John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. Photo by Autumn de Wilde

OK, admitting that I’m a bit of a luddite - I accept that computers are my friend and fully embrace their benefit. However, when it comes to music there is a vast difference between marketing & creativity. When you see a band that has designed their logo-website-tshirt-wardrobe-marketing plan, before they’ve written four or five great songs, and I use that term loosely, you know something is rotten in Denmark.

First, let’s talk about songs. That can be pretty much anything as long as it has a beginning and an end. For lots of good songs the middle is not so important but for great songs, I think it is. I have my own preferences but won’t engage in the debate on what’s better, or more valid, as a song. If you communicate to an audience in person or in some alternate-virtual reality & don’t even have a chance of pulling that off on stage, it doesn’t matter. DJs, et al are included in this communication. Again, I have my own preferences but I recognize there being many ways to skin or get that cat outta the tree. BUT, it’s hard to make an argument for something succeeding if it doesn’t“speak” to some group of people. For my money that is where a musician or anyone in music, must start. Being truthful in some fashion or speaking some truth to others. Whether you’re out to change the world, baring your soul, reflecting your culture or telling a tale, there has to be some truth, even if it’s a lie.

You can make a case for, & give countless examples of, people becoming popular in the indie world on the basis of their talent, determination and ability to communicate to an audience. Anyone from Elliott Smith, Feist, Guided By Voices, Sufjan Stevens, Neko Case, Yo La Tengo, The Sadies to countless underground punk rock & jam bands. Even though I’m less familiar with & interested in the last two groups, there’s no denying their success in carving out a niche and career for themselves. I’m convinced that one of the main reasons for this is quality and making something that means something to others. This applies whether you’re a DJ, a jam band or the next Willie Nelson, wait a minute Willie Nelson is sort of a jam band now-a-days . . . you get my point.

So, I suppose this brings us to marketing. I won’t deny that a great photo or ingenious advert can go a long way in grabbing attention and even establish someone. But what really works in marketing is after the fact and the fact is quality of whatever it is that you create. You still have to look good or weird or the same as someone else or just project what ever it is that made you who you are. People who have longevity come to marketing ideas relative to whatever project they’ve just completed. My experience has been that you, as an artist, can and should have as much of an idea as to how to promote & market your records as anyone else, assuming that you don’t just get in other people’s way. Ask yourself the question, “What’s important about what we just made?” Maybe in the old days all an artist had to do was sing good, look pretty & leave the business up to the company. Not any more and if you have been living under a rock and don’t use DIY methods this is how people become dissatisfied with their record companies. They leave too many of those decisions to someone else & then don’t like the result. This is something to establish at the beginning of the business relationship, which brings us back to the beginning of the discussion...

Write a few great songs & figure out what your MySpace page will look like later.

John Doe – Oildale, CA 9/29/07

John Doe will have a regular blog on KnowTheMusicBiz.com entitled What Would John Doe Do? (WWJDD?) where John will answers questions from community members about music, the music business or life. If you have a question you would like John to answer in his blog please email it to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or yeproc.com