How To Help An Indie Band

Has anyone considered the environmental impact of mp3 downloads? If people are downloading music from Itunes and Napster and what have you instead of buying cds, isn't the environment being impacted favorably?

I'm not suggesting that people download rather than get physical media, because I love cds and jewel cases and books etc. But, Itunes is HUGE. Certainly, the reduction in all that shipped packaging, the plastic, the paper and even the reduction in the shipping, the fuel, the exhaust must be beneficial to the Earth.

I hadn't really thought about that before. It's pretty cool.

Speaking of Itunes...sometimes people ask me how they can help our band get the word out about our music. I'm pretty sure that Itunes is one of the largest places that people go these days to discover new music. But how are they going to find us in the mix of gazillion cds there? Well, there are a few ways that you can help them.

The most important way is through playlists. Did you know that if you have an Itunes account you can very easily create custom playlists and then publish them to the Itunes Library/Store? Well, you can. So, let's say that you made a playlist with School for the Dead in it and also songs by The Cars and The Shins and The Decemberists. Now, people who are browsing the Decemberists will see the playlist, and discover SFTD that way. Pretty good right?

Then there are the reviews. Did you know that anyone with an Itunes account can write a review of any cd? That means you can go to our cd page and write an embarrassingly glowing review that others can read when they stumble upon us. AND if you include related or similar artists in that review, it's not only more effective, it also might work its way into some search databases.

Then there are the suggestion options. You can email a song or an album link to a friend directly from your Itunes page. You know your buddy who loves camping? You can quickly send him a suggestion to check-out Campground Daughter. You know your cousin who builds Photobooths? You could easily recommend that she gives a listen to Rock and Roll Camper. It's very simple and instant.

Then there is the gift option. Right there on the page of a particular album you can click on a gift link and send a little download present to your friend overseas who happens to be named Ayla or Martha.

Anyway, if anyone out there has some extra time on Itunes, why not consider writing a little review of The New You, The Chain Cd, Looks Like I'm Tall, or The Fawns' A Nice Place To Be? That would be a great help. Even more helpful would be to add us into some really well thought-out and excellently titled (the title is maybe the most important part) playlists. You know, like "Songs To Listen To While Driving In The Early Morning" or "Music For Giraffes" or whatever.

If you don't have an Itunes account, by all means go get one. OR you can do almost all these same things at Amazon.com, too. We could definately use the help over there.

It's a new age in the world of music. We can reach people all over the world just by goofing around at our desks. Last week we got orders for Fawns cds from Singapore and Germany. How did they find us?!? By way of the types of things that I just outlined most likely. It's a souped-up version of word-of-mouth.

Thank you in advance if you help us spread the word. I feel a little goofy asking but, well, I am a little goofy, so there.

Here are the direct links to make it that much easier:

ITUNES

School for the Dead, The Fawns, Henning Solo

AMAZON
School for the Dead, The Fawns, Henning Solo