fwdthought

DIY Music Distribution : MACSD July 29, 2011

2011-06-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

Workshop Goal:

• Introduce, encourage DIY Ethos for artist self determination, using widely available online tools.

Welcome:

• Introductions, explain music practice, experiences, goals for workshop.

Where to start? Some things to understand to align your philosophy with DIY ethos:

• The traditional music industry has changed top to bottom over the past 10 years. It’s best not to be a part of the traditional music industry and instead jump into DIY evolution.

• The DIY artist/ entrepreneur inhabits their own niche. You are your own industry, or you may inhabit a small, community/ local industry of like minded people with similar objectives.

The upside is independence. The challenge is that the DIY artist must be comfortable in operating in several realms as applicable. The duties of executive producer, promotions manager, booking agent, artist and repertoire, creative marketing, duties that a traditional arts/ music organization would be responsible for now belong to you.

Some case studies:

The established artist that forges a new DIY ethos: Trent Reznor, Radiohead

The independent artist that finds general mainstream success using DIY ethos: Lily Allen, Adele

The successful independent DIY artist that you’ll never hear about: Jake Reichbart, Lumina Music

Consider DIY examples in other industries: publishing, fine art, movies, political activism, comedy, etc.

A Challenge!

Starting up is always the hardest part. A web presence is a good place to begin. Here are some quick and easy solutions that you could do over the weekend:

• Facebook group/ band page
• Soundcloud profile- build community of similar users/ styles
• Visit forums, blogs to post your links

An advanced web presence might involve:

• A custom home website that links/ broadcasts to other parts of the web where you reside: Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, iTunes etc.

Now that we have all that figured out...

What exactly are you selling? What formats? How will you deliver your product? How will you market and promote it? How will you maintain ownership and control of your product over the Internet? How much will you charge? Will you give it away? Are partnerships a consideration?

MACSD offers One To One training: $45.00 per hour.

Some great articles meant to inspire and provoke:

NME : Morrissey

Hypebot : The DIY Musician

NIN : User Forum

Wordpress for Music

Louis Haiman : The Formless EP : Abstract Forms

2009-12-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

Abstract Forms brings you another slice of fine quality electronic music.

The Formless EP features 4 tracks of wonderfully thoughtful and sublime electronic music. From hypnotic Detroit influenced Techno to slow outer limit electronics, this EP oozes buckets of digital soul that's carefully designed to take you on a sonic journey, it will free your mind.

Featuring 2 new exclusive tracks and 2 tracks from the ‘Life after People’ LP that was previously only available as a digital download, this EP will no doubt please all the vinyl lovers amongst us.

Limited to 200 copies, Vinyl only, stamped covers.
Release date: 22nd February 2010

Fwdthought Powered by Bandcamp

2009-07-28T02:48:00.000-07:00

We love sharing our music. We also have a loyal audience that wants to support us in doing our thing. Bandcamp is a neat and tidy publishing platform for musicians. We like it because it allows a variety of download, file type, customization and pay options. Here you can choose to download shared files, or pay a minimum for higher quality files.

You can listen to and download all current Fwdthought releases here: Fwdthought on Bandcamp

There was a recent article by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails that has been circulating online. In it, he continues his support of new, multi formated media for free, pay what you like, and premium price points. We tend to agree with him. It's about getting your music out there as opposed to having it locked away in an archive somewhere. What good is that?

iTunes, CDBaby, CDs, it's all good. Just adds to the mix. In six months we'll all be onto something else.

Read Trent's rant here : NIN