DIY Band Holiday Crafts

Thanks to a tip from Pitchfork (via Artists House), I learned about Oregon’s Glass Caster Union offering up its second year of indie rock themed holiday ornaments, featuring bands like Built to Spill, Bright Eyes, and Iron and Wine.

I found this to be a cool idea that any band can use to treat their fans to a special treat during the holiday season. While you don’t have to use glass like the Glass Casters Union, you can use other materials to create one-of-a-kind holiday ornaments for your fans.

Band Holiday Ornament How-to’s:

* With a digital camera, take holiday photos of your band: the goofier the better 😉

* Cut into holiday shapes (Christmas trees, stars, dreidels, etc)

* Laminate or place photo within full sheet clear Avery labels.

* Cut away extra plastic

* Punch hole at the top, and string ribbon or yarn through the hole for hanging

While you’re taking those holiday band photos, also consider sending band holiday cards, thanks to this tip from Christopher Penn

There are places online – tons – where prints are 8 cents per print for 4×6 prints. I don’t mean the gimmicky holiday cards, just straight photo prints that you can write on the back of.

If you take the photos yourself, you’re making a custom gift with personal involvement AND saving a ton of money over regular holiday cards. Use free photo editing software like Photoshop Express (understanding that there are intellectual property issues with it, like giving up some rights, but for holiday cards, who cares?) and make some cheap yet thoughtful holiday greetings.

I’m going to try my hand at holiday ornaments this year, and I’d love to see pics of any bands out there who make their own holiday ornaments or greeting cards. Send pics to moxiemaven64 [AT] gmail [DOT] com, and I’ll post them on the site!

Happy crafting!

Motown’s Secrets of Success – DIY Style

Motown’s Secrets of Success – DIY Style
by Carla Lynne Hall

Berry Gordy, the founder and CEO of legendary Motown Records developed a simple plan in the early days of his record company:

“I broke down my whole operation into three functions: Create, Make, Sell. I felt any business had to do that. Create something, Make something and then Sell it. Using this phrase as a slogan kept my thinking in focus.”

The Create phase was writing, producing, and recording. The Make phase was manufacturing and pressing of the records. The Sell phase involved placing records with distributors, getting airplay, marketing and advertising. After implementing this plan, distribution difficulties made him add,

“It had become very clear to me that my Create, Make and Sell slogan had to be revised. We had to now focus more on one thing: getting our money – collecting. Because I felt that Create and Make were pretty close to the same thing, I dropped the make and changed the slogan to Create, Sell and COLLECT.”

While the specific methods have changed since Berry Gordy ran Motown, the requirements for being a successful, recession-proof musician have not changed. If you’d like to increase your musical income, review this list to see where you can make improvements or additions to your current music marketing strategy:

Create:
Write killer songs
Have a great live show
Develop an identifiable image

Sell:
Set realistic and tangible sales goals for your music
Perform/tour as much as possible
Contact the media on a regular basis
Go to music business networking events
Find paying gigs in non-traditional venues
Have a band blog with a solid domain name
Maintain and build your mailing list
Have CDs and merchandise at all shows
Sell your CDs on your website(s)
Sell your CDs on online retailers such as CDBaby.com and Amazon.com
Open for bigger acts traveling through your town
Always have an upcoming gig to promote
Hand out flyers all the time

Collect:
Evaluate your results each month
Have a designated person at shows to sell CDs
Hire a competent accountant to help with your taxes

Article originally published January 2001 for MusicDish.com: Updated November 2008.