The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-it-Yourself Musician

by Randy Chertkow, Jason Feehan

"[Chertkow and Feehan] are the ideal mentors for aspiring indie musicians who want to navigate an ever-changing music industry." -Billboard Magazine

Newly revised and expanded, the acclaimed handbook for musicians looking to write, record, and promote without a label

More musicians are recording, distributing, marketing, and selling their own music now than ever before in history. The Indie Band Survival Guide is the critically-acclaimed, do-it-yourself modern classic that has been telling them how for years.

In this up-to-the-moment edition, musicians and web gurus, Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan, cover everything musicians need to know. Drawing on their in-the-trenches experiences, they tell musicians how to:
- Sell on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify
- Get played on radio, podcasts, and blogs
- Effectively market on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
- Copyright, license, and make money- And much more

This information exists nowhere else. Chertkow and Feehan are pioneers in using the Internet to do what only labels could do in the past and will help your band go from garage to global.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2008

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an EXHAUSTIVE amount information on how to succeed as an independent musician/band. Making good music can be a challenge, but that isn't what Chertkow and Feehan really address. Rather, creating a CD, marketing and promotion, web strategy, building a fan base, finding gigs, starting a tour... In short, what one needs to know in order to build a self-directed career in music. If you're an indie musician or band seeking to "make it", and you're not doing the GOBBS of work outlined in this book to get your thing going, my bet is that there's less of a point in practicing than you think. So to come into all the information included in a dense little paperback with accompanying website with too many supporting links to count, for less than $13... pretty amazing.

[Carl Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent

[Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

As its name suggests, the survival guide is an exhaustive list of points to consider when trying to make it big as a musician. That said, not everything in here is gold and is often tailored to specific types of music or artists. The advice in this book ranges from crucially insightful (legal considerations when uploading music), questionable (writing music to chase trends), or laughably out of touch (virtual promotion through Second Life).

The authors of this guide often deliver their advice through anecdotes of their own band, Beatnik Turtles. While it's good to demonstrate proven success of their methods, the incessant references to their work tend to read more like promotional material than legitimate advice. Furthermore, knowing that authors come from a tongue-in-cheek indie band, the guide seems geared more toward They Might Be Giants wannabes.

The second edition is now a decade old, and some otherwise appreciable advice is rendered obsolete as a consequence. Still, there are some fundamental truths in here that any musician can learn from.

[DW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw this book on the shelf at the library while looking for David Byrne's How Music Works. Glad I checked it out because I enjoyed it much more than the book I was actually looking for. This book covers pretty comprehensibly everything about being an indie band except the actual writing and performing of music, covering even the rights on your band logo. Not that I'm going to be starting a band myself, but it's fun stuff to learn about. (Well, okay, copyright itself is dull though potentially useful maybe at some point in the future, and the stuff on marketing made me want to throw up and made me very glad that I do not need to sell music.)

But stuff about the necessity of mastering an album, how to rearrange songs for live performance so your audience doesn't miss the important parts (make it longer, repeat stuff, highlight somebody when they play a solo), how songs get played on commercial radio (lobbyists, essentially), how to sell music on iTunes (use a digital aggregator service), that was all fascinating. I do think the section on video is a little dated - it says that people will listen to a song over and over, but they won't watch a video over and over, and I don't think that's true. I've started to use YouTube just to listen to music (like, on repeat), and I know at least one other person who does that too.

So after reading this book I had to look up Beatnik Turtle (the authors' band) because how could anybody possibly put out a song every day for a year? Then I listened to one of their songs where the lyrics are "Chicken Pad Thai" (repeat ad nauseum) "Buffalo wings" (repeat ad nauseum) and I understood. But even though I'm not a fan of their music, I'm still impressed that they have managed to be so prolific with their band and still keep day jobs. I feel like that's something I would aspire to.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Indie Band Survival Guide is a tough book to find useful. There's a look of information here about getting started, recording, music rights, etc. But the information geared toward what you're actually trying to do--recording, for example--is too general to be useful, while the information about tasks not yet on your plate--say, licensing for television--isn't helpful.

The audience in mind seems to meander as well. Early sections on getting started aren't useful for a band that's already gigging, but suggestions to write theme songs for podcasts or hobby-themed songs seems more appropriate for joke bands with a "throw it against the wall and see what sticks" approach to music-making.

There are some valuable resources in here, and I'm sure the web site offers more. But unless you're taking a There Might Be Giants/song a day approach, I don't know how useful you'll find this book.

[Gustavo Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book to introduce you a little bit of the music business's inside,
with lots of information and tips to succeed in today's world.
I think it's worth the effort to read this book!
But...
I'm curious about the authors of this book,
because they said good tips and ways to succeed,
but they aren't famous musicians and their songs aren't good too,
so...
how can they write so well about this subject if even they didn't succeed?

[Bryan Bowden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though this is a book for bands, most of the instruction given can be used for stand-up comedians. It gives you lots of information from branding, to web presence, to self producing, and getting publicized. Lots of great information especially for someone who has zero business sense like me.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote a review of this book on my blog -- check it out.

[Ben Cryer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you want to learn how to start a band, or just want some legal questions answered about copyrights and stuff!

[Evo Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic info so far for ANYONE interested in indie media. Podcasters, authors, vidoegraphers... you name it.

[Casey Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book and a very useful tool for any independent, or
underground artist in the Music Industry. A must if you take your music
seriously.

K-Smack

[Katriena Knights · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed--story research. Great info, well-organized.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, great ideas for anyone in the music business.

[Bryan Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow I learned a lot from this book! Answers everything you'd want to know and lists resources for diving deeper in certain areas.

[Ken! · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent. well written, thorough. lots of good stuff in here.