Today I want to start off a series of interviews with different indie music industry personalities from Australia and around the world.

I call it "Indie Music Focus" and the first cab off the rank is the head honcho for the indie music resource website www.theindiemusician.com Jo Brew.

Yes. As promised here is the second installment of "100 Ways To Market Your Music" by the guys at indie music resource Artistopia.

Enjoy...

Marketing your music online can be tricky if you are not sure what you're doing but I came across a series of two articles from indie music resource Artistopia that put forward a lot of great tips for the newbie online music marketer.

Here is part one of "100 Ways To Market Your Music" for you to enjoy...

What does success mean to you?

It's a very difficult question to answer. Yet the answer that we give determines how we see ourselves as a musician, songwriter or anything else in life.

Hence the importance of having your own definition of what success is.

However, before you start booking up time there are some things that you and your band need to do to ensure the recording studio experience will be as efficient and financially painless as possible...

The most crucial part of the package is the 'demo' recording of 3 to 5 of your best songs.

With this in mind it is safe to say that finding the right recording studio for your demo is very important.

The question is, where do you start?

I hope that everybody had a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Years celebrations. Now it's time to get back to work again...

Recently I was contacted by the guys at Australian Music Biz about doing CD reviews for the indie artists and bands that they represent.

Man, I love the networking potential of the internet. Don't you?

I am proud to present to you all a new website that I have been working on. It's for my business Orangutang Music which specialises in Online Music Marketing for indie bands.

How can I be of service to you? Read on...

Once your band has its music ready to go you're ready to work towards getting your first gig. However, first of all you need to know what you're up against.

It's time to do some researching...

I was reading Joe Taylor Jr's SpinMe.Com blog and a post titled "KZLA Format Change: 'We Work For Our Advertisers'" caught my eye. It confirmed what I had thought all along about radio.

Radio doesn't exist for the music anymore.

With all this talk about the music industry dying a slow and horrible death I wanted to put forward another view. I think that the music industry is actually evolving into an industry where people rule not record labels.

The music industry to me is not dying but evolving, and we (as either indie musicians and/or consumers) have the power to shape the end result of this evolutionary process.

Now you have got the rehearsal process sorted you are now ready to put your set together. This is where jamming and songwriting (and therefore band member dynamics) come into play.

Here are some ideas as to how this may work out.

You and your band mates have now secured rehearsal space and are ready to get the ball rolling.

Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your rehearsals.

However, there are no sets of rules or formulas to setting up and carrying out a band rehearsal. Just the desire and determination to get a group of musicians and their equipment running like a well oiled machine as soon as possible.

Before you can rehearse though you need to find a rehearsal space that you and your band mates can be creative in.

I stumbled across an article by Nadine Condon (the 'Godmother of Rock') answering a question about timelines and how they can help a fledgling band. I thought that this would fit in very well with the 'Indie Music Band' series of articles that I have been doing.

What do you think?

You are now part of a four piece un-named band of musicians with a whole musical journey ahead of you. "Now", I hear you ask. "What do we do now?"

Most people would say the first thing to do is to find a name for the band. Lets start from there shall we??

On Sunday, January 22nd both bands that I am involved with ("Soul Trader" and "The Liars Bench") had a successful double CD launch at JIVE, a well known live venue in the heart of Adelaide.

Two days later a live review of the event had been posted on www.adelaidebands.com and I want to thank the author, Adrienne Sheerin for her permission in allowing me to post the review on this site.

Thanks :)

Ok, so you have fielded phone calls from prospective band members and whittled it down from a cast of thousands to a handful of possible bass players. Now is the time to get to the serious part of the auditioning process.

It's Face to Face time.

Its been a long time coming but the debut CD from Soul Trader "Pre-Cursor" is now ready to be unleashed onto an unsuspecting world. I must say, Simon and I are very pleased with the result.

You have almost got your band together. Theres you (the singer and acoustic guitar) and a couple of mates on drums and electric guitar. There is however, one person that stands in the way between you and possible success. A bass player and you have just put up your ad for one.

What happens next?

The MySpace phenomenon has taken over the internet world so much that News Corp purchased it for $580 million recently (wow, thats a lot of money) and created a record company to capitalise on its amazing popularity.

Using MySpace is a great way to start creating your own indie music community. Check it out....

It's a known fact that having a sence of community in our lives is very important but it's even more important for indie artists and bands.

Swimming upstream can be very tiring and we need all the support and encouragement we can get.

This is the main question that people are asking of anyone that is wanting to attract their attention and/or intend to part them with their hard earned disposable income.

Think about it for a minute! How would you as an indie music artist or band answer that question?

Ok, so you've decided that you want to tackle this indie music industry caper by getting a band together. You have written some songs, learnt some covers but there is one missing ingredient left to consider.

Getting some band members......

Over the last six weeks I have been working hard on getting my website up and running and I am please to say that www.coreystewartonline.com is now up and running.

It is a well worn cliche but it's so true. You want to do something with your talent and you want to do it without the (so called) help of the 'majors' but you have to start from somewhere.

It looks like you have some choices to make.....

I have been a great admirer of Peter Spellman (of Music Business Solutions) and am a regular subscriber to his newsletters. I came across an article of his called "The Real Reason Major Record Companies Suck" and thought to myself 'Man, I have to read this'.....

Indie music bands and artists want the same thing as their record company sponsored contemporaries, a crowd to play in front of. It took me a while to realise that it's not how many shows you play but how many people come to them that's important.

What I learn on my own journey I will also pass onto you.

Without that belief, you don't have a career......

My name is Corey Stewart. I am a Singer/Songwriter/Musician from Australia who also has a songwriting channel called "Corey Stewart Songwriting Tips".

The Bizzo (short for 'The Business') is my way of putting together information from my own experiences and from my researching on the internet so we all can make sence of this huge industry that we, as muso's have chosen to be involved in.