I Dont Need A Record Deal


	Learning Ammo Touring & Networking Ammo Songwriting Ammo Internet Ammo Legal Ammo International Ammo Music Industry Organizations Music Conferences Staying Healthy Ammo
	TOURING & NETWORKING AMMO Live performances enable most indies to grow and succeed. Networking enables you to make more contacts for getting the gigs. Use whatever resources you can to get your music out there and your butt on the road. If you don't tour, you'll have a VERY hard time making money. Here's some very useful resources and websites. MUST HAVE TOURING RESOURCES Musician's Atlas Order here and get a discount This resource is a must have for any artist who wants to tour or get exposure in cities around the country. It lists numerous resources - clubs, radio stations, press, record stores, and contact info to book into specific colleges. It also includes conferences & festivals, organizations, record labels, publishers and much more. http://billboard.com The Billboard International Talent & Touring Directory lists U.S. and international talent, booking agencies, facilities, services, and products. It includes many cultural arts and civic centers that book music. Musician’s Guide to Touring and Promotion is a city by city guide to touring resources. How To Be Your Own Booking Agent by Jeri Goldstein If you want to take your touring business seriously, read this fantastic resource. It's jam packed with info about how to book your own gigs and alternative venues where you can make money performing. But it also has invaluable info and resources for handling the business end of touring including how to set career goals, negotiate contracts, run your own business, and set up a tour. Any musician who wants to make money from performing should have this book in their library! Onlinegigs www.onlinegigs.com Onlinegigs is a subscription service that virtually automates the administration of booking and promoting bands. For those of you who want to get on the road and don't know where to begin, this touring resource is worth it. For a small monthly fee, it offers a huge directory of industry contacts and the ability to track correspondence with them, print labels, issue contracts, automatically update any website with gig information, automatically generate a tour itinerary with directions, and issue press releases to local media in those markets. Use this and you'll have fewer excuses for not getting on the road! Here's an even better reason to try it. You can get a free trial month if you click the picture to the left. GETTING ORGANIZED AMMO Creative Tax Planner http://www.creativetaxplanner.com This is an all-in-one tax guide, daily planner, and receipt holder designed just for artists and musicians. It details tax deductions, plans, and benefits available to artists PLUS provides a simple system to track and organize your finances. Having the information and organization in one product helps you get every tax deduction allowed. Created by Mark and Alyssa Fox, who run a tax firm that prepares taxes for artists and musicians nationwide. Indie Band Manager http://www.indiebandmanager.com I call this an electronic organizer for your music biz contacts. This reasonably priced database software for independent musicians (in both PC and Mac format) includes a Booking Calendar, Contact Manager, To Do List, Personalized Mass Email Tool, Invoicing Module, Expense Tracker, Letter Writer and more. I recommend this software because it will make the tedious part of your biz easier. LiveWire Musician http://www.livewiremusician.com LiveWire Musician is a premier online contact management system specifically designed for musicians. Keep a fan mailing list, track communication with publishing and booking agents, maintain a calendar, create reminders - simply speaking, it's career-management for musicians online - anywhere/anytime. ORGANIZATIONS Just Plain Folks is an organization that everyone should know about - a community around music, with over 25,000 members. They offer online forums where people from around the world share. Founder Brian Austin Whitney does road trips across the country, arranging showcases in which all members can play a song and network all night. Whitney also has free indie music awards, with an awards show in LA - all based on the music! They have about 100 chapters. Check to see if there's one in your area. It's FREE to join so there's no excuse. The community feeling that you'll experience is a rare one in the music industry. http://www.justplainfolks.org Folk Alliance has a ton of resources on its site. Members have access to their database of over 3000 people in the folk community - media people, presenters, and other artists. It can be searched by region. There are house concerts and cultural arts centers that are often hard to find. http://www.folk.org Musicians Contact Service Musicians Contact Service provides a musician referral service, connecting individual musicians and singers with people who need them, mainly to working bands, for a reasonable fee. 818-227-5915 http://www.musicianscontact.com Gigmasters is an online entertainment service that connects people wanting to hire entertainment with performers. http://www.gigmasters.com NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) offers services for reaching the college market. It's the biggest organization but it's often hard to get a showcase at the conferences and it's expensive. They have a directory of their member colleges. http://www.naca.org APCA (Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities) offers services for reaching the college market that are more accessible and less expensive than NACA. They have a more extensive directory of all colleges. http://www.apca.com Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) is the big national organization for performing arts venues. Presenters come from all over to view showcases at their conferences and book artists. http://www.artspresenters.org TOURING RESOURCE SITES mapquest! helps you find your way. Some people get lost when they tour. Mapquest will tell you how to get almost anywhere. It's a terrific resource that many of the artists in my book swear by. http://mapquest.com Gas-Buddy can help you find the cheaper gas prices in almost any city you go to. With gas prices as high as they've been, saving several cents or more per gallon can help when you're touring or just driving locally. This site is connected to 170 gas price information web sites that help consumers find low gasoline prices. You can plug in a zip code and find out the cheapest stations. Some people find it better to just put in the name of the city. http://www.gasbuddy.com Pollstar Pollstar provides music business professionals with the most reliable and accurate source of worldwide concert tour schedules, ticket sales results, music industry contact directories, trade news and unique specialized data services. In addition to publishing the concert industry's leading weekly trade publication, Pollstar also maintains the world's largest database of international concert tour information. They also have fantastic industry contact directories. http://www.pollstar.com Musi-Cal Concerts This site lists concerts and has a lot of touring resources. http://www.musi-cal.com GigAmerica Great resources for touring including a opportunity to swap gigs with other bands. http://www.gigamerica.com Festivals Network Online For a fee, this site offers a huge listing of festivals that pay performers, from throughout the country. You can check out samples for free. http://www.festivalnet.com/festnet.html JAZZ SITES jazzpages.com http://www.jazzpages.com A good jazz site from Germany. Interjazz http://interjazz.com Has some interesting links, some agents, etc. in Europe Jazz Online http://www.jazzonline.com Offers services and info.