appeared on Music Think Tank (https://www.musicthinktank.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.