If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Be sure to enter your band in our Socially Awesome Band of the Week contest and thanks for visiting!

When I was in elementary school there was a kid in my class who was born on February 29th. It took me the longest time to realize he was growing just as fast as the rest of us, even though he only had a birthday once every four years.

Every time a leap year comes up, I think of him and wonder what he’s doing to celebrate the special day. I also try to come up with my own way to spend the extra day we’ve gained. This year I’m thinking I might reorganize my vinyl collection. How are you going to spend your extra day?

Why not take the time to set yourself on path for success in the business of making music?

This blog has gone through a lot of changes over the past few months. It’s gone from a small side project about a topic I really love to a growing resource of ideas for independent musicians to help navigate the closest connection between artist and fan - the internet.

Making The Connection

‘Back in the day’, fan clubs were one of the few ways an artist could build a community around their art - and in turn, sell albums, tickets and merchandise.

Today, there are hundreds of ways to make even more valuable connections with your fans. Its a guaranteed way to build a relationship that lasts, and a fan following that will spread your music to the far reaches of the internet

This certainly isn’t easy. And I won’t claim to have ever done all of these things myself or to this degree of success. But I have spent a lot of time researching and testing the ways others have succeeded and failed. I’ll do my best to relate these lessons to you.
Learn How to Promote Your Music Online

On this blog, I’ll continue to profile the tools you can use to make it easy for fans to reach, hear and share your music and your message. Many of these tools, tips and tricks are explained in more detail in my eBook The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online which your can download here.

If you’re serious about understanding how you can use the power of the internet to build your fanbase and sell more CDs without spending a lot of money that you don’t have on promotion and distribution you should at least download this FREE preview chapter. If you’re willing to put a little bit of focused time into creating a plan and then spending less than an hour a day working toward your goals, you can build a solid presence for your music online.

In fact, based on feedback I’ve been receiving on the book (thanks folks, your comments and critiques are really important to me - keep them coming!), I’ve created a 10 Part Quick Start Action Plan to help get you started on a path to success.

Get Started Right Now!

This handy little ‘Getting Started’ guide comes as an added bonus when you purchase the downloadable .pdf of the Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online (altogether you save 52% on this offer!), but you can also pick up a copy of the guide separately for only $9.99 here.

If you’re looking to better understand the world of MySpace, Facebook, iLike, viral marketing, blogging, social networking and how other bands like yours are using these tools and the concept of’ ‘Web 2.0′ to reach fans who really dig their music, you owe it to yourself to at least read the FREE chapter I’m giving away. It gives a quick overview of some of the services and ideas we cover together later in the book.

Spread The Love (…and the word)

As always if you see anything you like on this blog, or have anything to add to the conversation, please please please join in! The whole point of this place is to generate discussion about what works and what doesn’t at the most grassroots level of indie music promotion. We’re all looking for ways to do things even a little bit better. You’re also encouraged to Digg anything you find useful and use the Share This link to pass along useful tips to anyone you think might be interested.

Thanks to everyone who keeps reading!

-Max