D.I.Y. Promotions Career Guide

Career Guide

Starting    Early gigs    Touring    Recording    Radio Play    "Big-Time"    The Road..

1. Beginning

         You're getting players together, rehearsing, and preparing to play out
As musicians ready to make your mark, you should jam and audition with players, perfect your instruments, and decide what material you will play - cover tunes, originals, or a mix of the two.
DIY Promotions can help you when you use DIY Promotions free classifieds for advertising.
Using DIY Promotions for musician referral.
Consulting with D.I.Y. on basic general music-related business and promotional practices to avoid avoid financial and legal difficulties
Calling us about your availability.

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2. Early gigs

         You've gotten some gigs, but still need your day-job
What you need to do now is put together a good-sounding demo and well-written press kit, including bio and photos.
DIY Promotions can help you by providing input on what should be in your press kit, consulting on how to make it promoter / booker-friendly, or even design your entire kit from scratch.
Our professional photographers can take quality photos of your band.
We can also provide you listings of bookers for the local clubs, festivals, other venues, and consulting on booking and promotion.
DIY Promotions also features promising new bands on our Featured Artist page, giving artists free Internet exposure.

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3. Touring

         You have steady gigs, have a following, and want to tour
At this level, you should already have reliable transportation for gigs, a fan mailing list, a Web presence, a good tight set, professional equipment, be willing to travel, and deal with the hardships of touring.
DIY can help you by providing detailed lists of clubs, colleges, and other venues in the areas you wish to tour.
We can provide you with Website design and graphics services.
As part of the package, we also can provide support services such as listings for music stores, laundromats, cheap hotels, clean showers, and the phone number for AAA :-)

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4. Recording your music

         You now have enough experience, as well as material, to record a CD
Lots of good music brings you to the point of preserving it on plastic. You should be constantly writing original music and arranging it with your band. Also, actively recording demo's with the band to perfect your writing and arranging skills. Follow up by playing this material for audiences for feedback on tempo, style, moods.
At this point, DIY can help by consulting on song order, cover art, press kits, legal issues, trademark / copyright, listings of studios and disc-manufacturing.
For example, we have worked with manufacturers pressing for as low as 89 cents a disc.
And, once you have your CD pressed, we can make cuts available as RealAudio clips if you are selected as our Featured Artist .

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5. Radio promotions


You've gigged and toured, and recorded your CD
At this point, you are ready to go for radio play, marketing and distribution as an independent artist. Other concerns include hiring a good manager, national booking agency, and formulating a plan for radio promotions, marketing and distribution.
DIY Promotions can help you by providing you with a master plan: consulting on a marketing plan, providing contact lists for over 2,000 radio stations nationwide broken out by chart reporting, format and region.
We also offer our exclusive Radio Promotion Plan including implementation strategy and follow-up.
We can even provide you with mailing labels for the stations' music directors.
We also provide lists of record stores in all markets in which you are getting radio action.
And, we can also help you promote yourself to larger venues ( i.e., festivals, college auditoriums ) in your target markets.

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6. Top of the charts

         You have hits on the charts, and play large venues
Now you should be considering whether signing with a major label or staying independent is better for your future. Deciding whether you're ready to do a major tour for 18 months, or go back to the studio to record your next project. You should have legal representation and management to handle your affairs. If you stay independent, you must develop full-time marketing, radio promotions, and distribution.
Even at this level in your career, DIY Promotions can assist you by:
consulting on your marketing and distribution, mailing and contact lists, legal affairs - e.g., ....royalty and mechanical rights contracts.
We can also help you market your band as a recognizable brand so you're not just selling this tour or this album or this single individually, but building all elements together to establish brand recognition.
And, if you're looking for an independent label, consider ours.

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The Road Ahead....

         At each step of your musical career, you will need to make careful choices so that success builds upon success, creating momentum to carry you through. There are many pitfalls in this business, and you will need to acquire a knowledge of how the industry works, to survive and prosper.
The DIY Promotions team consists of professionals, including musicians with many years of gigging, touring and recording. We've been through it all, and can offer you invaluable assistance based on our accumulated experience. The choices you make now, can and will affect the success of your career, so be sure they're wise ones.
" The road out of LA is paved with one-hit wonders " - D.I.Y. owner,,   * Blocked address *
The road ahead - is up to you....

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