Unsigned Not Wasted : Connecting Indie Musicians and Music Fans

Ranked #4,771 in Music, #132,205 overall

DIY Music Marketing Tools for the Social Web

A social music hub connecting independent musicians and music fans with tools to help foster successful artist-to-fan relationships. Focusing on new market opportunities created by developments in social media and the emergent Web 2.0 platform.

If you're looking for ways to connect, develop, and market your music projects, this lens provides much of the research you're likely to need.

  • Artists can explore specialized tools and services designed to promote, spread and sell their music products.
  • Fans can find new ways to discover artists, share good music, and benefit from Artist partnerships.

Why Squidoo?
Well, it's a fast and fluid way to build an interactive clearinghouse on a single page. It also has the benefit of cutting-edge community tools and support. You can search the entire Squidoo network for interesting lenses with Squidoogle.

To participate simply log on or grab a free Squidoo membership to get started.

This is a living lens where the ink never dries and The Great Unsigned are free to roam. Decide for Yourself and start the adventure!

Unsigned Not Wasted concept and curation by David Holmes. Collective intelligence by The Tribe.

twitter / DavidHolmes

Dave's Imaginary Sound Store - Amazon store for related books and music products.

UNW lens logo created with Wordle.net

The Music Matrix

Music 2.0 Tools

UNW's twin lens focusing on music discovery tools and services.
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Dashboards

media aggregators, news, bookmarks

Techmeme Music Headlines

Digital music developments

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Blogs Buzz

Fresh posts about DIY music and unsigned bands

Unsigned Bands: Class Of 2012
Captive strengthens the fact that you don't need a fancy label or a lot of money to create quality music. Through them and many others, the DIY vibe in NJ still exists. Headtrap is listed as name your price on their Bandcamp. Throw the band a couple of ...
SCMC debated in Tacoma
Photo credit: Facebook The Songwriters Composers Music Conference (SCMC), based out of Washington DC and coming to Tacoma Feb. 4, bills itself as a nationally-travelling event designed for unsigned artists, bands, songwriters, producers and independent ...
Loud + Clear Records still chugging
Still, as many unsigned bands thrive with the help of the Internet (and maybe a publicist or booking agent), he can't help but wonder: Are record labels even necessary anymore? ?Put your music out yourself, you know? DIY,? Lee says.
CDBaby: iTunes Still Accounts for 77.4% of Digital Revenues...
by paul We're guessing rivals like Tunecore have similar ratios, and this probably extends beyond the unsigned and indie space. According to the year-2011 revenue analysis, CD Baby artists pulled a massive 77.4 percent of digital revenues from the ...

Mission Criteria

learn more about the UNW project

UNW Project Aims

How this lens can help you

UNW aims to:

  • Aid new music discovery, distribution and promotion.
  • Connect unsigned artists, managers and fans with the best Music 2.0 tools and resources.
  • Promote new opportunities for artist/fan interaction.
  • Help independent musicians prosper and profit from their creative work. 

Do-it-Yourself
Why waste your talent being a puppet for The Man when you can follow your own direction, build your own fan base and foster the respect you deserve from the people that count? The DIY ethic can be applied to finding self-reliant solutions for music production and commerce using the growing Web 2.0 infrastructure. Many artists have already achieved success using self-promotional business techniques to build a fanbase.

Web 2.0
Successive waves of disruptive technologies continue to change the way we find, share and pay for music. The Social Web offers a multitude of ways to build brands, collaborate and spread ideas. New Open Business models are emerging built around openness, free services and free access. For musicians this represents an unparalleled opportunity to explore creativity, retain artistic control and exploit Long Tail economics.


Music Marketing Solutions
Unsigned Not Wasted helps independent artists find free to low-cost music marketing solutions. People can locate, track and share information about a range of DIY music tools including sites for collaboration, flexible music licensing, media distribution and artist promotion. Targetted web feeds deliver the unsigned buzz from blogs and social networks.

To learn more about this DIY medium of communication, and the shift in economic value of the web, see the Music 2.0 section below for a short introduction. Also check out Chris Anderson's streaming audiobook: Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Detailed information on these topics can be found via the books on this page and via DISStore.

Participation

Sharing and rating information

Anyone can participate by adding artist and music resources to the interactive lists (plexos). These lists can be shared on webpages by grabbing the RSS feeds or widget codes.

Vote for what you Value
Individual list items can be voted on to rank them up, as can the overall lens at the top of the page. If you want to help unsigned bands and promote music difficult to find using corporate media outlets, vote for what you believe in. Every vote counts!

This way we all get a say in developing the project and sharing cool stuff. Feel free to spread the Unsigned Not Wasted meme however you wish. Use the lens 'Contact Me' link if you want to share media such as graphics, info etc. You can also share messages with the wider web community in the comments area at the bottom of the lens.

Music 2.0

using the machine

About Web 2.0

The second generation of the Web

"Web 2.0" refers to a second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashup and folksonomies.
From Wikipedia - Web 2.0

Web 2.0 0 points

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version) 0 points

The Small Print

hosts, terms, conditions

Music Media Hosts

Reading the Small Print

The creation and distribution of music has become widespread due to the abundance of Internet technologies and new online media services (Social Media/Web 2.0).

The sites used to host and distribute music online differ widely in their end user agreements and Terms of Service. Some sites are 'friendlier' than others for content creators, depending on how the creator/copyright holder permits the work to be used and whether or not they get paid.

It's important to recognize that many music sharing sites can sell or license uploaded works to third parties without financial compensation to the creator.

For people sharing free music under flexible licenses like Creative Commons this is extremely important because their choice of license is often determined by requirements involving pre-cleared authorization, user flexibility, and various copyright protections, including non-commercial use. These copyrights can be superceded or nullified by agreeing to the TOS of the music hosting service. Superceded terms may be perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable and transferable so it's helpful to know what the user may be giving up before accepting the terms.

Most music sharing sites have some kind of involvement with commercial partners such as advertisers, licensees, sponsors, affiliates and the like. This includes aggregators and search engines that spider, index and offer music elsewhere.

When choosing a host it's often a case of finding a balance between the features on offer and the Terms of Service, especially in the grey area of non-commercial use licenses. When using a third-party hosting service it's worth remembering the role partnership deals play in the financing of their operations. It's wise to read the TOS, privacy policy and copyright policy first to determine the reputation and suitability of the service. An alternative is to host the files on your own server or use a suitable paid web hosting provider.

Opinion
The Royalty Scam
New York Times article by Billy Brag.

These crazy musicians still think they should get paid for recorded music Techcrunch's Michael Arrington riffs on the Billy Bragg article with interesting reader comments.

Record Label 'Infinges' Own Copyright, Site Pulled

Open Music

copyleft, creative commons, free culture

Open Music Tools

The shift to copyleft creative networks

Thousands of artists, musicians, writers, and software developers are making their creative works available online for others to share openly and freely. Organizations like Creative Commons provide the legal framework for creators to mark their work with the kind of flexible freedoms they want it to carry: "Some Rights Reserved" as opposed to "All Rights Reserved".

In music circles this type of Free Culture movement is known as Open Music because it applies the concept of Open Source computer software to music. The social web makes it possible for everyone to participate in the creation, distribution and promotion of Open Music.

Copyleft licensing enables the free circulation of pre-cleared media and derivative works on the Internet. A healthy Remix Culture is important for creative work that involves sampling, remixing, podcasting, and web-mashups.

The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen a steady growth in the use of CC licenses. New creative networks have emerged, circumventing the limitations "conventional" copyrights impose on digital information. Most notably the collaborative music community, ccMixter, the first free remix site designed for independent musicians using CC licenses. Magnatune was one of the first digital music labels to develop the Open Music approach and both services continue to innovate in this space today.

Below are some tools that make it easy to find similar free and legal media resources for your own projects.
Open Music Search
A Google custom search engine indexing thousands of key Open Music resources. Use it to find Copyleft, Creative Commons, Open Source, and Public Domain works. Including media files, software, blogs, and creative networks. You can also grab the widget for your own web projects and Google startpages.
Creative Commons Search
Provides multiple engines for searching main Open Media hubs with the option to filter searches by desired source, media type, and Creative Commons license. Use it to find free music, videos, images, and other media.
Open Media Directory
A free resource for finding legal, podsafe music and video. The hand picked resources are designed to help artists, podcasters, bands, DJs, remixers, music bloggers and creators of video content working with Copyleft, Creative Commons, and royalty-free licenses.

Opensonics Lens

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Knowledge

guides & gurus

Video Feature Slot

Music business models

This is a feature video spot for indie music career tips and info. You can leave your own tips, and links to similar videos in the comments area at the bottom of the lens. Videos are shared via YouTube.com/DISSmedia
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Find Your Voice

By Seth Godin

"Marketing (in all its forms) is unlike everything else an organization does, because it's always different. There's no manual because everyone does it differently, and what successful marketers have in common is that they are successful.

The only way your organization is going to make an impact is to market in the way only you can. Not by following some expert's rules or following the herd, but by doing it in the way that works. For you. Don't worry about someone else's invented standards for new media, invent your own. Avoid obvious mistakes, don't follow obvious successes.

Find your voice, don't copy someone else's." From Seth's Blog

The Long Tail of Fans

CC image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ojk007/3814052537/

CC image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ojk007/3814052537/

DIY Music Survival Guides

Insight and ideas on how to survive in the changing music media revolution.

Music 2.0 - essays by Gerd Leonhard

Music 2.0 - essays by Gerd Leonhard

Music & Media Futurist Gerd Leonhard's best es more...1 point

This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion, Revised and Updated Edition by Tad Lathrop

This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion, Revised and Updated Edition by Tad Lathrop

Details promotional skills, publicity plans, royal more...1 point

The Musician's Internet: Online Strategies for Success in the Music Industry (Music Business) by Peter Spellman

The Musician's Internet: Online Strategies for Success in the Music Industry (Music Business) by Peter Spellman

This hands-on guide is essential for any musician more...1 point

The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-It-Yourself Musician by Randy Chertkow, Jason Feehan

The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-It-Yourself Musician by Randy Chertkow, Jason Feehan

The ultimate resource for musicians looking to rec more...1 point

PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge

PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge

Insight and analysis covering social networking, b more...0 points

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Image Management and Graphic Design Resources

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Making Music Library

Music tips and insights

Recommended books and DVDs on the art of sound and music creation including Music Technology, Philosophy and Aesthetics.

Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper

Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper

Chronicles the record industry's relentless rise t more...1 point

view all 19 items
created by DavidHolmes

Digital Marketplaces

business, commerce, income

DIY Designs on CafePress

Create your own branded products and browse the designs of other sellers.
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Live Music

Gigs and Touring Books

Tour management and publicity

Everything you need to know about life on the road.

The Musician's Guide to the Road: A Survival Handbook & All-Access Backstage Pass to Touring by Susan Voelz

The Musician's Guide to the Road: A Survival Handbook & All-Access Backstage Pass to Touring by Susan Voelz

Both a valuable primer designed to prepare young m more...0 points

How To Be Your Own Booking Agent: THE Musician's & Performing Artist's Guide To Successful Touring by Jeri Goldstein

How To Be Your Own Booking Agent: THE Musician's & Performing Artist's Guide To Successful Touring by Jeri Goldstein

This unique step-by-step guide & resource book more...0 points

The Touring Musician: A Small-Business Approach to Booking Your Band on the Road by Alfred Publishing

The Touring Musician: A Small-Business Approach to Booking Your Band on the Road by Alfred Publishing

Helps performers at all levels of experience to ta more...0 points

The Tour Book: How to Get Your Music on the Road by Andy Reynolds

The Tour Book: How to Get Your Music on the Road by Andy Reynolds

Provides practical advice, hints, & tips on ev more...0 points

Tour:Smart: And Break the Band by Martin Atkins, Cynthia Plastercaster, Suicide Girls, Henry Rollins, Jade Dellinger, The Enigma, Chris Connelly

Tour:Smart: And Break the Band by Martin Atkins, Cynthia Plastercaster, Suicide Girls, Henry Rollins, Jade Dellinger, The Enigma, Chris Connelly

Every aspect of making a successful tour with a ba more...0 points

YouTube - Indie and Unsigned Acts

Check out indie music videos for interesting artists, style and marketing strategies.
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Social Networking

media, profiles, playlists

Social Media in Plain English

View video playlist at YouTube/DISSmedia
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Flickr Unsigned

Social music images and brand marketing ideas

Watch how musicians promote their online presence/brand image and connect socially through the use of visual media. (Updated daily)
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Productivity Tools

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Social Media Tracking

Useful media tools and filters.
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Support Services

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Message Board

UNW announcements and feedback

A place to share news, links and promote your projects.

submit
  • Reply
    amine Aug 19, 2011 @ 11:35 am | delete
    cant get enouph about music here s more http://mp3li.com
  • Reply
    barnett_ Aug 11, 2011 @ 10:30 am | delete
    One thing unsigned bands should do is to create a band website and promote it through social networks.
  • Reply
    Jun 19, 2011 @ 1:42 pm | delete
    Great stuff!! I like your lens; it's very informative and engaging. I'm also building a site Drinking how much is too much which is really useful for drinkers.
  • Reply
    webatomic Jan 11, 2011 @ 8:13 pm | delete
    Sell Music Online
  • Reply
    Rorik Nov 16, 2010 @ 1:04 pm | delete
    This is an awesome lens! Its really cool you have this passion. Take care and good luck Rorik@Sjaal.
  • Reply
    Rorik Nov 16, 2010 @ 1:04 pm | delete
    This is an awesome lens! Its really cool you have this passion. Take care and good luck Rorik@Sjaal.
  • Reply
    pianoguy1 Oct 11, 2010 @ 11:40 pm | delete
    Very nice lense I love music I am trying to learn piano by ear.
  • Reply
    JosephClark161 Jul 16, 2010 @ 4:27 pm | delete
    Thanks for this Creative Deconstruction dude!
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    DavidHolmes

    David Holmes is a Blogger and Digital Curator focusing on Internet Music, Open Content and Social Media:

    David creates lenses with...
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