Resources for Indie Musicians
Help from Me
All My Evil Plans: A blog to help indie creative entrepreneur music artists and authors get stuff done faster.
Music Distribution
CDBaby.net A good place sell
your independent CD or singles online, for approximately 60 dollars as a one-time
fee, you are given a barcode and CD Baby will sell your CD physically
and through dozens of digital stores, including iTunes. Has a bar
code service to track your CD sales, a credit-card swiper service
for live shows.
Tunecore Primarily a distributor
of digital MP3s . . . for indies who want to seel through iTunes and
Rhapsody, one album costs about $20 per year. You can also sell single
MP3s.
Web Hosting
Hostbaby.com A little expensive
at 20 dollars a month, but indispensable for musicians who don’t know
HTML/XML or web programming. Hostbaby is tailored towards the indie
musician who knows almost zero about web design. Very supportive staff
among whom are many indie musicians themselves, plus customizable
templates for people who just need to get a solid webpage up and running
with MP3s on it.
Startlogic.com is a very affordable
webhost that is especially good for artists who want to try out things
like PHPbb, WordPress, and eCommerce solutions. You can have a ton
of MySQL databases and get your feet wet with programming, but still
have fun in the process.
Recording Tips
Getsigned.com Articles by
John Vestman on home recording are some of the best on the web, I
learned a lot from them.
Most of the recording advice that I use is directly from YouTube
tutorials!!
I use ProTools, but if I had to buy all new recording equipment,
I’d go with Apple’s Logic.
Make Stuff
CafePress.com Awesome design-your-own
t-shirts, mugs, calendars, books, even underwear site
Lulu.com The only
free print on demand book publisher, friendly people
Teach yourself Web Design
Web Pages That Suck by
Vincent Flanders Accompanies series of books, very funny advice!
Learn to avoid MMN (Mystery Meat Navigation)
Lissa Explains It All
Layman’s explanation of how to build your own website
Webmonkey.com Lots of freebies
like traffic counters
CSS Zen Garden The beauty
and power of CSS is unleashed! Gorgeous examples of how CSS can massively
improve your webpages.
CSS Newbiehas THE BEST tutorials.
Don’t forget to View > Source in your browser on the example pages
they give, it is very enlightening.
Calling WordPress a blog is like
calling champagne a soft drink . . . WordPress is so much more than
just a blog.
Just For Filmmakers
Media Music Now This UK
site features all kinds of royalty free film music for almost any
genre you can think of. The descriptions of songs are hilarious, like
"Beautiful Android in Meteorite Shower" and the prices are
very cheap if you need good music for your film.
Enhance Your Website
MailChimp Send nice picture
emails to your fans and manage email lists from anywhere on the planet.
HTML email software pay-as-you-go service. Far superior to expensive
clunky email marketing competitor, ConstantContact.com. Easy to use
for non-geeks. However, non-picture email is just as good. It depends
on your personal taste.
JAlbum Free photo album software
that truly rocks, very easy to install and use
Feedburner Burn your own
podcast and designate a feed today, this is how the Forever Fifteen
podcast got started
Fabricio Zuardi XSPF
Music Player One of the best free flash music players ever! Make
playlists or put up single MP3s.
Image MapperMake image maps
with an online generator instead of coding it yourself poorly as I
tend to do!! LOL
LiveJournal The best free
blogging software & community
PHPbb Free create-your-own-forum
software & community
Eco-Friendly Green Artists/Labels
Jack Johnson and Brushfire
RecordsAn artist who founded a label that does everything possible
to reduce his impact on the Earth, including using bio-diesel in all
of his tour vehicles, powering his studio with solar energy, and recycling
wherever he plays a show!
Artists With Great Websites
Loreena McKennit’s Quinlan Road
is beautifully designed. The best intro page (and in my mind the only
reason to have an intro splash page) is one that offers your site
in different languages.
Priscilla Hernandez has a great
website with much to explore. Her photo gallery is very cool.
Jillian Aversa’s site provides
a wonderful musical showcase in an easy to navigate format.