Book/Site Review

"The Complete Guide To Internet Promotion For Artists, Musicians & Songwriters"

Tim Sweeney & John Dawes

Tim Sweeney is one of a handful of internet music gurus who have taken advantage of the new www age. Together with John Dawes their internet promotional advise appears all over the net and at their own TSA Music. Dawes is a webdesigner and promoter who runs the Taco Truffles Media site for musicians. The two also host the Music Strategies 2002 conference in Las Vegas (July). Sweeney writes a couple of bi-weekly advice columns for Get Signed.com entitled "Reality Check" which give excellent creative and informational advise on internet promotion, live show promotion, touring and promotion in general. (Not coincidentally, Get Signed is another Dawes’ site.) If you happen to be in LA or Las Vegas, Sweeney offers some free workshops and seminars. For a very hefty fee ($1000 to $1500 per month) Sweeney works with artists promoting and guiding them into supposed indie nirvana.

This book will give the novice the basics of building a site for artist promotion, although most of the information is pretty basic and a tad on the dated side (book is copyrighted 2000). It has many common sense ideas, but not a lot of imaginative promotional ideas by today’s standards. Although I say "common sense," some current CNY sites can still benefit from Sweeney & Dawes’ advice. One good chapter in the book covers protecting and registering your music online, royalties, and music "cyberlaw."

There are many useful directory, forum and resource listings. If you’re somewhat new to the internet I recommend this book to get you started. But, if you’ve been live for awhile, stick with the free Reality Check articles, they’d be worth paying for! --The Dude

From Amazon
This book is like no other written about promoting your music on the Internet. The strategies contained in this book have been used by the most successful artists on the Internet today. The system in this book will lay the groundwork you need for a successful career in the fast paced music business.

Now is the time! It has never been easier or more inexpensive to put your music online and promote it. With a strong online
presence, you can gain more exposure for your music than ever before. The Complete Guide to Internet Promotion for Musicians, Artists & Songwriters takes you step-by-step through the web design and promotion process, to covering everything you need to know to succeed on the Internet:

*How to get your music on the Internet and protect it.
*How to get airplay on Internet radio stations.
*What a successful web site should look like.
*Marketing your web site online and offline.
*How to get free advertising and exposure online and offline.
*How to write effective promotional material.
*The secrets to submitting your site to all the major search engines.
*How to grow your web site's traffic and keep fans interested.
*How to effectively use email.
*How to track your royalties online and offline.

In this book, Tim Sweeney & John Dawes show you that can compete with major label artists and sell more CDs them. You will be able to reach a global audience, get noticed by the industry, and sell your music, 24 hours a day, year round.

A bonus section has been added to the book which contains a full index of Internet Resources to help you get started promoting your music online today and a comprehensive checklist to help you chart your progress.

If you are serious about selling your music online and want to gain worldwide exposure for your music, THIS IS THE BOOK!

About the Author
Tim Sweeney
Besides the fact that you have seen mentions and detailed write-ups in hundreds of articles, and while he is the most talked about man in interviews with artists (many whom you may call your influences or your favorite artists), it still may not be clear to you who he is.

To put it simply, Tim Sweeney is the music industry's most highly sought after expert and consultant in the fields of artist development, label development, distribution, publicity, radio promotion and retail marketing. His career in the industry spans from his days as an artist himself, to almost every position at a major label to becoming the President of a successful management company to becoming the author of one of the International Best Selling books regarding the music industry today: TIM SWEENEYS GUIDE TO RELEASING INDEPENDENT RECORDS.

Over the last 18 years, he has helped several major labels (Columbia, Epic, MCA, Warner Bros., Capitol, Mercury, Polygram, Revolution, Hollywood (and their sub-labels), and well known independent labels (Restless, Metal Blade, Enigma, Accretions, etc.) develop the careers of some of their most promising and successful artists of all time. Tim has personally worked with and developed the careers of more than 1,500 artists to date. Over the last few years, he presented over 100 free music business workshops around the country (at his own expense) to more than 20,000 artists, songwriters, musicians, managers and independent labels. He has also been asked to be a featured and keynote speaker at music conventions such as SXSW, EATM, The Songwriters Expo, The Northern California Songwriters Association and The Richmond Music Conference to name a few. He has also been asked by organizations like NARAS to speak at special events like Grammys In The Schools. For the last 3 years, he has been asked to be a featured author for Borders Books & Music at the Los Angeles Book Festival (which is attended by 100,000 people).

Tim has received a number of awards for his work with aspiring artists including, The Hardest Working Man In The Industry award from The Musicians Trade Journal and The Best Music Publicist in Los Angeles (LAMA). Last year, Lexingtons Whos Who placed him on the exclusive list of the Most Important Business Leaders in the United States. Recently, the television broadcast of one of his last workshops in Detroit received the coveted Bronze Telly Award for Excellence in Programming over 14,000 other television programs.

Today, Tim continues his free music business workshops around the country, empowering independent artists, musicians, songwriters, independent labels and aspiring music industry professionals. His 4 books are read and the information put into use, by artists in 27 countries around the world. He continues to personally work with independent artists in the development of their careers and serves as a private consultant to the music industry’s leading Presidents, CEOs and industry leaders and visionaries, who ask for his guidance in developing their artists and redeveloping their companies.

The impact of Tim’s work with independent artists has earned him the title, The Father of the Independent Music Movement by industry professionals, the press and record labels around the world.

John Dawes
Is an independent Internet consultant and founder of Taco Truffles Media and online resources like, MusicPromotion.net. He is most known for his informative articles on Internet music promotion on GetSigned.com, where he has educated thousands of artists on how to effectively promote their music on the Internet. Over the last few years, John has personally helped record labels, artists and songwriters develop their online personas. He has continued to champion independent artists through online chats, lectures, talk radio and seminars.