Artist management may not be the first thing on your mind when you’ve got your amp cranked up and your creativity flowing. But management is just as essential to cultivating and maintaining a successful music career as is producing killer new material. It also takes a lot of time, business skills, and connections in the…

Holiday music from our listeners, our favorite tips from past episodes, a follow up with Robert on the Album In a Month challenge, and reflections on our interview with rock god Duff McKagan. Join us in good spirits! Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, and Yuletide tidings! Songs in order of appearance : Auld Lang…

What does Duff McKagan, bass player for Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver, know about indie music? More than you might think. All musicians–famous, infamous, or unknown–begin from the same basic place. A place where desire, vision, and ambition move their hands to fret, hit, pluck, or punish an instrument to a perhaps obsessive degree….

Songwriting, record labels and music seminars, oh boy! Robert fearlessly signs up to write and record an album in one month (gulp), Kevin visits Seattle Music Tech 2007 (and shares his experience) and the Podcasters all discuss the ever changing relationship between artists, record labels and that green stuff called MONEY. Tune your click-wheels to…

In a time when worldwide distribution is available through companies like CD Baby for less then a pack of new bass strings, what is the use of a record label for an indie musician? These days even “major label” artists are striking out on their own for more lucrative careers as independents. So do you…

Famed British rock group Radiohead gives away their album for free. The RIAA strikes again. Led Zeppelin goes digital. And a dog named Bucky interrupts Jourdan’s news report. Join Kevin and the Podcasters as they take a bite out of an exciting week it digital music history and discuss last week’s episode with recording engineer,…

Recording Engineer, Jeff Saltzman, well known for his work with many of the North West’s top indie artists, lets us in on some of the methods and madness that goes into engineering and recording music. Jeff has worked with Sleater Kinney, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, Stars of Track and Field as well as…

[display_podcast] Clubs, bars and coffee houses aren’t the only gigs in town! In this action packed episode of the DIY Music Podcast, Kevin, Jourdan, Chris and Robert discuss Fran Snyder’s interview in Episode 08, and then share their own thoughts and stories regarding non-traditional venues. Kevin tells us how his band played the men’s department…

[display_podcast] Fran Snyder is a musician who’s hit on something that can truly breathe life into your musical career. In fact, his website (ConcertsInYourHome.com) receives thousands of visits each month from artists and audiences looking for a more intimate, fulfilling, and profitable alternative to the club, coffeehouse and bar gigs that most musicians are used…

CD Baby artist Jonathan Coultan, a self proclaimed “codemonkey,” blogger, and musician, hit upon a simple idea that would gain him international attention. In 2005 he began what he aptly named, “Thing a Week” an exhausting songwriting feat which involved, writing, recording, and publishing a new song every week for a year. During this endeavor,…

[display_podcast] Kevin, Robert, and Chris welcome Jourdan to the podcasting ranks for a special roundtable discussion. They’ve assembled to discuss the copyright issues covered by our interview with Jeff Brown in episode 5, as well as other topics related to the indie artist experience. If you haven’t already listened to episode 5, that’s a good…

[display_podcast] Copyright Law – It’s what gives a copyright owner their power. Established by the framers of the US Constitution, it was designed to strike a balance between the interests of authors, and the interests of the public. We’re surrounded by copyrights. They penetrate our lives on a daily basis. They’re what hold the music…

Music promotion. Everyone from the first time songwriter, to the seasoned pro ponders the question of promoting his or her musical career. There are books, 10 step programs, and even charts and graphs that claim to have solved these weighty issues for us. All we need to do is shell out a few bucks, do the steps and be on our way to success. If only it were that simple! Is it possible that these methods and programs have been trying to attack the music promotion question from the wrong angle? That’s where Lisa Lepine comes in.