Your choice of more than 20 educational and networking events
[IMPORTANT: The DIY Musician Conference 2015 is SOLD OUT! There are no more tickets available.]
CD Baby is hosting our first ever DIY Musician Conference this October 23-25 in Chicago, and we’ve got quite the assortment of workshops, panels, and showcases lined up.
Unlike most music conferences, this one is built specifically around the needs of independent musicians, so you’ll get practical, actionable advice and walk away with a plan to move your music career forward. Most of the guest speakers will be hanging out for the weekend too, so if you want to continue a conversation that started in one of your sessions, you’ll have that opportunity. Plus, we’ll have a resource center set up where you can talk to members of the CD Baby team at any time, ask questions about your distribution and promotion, or just say hi.
Friday – October 23rd
2:00pm-5:00pm
Registration at the Congress Plaza Hotel
6:00pm-11:00pm
Meet-up and open mic at The Bottom Lounge (sponsored by Shure Microphones)
Saturday – October 24th
8:00am-9:00am
Registration at the Congress Plaza Hotel
9:15am-10:15am
From Indie to Major in Nine Months… And Back Again (Keynote) — w/ Brian Mazzaferri and Tony Van Veen
10:30am-11:30am
Show Me the Money: How to Maximize Every Revenue Stream for Your Music — w/ Kevin Breuner, Rob Filomena, J. Gibson, and Lauren Danzy
Publicity for Every Artist: Crafting Stories That Get You Press — w/ Dmitri Vietze
Stop Making Cents: Why Data is the New Dollar — w/ Mike King, Chris Moon, Chandler Coyle, Colleen Theis, Tracy Maddux (Sponsored by Berklee Online)
11:45am-12:45pm
Careers That Break the Mold: How Three Indie Artists are Creating Their Own Path — w/ Patrick Griffin, Chad Lawson, Shannon Curtis, and Jeff Murphy
DIY Touring: from Booking to Backline — w/ Billy Geoghegan
Online Marketing and Sales for Developing Musicians — w/ Benji Rogers (Sponsored by Berklee Online)
12:45pm-2:00pm
Lunch — on your own, with a friend, whatevs… plenty of places to eat; it’s Chicago!
2:00pm-3:30pm
The Four Most Important Things You Need to Know for Performing Onstage! (Keynote) — Live band makeover with Tom Jackson
3:45pm-4:45pm
YouTube and Your Music — w/ Ben Kihnel and Kevin Breuner (Sponsored by Rumblefish)
Email Marketing for Bands: Everything You Need to Know to Build a List, Create Emails, and Grow Your Fanbase — w/ Joy Merten
Music Production 101: Recording and Producing in Pro Tools — w/ Mike King and Chrissy Tignor (Sponsored by Berklee Online)
5:00pm-6:00pm
Top 5 Mistakes When Planning a Release: a special live taping of the DIY Musician Podcast — w/ Kevin Breuner and Chris Robley
Publishing Unlocked: Your Money is Waiting for You — w/ Rob Filomena
Your Band is a Brand: Communicating Who You are to Get Results — w/ Janice Bond
6:15pm-8:00pm
Dinner — on your own, with a friend, whatevs… plenty of restaurants close by!
8:00pm-midnight
SoundExchange Sessions: DIY Musician Showcase
Sunday – October 25th
9:15am-10:15am
SoundExchange: What It Is, Why It Pays, and How to Get Your Share — w/ Lauren Danzy
Back Me Up! Starting New Projects with Funding — w/ Hayley Rosenblum
Band Website Explosion: Mastering Your Online Presence — w/ Chandler Coyle and Rebecca Bateman
10:30am-11:30am
Go Book Yourself! — w/ Dmitri Vietze, Mark Steiner, Dayna Malow, Eric Muhlberger, and Austin Ellis (Sponsored by GigSalad)
Songwring Across Genres: Indie Artists Share Their Approaches — w/ Black Milk and Crow Moses
Eye Catching Visuals: How to Get the Best Band Photos Ever — w/ Becky Yee
11:45am-12:45pm
Band Smart: 50 Ideas to Make $100k More This Year (Keynote) — w/ Martin Atkins
12:45pm-1:15pm
Closing Comments
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In addition to these events, many of our sponsors will be leading small workshops in the demo room throughout the weekend.
To view this schedule as a PDF, click HERE.
For more information about the conference, check out the DIY Musician Conference website.
For a list of nearby hotel/hostel/motel options, click HERE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6JpNdMqH40
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.