Success stories are unique but share a common thing. Other than talent or being born into it in some way... its all about making a buzz and building on it without loosing momentum. Bite off as much as you can and chew like hell. Market what you have going for yourself. Learn what it is and make a package out of it. When a buzz starts, people in power will come.

So if i have a solo career should i make professional site and get proper pictures done rather than crappy stuff will that all help is that just time wasted which i should just gig instead ?

Please excuse my correction-quoting.

sirchick wrote: So, if I have a solo career, should I make a professional site and get proper pictures done rather than sticking with the crappy stuff? Will that all help? Would it be time wasted? Should I just gig instead?

Instead? You should always gig, unless you want to be a web designer or model. A nice web site and promo pictures don't hurt...but they don't necessarily help either. Is it time wasted? I can't say. It's all about what you get out of it. If it helps you build a fan base and get the word out, then it helps. Are these things required to get you noticed? No.

I'm by no means an expert and really have only been involved in this process with one band.

Here's their story.

They played gigs. They started locally playing clubs whenever they could. They were able to find a few similar bands and would play shows with them as a way to get their sound out to more potential fans.

One of the band members was a graphic designer by day so when it came to creating promotional material, they had really good looking stuff. They had an awsome looking website and great photos. They had one of the best looking promo packs I've ever seen. They promoted the hell out of themselves. They would go to clubs and bars and events that attracted the type of people who would like them. They would hand out flyers by the thousands. Within a year there was a pretty big buzz. They would open up for reigional/national acts and draw more fans then the main act would.

They made a few contacts in the 'biz'. They hired a guy who worked at getting their songs in movies, TV and video games - I think it was actually 1 video game and some sound bites on MTV but it's exposure and the buzz grew. They were able to get equipment sponsorships which gave them even more exposure. They were used in a few national magazine adds. Then they traveled to NAMM to play a couple shows for one of their sponsors. Yet more exposure. This they were hoping would be a great gig because one would expect more industry ppl to attend these types of shows. Nothing really came out of if except a fun trip to LA and playing a gig at the Whiskey.

Then they took on a few mini tours. Two weeks at a time usually with 2-3 other bands playing night after night. Day jobs kept them from going on tour in an more permanent basis. Throughout all of this, they kept up the promotion.

Over a four year period they established a pretty good fan base (for a local band and their genre) throughout the US. They could go to towns 1000 miles away and sell out a club with fans who had never seen them before. Were they spotted? I don't think so. No one really ever approached them with a contract or anything like that. They produced their own CD, and hired a few differnet distribution companies to get them out in the stores like Best Buy and Hot Topic. They also had some overseas distribution which seemed to create a buzz in Europe. They had high download counts on various music/band web sites.

They had the promotion and the exposure and a pretty decent buzz. But it never took off.

Eventually they signed with a regional label, and got some better distribution and some tour support. They are still doing what they've always been doing, playing gigs and writing music.

What does all this mean? Sure, you could create a nice website, get some professional pictures done. But will it help? It could. The website is good to keep fans informed and keep them interested. It's really the only way for a band in the states to get noticed by someone in someplace like Germany.

Good luck and Keep on Gigging!

Damn, shows how hard it is to really get anywhere. Totally making me thinking im fighting for a lost cause... my geographical location does not help me.

I think you really need to identify why you do what you do. If your goal is to 'make it' - what does that mean for you? I'm not being facetious. Is it a target of CD sales? Number of fans? Your net income for the year from music? I think these are there traditional ways of thinking about that. There are other ways. My opinion is that the making of music has been far too focused on the economics of it and not enough on honest communication of thought or feeling. The other thing is around performance. We've all been to one of the performances where it was magic, something jived between the audience and the performer. For me, its that feeling that counts, not the sheer quantity of bodies in the room. In my opinion, music is primarily about performance for its own sake. Its not for the purpose of record sales or, really, for making money. So, if you get a day job, it won't mean the end of music in your life. It means when you make time in your day for practice(and, yes, you need to make time), or when you have your occasional gig, you'll 'love' because you're not counting on it for cash. I found after awhile of kicking around, trying to get 'big concerts,' trying to play for the critics, I was starting to despise what I was doing, even the music I was playing. I said to a fellow musician one day, "I want to become an amateur again." He said, "I know exactly what you mean..." Ok, I gotta get back to peeling all these potatoes.

Word TuBlairy. I'm young, only 21... and play in a indie band in a city where if your music doesn't have screaming in it, you might as well give up on having local bands to play with. We've just started, and maybe it changes the longer you play, but right now... we (I) play primarily for love of playing.... and, quite possibly, the thrill of knowing we are creating a new world in our lame city (South TX.) A few bands from surrounding areas have played a few shows here and we gained great contacts that way. Just remember to be cool, nice, and respectful at all your appearances. Every out of town band that we've played with or opened up for has been great. Nearly all of them (big acts included) offered us to go play in their town sometime and few hinted for us to schedule an upcoming tour together. I would say, I would think, the best way to make it big (if you have what it takes (talent / appeal) is by meeting people, gaining connections, and utilizing them.

As for the website, I can think of plenty of big time bands / solo artists just with a myspace...

Thankyou for helpful advice guys ! :)

I myself am into music that people say will never go any where (instrumentalist) into the guitar virtuoso stuff, but trying to keep songs not too over complex so that people can just enjoy its sound rather than appreciate the skill level of the players... sadly in Uk this is no where near the "in thing" for music but sod it... im going to do it.. if i get boo'd ill keep going..

I like what TuBlairy said about goals. It is critical to understand them with ANY thing you do whether its music or not. To list the benefits of this would be endless.

As a side note I just read recently that Neal Schon discovered the next singer for Journey from YOUTUBE! He was frustrated and just sat down and started searching.

You can verify that info on the news page of the Journey website.