Hootsuite.com has made it easy to manage your social networks and keep your sanity doing it. The site offers more than just a website link shortener for users to utilize.

The Twitter focused site lets you add and update your social networks including Facebook, WordPress, LinkedIn, Myspace and Ping.fm.

This site has recently streamlined its interface to make it easier to use. You can now customize your streams, tabs and columns on the dashboard.

A key feature is the ability to schedule your updates, which makes it easier to post timely news or links that you want to share with your fans.

Track results by viewing your statistics for the updates that you post. View how many clicks you are getting for the ow.ly links you throw out there.

The “Team Collaboration” feature manages multiple band member’s updates and data without sharing personal passwords.

Other features include:

• Customize URL’s
• Manage Followers
• Monitor Mentions about your band’s name
• Assign Tasks to band members
• Manage Twitter Lists

The site also has an iPhone and Android to help you manage your accounts on-the-go.

Check out Hootsuite.com to create a dashboard.

Attention indie  bands and artists, Headliner.fm wants to help you connect with other musicians and ultimately reach new fans and better promote your music. The website is a “promotion exchange” for bands and artists to help build awareness for each other.

Bands who sign-up on Headliner are able to join forces with and promote other bands on each other’s Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace profiles. Members are rewarded a number of “band bucks” (proportionate to how many followers they have on their social media sites) which can be used to buy requests from other bands to give your band promotion on their social media profiles.

The website outlines the steps to success once you sign-up:

Headliner Rewards Bands and Artists

• Converts your existing social media fans to band-bucks which you can use to get new fans for your band.
• Rewards your band for having kick-ass fans.
• Rewards your band for accepting promotion messages from bands you like.
• Transfers fan info to bands: learn which band’s fans are the best fit for YOUR band.

headliner.fm Sizzle Reel from headliner.fm on Vimeo.

Headliner was created by Mike More (CEO & Founder) and Bill Cromie (President & Founder). The website’s mission is for bands/artists to reach new fans, connect with other artists, and promote their music.

Currently over 70,000 fans are registered on headliner.fm, with numbers growing. As the old adage says “it’s not what you know, but who you know,” so connect today!

At TheBuzz, we’re dedicated to bringing you all the greatest how-tos and success stories from the indie underground, and this time, we’ve got something really special to share.

When it comes to building hype and a fanbase, indie artists have thought of everything. The independent artists’ movement has even grown to the point where musicians are rejecting major label deals in favor of independent careers. Of course, there might not be a lot of money in indie music, but what we do have is shitloads of artistic integrity.

Enter We’re No Fakers

We’re No Fakers is an indie band with a plan so revolutionary, so radical, that not only has it never before been attempted, it’s bound to transform the nature of the words “artistic integrity” forever. I caught up with the Fakers lead Singer, Julia Fullia, in her parents’ basement earlier this week to get the scoop.

When I enter the house, Julia is on the couch, waiting both for her nails to dry and for the airplane glue in her fauxhawk to set. Already, I can sense that I am in the presence of a consummate professional.

GH: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Julia. I know you were a bit reluctant to participate.

JF: Yeah. Interviews aren’t really my thing.

GH: And that’s something of a core principle for We’re No Fakers, isn’t it?

JF: Sorta? I guess? We haven’t really talked about it.

GH: For all our readers not in the know, give us a bit of an introduction to the band.

JF: Well, there’s me. I’m the singer. Jimmy plays guitar, and Laura’s on the drum.

GH: The drums?

JF: She only got one right now. We’ll probably change that once we get signed to a big label.

GH: Is that something that could be happening in the near future?

JF: Oh yeah. Sony, EMI, whatever. Maybe Island, really. They’re actually owned by UMG. So.

GH: So you’re in contact with some reps?

JF: Reps?

GH: Representatives. For the labels.

JF: Mmm. No, nothing like that. We’re still in the waiting phase.

GH: The waiting phase?

JF: Y’know. Waiting to be discovered. It’s a step on the road to superstardom. First you get a band. Then you write some songs. Play some shows. Then you get to the waiting phase.

GH: Tell me a bit more about what this phase involves.

JF: Weeeeellllll. I sit here. Sometimes I go to the gym because a lead singer’s gotta look hot. Jimmy plays a lot of World of Warcraft, and Laura works part time at her parent’s diner. So. That’s pretty much it.

GH: Fascinating. Tell me, does We’re No Fakers have any kind of business plan?

JF: We’re a band. Why would we need a business plan?

GH: How about a promotional or marketing strategy? Do you have a manager?

JF: No way. If we had a manager, they’d just take a bunch of the money we’re gonna get once we get signed. We work alone. No vultures. No groupies.

GH: You self-promote?

JF: I guess? I mean, if we’re gonna play a show, I usually put it up on Facebook.

GH: Ah, so you have a fan page for social media development?

JF: Fan page? Nu-uh! God, I’m online enough, I’m not gonna do band stuff on there!

GH: You’re telling me that you don’t even have a website? A MySpace page?

JF: Hells no! Once we get signed, then the label can do all that shit. We’re gonna get one of those sweet 360 deals so that they take care of, like, everything for us.

GH: A 360 deal? But that could essentially make you a slave to your label!

JF: Naw, dude, that makes me a rock star. And that’s pretty much all I’m asking for here.

GH: So you have no business plan, no marketing strategy, no web presence, and no support from anyone who knows anything about the music industry. How is it possible that a band like We’re No Fakers could be discovered?

JF: The same way all great bands get discovered. At our shows.

GH: Okay. I get it. You put all your energy into the performance – touring relentlessly, working every local gig you can get…

JF: Exactly! We’ve got a really big show coming up, actually. Fourth of July weekend, baby!

GH: But that’s three months away.

JF: We like to let the hype build. Organically, like. That’s how you get the scouts to come out.

GH: So this Fourth of July show could be the big one for We’re No Fakers?

JF: It better be. We’ve played, like, six shows already, so if this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will. Jimmy’ll probably quit. His girlfriend’s knocked up.

And there you have it, folks. Some call it terrifyingly unorthodox, others call it genius, but whichever it is, there are few indie bands out there bold enough, and unapologetically edgy enough, to follow the path that We’re No Fakers has chosen. If we don’t see Julia and co. on the Billboard charts by this time next year, you can call me an April Fool.

Name: RootMusic

Quick Pitch: RootMusic is all about making musicians’ professional lives better, be it through building software or building community.

Genius Idea: RootMusic’s debut product is called BandPage, and it makes MySpace-like band page features possible inside a Facebook fan page.

At present, Facebook fan pages are laid out in such a way that you can’t share your music with your fans while letting them continue to browse for information. You can deploy a music player tab, but as soon as your fans click on the Photos tab to see pictures of your band, the music stops.

RootMusic’s BandPage adds its own interface for displaying band info, tour dates and photos without putting a stop to the music (a feature that puts the program ahead of MySpace, which only allows one to listen to music while on the playlist page). You can share the photos that are already present on your fan page without uploading new ones.

Check out the full story here.

Myspace continues to streamline their Web site to try and keep up with features on other social networks. The latest update is the “Share” function that now allows you to apply a link and video to your status updates.

Instead of having to choose a “Mood” to update your status, Myspace has updated their design to match the rest of the profile’s home page; while adding the options to apply a photo, link, video and mood to your status.

This is just the latest in updates and moves by Myspace to stay afloat in social media. The site recently updated the “Stream” of your status posts and bulletins in an attempt to organize their many features.

It is obvious that the site is trying desperately to keep up with other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. As their visitor numbers drop, the site is trying everything to keep their current users coming back. With Facebook offering the ReverbNation application (Enhance Band’s Presence on Facebook…) for artists to post songs on their profiles, Myspace is really starting to see a decline in visits.

I have seen many indie artists shifting from Myspace to Facebook. It is obvious why artists have moved to the streamlined Facebook. Facebook provides a more relevant network and user-friendly site with simplified features.

It is safe to say that Myspace went way over their heads and created a cluttered site, giving users too much freedom to control their profile layouts.

But Facebook better look at Myspace and learn from the site’s mistakes. Their latest updates have had a backlash and members have sparked up groups such as “The New Facebook Layout Sucks” and “Millions Against Facebook Privacy Policy and Layout Design.”

There’s always the next best thing and Facebook could soon become a victim of this trend.

Does your band still use Myspace to market online?

Every Indie music artist should think about starting a blog.

First though, a little rant. I’m always shocked by the amount of crudeness people will allow on their MySpace pages. It’s not always their own content either. In fact, usually it’s the comments other people leave on their page.

If people start dropping comments on your page like, “Yo man, ur shits smashin, check out my dope new tracks !!”, not only should you not check out their dope new tracks, but disable comments on your page altogether because your page is becoming a spam farm. If your page is attracting these types of numnuts, pretty soon you’ll be inundated with more garbage than a Mumbai slum.

The larger point I’m trying to make is that the quality of your online presence says a lot about you and what you do, whether you like it or not. Whether we’re talking about a personal website or just a MySpace page, in this day and age, your site is a portal to your musical soul and often times the first thing people will see or learn about you.

I can always tell how serious somebody is in real life by the how they care for their websites. I know someone who managed to collaborate with reggae star Junior Reid because of her MySpace. It happened through six degrees of separation. She contacted someone on her MySpace page who knew someone who knew someone…and soon enough she got a message from Junior Reid.

That initial spark happened on her MySpace. Of course, the quality of her music is ultimately what sealed the deal, but the immaculate and professional look of her MySpace told every person along the chain that, along with being talented, the chick’s disciplined and hardworking.

And I would argue that those two qualities are just as important, if not more important, than raw talent in the music business.

Basically, it all boils down to this. Take the Web very, very seriously. Let me say it again to be crystal clear. Take the Web seriously. It’s the future. This isn’t 1999, where nobody knew what a search engine was. For everyone, it should be the hub of any music marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, most people still don’t understand the Web. They just don’t get it. To really get the Web, the most important thing you have to understand is that the vast majority of people who are online are looking for information. Not cool music. Not cool pics of Brangelina and their 28 kids. Information.

Even though social networks are all the rage right now, I would argue that traditional online marketing tools like blogs still matter more because it’s easier to control your message.

The big mistake lots of Indie music artists make with their websites is that they don’t fill them with interesting information that people want to read. I’ve noticed a lot of people will just slap up a website, put up a few mp3s, have an about us section, maybe have their touring schedule and that’s it.

And they wonder why their site’s getting less traffic than a K Mark parking lot. The reason these types of sites don’t get much traffic is because they’ve committed two cardinal sins.

First, no unique content. Search engines crave content. The whole notion of a search engine is based on the question of “What kind of content would a human want?”. If you don’t have any high value written content that’s updated on a regular basis, it’s going to be hard for any of the major search engines to find you. There’s a whole science to search engine marketing that I don’t have the space to get into here. Bottom line is, you just can’t get around fact that you need to have good content. But what if you’re not a normal person and don’t really care about being ranked on Google? Well, you still have to deal with a second and even more important factor. Human psychology.

If you visit a store at any mall, you’ll notice that the vast majority of people there aren’t buying anything. They’re usually walking around and checking stuff out and kind of just looking around

I’m sure you’ve done this before: You walk into a store and see something you like. But you don’t buy it because maybe you just don’t feel right about the store yet. Then a few days later your best friend says something good about that store. Then you go back to the store and buy the item you saw.

Why did you do that? Because your friend’s recommendation personalized the store. It’s called social proof and it’s a huge factor in sales. The store felt more personal to you after a trusted recommendation and therefore put you in the mood to buy.

The same principle applies in the online world. In fact, I would say that on the Web it’s even more important to get people to feel a personal connection to you.

You want to make your website feel like a community. Make it personal. Give it personality. The best way to give it personality is to add your own unique voice to it by blogging. Your website is your virtual office and your office needs to reflect your personality because when people buy things music related, they are buying feeling. You have to mold that feeling through every possible tool you can get your hands on. Not just your instrument. Blogs can be extremely powerful because they create personality and feeling. Fortune 500 companies have discovered this too and many have added business blogs to their sites. Your blog should be updated at least once a week and each blog should be no more than about 600 words in length. Make them personal and interesting. And absolutely allow your readers to leave comments.

Mika Schiller is a writer for the Indie music website MADE and he writes about where the music industry’s headed and how it relates to the Independent Music artist. He gives irreverent career and personal development advice to the Indie music artist. For more great writing and irresistible advice, along with a free report on effective MySpace music marketing, please visit http://www.letsgetmade.com.

You might have gotten a passing grade for producing a good single, but how do you grade in your digital music promotions?

It’s no longer the wave of the music industry- it’s practically the only way to succeed in today’s music industry. Yes, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and etc is all the rave, and you need to join the bandwagon or not even bother at all, but it’s far more than having a social profile. Digital music promotions is all about SEO (search engine optimization) and cross promoting across various online outlets. It’s about blogging and being blogged about. It’s about P2P networks and online music stores. There’s so much to digital promotions, and if you think it’s one-dimensional and all about Myspace & Facebook, then you’re in for a rude awakening.

Here’s a few factors to grade your digital music promotions strategy:

1. If you Google search your name, your record label, or the title of your single/album, do you come up first on the searches or at least in the first page? If not, then you have NO online visibility and this is a dead end for your digital promotions strategy. Let me prove you in this. Do a simple Google search of the following phrases and you’ll see how a small number of companies dominate the first page on the Google search: “Music Marketing Company,” “Publicist in Atlanta,” “Atlanta Music Labels,” and “Fashion Marketing Companies.” There’s about 50+ other industry related key phrases that we dominate, but no need to list all of them here. How did we do it? Well, that’s another conversation. The point is that you need to be highly visible in the search engines.

2. Speaking of online visibility, what type of buzz have you built online? Do you have any writeups online? Is your music circulating the online music download circuit? Is it easy to find you online?

3. If someone were to surf the various online DJ networks and music boards, would they find your single?

4. Have DJs included your single in their online mixtapes, podcasts, and streaming stations?

5. How many different sources are you using to promote your music? Remember, the key in marketing is frequency. A DJ is more likely to gravitate towards your single if they notice that it’s being promoted among different sources. It’s called “buy-in” and you need a lot of it in this industry.

6. Are you just running through these social networking sites or are you cultivating a meaningful database of potential fans?

7. Is your Widget going viral? If you’re not familiar with using Widgets in using promotions or about Viral Internet Marketing then chances are that you failed on this factor.

8. Do you have a mechanism for capturing the email addresses and mobile numbers of those who listen to your music or visit your page?

Based on your answers above, what grade would you receive on your Digital Music Promotions Report Card? Anything less than a “C” means that it’s time to go back to the drawing board. A grade of a “B” means that you’re probably on the right track, but there’s still a lot more work to be done in order to secure profitable sales levels.

- Fabiola Fleuranvil

I travel a lot to speak at music conferences and I see this all of the time: Musicians squirming in their seats as I present ideas on how to improve their marketing. The idea of having to do one more thing is just unbearable to them, and they literally begin to melt down in front of me.

One of my best friends is an artist – a dancer – and she literally takes to bed after she has to write a press release; it literally makes her sick.

You will NEVER achieve the success you want it if you try to do it all alone and take on things that stop you dead in your tracks!

I can not stress this enough: You MUST learn to delegate, and get the stuff that makes you completely stressed out off of your plate.

Two issues are up for you right now from reading this:

1. You can’t afford to pay someone to help you
2. You don’t want to give up control and you feel a need to do it all yourself

Right?

Step 1: Figure Out What To Delegate
The first step in your journey is you need to figure out what you want to get off of your plate. Is your MySpace page hogging up too much time? Do you need help with PR & Marketing? Do you just need someone organized to help you file papers and organize your home office?

Step 2: Write A “How To” Guide For Each Task
I urge you to take the time to do this BEFORE you get anyone in to help you! Take a few hours to write a guide on each task explaining it exactly the way you do it. This is called systematizing and it will be critical for your success in achieving your goals around outsourcing. Imagine that the person you are writing these guides for has NEVER done any of the tasks you are about to assign. Type them out.

This is CRITICAL to your success with delegating because when people are left to their own devices they may not perform in the way you want them to.

Start With Small Tasks – 1 to 2 Hours at Most
Start with small tasks that can be achieved in an hour or two to see if your new intern / assistant is up for it (not everyone will be good at everything) and make sure you ask them what they would like to focus on – Facebook or MySpace. Or maybe they are better in person, and they want to pass a clipboard around at your show to help with newsletter sign ups.

Or maybe they are creative writers and their talents will be best used writing press releases or designing logos and graphics for posters, flyers and websites.

Hold Them Accountable
If they are working for college credit make sue they provide you with a spreadsheet of all they are doing, or at least a report that breaks down their time and what they did with it. They will probably need to do this for school anyway.

Inspect and comment on their actions – remember when you were in school how you were graded and checked-up on. If you do not inspect the work that interns are doing for you they may go off course.

Where To Get Good Marching Orders

Cyber PR’s Sound Advice

I have written many step-by-step guides on how to be your own publicist, how to get reviewed on blogs, how to get started on Twitter, how to install Facebook apps, etc. Look through my articles, have your new intern read them and follow along to the letter!

Bob Bakers Buzz Factor

I love Bob and he writes great material and wonderful books that your intern can read and follow along. I love his MySpace and Guerilla Marketing books – buy them.

Derek Sivers’ Blog

Derek has many marketing tips plus a great FREE book to download to get your interns motivated.

Inner Rhythm

Download Kavit’s free ebooks here. They will walk your interns through the new realities of the music business. Start with the fabulous “How To Design A Winning & Profitable Music Business.”

New Music Strategies

Andrew Dubber’s New Music Strategies attempts to unpack and explain what’s going on in the online music environment – and from that, develop strategies. I love his ebook called “20 things” it’s indispensable

Rockstar Life Lessons

Carla Lynne Hall is my Mastermind forum manager and an amazing strategist herself. Her blog is wonderful too! I suggest diving into the “Recession Proof Musician” series.

Chris Brogan’s Blog

Expert social media strategist Chris Brogan has a great blog packed with ideas on how to create a social media strategy that works for you, and yes a great series of ebooks too.

The Musicians’ Atlas

An indispensable guide to help with tour PR, and marketing

CD Baby Podcast

Free audio podcasts for download crammed with ideas to get your interns motivated

The Indie Bible

I love this wonderful directory of outlets to send your music for every imaginable genre; plus tips written by industry thought leaders.

Step 3: Go Get Help
Here are some solutions to consider… this is my guide to getting the help you may need. I broke it up starting with free solutions that won’t cost you more than your time to options that you will pay for:

Getting Help FOR FREE
Get students to help you while they earn credit for school:

Entertainmentcareers.net & Music-Jobs.com
These websites will let you post as an employer for free – post as a record label (that’s what you are) and ask for help with PR and marketing. Offer college credit only. You will be amazed at how many young people who need to get credit for school are turning to these sites to find interesting internships.

Your Local College Or University
There are a few places on campus to try:

The Career Services department
Music school
Communications department

Look for classes on PR, marketing and online strategy. I suggest that you connect directly with the professors and leave a courteous message asking them if they require internships and if they have any students who like music and may be interested in working for your record label.

There is always a class that is studying marketing and PR and students need to come up with “marketing plans” and “publicity plans” all of the time. Ask the professor to have the class come up with one for YOU as an artist instead of a hypothetical business. You will be amazed at what a team of young people who are not jaded by the music business may come up with.

Photography and Film Schools
Students studying photography would be delighted to take photos of a band – they get an assignment complete and you get free headshots!

This also works for film students (free video for YOU).

Production Schools
Students learning about audio production may also need to record. Research which audio schools are in your area and call them up!

Identify Your Superfans & Motivate Them
Ask your mailing list if anyone on it can give you a few hours a month assistance in exchange for free show tickets, T-shirts and beers at the gig.

Email Signup At Gigs
You can also create a column on your email signup list that you pass around at gigs asking – would you like to be in our virtual street team? If they say yes – add them to your team!

Email Signup On Your Site
And you can add a signup box to your website using a free widget from Reverb Nation to capture your fans who may want to help you.

Free Online Tools To Use

Reverb Nation
Reverb Nation has an entire street team management system that you can use for free to delegate tasks and keep everyone organized

See How Others Do It – Then Copy Them!
By joining other musician’s street teams you can see how they delegate and copy what they do. Google will get you there in a few clicks.

Paid Services

In some cases you do get what you pay for so you may want to spend some money. This does not have to break the bank at all – here are some of my favorite places to go for paid help!

Elance

Elance is a fabulous site where service providers of all types bid against each other (eBay style) to work for YOU!

There are tons of categories here and you will find almost anything you need – graphic designers, copyeditors, writers, virtual assistants etc. You can also get a MySpace page skinned for a lot less than you would imagine.

I have used this site to get my books designed, powerpoint presentations done for a fraction of NYC prices and through this amazing site I found Kristie, my fabulous VA (virtual assistant) who checks my email, helps me keep track of all sales of my books at Amazon, and runs both ReviewYou.com and my affiliate program; yet I have never met her face-to-face. There are countless reliable VA’s who prefer to work from home (many are moms with children in school so they have extra hours during the day).

You can set the price you want to pay. The best part is that Elance has an escrow service so if the provider does not deliver a satisfactory job, you will not release your money until they do!

TIP: look at each person’s reviews and only use providers that get fabulous reviews and high ratings from other Elance users to avoid disappointments.

Bio Writing – Ben Lazar

I have a full-time bio writer on my staff who will craft an excellent bio for you. He is a 17-year music industry veteran and has served as a major label A&R guy for years at Island Def Jam. Plus he has also booked the entire CMJ Music Festival so he really knows how to hone in and focus on a band’s message and help you get it across.

Review You – Guaranteed CD Reviews

I created this site to help musicians get one review at a time guaranteed from expert music writers – buy one or buy 10 and save a fortune in postage and PR pitching / following up agony.

Bandletter – Will Design and Send Your Newsletters For YOU!

I co-own a service that is hands down the easiest solution to managing your newsletters – why? Because my partner Kevin will do it all FOR YOU – all you need to do is write the copy. Kevin will design, and send each newsletter, clean up your mailing list from the bounce backs and advise you on the best strategies for getting your fanbase to buy.

Hire a Teenager in Your Family

Trust me THEY know how to work MySpace much better than you again don’t set them off to figure it out on their own – give them a syllabus with steps to take.

TIP: Buy them Music Success In 9 Weeks, The Indie Bible, Musicians Atlas or Bob Baker’s fabulous books!

Good Luck with delegating and please post your stories on my blog!

Here’s to your success!

Ariel

Teen sensation rockers Disco Curtis’ debut video for “Ashley” is currently premiering on MySpace.com right now here. In just 8 hours the band has almost 5,000 plays!

I read an article on Billboard.com [awhile] ago which said that Coldplay is going to give away their live CD “leftrightleftrightleft” to all fans attending its Viva La Vida summer tour. Brilliant!

“Playing live is what we love,” says Coldplay. Exactly! It should be. Surely, a day doesn’t go by where you don’t hear about how you should be giving away free music, right? You should be. As I’ve mentioned before, music as a product doesn’t have much value anymore because it’s too common. It’s basic supply and demand.

Ok, so now, instead of hoping in earnest that somebody buys your tracks, you should be hoping that as many of them as possible download them for free. But does that mean you’ll make a penny off of your free downloads down the road? Well, it depends. Coldplay does. And they’re making lots of it. So why can’t you?

Well, you can. But first, there’s a simple concept your need to understand. Coldplay demonstrates it very well. It’s the concept of friction. The most important question any indie music artist-or anybody doing anything difficult-can address in the quest for success and profit is the following: Is there friction in what I’m doing?

Friction is basically that unique thing that you have or develop that makes it hard for other to compete against you. Coldplay can give away a ton of free stuff and still make a killing because a ton of people are going to pay for their concerts. People go to Coldplay shows because they’re a one of a kind. It’s like Google. They’re an industry leading company because they have a ton of friction.

Coldplay has a lot of friction because it’s awfully hard to be like them. There’s a high barrier of entry to being like Coldplay. But Coldplay didn’t become who they are just off of talent alone. I don’t know what personal circumstances or luck came into play to bring together the members that make up the band Coldplay, but you can bet that there were tens of thousands of tiny acts of dedication, persistence and just plain old hard work that gave Coldplay the tremendous friction that they have today.

But you don’t need to be superstars like Coldplay. There are different levels of success that can all be satisfying, depending on what you want.

There are people who say that Twitter is going to fail because it has a churn rate of 60%. In other words, 60% of people who try Twitter quit after one month. To me, that shows that Twitter is vibrant. Twitter is valuable because the 40% that sticks with it has surmounted the barrier to entry, which is constantly engaging other people on Twitter, which isn’t an easy thing to do. It’s so unlike MySpace where you don’t really have to do much work to be a part of it, but you also won’t really get noticed by anyone because there’s too many other people doing what you do. The “survivors” on Twitter, simply by persevering, have made it harder to be like them than the people who quit. They have friction and friction is value.

It’s the same thing with the indie music scene. If you don’t make it hard to be like you, if you don’t have any friction, then you’re just like everybody else. If you’re just like everybody else, then why should I care if you’re offering me free tracks? Are they worth my time to listen to? Are you worth paying attention to?

So how do you create friction? One step at a time. First, you have to decide what your goal is. What are you trying to achieve? Then you create your music brand around that. But it’s not just about your music. It’s about all your ideas too.

It’s not about being popular. It’s about being respected. It’s better to have a few thousand loyal fans than hundreds of thousands who aren’t.

Take your time to create high value stuff for hardcore followers. There’s lots of really crappy blogs on band websites out there. Why aren’t people spending more time crafting quality blogs? Your ideas are your brand today. Your stories are your identity. They’re powerful.

You create friction by striving for perfection. Then freemium will work.

Mika Schiller is a writer for the Indie music website MADE and he writes about where the music industry’s headed and how it relates to the Independent Music artist. He gives irreverent career and personal development advice to the Indie music artist. For more great writing and irresistible advice, along with a free report on effective MySpace music marketing, please visit http://www.letsgetmade.com.