“I used to read a lot of books about the music business…and the biggest thing everyone always said was that it was not about looking for [labels and managers]. When it was time they will come looking for you…I thought it was not really accurate,” Brian Mazzaferri, the lead vocals and guitar player from IFD, said. “But in our case it really turned out to be true.”

Mazzaferri started IFD with his friends as a concept band. He began writing music that both integrated the sounds from various video games and was composed with video game hardware. Soon he found out that there was an entire genre of music in this style called chiptunes.

As the band was developing and writing music, they also took a serious approach to the business side of the band.

“I really did treat this as a business from day one,” Mazzaferri said.

According to Mazzaferri, one of the first things the band did was hire a social media coach. He wanted to avoid the pitfalls a lot of bands fall into, like wasting time and energy when trying to promote themselves on the web.

“It’s not about paying someone to do something for you,” Mazzaferri said. It was about learning how to become a part of the community, and not just spam everyone out there, he added.

One of the most unique marketing techniques IFD uses is giving free music to fans who sign up for their mailing list. It seems counterintuitive, because they are giving their content away for free. But not completely. By letting IFD send them e-mails, fans are paying for the music. They have created an audience who listens to new IDF material often and knows about IFD promotions and events.

Detone8.com writers have been on the mailing list for several months. We have noticed IFD sends few e-mails, but they ones they sent had great content.

Two of the most interesting promotions IFD have had were the 1,000 first fans certificates and the lifetime subscriptions for music and shows.

When the mailing list reached 1,000 subscriptions Mazzaferri wanted to create a special experience for their oldest fans. He said that everyone who is fan of a band likes to show that they were a fan before the band was big, so IDF gave their fans this opportunity. Any fan who was one of the first 1,000 people on the mailing list can receive a laminated card verifying their “original fan of the band status.” Several hundred people signed up.

IFD got creative again in order to fund the band’s first tour when they opened up for MC Chris. IFD has six members , with a lot of gear, so Mazzaferri knew touring would be very expensive. Their solution? Sell 100 lifetime memberships to shows and free music. Members are given a wallet-size USB drives with the IFD logo on it. The membership includeds a lifetime free pass to any IFD show ever, and access to a free digital copy of anything the band ever releases.The $100 memberships sold out within 48 hours. In two days the band made $10,000.

One of the more amazing aspects is not did locals fans signed up, but worldwide fans purchased memberships. Fans as a far away as Australia and Singapore became members.

The difficulty the band faces now is finding the time to share with an expanding fan base. The e-mail list has more than 10,000 members, and it’s harder to give time to every fan.

It is not luck that the band is successful. They learned early to take the same serious approach to connecting with their fans as they did with writing and performing their music.

People who struggle to advance in the music scene can get caught up in the concept of “paying your dues.” Yet, today IFD is working on their first label-produced album a little over a year after forming the band. Perhaps paying your dues means writing great music and having a serious marketing plan.

Late last year Donald S. Passman released the seventh addition to his book “All You Need to Know About the Music Business,” and we interviewed Passman about the changes to the book caused by some dramatic shifts in the music industry.

“There has been a huge change from the last edition,” Passman said.

For fans, the most recognizable changes in the music business have been listening to interactive streaming music online with companies like Pandora, and it’s an issue the industry wrestled with right up to the publication of the book. Yet the biggest change to this version of Passman’s book is how the new 360 deals work.

The 360 deal is one of the last ditch efforts by record labels to stay afloat. Simply put, this new contract will not only split the profits from record sales with musicians and labels, but record labels now want a piece of every dollar a band makes. This includes digital sales, merchandise and even performance profits from live shows.

It’s an unprecedented way for record labels to stay afloat, although they have a strong argument in favor of the 360 deal Passman said. It’s not fair that record labels put up most of the money to get a musician off the ground and not share in all of the profit that comes with success.

And the worst part is that this maybe one of the best options for bands right now. As long as record labels are the key holders to major success in the industry, all other business plans are untested. Passman said he has yet to see any completely independent band break into the mainstream.

There is so much competition that even Internet sensations like Justin Bieber have signed with major labels to get mainstream exposure.

“There is what, 7 million bands on Myspace right now, so how do you break through that noise,” Passman asks.

Yet as much as the labels are hoping the 360 deal will save their business model, Passman has yet to see any results. “It’s too early to tell,” he said.

It seems even the experts like Passman are unsure of the future of the industry.

To sign or not to sign is purely academic if you are not even getting noticed by the labels in the first place. So, what is the first thing a band needs to do? Get it in writing.

You don’t need to cough up several hundred dollars it takes to create a business before you make any money, but Passman recommends putting an agreement in writing.

Before the band ever takes in one dollar you need to write down how the band will make decisions, who owns the name and assets of the band and how to kick someone out or bring a new person in. Then everyone signs it.

Passman warns it is harder than ever to get signed. There are less labels, less money and fewer deals made. But the keys to getting signed have stayed the same. You need to build a buzz, a story and learn to manage your fans.

Key Info from music lawyer Donald S. Passman: Before your band makes one dollar put an agreement in writing.

image from flickr.com user NobMouse

For example, his lack of ambition lead him to create a highly successful, all-ages, punk club so he could bring top punk band from around the world to play in his home town.  He then learned to work the sound board, and was hired to be the house sound guy for local and touring bands.

The band NOFX must have related to Jamieson’s lack of ambition. A Van’s Warped Tour mainstay, NOFX has being playing together since the early 1980s, recording more than a dozen studio albums, and have been touring for close to thirty years all over the world.

In the early 1990s NOFX was looking to bring a sound guy on a tour in Europe. Jaimeson called Fat Mike, singer and bass player for NOFX, about the job, and Mike immediately hired Jamieson.

A year after being their sound guy NOFX hired Jamieson to be their touring manager. The band continued to grow in popularity and eventually NOFX asked Jamieson to be their full-time manager.

“I manage them, I manage the tours, and I book most of the tours. We have an agent in Europe, but I do all of North and South America and the rest of the world as well. So, I essentially do everything,” Jamieson said.

Oh, and he manages Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a cover band of punk rock all-stars. Perhaps my definition of ambition is different than Jamieson’s.

The good news is that “non” ambitious people like Jamieson have found success in the music industry. Finding a way to work in the music industry in a small Canadian town helped him create the work ethic and the connections to tour the world for 20 years and more.

Jamieson has also seen the dramatic change in the music business over the decades. According to Jamieson, there was a belief in the late 1990s that bands could continue to make money of their catalogues of music even after a band breaks up.  Yet now that money has all but dried up.

“Touring is defiantly the main income source for musicians now,” Jamieson said. “Putting out your music is really just promoting your band as a live entity.”

In the digital age of music there is not enough money for bands to live on.  NOFX continues to have a large fan base, but too much of this generation of fans do not believe in paying for music. There is not enough money to sustain musicians who do not tour. “Selling music digitally is working out fairly well, but it ain’t nothing like it used to be,” Jamieson said.

The record labels are not helping much either. A few are making the transition, but most are not. And the ones that are struggling have never been know for their musician friendly business models.  “Life for bands on major labels sucked for band in the 90s when things were good. I can’t image how it is now,” Jamieson said. “A new band should absolutely go it alone, because at this point a record label is going to want some of their touring merchandise.”

Yet as much as things change, making in the music industry has always been hard.  “ You’ve got a one in a million shot,” Jamieson said. “There is still a chance to make a living at it for sure…the challenges really haven’t changed that much. You need to be good. You need good songs, be entertaining, and you need perseverance more than anything on top of that.”

“Really good songs are always going to be the mainstay of bands, no matter what the format they deliver,” Jamieson said. You will also need Jamieson’s questionable “lack of ambition.”

image by Edvill

Since spring of 2007 the members of Barefoot Truth have been working full time on the band. Recently they have received national attention and an undetermined amount of money from success on Pandora Radio. The internet radio site exposed Barefoot Truth to a much larger audience, and that audience can’t seem to get enough of Barefoot Truth. The band has had more than 4.5 million plays on Pandora.

Although the band had little influence on promoting their music on Pandora, their dedication to making quality music and their professional approaches to the band are key to this success. The band is doing everything right. They made the band into a small business and keep track of all of their money. They even get tax write offs at the end of the year.

Discoll took the time to help answer some our questions about Barefoot Truth’s success.

How do they afford to be professional musicians?

“We have a pretty good situation, we all live together. So a lot of the money we make as a band stays in the band going towards our own rent…it really just cuts down on costs.”

“When there is downtime…we’ll have our own little things going. Odd jobs and things are always coming up.”

What was the first step to becoming a regional band and getting shows in different areas?

“Show swapping is defiantly a big thing for us. It has been for breaking into new places…We’ve also been lucky to have interest from a lot of colleges and high school students [then we] go to their student activities board and tell them [the students] would like us to play at their school. It’s been cool to break into new markets. From there we try to get into local clubs.”

How does Barefoot Truth handle management responsibilities?

“Right now it’s pretty much mainly handled by the band. We’ve been though management a little bit and had booking agents and had some help with different tours…but beyond that we are constantly booking shows ourselves. We do a lot of the admin stuff ourselves which definitely gets tedious.”

Barefoot Truth’s first recording was produced by a Grammy nominated producer and has worked with the band Dispatch, how did that come about?

“We’ve always looked up to [Dispatch] and we went to what was planed to be their final show back in 2004. We happened to meet them, and we actually had a cassette tape. We played it for them in our car. They were really cool to us, and they said if we were really serious about making a CD we can hook you up with our producer Jack Gauthier. We said yes. We got to record our first few CDs where they recorded their CDs.

We’re never afraid to talk to people. We love meeting new people in the industry and learn how other people have gone about their career.”

The band has gotten a lot of exposure from Pandora, but how much has it helped Barefoot Truth?

“We started getting requests from different parts of the country to play, then we started seeing CD Baby sales from all different parts of the country. When someone buys your CD on CD Baby they get a chance to tell you how they have heard of you. About 80 percent was coming from Pandora, and we thought wow this is cool. Then our music got on iTunes, and we were making way more digital sales than physical sales…It’s grown exponentially.”

What advice does Barefoot Truth have for young bands?

“The biggest thing for us has been to put all the money back into the band. You can’t grow without putting money into recording, gas, graphic design or publicity. There is so much to put into the band you need to have a money flow. Just don’t get greedy with the money you make at gigs.

And don’t be afraid to play anywhere. One example that I remember we played a very small bar gig we were hesitant to play. We were pretty sure no one was going to come hear us who knew of us, but it ended up meeting a kid there who is an IT guy. He was able to do an internship for us, and he was able to build us an entire website and graphic design and get credit for it…you never who you are gonna meet and what each gig is going to bring to you.

And don’t drive in the snow…We got into an accident, and that sucked.”

Learn more about how to get your music onto Pandora, advice from Pandora’s founder and getting royalties from internet and satellite radio.

Tim Westergren is an award-winning composer, a musician with more than 20 years of experience and has even owned his own digital recording studio. Yet, Westergren’s greatest impact on the music industry has been as Pandora Radio’s founder and CSO. Pandora Radio has grown to more than 40 million users, and for last year they paid out more than $20 million in royalties.

Still, Westergren has even bigger plans for Pandora and ideas on how musicians can utilize current and future marketing tools.

In late January we talked with Westergren about what Pandora’s value is to musicians, and his thoughts on how to find success in this new decade.

What is the Music Genome Project?

“[The Music Genome Project] is the connecting tissue that powers Pandora.”

“I spent a lot of time in bands and as a film composer as well. And specifically when I was writing music for movies, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why people like what they like.”

“I kinda developed this taste profiling method, an informal genome in my head. And that eventually became the foundation for the idea of the Music Genome Project.”

“The genome project itself is this enormous musical taxonomy. So it’s a collection of hundreds …of discrete musical aspects that collectively describe a song.”

How are royalties paid by Pandora?

“We pay a publishing fee and a performance fee for every song we play. And a publishing fee is paid to the composer and the performance fee is paid to the performer.”

“We pay the publishing fee to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, and we pay performance fees to a company called SoundExchange. And they in turn distribute that money to artists and labels.”

“The nice thing is that musicians are getting paid. It’s been a real strain for us on a business standpoint, and I think it still remains a pretty unjust fee.”

Can musicians get feedback on play counts and thumbs up/thumbs down from listeners?

“It’s certainly something we would like to offer and eventually will. Where an artist can go in and investigate that, and ultimately make use of that.”

“So, not just find out what songs people are liking and who your fans are, where they are. But, communicate with them as well. So you can maybe plan a tour and e-mail all the people who ever thumbed up a song of yours to let them know you are coming.”

How can artist promote themselves on Pandora?

“[Musicians] can go in and buy advertising. That would essentially mean buying graphic visual advertising that surrounds the tuner, banners around the tuner. That currently is the only method we have for artists to advertise.”

What advice do you have for new bands starting out?

“I think it’s time now where if you’re a musician you need to take advantage of the web.”

“In order to do that you need someone to help you. If I was starting a band now, one of the people I would add to the band is a person whose job is to be the online member, not necessarily some one who plays an instrument…But, this person’s full time job is just to figure out all the ways in which you can take advantage of the web.”

“Think of that person as a member of your band just like anybody else. But they play a mouse instead of playing guitar…give them a cut of the door, credit them on the album and make them part of the band.”

How will musicians fair as labels are struggling to stay vital?

“I think there will be now a potential for a musician’s middle class. And in some ways you are going to see a compression overall where… the top selling artists aren’t going to make nearly as much, and that’s not news, so you’re going to have this layer of artists that [in the past] couldn’t quite make it that can start making it. Meaning, make a living.”

This is part two of a three part series on Pandora Radio. Part one was how to get your music on Pandora Radio.

The third part of the Pandora Radio series is on promoting your band and making money on Pandora. We will we talking with the band Barefoot Truth, a band with more than 4 million plays on Pandora Radio.

Michael Zapruder, music curator for Pandora, faces an onslaught of 400 to 800 songs every month. Yet even with a never ending supply of new music, Zapruder and his staff don’t cut any corners. Every song submitted to Pandora is analyzed by the experts at Pandora to be considered for inclusion in the collection.

“We are proud we listen to everything,” Zapruder said.

With over 40 million registered users, Pandora is not a market you want to miss out on. And, you should not. Submitting to Pandora is relatively easy, and all the steps you need to get on Pandora are steps you should be doing anyway.

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

The steps to getting your music ready for submitting.

• First, you need to have a CD copy of your music with a bar code. When a recording studio agrees to record and replicate an album a bar code is often included in the fees. But watch out, it can cost as much as $99 to buy a bar code. Pandora recommends Nation Wide Barcode which charges only $10 for a bar code. You can get it the same day.

• Once your music has been reproduced into a CD format, Pandora requires that the music must be available in the physical Amazon CD store. You will need to create an account for Amazon Advantage, but there are no fees to join. It cost $29.95 per year plus a 55% standard commission on the sale of your CDs. Don’t forget to enter in all the information that Amazon lists about your music. Most importantly you need to upload the cover art for the album.

• Speaking of albums, no matter how awesome all the other songs on a CD might sound you need the rights to use every song on the album. Once Pandora accepts your music they may use all the songs on your CD.

• It is also suggested that before submitting you should collect relevant information about your fan base, selling power and music reviews. This will not help with the Music Genome Project, but it can be a good indicator to Pandora if people want to hear your music.

The simple submission process.

• Go to Pandora’s submit music form and give them all the information you have prepared. You will want to submit your best two songs from the CD you put on Amazon. Zapruder also suggests not putting in more than one submission until you know if your first CD has been approved or denied.

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

You can check up on the status of your submissions, but be patient. Not only are there hundreds of submissions ahead of yours, the review process takes a long time. You just need to have the patience to wait as Pandora works their way through the songs ahead of yours. Zapruder said this process can take up to three months.

“We listen to the songs and if necessary and relevant we look up the supplemental information that the artist provided with their submission,” Zapruder said. “A decision is made on whether to accept the music or to pass on it, and that decision is added to the original submission.”

Once Pandora gets to accepts your submission, the Music Genome Project is used to analyze your songs. This process is a long list of music attributes that are rated by a group of music experts at Pandora. The rating process is extremely rigid so that all of the music analysts can give a consistent answer to questions like, “how distorted is this guitar?”

No matter what the genre, Zapruder is looking for quality music. Yet some of the more crowded genres, like four piece pop rock, can be difficult to get into. Also, some genres of music have yet to get their own genome, so Pandora would not be able to take any music of that genre regardless of quality.  Don’t worry. It is very unlikely you would run across this problem if you are writing any kind of music heard in clubs in the U.S.

Good luck.

This is part one of a three part series on Pandora Radio. Part two is an interview with Pandora Chief Strategy Officer & Founder Tim Westergren. He talked with us about how Pandora works, the future of the music industry and his advice for young bands.

The third part of the Pandora Radio series is on promoting your band and making money on Pandora. According to Westergren, 70 percent of the music on Pandora is from artist not on major labels, and Pandora pays royalties for every time a song gets played on the site. Last year Pandora paid more than $20 million in royalties.

Jet Lag Gemini has no gimmicks to success. There are no tricks up their sleeves. The band makes music, and they do it very well. The dedication to their music is the reason Doghouse Records put Jet Lag Gemini on their label and set up tours with bands like The All-American Rejects. It’s also the reason the band has spent a year writing their current album.

“Write good music,” Misha Safonov, lead singer of Jet Lag Gemini, said. “People pick up on it.”

Yet even with a unique sound, Jet Lag Gemini had to work to get fans. The scene in New Jersey, at the time the band was created, was ruled by screamo bands emulating Thursday. Jet Lag Gemini was the only band in the area with a cleaner rock sound. Safonov said that people though the band was weird. But, it never detoured them.

They set out to be a touring band from day one. As soon as the band was formed they booked to play their first show only three weeks later. They didn’t even have all of their songs written. There was no MySpace push or crazy contests. It was an old school approach to making it in the music industry, playing as many shows as possible, and focus on the music first.

As Jet Lag Gemini played more shows and started setting up tours, the screamo scene got old. People were looking for something different. As the scene moved onto AutoTunes and the latest hipster look more people begin to notice Jet Lag Gemini’s unique sound and dedication to their music.

“It’s word of mouth,” Safonov said. “People see us live and there is a steady growth.”

The band started to tour and trade shows with other bands. They learned to become economical and not drive to Florida before anyone knows who they are.

People took notice. The band formed around 2004 and by 2006 Doghouse Records learned about their music and offered them a deal.

Yet there is more to Jet Lag Gemini’s success than good music, it is a good attitude. Along the way they have tried to stay humble, learning to not be like the bands that act like they are owed success.

“Some bands think that just because they left town and are on tour that they are a big deal,” Safonov said. “Sure, you want to have mystery, but you don’t want to come off as a dick.”

The success Jet Lag Gemini has tasted has not consumed them, but pushed them to be even better. After two albums, Jet Lag Gemini spent the entire year writing for their latest album. Even before stepping into a studio, and working with their producer, the band has taken time to write and record all the songs for the album, so they can give their producer the best idea of how they want the album to sound.

With the amount of time Jet Lag Gemini has spent on the latest album, they will go over two years without releasing anything new. It’s not been easy for the band. Safonov has had to earn extra money on the side to help pay his bills. Yet, they are doing it they way they want.

“There is no easy way to make it.” Safonov said. “There are a million different ways to make it, but non of them are easy.”

When a pop rock band emerges out of metal stronghold Iowa it would be a miracle if anyone came to see it. Yet through a well-executed marketing plan, The Actress Adorable was able to sell out the first show they ever played.

By bringing in close to 300 people to their first show, The Actress Adorable has been able to get any show they want from hometown venues and have given their fans quality performances from day one.

It all started with metal guitarist, Jesse Barnes’, dream of starting his own band.

When Barnes wanted to start a pop rock band, he was going to do it the right way. He was not going to cut any corners, something he had learned from previous experiences.

Barnes had played in a professional touring metal band only months before starting The Actress Adorable. His time with the band left him with bad memories of how to run the business aspects of a band.

As the newest member of the band, Barnes was paid the least from touring. Often Barnes was paid as little as a $100 while at the same time the band’s roadie was getting paid $800.

“These guys ripped me,” Barnes said.

After this experience, Barnes considered giving up on his dream of being a professional musician.

Barnes decided to enrolled in college, and shortly after realized he could not give up on his dream to be a musician. On a trip to Michigan he heard some bands that he had never given much of a chance.  He started listing to Under Oath and Armor for Sleep and realized he wanted to start a band without a being tied to a specific genre.

Barnes and three of his friends started writing music, but is soon fell apart. One of the members did not like playing anything other than metal, forcing Barnes to rethink his strategy. He now realized to create a great band, he had to start by being great from day one.

Everything had to be done right 100% of the time.

“I wanted to find five rock stars…in it to win it,” Barnes said.

Barnes looked for not only talented musicians, but musicians willing to put in the time to making the band successful.

Once the band was created members got full time jobs with the intent of paying for a high quality recording and professional marketing. The members would pay whatever the band needed until the day the band could pay them to be full-time musicians.

The Actress Adorable wrote enough songs to get a professional recording with a producer. They hired a web designer to create a high quality MySpace page with photos they got from a professional photographer. All before they set up their first show.

Barnes even made connections with a national distributor, Quickstar Productions, to have their music available on iTunes.

The launch of the MySpace page and the announcement of The Actress Adorable’s first show was released to the public the same weekend. Then, promoting the show began.

Until the day of the show, every weekend the band took off work and spent two 12-hour days out on the streets talking with people. They lived close to several colleges and spent much of their days going from dorm room to dorm room.

The band also found a way to get the local media to write articles about the show. Two local newspapers ran page-one stories about the show.

The members of the band had a friend who needed medical assistance, so some of the proceeds from the show was going to help their friend’s bills. Once the local media got information that the show was also a benefit event it became local news.

“I put 100% of my effort into promotion,” Barnes said.

When the band finally played the sell out show it was a new experience for many the members. Some had never played for that may people before.

The club owner said that if they could sell out shows that The Actress Adorable could set up any kind of show they wanted.

Right from the start the band was getting a lot of respect from clubs and other bands that were more than happy to play with them. The Actress Adorable became the only local, non-cover band to play the largest venue in their hometown.

The sell out show also had a big effect on the work ethic of the band. They wanted to have this kind of audience for every show they played.

One of the biggest marketing tools they learned from that show was putting in the long weekends of hitting the streets pays off, and they have continued this practice for every show to date.

Working the streets with the full band has had great success to bring people to shows. It does a lot to help connect with the audience. First, it allows the band to talk to a lot of people in an area at once. Second, it allows different members strengths to come out whether it’s talking with girls or talking tech with music fans. Last, it helps to keep the band a tight group, something touring bands deal with every day.

Even as The Actress Adorable grows, the lessons they learned from their first show are still helping them succeed today.

Here are some of the tips for selling out your first show like The Actress Adorable:

Be prepared with marketing- When the band started promoting the show they already had a MySpace page with music for people to check out and follow. They followed this by making the music available on iTunes where fans were able to buy their music.

Meet people offline – Connecting with fans face-to-face is the fastest way to make die-hard fans and friends who can help your career.

Make the event more than just about you – The Actress Adorable’s first time on stage was also a benefit show. Give people more than one reason to come out and see you.

Don’t cut corners – Put away real money towards making the band better. Great recordings and good producers will cost money. A band is a business, and businesses need investments to get off the ground.

Don’t be satisfied – Congrats if you sell out your first show, but the job is not over. Promoting shows is a constant battle. Don’t assume that if you sold out your last show you will sell out the next one.

After years of building a fan base, countless credit card bills and two days without sleep, Ludo found themselves signed. And they did it by playing a house party.

“We are still paying off some of those credit cards,” guitarist Tim Ferrell said.

Ludo is a band of humble beginnings. They started in open mic clubs across the Midwest crashing on peoples’ floors, only able to sell cheap burned CD and always asking friends for help. And they would play anything. “It was harsh,” Ferrell said. Yet, he also knew, “we had to do this.”

Ludo’s key to success was not a drive to become rich rock stars. It was what Ferrell describes as, “Coming from a place that this is the only thing  we can do.” They never did it for the money, because there has never been much money.

According to Ferrell being a musician is one of the worst ways to make a living. The amount of work that goes into making each dollar can be worse than making minimum wage. But, the members of Ludo stuck with it for years. They were willing to do whatever it took, and the confidence to go on.

They gained their fans like any young band does, by begging their friends to come to shows. Growth came from creating a network of bands in similar situations. Ludo could bring out 20 people to shows in St. Louis. Out of town bands would get Ludo’s audience in St. Louis, and then Ludo would go to the other bands town to play for that band’s 20 friends.

Ludo was able to convert other bands’ fans into their own. Their growth came from their humble beginnings. Ludo learned to write strong songs and to market themselves from playing open mic nights. When the band only had 15 minutes to play they had to be awesome, or at least create something original to get people’s attention. They also learned something just as important, the show did not stop after they got off stage. To get dedicated fans, as well as a place to sleep, Ludo spent time after they played hanging out with people.

“We made an effort to make ourselves available and approachable,” Ferrell said. “And, it was meaningful.”

Even the invasive act of sleeping on a stranger’s couch meant that these people were no longer strangers, but people they had shared experiences with. By having nothing they learned how to use their best marketing tool, themselves.

As the band grew over time they begin creating a street team of fans they called ninjas. The benefit of the street team was more than just a way to make new contacts; it also helped the band keep in touch with their closest fans when the band was not around.

But, as Ludo gained fans they did not gain interest from record companies.

“Getting signed was a long and painful process,” Ferrell said. Record companies were getting more selective about who they signed as the industry started losing money. “You have to have something to offer. Record labels want something that is easy. They want someone who is stable, has been around and has a bunch of fans.”

Record labels want to know they can get their money back.

Over the years the band had always stashed away as much money as they could for recordings. They preferred to sleep on floors than hotel rooms. All so they could save what little they had for recording.

In 2004, Ferrell created Redbird Records and Touring LLC, and he made Ludo an LLC. Making the band a business allows Ludo to write off business expenses and get insurance through the band.

The band continued its number one goal of gaining fans, and the connection with their fans is what ultimately got Ludo an agent, music lawyer and signed by a record label.

Ferrell found that music professionals did not “get” Ludo. Having professionals listen to their music was not enough. Ferrell and the other members of Ludo did what they have been doing for years, begged these people to come to shows.

In 2005, the band recorded the EP “Broken Bride” with money they had saved. By the time they played  in December of that year Ludo could draw more than 1000 fans in their hometown.

They were signed by Island Records in early 2006 from two performances at the SXSW event that year. Yet, Ludo was never invited to play SXSW.

Ludo played at SXSW four times, but never at a club or sponsored event. They found house parties.  In 2005, they had two house parties set up in the Austin, Tx. area. After they played the first house party, the band went out of state to play another show the next night.

Buzz around SXSW grew, and record label representatives got themselves invited to the second house party in Austin that Ludo played that week.

The second house party was the following night from when they played out of state. The band flew back to Texas and got to the party after being awake for 36 hours straight.

“We killed at the show,” Ferrell said.

It worked. Ferrell said that he thinks the record label people never really understood their music, but they could see that Ludo worked hard and had a great fan base. The band required very little work and could make the label money.

Island Records jumped on Ludo and signed the band soon after. And it happened because Ludo did what they have done from the very beginning: they connected with their fans, and they played anything they could.