Bandize, Artist Data and Band Metrics are three of the new online tools that bill themselves as time savers, organizing platforms and communicaiton systems  for bands. The first, Bandize, out of Austin, is like “Basecamp for Bands.” The system gives artists and managers the ability to plan a tour, add contacts, manage band products, do accounting and make task lists shared among band members. Artist Data, run out of Chicago, bills themselves as an automation tool that beats the monotonous updating of artist websites, social network profiles and anything else that can bog you down as an artist. Band Metrics, still in private beta, offers bands and managers the ability to measure the effect of their campaigns and releases through on demand statistics.

The benefits of organization cannot be overstated and that’s why this weekend at Bandcamp, we’ve invited the co-founder of Bandize, Ajit D’Sa into Caroline Collective to give us a test drive of the application and help bands get organized. As Ajit says, “This is your true first step in realizing that your band is a small business, and that you need to start thinking like a small business owner in order to give yourself a better chance to succeed. The goal of Bandize was to make it easy to use, even on the road, so that the drunkest member of the band should be able to update band info at 4am after a show.” Now if we could just find a way to get those scientists organized.

Join us this weekend, August 16th for Bandcamp: BANDIZE

WHAT: Bandcamp: BANDIZE – “It’s like Basecamp for bands!” (http://bandize.com)
WHO: Ajit D’Sa, Co-founder of Bandize WHEN: 8/16/09 2-4pm
WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline Houston TX
HOW MUCH: $5 a person / $8 per band

Similar to the band to venue sample email from a previous post, this script is arranged in a Mad Libs style. The form prompts you for information like your name, band name, genre, sounds like, previous accolades, previous gigs, where and when you are looking to play. When using this form, try and fill it out completely before making a call. Type it up and print out the finished script if it will help you.

There’s a time for shooting the breeze and there’s a time for brevity. Phone calls like this are business and should be kept short and direct, this is one way that you can demonstrate professionalism from the start. Even if you’re a seasoned phone talker, keeping the script in front of you when you make the call helps you stay on point and know your goal.

Keep in mind that being polite is always the best policy. Remember that you are just one person and the venue deals with many of you every day. Don’t get frustrated if they are curt with you, just thank them and move along.

This may not be the last time that you talk with the talent buyer. They are going to want to listen to your music and check out your online presence before they make a decision on your band. If you have to follow up multiple times, space the calls out so you are persistent but not annoying.

If you decide to use this form, please comment on how it worked.

Stay tuned for a schedule of how and when to contact venues to book gigs for your band.

Download the phone script to contact venues to book your band here.

The fact remains: Overplaying your local audience is not the way to improve your performance skills or increase your income. It IS however a good way to exhaust your audience and decrease your popularity. Bands who are looking to improve their performance skills and expand their audience reach should be playing regularly outside of their local community. Playing in different markets in your surrounding geographical area will expose new audiences to their music and can create an additional revenue stream.

While most bands acknowledge the importance of playing outside their town there seems to be a lack of the practical knowledge on exactly how to secure shows in a region where they have no contacts. Until those contacts are secured and cultured, one tried and true manner of securing a show is contacting venues or other bands. This month we’ll tackle the first method in a way that will not just teach bands how to do it but show them.

Bandcamp: BOOKING PARTY will be a workshop where bands will work together to contact venues to book gigs in cities within a four hour drive of Houston.

Here’s how Bandcamp: BOOKING PARTY will work: We’ll start with a brief overview talk about how to contact a venue about a show, what information to include, what to say, persistence vs. annoyance, and tips to keep in mind. A whiteboard will be gridded out with a list of Houston’s major surrounding cities and dates that bands will select from. Bands will then be given a form email to fill out that helps to describe their sound, their accolades and what they’re asking for. Then bands will be given a printout of venues that match their city for them to email. They will then contact all the relevant venues in that date range and ask for show availability to secure themselves a show. Later in the week, using the to-do list for contacting venues, they’ll follow up via email or contact the venues by phone to further contact between the venue/venue booker and the artist.

WHAT: Bandcamp: BOOKING PARTY
WHEN: July 12, 2009, 2-4pm
WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline, Houston TX 77004
WHY: Book your band to play in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and more
HOW MUCH: Bandcamp sessions are now $5/person, $8/band

Things bands will need:
a tentative list of dates that you are available to play
a laptop (notify us if you don’t have one)
a press kit (not a dealbreaker, can be constructed at the workshop)

Bands will be given:
A mad-libs style form email to tailor to their band
A printout of venues for the city that corresponds to their block on the grid
A to-do list for contacting venues to get a show at that venue.

–
Regular BandCamp sessions are (mostly) held on the First Sunday of every month at Caroline Collective sometime between the hours of 1pm and 5pm. Please mark your calendar accordingly for future events where we’ll all educate specific skills to musical artists such as, online/offline promotion, tour booking, financials, and recording. Please speak about this event to your colleagues, band members and other interested members of the Houston Music Community.

Individual
Bioengineering is at its essence a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving for biological issues. Those basic tenets have been applied as an individual in both my professional and creative life attempting at a well-rounded academic and cultural education. While at Rice University studying bioengineering for bone defect repair, aspects of architecture, clinical plastic surgery and industrial design were combined with more standard bioengineering aspects of mechanical engineering, materials research and imaging modalities. The incorporation of these fields resulted in novel designs and solutions supported by engaging and dynamic presentations and graphic design telling a story easy to understand for the lay person. Continued discussion with the architecture school resulted in students and professors incorporating the ideals of bioengineering into their architecture projects, including concepts of scaffold ingrowth, duality/singularity between host and body and symbiotic relationships between construct and program interaction. As an instructor, classes were run with equal parts teaching and learning, instructing the students on CAD methods and then employing the students to teach others to accomplish the tasks. Outside of graduate school, I applied this multidisciplinary approach to producing live events incorporating art, music, and film accessible to lovers of any art medium.

Caroline Collective
This multi-disciplinary education and approach to problem solving has been applied at Caroline Collective, founded in June 2008 with Ned Dodington. Taking the belief that being well rounded as an individual can be a platform for discussion and interaction with other similar like-minded people, Caroline Collective’s goal is to positively impact the cultural landscape of Houston. Our programming develops community-based education models and creates opportunities for individuals and groups to be more successful incorporating seemingly disparate disciplines of technology, music, film, arts and non-profits. We’ve demonstrated that each community has unique challenges but those challenges can be met with similar methods: listening to the needs of the members, incorporating equal parts teaching/learning and arriving at a solution incorporating all of the facets of the problem. Since October we have been running a monthly series called Bandcamp that is a community-focused teaching program to educate musicians on the path to success in their career. A similar community focused meeting, Artcamp, was held last month. In developing sustainable methods to address the art community’s challenges we collectively arrived at the decision to create a Houston Arts Wiki and to hold a day long Houston-wide art fair to introduce all of the resources and arts groups in Houston. We have recently launched a bi-weekly series of business classes with a partner startup, Werkadoo, that teaches independents in any discipline the skills they need to manage a successful independent career. Several companies are forming underneath the umbrella of Caroline Collective pooled from the complementary talents of the members and community groups that inhabit the space.

Community
This transparent and multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving on a community level is akin to the Long Tail effect online. People with niche interests meet to discuss commonalities and find that challenges and interests are parallel rather than perpendicular. Coworking is the physical manifestation of that and Caroline Collective one of many staging points for that interaction in Houston. In Houston you can witness technology focused individuals attending arts events and arts focused individuals attending technology focused events. Communities are experiencing greater engagement, richer relationships and more accessible resources, all due to the framework of a multi-disciplinary approach to solving collective problems. Opera in the Heights is exploring incorporating technology into its performances and digital archiving. Two new coworking spaces have opened based on Caroline Collective’s model, one in the Village focusing on green companies and one in Katy opened by the Houston Technology Center; another is slated to open in the Woodlands. The passive belief that all groups can contribute to and provide solutions to individuals’ problems and the active incorporation of those ideals has resulted in greater collaboration among community groups and greater insight to addressing community and societal challenges.

At that time I had an extreme amount of entitlement for my skills and what I was owed. When things went wrong I failed to look inward, instead, blame shifting or allowing this entitlement and a sense of animosity to blossom inside myself.

Now, not so angry, I attempt to keep an open mind in all situations and approach every situation as if I know nothing. I’ve found that learning is accelerated because my brain is set up to be a sponge rather than resisting or preparing to provide counterpoint at every step. People are more willing to help when they see an open nature and someone is interested in enrichment and personal growth.

Watching the flurry of activity at Sunday’s Bandcamp I couldn’t help but remember those days of watching Fight Club regularly. Looking at the cracks in the walls of Caroline Collective I was immediately transported to the Paper Street Soap Company where a crowd of Project Mayhem members were working towards something bigger. There was one big difference though; they were working to bring equality and success through destruction — we were working to build up and support each other through education, openness and a strong sense of community. And the entitlement and pretension characterised by some unsuccessful and angry bands wasn’t present, as each group was soaking up the information flying around the room like a sponge.

As I compared the activity from Paper Street Soap Company and Bandcamp: SXSW PREP I realized that each community had a greater sense of accomplishment and mission and each group worked fervently towards that common goal. But the difference was in the attitudes; you could witness the excitement and openness each band had to new ideas and setting up these systems. Infomation was volunteered and readily shared as idividual groups showed eachother what they had set up or explained how technology and an online presence had helped them in the past. At the end of the  two hour session, everyone felt better about their band’s position online and everyone realized the potential of putting together their toolbox to help  not only promote themselves but also EACH OTHER.

Most Bandcamps have ended with exhaustion, as the speakers give as much information about a particular topic as they can and the attendees’ heads fill with new ideas and new methods of promoting and running their careers. Something different happened this time as bands met each other and got excited about the prospects of showing themselves at SXSW. Not only did we not run over time but everyone was excited and energized at the end of the session. We selected the topic of April’s Bandcamp: COPYRIGHT and left for Coffee Groundz for post-Bandcamp discussion.

This Bandcamp was a reflection of the success of the event over the past several months. We are building something and it’s just as disruptive and passionate as Project Mayhem. The difference is that it’s not based in anger or entitlement; it’s based in hard work, education and dedication. The result will be a strong, united and educated Music Community that is self-sustained and self-supporting.

Check the twitter stream for Bandcamp: SXSW PREP by searching the hashtag: #bandcamph.

Thanks to @audioADD, @danjoyce and of course @dryvetyme for live tweeting the event.

Check out these bands on multiple digital outposts:

Bands in Attendance:

• Adam & Lena
• Benjamin Wesley
• B L A C K I E
• Davie Graves
• Days Drive
• Desmond Zavala
• Dizzy Pilot
• Espantapajaros
• Fat Tony
• Female Demand
• Giant Battle Monster
• Glasnost
• Golden Cities
• Insert Name Here
• Motion Turns It On
• Narreme
• Prairie Cadets
• Something Fierce
• Tambersauro
• Tax The Wolf
• The American Sharks
• The Bottom Four
• The Liquid Kitchen
• The Snake Charmers
• The Tontons
• The Western Civilization
• Wall With One Side
• Warblerpl
• Wayside Drive
• You (Genious)

As a community based education model, Bandcamp has been a resounding success. Sessions are led by experts in the particular topic but the open discussion format results in information sharing about some of the best practices and experiences other artists have learned from. Bandcamp organizers have also recently begun to offer one-on-one consultation sessions with bands looking for extra guidance. Regular attendees have reported that Bandcamp has resulted in more gigs, better online presence and a new and richer relationships with members of the Houston Music Community.

Bandcamp’s success is a demonstration of the power of community based education models and what can result from open forums for discussion and idea sharing that ultimately create opportunities for individuals and groups to be more successful. The best part about these models is that they can work for any genre or specialization. For that reason we’ve decided to hold a similar event but this time focused on the Houston Arts Community.

Join us this Saturday, February 28th for ArtCamp. Artcamp is an informal, community-based event to discuss the state of the arts in Houston and develop an informed strategy on how we can collectively support our arts community. The format is open and decided upon by those in attendance but we have several goals that we will achieve through open discussion and peer-to-peer educational sessions:

• Inform participants of available resources online and offline
• Share best practices among organizations, including audience development, fundraising, board and volunteer recruitment, and online outreach
• Share best practices among artists, such as developing their careers, promoting themselves and their work, obtaining gallery representation, and building an online presence

The schedule for the day will include educational sessions and a townhall discussion section just like at Bandcamp. Through this discussion we hope to determine the difficulties that local artists and members of the art community experience, the common solutions to problems, and voice concerns, comments and suggestions for improvement. The final session of the day will be a focused townhall discussion proposing sustainable solutions to educate and deliver resources to members of the community to ensure the improved success and continued communication at all levels.

Check out this great quote about ArtCamp from co-organizer Grace Rodriguez of AYN Brand:

The trigger for this event was Wayne Dolcefino’s scathing editorial (disguised as an investigative report) that derided funding for the arts in Houston. Members and supporters of our arts community were appalled at the lack of factual context and objectivity in his broadcast; and were disappointed that private objection to Dolcefino’s “reports” were not reflected in a unified voice, publicly. Several of us recognized that we need to facilitate better communication and improve relationships among the various arts organizations, stakeholders, and supporters to strengthen our community, so that we could disseminate information and correct misunderstandings more quickly in the future.

We hope to bring the general public and arts supporters together with those directly involved in the arts community to discuss the state of the arts in Houston, share best practices, and develop strategies on how we can *collectively* support and contribute to our arts community. Basically, we want everyone who “hearts” art to get to know each other and figure out how we can best vitalize and support our cultural community.

The signup and event listing is here: http://barcamp.org/ArtCampHouston

For more information, please contact Matthew Wettergreen at mwettergreen@gmail.com or Grace Rodriguez at grace@aynbrand.com.

At Bandcamp: ONLINE PRESENCE we led a discussion about the importance of bands having a strategic online presence, including outposts like Myspace, combined with a home base, a website of one’s own. The benefits and tools of a personal website were used to highlight the marginalizing effects of using an outpost like Myspace as a home base. Here are just some of the reasons that using Myspace as your home page is hurting your musical career:

Myspace is not your website
Myspace does not have the functionality of a website, it is not something that you own, it is something that you use. Myspace is a social network, a tool, one of many available to you as a musical artist.  There are many that have recently shown to be more effective and streamlined, such as Virb, ReverbNation, imeem and others. By using Myspace as your website you reduce the number of tools available to you and confine your audience to a corner of the internet.

Myspace controls your network and your message
Because you don’t own Myspace, the content, design and functionality is limited to their vision and services. There are themes and profile editors available, however it is extremely difficult to stamp your own bands’ unique personality on a Myspace page. In the time it would take you to personalize it you could have put in the same effort for an actual website, one that you own. Myspace controls your message by only providing specific bins to deliver your information, such as label, label type, band members, influences and sounds like. Myspace controls your network by keeping all of the information about your contacts on Myspace without the ability to export to something usable.

Conversation is worth less on Myspace
Not everyone is on Myspace but most people have an inbox. Using Myspace as your sole website means that all communication comes in and out through that site. Myspace’s messaging tool is effective for sending and receiving information from friends and others on the network, but does not allow you to take the discussion to a more professional venue such as email. Because this conversation happens only on their social network, you have little archiving control or ability to use this communication or the contacts outside of it. Also, you cannot send out a mass email to all of your contacts, relationships or colleagues. You are also not given an email address that can be mailed to or out of for people who are not on Myspace. By not being able to take the communication to a more professional venue, such as email, you are keeping your friends on Myspace as distant relationships rather than colleagues and professional relationships.

Professionalism on Myspace is reduced
There are many bands that use Myspace as a serious place to host their songs but fail to present themselves professionally by not filling out their profile completely. Incomplete profiles, joke information or long and meandering bios or your art makes you look not only unprofessional but like someone who doesn’t care about their music. Incomplete information or joke information only make it more difficult for music writers/bloggers to cover your music.

Low Signal to Noise ratio
In a recent article about the Social Media Arms Race, owners Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson said they view their ad revenue competitors as Yahoo and MSN, not Facebook. On a standard Myspace page, the amount of advertising distracts from actual content and with a statement from the owners of the site like that, you can expect more noise to come. From a promotions standpoint, mass bulletins are one of the tools to promote a show, and these, too, are more distraction than content. Playing Myspace from a numbers standpoint instead of a ‘strength of network’ approach means that you’re receiving bulletins from hundreds of people daily which makes it difficult to receive salient information. Some have found ways around this, such as Free Press Houston, who sent out a bulletin promoting their block party once an hour for the weeks leading up to the event. While this was an effective strategy, the time investment must have been staggering and, it could be argued, overall ineffective.

Myspace does not have the tools of a normal website
Myspace provides a terrible URL for bands. Myspace requires a login to see additional content. Myspace limits the number of tracks that you can host without use of an additional plugin. Myspace does not provide full website statistics and trackbacks – entrance, exit, or traffic sources that would allow you to learn about your audience (UPDATE: You can install Google Analytics for your Myspace page). Myspace is unable to host your files or pertinent band information such as stage plot or press releases. And Myspace can be frustratingly slow.

What You Can Do About It
Think about the Home Base and Outpost concept discussed by Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse. Plot out your current Home Base and Outpost map to see where the gaps are. If you don’t have a home base yet, get to work on that first. I recommend WordPress; tips for building your own website with WordPress are here, here, and here. If you already have a home base, then plot out your proposed outposts that can help yourself get promoted and discovered. Try passive engagement first with music discovery sites like Blip.fm, Last.fm, lala.com and lp33.tv. After you have a placeholder presence on these sites and more try active engagement on other sites like Imeem, Virb and Facebook. If you are in Houston, attend Bandcamp on 2/22 to learn more about an effective online presence. Those outside of Houston can keep up with by watching the bandcamp videos and engaging bandcampers on twitter and on this site.

These results were completely unexpected as the original format for the day was to be predominantly lecture driven with some open discussion from the audience. Our bush league inability to secure a projector for the day forced us to teach from a whiteboard instead, opens the lines of communication and enriching the teaching session. This allowed us to focus on theory before practice and let us lean on attendees to provide answers and anecdotes of their own experience maintaining their online presence. The open format switched the perspective from passively absorbing information into actively and collectively sharing. At the end of the session, people who had never thought about the hub and spoke concept were sufficiently swayed and a couple of the Luddites began to ask for more information for their own research.

The session began with taking stock of the knowledge base of those bands/artists in attendance (attending bands listed at bottom of post). Most in attendance already had a website and were selling their music online. Ian, myself and Philip were SUPER proud to especially see those people attend because it demonstrated/s a commitment to career and a willingness to learn.

We discussed the hub and spoke concept of a home base with multiple outposts, referencing Chris Brogan‘s posts (here and here)and Darren Rowse‘s post and personal online presence diagram. Rather than discuss Chris’ concept of home base, passports and outposts though, we couched the concept in only home base and outposts with active vs. passive engagement on specific outposts. Pointing animatedly at Myspace’s position as an outpost we re-iterated our rant on bands improper usage of the site as a home base. Then we blew everyone’s minds with Brian Solis’ overwhelming and visually stunning ‘blomma‘ diagram. For the remainder of the session, attendees and moderator filled out a blank hub and spoke diagram for musicians.

Especially incredible was the conversation that ensued when a new tool was brought up by an attendee accompanied by their experience with the tool. Entire categories swelled and doubled under the knowledge sharing from community members’ experience.

This discussion was so successful for generating new tools for artists and flushing out a musician’s Hub and Spoke diagram that it ate up the entire Bandcamp session. Two important things not covered were how to set up a simple wordpress and how to wean the created hub and spoke model to a manageable strategy for online presence (These will be main focuses during the 2/22 Bandcamp). The only remaining things were to assign homework and continue the conversation elsewhere (@coffeegroundz).

Homework #1: Bands in attendance were paired up. Bands were assigned to research their paired band online and discover the extent of their ‘online presence’. Return for the second session of Bandcamp this month (2/22) and give a brief verbal report.

Homework #2: What is the biggest band in Houston measured solely by ‘online presence’? (question for readers: what do you think?)

Attend the second Bandcamp of this month on 2/22, again at Caroline Collective, again from 1-3pm and again focusing on ONLINE PRESENCE but with the inclusion of setting up your own website and forming an effective and manageable strategy.

Every Bandcamp session is the result of many people’s hard work and contributions. Thanks to the other two organizers of Bandcamp and my Revelry Report co-hosts: Philip Beck and Ian Wells; Jake Starkey for filming the session;  Grace Rodriguez for providing the flip camera, presentation consultation, ideas (especially the homework assignment) and for uploading the video; Ned Dodington for helping me clean the coworking space and manning the greeting spot and especially Chris Brogan for the concept of home bases, passports and outposts and Darren Rowse for expanding upon it with a personal touch.

Bands in Attendance:
Gretchen Schmaltz / Western Civilization
Wayside Drive
Glasnost
Buffy mae west
Irie Time
Prairie Cadets
The Snake Charmers
Low Man’s Joe
The Distracted
Female Demand
The Bottom Four
Music Heals

[photo credit: Jeremy, Wayside Drive]

In addition to the positive benefits of a website, having a home base on the web is one of the basic building blocks for becoming a successful band. As a musician it is essential to have a home base that ties in the heavily used online communities like facebook and myspace and musician specific community based sites such as virb and imeem.  Still, there are a large number of bands that utilize only myspace, thinking that it is both sufficient to act as a promotional machine and that they have (in very little time) cemented their online presence. By employing only Myspace they are rendering themselves mostly invisible to the greater web audience and doing themselves a great disservice.

One of the barriers to actually setting up a website seems to be the lack of knowledge surrounding how to accomplish this. Also, bands seem to think that getting a website is something that is difficult or more time consuming than regular utilization of Myspace or other community based tools. Getting your own website set up can be done simply, beautifully and free, depending on what you’re looking for.

February’s Bandcamp will teach effective strategies for maintaining an online presence that utilizes a full complement of websites and techniques. I will be leading this session and will demonstrate a number of available sites for musician and discuss strategic planning based on goals and time commitment.

Bring your laptop.

If you can’t attend the session on 2/1, don’t fret. There will be an ENCORE session of this month’s Bandcamp at the end of the month on 2/22. You could event come twice to pick up a new perspective and plan for your online presence.

Things that you will learn at February’s BandCamp
-    Improved tools beyond Myspace for online presence
-    the Wheel and spoke concept of web presence including a home base and digital outposts
-    designing a strategy for employing these digital outposts and selecting the ones that work for your band
-    Learn how to set up your own website in 15 minutes
-    Learn how to measure metrics for your site to determine your audience and what content is the most interesting to your visitors
-    An overview of other digital outposts other than Myspace that are just as effective for artist promotion
-    How to integrate your digital outposts to your website
-    Free email accounts for your band
-    Places to seed your music, video
-    Where to sell online: amazon, itunes, cdbaby, napster
-    Locations to post your photos online (flickr, photobucket, etc.)
-    Ideas for driving traffic to your site

WHAT: Bandcamp ONLINE PRESENCE

WHEN: 2/1/09 1-3pm AND 2/22/09 1-3pm

WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline Houston TX

Gretchen Schmaltz, along with her band Western Civilization, plays 150 days out of the year around Houston and the nation. Ms. Schmaltz will provide a step-by-step process for booking a tour for your band including tips and tricks to contact bookers, routing logistics, a packing list for tour, and best practices for promoting in an away city.

Sara Winter of Houston’s Messina Group and Warehouse Live handles marketing of the Houston midsize venue. She will discuss the role of Warehouse Live in supporting local acts and touring acts. Ms. Winter’s talk will address the responsibilities of bands booked to play Warehouse Live, either touring or local acts.

Terry Crane of Commerciant will give a product demo of their handheld credit card processing machine. Studies have shown that a great deal of opportunity lost by not being able to offer credit cards at an artist’s merch table. This simple to use wireless device can help touring bands process credit card payments to help alleviate the financial burden of touring.

*We are also asking bands to submit a tour proposal to us: length, desired region, budget, why… Then we will select one of these proposals and book that band a tour. We will transparently detail every step of the way so that others can learn this process and provide guidance for our (mis)steps. By collectively sharing the Houston Music Community’s expertise and advice we’ll be able to demonstrate its actual strength.

WHAT: Bandcamp: TOURING

WHO: Sara Winter of AEG-TMC/Warehouse Live, Gretchen Schmaltz of Western Civilization and Terry Crane of Commerciant will be our featured speakers.

WHEN: January 4, 2009, 1-3p

WHERE: Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline St., Houston 77004

WHY: Learn about booking a tour for your band including tips and tricks to contact bookers, routing logistics, a packing list for your tour, and best practices for promoting in an away city.

Find out more on the Caroline Collective Bandcamp post -
http://carolinecollective. cc/2008/12/15/bandcamp-touring/

Gretchen Schmaltz, Western Civilization
A Native of Louisiana, Gretchen Schmaltz reached Houston in July of 2004 in pursuit of a career in pediatric medicine. After having the opportunity to write and play acoustically in the area, Gretchen made a decision to redirect her career efforts toward music. Since that time, she has been part of a number of musical projects including The Hobby Horse Affair (small singer/songwriter collective), and, currently, The Western Civilization (local Indie-rock band).  Officially entering the Houston music scene as a singer/songwriter in March 2007, Gretchen released her debut EP Laced Up Tightly on Mia Kat Empire.  Gretchen is also a member of The Western Civilization, whose debut album release Letters of Resignation (March 2007) spawned touring fever for both the band and Gretchen‘s solo project alike.  Gretchen aids in booking and promoting for both projects as well as assisting out-of-town bands who are looking to make Houston an enjoyable stop on their own touring schedules.

Sara Winter, Director of Marketing, AEG-TMC
Sara Winter is the Director of Marketing for The Messina Group and for Warehouse Live. Sara works with radio and press in the Houston area to promote Warehouse Live’s upcoming concerts.

Terry Crane, Vice President, Business Development
Crane joined Commerciant in June 2006 with more than 15 years of experience developing sales organizations for payment processing companies. Crane spent more than ten years at First Data Corporation, where he held a number of sales positions of increasing responsibility, including district manager of TeleCheck, Inc. and director at Shared Global Systems, a provider of risk management and automated payment processing solutions. He was most recently the executive vice president of sales and marketing at InterTrans, a secure, real-time gateway interface for on and off-line ACH processing throughout the United States and Canada. Crane attended Minnesota State University-Mankato, where he majored in business and economics.management and licensing.

Regular BandCamp sessions are held on the First Sunday of every month at Caroline Collective sometime between the hours of 1pm and 5pm. Please mark your calendar accordingly for future events where we’ll all educate specific skills to musical artists such as, online/offline promotion, tour booking, financials, and recording. Please speak about this event to your colleagues, band members and other interested members of the Houston Music Community.