I had the opportunity to exchange emails with a indie music insider who has a lot of pull within the industry and he gave me some useful information for small bands wanting to have a successful career in music as long as I don’t post his name, which we will not do.  You can check that info out below:

1) Do not hire a manager: Hiring a manager is for bands who don’t have the time to handle things themselves, and if your a smaller band just starting out you don’t need one anyway.  Manager’s are for bands that are on the road full time and is already having success, if your a small band scraping by on tour you don’t need an extra 15% to 20% being taken out of your band funds.

2) Put music out constantly: Most smaller bands see their favorite bands putting albums out every 2-4 years and they feel they need to do the same to generate demand, that is the wrong way of thinking.  If your are a small band you need to be recording and playing music as much as possible because you don’t have demand in most cases.  Their is a lot of established bands that would love to put 2 albums out a year but due to record label obligations they are not allowed to.

3) Play live music: when I say play live music I mean play as much as you can wherever you can, if you have to play in your garage with 5 people watching do that.  Book your band a regional tour, a national tour whatever you can afford, its not hard to call up an all ages club and ask to play.  A great way to book a tour is contact a local band in the town you are looking to play and book a show with that band, chances are they have a contact at a venue.  I have seen firsthand the power of Facebook and Myspace in terms of booking shows, its not hard.

4) Market yourself: What I mean is get one of those friend request programs off the internet and add as many friends on myspace as possible, by doing that your going to see your plays go up on your page therefore generating new fans.  I would also contact a myspace designer and have them build you a great page, you don’t need to have a standard website anymore, all you need is a myspace page that screams professional.  Take advantage of twitter, by following as many people as you can your able to announce when you have a new song out or that your going to be touring and need a place to play or sleep.

5) Don’t sign to a record label: Why let a record label take a big piece of the pie called your music.  If your a smaller band to midsize band you can do everything yourself.  You now have the power to put your own music on itunes, amazon, napster and other digital retailers.  Look at bands like Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and so forth, they are doing everything without a label.  Their may be a time when it might be beneficial for you to have a record label behind you but that time isn’t when your only playing regional shows and recording on garageband still.

There you have it, just to reiterate this is someone who has been involved in the indie music scene for the past 15 years and has been very successful