What Is Working? – An Indie Label & D.I.Y. Series

Later this week we’ll begin publishing a series of posts produced in conjunction with U.S. indie label trade group the American Association Of Independent Music (A2IM) called "What Is Working". I’ll be asking some of the leading figures in independent music:

• In this fractured media landscape, what is working? 
• What outlets and tools are helping your artists build an audience?

The Hypebot community also has a lot to contribute to this conversation. Your comments to recent posts about the indie band Mobile loosing then getting back their MySpace URL and the subsequent cautionary Never Forget: It’s Your Data about capturing and controling your fan data included many great suggestions.

A Simple But Brilliant Strategy That Works

One of my favorite suggestions came from indie artist Allison Sharp,  "About a year ago, I decided that every time a friend request was exchanged between myself and another MySpace, Facebook, etc. user, I would always send them a note back thanking them and also including this… "I’d like to include you in my group of friends outside of {the social network}. Please reply with your email address if you are ok with that," she wrote. "The majority of those people do reply with their personal email address. I have accumulated a large email database from this one simple habit."

If you still need convincing, Dave Hooper of MusicMarketing.com remembered…

"…all the bands on mp3.com who were getting MILLIONS of plays and lots of attention. Once in particular got signed to Interscope, had a big launch on radio, etc.

Sold about 200 copies the first week.

That wouldn’t have happened had somebody let the MILLIONS of people who downloaded know the album was available. And they could have saved a ton of money on radio, which obviously wasn’t very effective in doing the job."

Dave’s right and thank-you Allison for sharing a major part of the solution.

HYPEBOT READERS:  Share with us "What Is Working" for you?