The goal of the Indie Artist X Project is to develop a basic, actionable music marketing plan designed around simple strategy, prioritization of tactics, easy to use tools, and a reasonable budget that can be implemented by any artist who has the inclination to follow it. About.com Music Careers, Artists House Music, Hypebot, KnowTheMusicBiz.com, MusicianWages.com and Revolution Number 3 have banded together to create this community based music marketing plan.  We will be working with one anonymous artist to design and implement this music marketing plan then track and report the actual results over a four month period.

Today marks the wrap up date for the 4 month long Indie Artist X Project. I posted a blog at Hypebot today with an overall IAXP wrap up and summary.

The majority of the inquiries and questions I received during the Indie Artist X Project where about the identity of the anonymous artist who was participating in the project and how that artist was selected. Now that the project has officially wrapped up I can finally announce that the artist who participated in the project is Austin Collins from the band Austin Collins and The Rainbirds.

Background

I first stumbled upon Austin and his band by accident at the 2008 South by Southwest Festival. While I was at SXSW I attended a show case event to see a friend of mine’s band play and Austin’s band just happened to come on stage next. I was immediately impressed with the set Austin and the Rainbirds performed. After the show I briefly met the band and picked up a copy of their latest CD, Roses are Black.

Once I got home from SXSW I began listening to all the CD’s I’d brought home with me and after a few listens I decided Roses are Black was a damn fine record. After many, many more listens I decided Roses are Black was my favorite record of 2008.

At the end of the year I was one of the people who blogged about my “Five Favorite Things”  in About.com’s 2008 Music Wrap Up feature. Soon afterwards Austin contacted me to say thank you for mentioning Roses are Black was my favorite release of 2008. ‘I kept Austin’s contact information but we didn’t communicate past his initial email.

SXSW 2009

Two weeks before I was to depart for South by Southwest this past spring I found out my housing plans had fallen through. Anyone who has been to SXSW can tell you there are no hotel rooms available anywhere near Austin, TX two weeks prior to the event.

In an attempt to try and salvage my trip I pulled a list of everyone in my contacts that lived in Austin, TX and sent out an email asking if anyone knew a place where I might be able to crash during SXSW. Almost immediately Austin replied back to my email saying I could stay at his house. Problem solved!

When I arrived in town Austin and I agreed to meet up at the Guitar Town party after the day’s panels had concluded.  I learned several interesting things hanging out with Austin that first night. He has great taste in music, a wide circle of friends, strong interpersonal skills and a degree in Finance from the University of Texas. When I introduced Austin to Rob Miller from Bloodshot Records I was impressed with how easily Austin fell into my conversation with Rob (and didn’t immediately fall all over himself pitching his band).

The Deal

Austin was very interested in getting my take on music marketing and the music business in general and had a lot of good questions. We found it difficult to talk at the evening parties and showcases so we arranged to talk over breakfast on my last day in town. At breakfast we covered a wide range of music business related topics, online marketing, distribution, licensing, etc. while Austin made furious notes of everything we discussed.

I really liked Austin’s music and found him to be very motivated and driven so I made him a deal that morning. I told Austin I would help him pull together a music marketing / music business plan without compensation but I would only put as much effort into building his music career as he was. I have tried to help a few musicians with their business / marketing efforts in the past but always grew frustrated at their lack of follow through and execution.

We setup a Google Docs page to help us get Austin’s marketing efforts organized and to assign key tasks and due dates. I quickly found out that Austin always follows though. I can’t think of a single time that I even casually suggested an idea to Austin he didn’t have it done before our next weekly phone call.

The IAXP is Born

I initially thought I could pull together a fairly comprehensive outline for a music marketing plan easily enough but found it to be a pretty huge task. I started reaching out to other folks I know and respect to get their input on ideas for Austin’s marketing plan.

While talking to Cameron Mizell from MusicianWages.com one day we stumbled upon the idea of blogging about the creation of Austin’s marketing plan and the results it generated.  We discussed the need for Austin’s name to be withheld so it wouldn't provide him with free publicity during the project and in turn skew any results he might see.

After phone calls to some smart, forward thinking, indie focused music business blogging peers the Indie Artist X Project was born. Hopefully a few musicians will find the music marketing plan we created useful in developing their own plan and furthering their own music career.

What’s Next for Mr. Indie Artist X?

As the IAXP was preparing to kick off Austin won the 2009 AirPlay Direct “All Things Americana” artist contest. Austin is using the $35,000 contest prize package to self release his third studio record, due out in February 2010.

Moving forward you can follow Austin’s progress on his website, Facebook and / or Twitter.