Free Indie Musician Resources From Disc Makers & CD Baby

If you're an indie musician who is not familiar with the free information resources provided by Disc Makers, I recommend that you check them out. Of course, since they are a company that provides CD and DVD production services and bought CD Baby a while back, their guides to recording, licensing, marketing and other aspects of indie biz almost always include a case for the continued relevance of CDs. Even if you disagree, their resources are still worth a look.

Disc Makers offers a variety of free PDFs of various lengths that require sharing your contact information. Two that caught my eye are CD Baby's Guide: Countdown to Maximum Exposure and Earning Money as an Indie.

Countdown to Maximum Exposure offers a timeline of marketing steps building to one's album release starting 12 to 4 months before the release date. Not only does it have some nice ideas about ways to market your work, it also makes it clear that marketing should be an integral part of your working process rather than an afterthought.

I have lots of friends in the performing arts who work very hard but view marketing as something at the end of the process.  Their marketing efforts are often undermined by last minute time crunches and their work never has the full impact possible. Even the non-musicians might benefit from considering the implications of Countdown to Maximum Exposure.

Earning Money as an Indie argues both for making CDs and for joining performing rights organizations. The latter might be an easier case to accept but how could anybody in their right mind make a strong argument for putting out a CD when all the movement seems to be in other directions?

Though CD sales aren't what they used to be, indie musicians can still profit in ways that are simply too limited for major labels.  Arguments in this digital document include the understanding that CDs legitimize musicians in many people's eye. Furthermore, some people are still buying CDs and CDs are great to sell at shows. They give folks a physical memento. CDs also make great gifts.

That said, even if you don't buy the arguments for CDs, there's a good chance that Disc Makers has some material on hand that will be of use if you plan on recording music, getting radio airplay, licensing music or marketing your work.

Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. Flux Research is his business writing hub and All World Dance: World Dance News is his primary web project.