Correct me if I'm wrong, but ... there's been a lot of doom and gloom associated with the music biz lately. Right?

You know the drill ... CD sales have fallen four years in a row ... Clear Channel owns most of the commercial radio stations and is strangling play lists and variety ... Illegal file sharing has run rampant ... And these days, with bloated conglomerates and shrinking label rosters, it's nearly impossible to land a major deal.

Are you buying into all this negative hype? If you are ...

STOP KIDDING YOURSELF!

Sure, there are obstacles to success. But there always have been and always will be. The truth: All the doom and gloom you've been hearing are just a bunch of opinions spit out by people who prefer to make excuses rather than find solutions and create opportunities for themselves.

Make no mistake ... there's never been a better time to be an independent artist. At no time in history has it been easier to record and manufacture a CD and reach people around the globe with your music.

Yes, the very definition of "making it" has changed drastically in recent years. Thousands of solo artists and bands are enjoying successful music careers outside the traditional lines of what it means to be a musical "success."

The best news is ...

YOU Can Enjoy the Same Success!

I've been promoting this positve, empowering philosophy since 1996, when I published the first edition of my bestselling book, Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook. Since then, it's sold thousands of copies and been favorably reviewed in American Songwriter and Music Connection magazines, among others.

Derek Sivers, president and founder of CD Baby, called it "the most directly applicable, start-tomorrow, creatively inspiring book I've ever seen on promoting your music!" About.com described it as "the one thing you need to launch a profitable music career." The Guerrilla book even made an appearance in the major motion picture The School of Rock, starring Jack Black.

But this isn't about that book. Even with all the positive feedback I've received from readers who feel my ideas motivated them and opened their minds to new marketing concepts and creative ways to be successful, I know that musicians are still hungry for more ideas ... more success stories ... more insights into what it takes to break through and reach a higher level of notoriety.

Does This Describe You?

Do you ever find yourself wondering what else you could be doing to:

• Attract more fans to your live shows?
• Sell more of your CDs?
• Make better use of the Internet?
• Get more coverage in the media?
• Make more money?
• Feel happy about the path you're on with your music?

To help you answer these questions I just put together a powerful new collection of success tools called ...

Music Marketing Crash Course:
1,001 Ways to Promote Yourself,
Make Money & Live Your Dreams

On this new CD-ROM (data CD), you'll find some of my most popular special reports along with many rare and exclusive articles, tip sheets and spoken word audio clips overflowing with mind-expanding ideas you can use to kick-start your self-promotion efforts.

PLUS, I tapped the brains of 17 of the world's top music biz experts and collected their best advice on how to succeed as an indepednent artist today. Truly amazing stuff!

What Do You Get with the
Music Marketing Crash Course?

For starters, you'll find the five Lost Bob Baker Articles. When I wrote these a few years ago, they inspired a ton of positive response from readers (while also rubbing a few people the wrong way).

I recently uncovered them and realized they're as relevant today as they were then ...

• Why Your Music Sales and Marketing Are Backwards and Incomplete. Most music promoters make this mistake. Do you? Proceed at your own risk.
• Bob's Music Biz E-mail Pet Peeves (or How You're Irritating the Hell Out of People). E-mail is easy to use ... and even easier to abuse. Make sure your e-mail marketing efforts are helping you more than hurting you.
• The Controversial Press Release Critique: Make Sure Your Online PR Campaign Cuts the Mustard. One web site was forced to pull an article just like this one because my candid opinions were too much for the artists I critiqued. Learn the raw truth about online PR -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- using real-life examples.
• 27 Good Reasons to Write and Send a Press Release. At a loss for publicity ideas? You never will be again after you read this report. Devour this and get busy promoting yourself!
• Music Marketing and the State of Your Fans (How to Use Pain and Pleasure to Market Your Music). This two-part report examines the psychology of music fans. After you read this one, you'll know how to use the secret hot buttons that motivate music consumers to spend money on you!

You'll also get these classic music marketing gems ...

• 35 Ways to Promote Yourself, Your Band or Your New Release. This report spills over with real-world, creative promotion strategies that songwriters and musicians have used to get noticed. You'll need a highlighter when you read this one.
• 7 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas in Action. Smart music marketers understand that effective self-promotion doesn't have to be big, expensive or flashy to be effective. Here are seven examples of indie music people like you thinking outside the box and doing innovative things to boost their careers.
• 4 Ways to Attract More Music Fans Faster. If you're not following these four simple steps, you're blowing some big opportunities. One of my most popular articles and workshop handouts.

These popular special reports are also on the CD ...

Killer Press Kits: The 29 Most Important Elements in Creating Sizzling Music Publicity Materials

Are your press kits going straight into the trash? Use this bestselling report as a checklist to make sure your publicity materials are actually read by editors, writers, booking agents, program directors and other industry people. Discover:

• The one thing you MUST SEND with every press kit you mail
• One mistake you should absolutely NOT MAKE with a press release (sadly, it happens all the time)
• 7 ways to write a CAN'T-MISS cover letter
• The 5 essential elements of a KILLER artist bio
• 3 reasons most artist photos head straight TO THE TRASH
• The 2 BIGGEST MISTAKES artists make when sending CDs to the media for review
• 3 ways to present your press clippings SO MEDIA PEOPLE LOVE YOU

E-zine Music Marketing: Powerful Ways to Promote Your Music with a Fan E-mail Newsletter

These 28 jam-packed pages show you:

• Insider secrets from eight indie artists who successfully promote themselves with e-mail newsletters
• The 13 most effective ways to motivate fans to subscribe
• 19 things that successful artists include in their e-zines
• How to triple your mailing list signups at live shows
• Three great ways to make sure your e-zine gets read
• The 21 best places to promote your e-zine for free

197 Promotion Tips, Tricks & Resources for Indie Musicians

This 68-page mega-report is packed with countless ideas, such as:

• What NOT to do with an e-mail PR campaign
• One often-overlooked way to use your web site to get exposure
• Five ways to present your unique musical identity online
• The biggest mistake you can make with your first CD
• An eye-opening technique you should be using to sell CDs
• What you should know about the audience burnout factor
• One mental trait that will virtually guarantee a more prosperous music career
• The secret search engine trick ... and more

10 Great Self-Promotion Ideas for Writers, Artists, Performers and More

Borrow these tactics from other creative fields and apply them to your music:

• How one California visual artist didn't wait for a gallery to give her permission to hold her first exhibit
• The big mistake you could be making when describing your artform
• How one copywriter brings in $25,000 a year with a simple post card promotion
• Why a New York graphic designer relies on her competition for marketing
• What a group of painters, sculptors and photographers did in Nashville to get exposure

The Music Marketing Crash Course CD also contains three chapters from my book Branding Yourself Online: How to Use the Internet to Become a Celebrity or Expert in Your Field, including:

• The Brand Called You (Chapter 1). What personal branding is, why you need it and how to use it to further your goals. Includes my personal branding story, five ways to overcome identity obstacles and four ways to build relationships online.
• Crafting Your Best Brand Identity (Chapter 2). The best ways to determine your ideal brand image and the methods for hammering home that image so it makes the most impact in the least amount of time.
• Exploiting Other People's E-zines and Web Sites (Chapter 8). How to network and approach webmasters and e-zine editors (the right way) with profitable cross-promotion ideas.