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Dog Eat Dog

August 2013

Featuring those behind the scenes in the music industry

Sure, it doesn't contain every single one but it has thousands upon thousands of places and is updated yearly so that those no longer around are eliminated from its pages and those who are new are added.


It is with great pleasure I let you in on this great resource for musicians of all walks of life.  Here to tell us more about it is David Wimble.  (APPLAUSE)

 

THE INTERVIEW    


Daniel/HRM: Hello David! To start things off please tell us your title, and tell us how you like your coffee.
 

David Wimble: Thank you everyone for that thunderous round of applause.  I am the owner/editor of the Indie Bible and I like my coffee Tea.
 

Daniel/HRM: (laughs) When did the Indie Bible first come about and how long has it been around?
 

David Wimble: As is the case with a lot of things in life, the Indie Bible was created totally by accident.
In 1999 I was in the process of recording my first CD. During the last months of recording, I started searching the internet for places that might be able to help the CD to get some attention - radio stations that would play my songs, publications that would review the CD etc. I wanted to find these places ahead of time so that there would be a lot of places to send the CD to once it was pressed and ready to go.

 

When I started out, I knew almost nothing about the internet and what could be found on it. You have to remember that 1999 is like a million years ago in internet time. Dial-up was still the norm. High speed was just starting to enter into the picture.
I began my search suspecting that I could find at least a few websites where I could gain some sort of exposure for my music. I began my research, and it wasn't long before a "massive" new world opened up to me. The number of places online that were willing to help independent artists was mind-boggling!

 

I spent hours every day finding places that I could send my CD to in order to get a review or airplay. I was happily surprised to also find a lot of online services that were willing to help sell my music.
 

I stored all the information about

the various services I was finding

in a spreadsheet. It wasn't a very

well thought out system. But it

helped me to keep notes on who I

sent my CD to and when. After a

few months of research I had

accumulated 1000 contacts or so.
When the recording of the CD was

finally finished, the band I was

building (and planning on touring

with) broke up. I was heavily in

debt, so the idea of trying to form

another band, and then tour

David Wimble represents the Indie Bible, this awesome resource of venues, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, etc. that will play your music, get you reviewed and more.  It's a great resource for the majority of artists out there who are Do It Yourself artists. around, was not very practical. I needed to start paying off some of the bills, and selling a few CDs a week wasn't going to cover the expenses. I also knew that if I was to try and put a new band together, there was no guarantee that it would last long enough to get any momentum going.
 

Then the "life-changing" thought struck me. During the whole time I was researching throughout the internet, I was wondering why I couldn't find some sort of directory that lists the addresses of all the helpful websites for independent musicians. There had to be one somewhere, but I couldn't find anything anywhere? I did purchase a few resources that I found in my research, but when they arrived in the mail, I was disappointed. The resources I bought looked like they had been thrown together very quickly.
 

Under the pressure of this financial crisis, I wondered how practical it would be for me to publish a resource that would list all these places I'd been finding (in some sort of order). It would be a resource that would enable musicians and songwriters to avoid spending the incredible number of hours it took me to find the contacts in the first place.
 

I asked the opinion of a musician I had met from Boston, and she said it was a great idea and that I would probably sell a lot of them. That's all I needed to confirm my belief that such a resource was needed. It was at that moment that the "Indie Contact Bible" was officially born. From that point on I began to consciously research information that would be added into this new resource I was about to create.
 

I also realized that if I was to succeed at publishing this resource, I would need to include "all" genres of music, not just resources for the styles of music that I enjoyed listening to. That took some adjusting, but it turned out to be a lot of fun because many new worlds opened up to me.
 

The first edition came into being in October of 1999. It was a very low budget book that was photocopied, spiral bound and had a plain white cover. Fortunately for me, even though the book was as simple as it gets, the value shone through to those that were trying to get exposure for their music. People that bought it just loved it, and the feedback was incredible!
 

Some earlier admirers that became friends in the business were music book authors Jeri Goldstein, Diane Rapport, Tim Sweeney and good friend Daylle Deanna Schwartz. Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, Maurice Balin, then owner of Discmakers, Richard Gottehrer founder of The Orchard, Anne Freeman of Princeton Songwriters and Eric & Sounni de Fontenay of mi2n were also big fans and supporters.
 

Daniel/HRM: I am thoroughly impressed!  Seems like a documentary should be made about that. Hmm...  That's also quite a list of friends you have there too.  So, is it correct to assume that you were the one responsible for all that glorious information?
 

David Wimble: Yes. Researching is something that I like to do, and always have, ever since I was a young kid. But as I found out when I began publishing the Indie Bible, research is not for everyone. I've tried many times to hire researchers but they always end up running away screaming.
 

It requires a certain type of mindset because researching, especially music resources, is like delivering the mail ... it never ends. It never slows down. New information keeps flooding in non-stop. There's never a point where you can sit back and feel like you've accomplished something, like painting a house. There's this nagging awareness of all of the information that you haven't included.
I did have to hire a large team to research our venue directory when we first started in on that. That was 5 or 6 years ago. It was just too massive an undertaking for one person. We have 32,000 venues, festivals and booking agents listed in our venue directory.

 

Daniel/HRM: I wrote a pretty good intro article but suppose you were talking to

someone who had a 1 minute attention span.  How would you summarize what the

Indie Bible is in one sentence? You can make it a run on sentence if you must.
 

David Wimble:  The Indie Bible is a worldwide resource for independent artists of

all genres that is filled with contacts that can help them to gain more exposure for

their music - including radio, press, music blogs labels, distribution, promotional

services, management services and digital music websites.
 

Daniel/HRM: Do you often deal with people with short attention spans?
 

David Wimble: Let's just say I get a lot of strange phone calls.  
 

Daniel/HRM: What did you say? (laughs) Just kidding. Did you like that?
 

David Wimble: I don't mind the weird calls as long as the person doesn't get abusive.
 

Daniel/HRM: How many people, on average, send the Indie Bible messages on how

helpful it was?
 

David Wimble: We get a couple of dozen wonderful testimonials every year.
 

Daniel/HRM: Were any of these people famous?
 

David Wimble: I've never received a testimonial from a famous artist. I have sold

copies to famous artists. My biggest brush with

greatness was when I sold Chuck D a copy in New York City. I was there for a music conference.
 

Daniel/HRM: What is your take on the music industry nowadays?
 

David Wimble: It's moving at lightning speed, so it's very intimidating, especially for older artists that are not that comfortable with social media.
 

The real shocker for me is that computers are going the way of the landline telephone. Younger people these days do everything from their cell phones. Because of this we had to totally revamp our website to make it PDA friendly.
 

Daniel/HRM: Do you play any instruments or sing?
 

David Wimble: I play guitar and did all the vocals on my CD.
 

Daniel/HRM: Are you a sing in the shower, sing in the car, or sing for dear life at gunpoint kind of guy?
 

David Wimble: I've done the first two many times. Haven't had the gun to my head experience yet. I think if something like that was to occur in my life, the person would have the gun to my head asking me to stop singing.
 

Daniel/HRM: Who are some of your favorite Independent artists?
 

David Wimble: I usually have meditation music on in the background while I'm working. In my experience, research is something that demands my full attention, so I don't listen to a lot of music while I'm researching. I can tell you that my favorite independent artist is Jenn London. She's a singer/songwriters from New York City.  
 

Daniel/HRM: Sweet!  I, too, listen to mediation music.  I do research a lot as well. We should totally team up for something grand! Where can people go to find more out about the Indie Bible?
 

David Wimble: You can find out about all of our directories at www.indiebible.com.  We have combined all of our directories (The Indie Bible, The Indie Bible ONLINE and the Indie Venue Bible) into a single discount package called "The Ultimate Indie Bundle." This is a fantastically cost-friendly way for DIY artists (even those that are struggling within the current economic situation) to still get the word out about their music.
 

Daniel/HRM: I agree. For as long as I live I will tell people about this.  It's a great way on the DIY journey of getting exposure!
 

Here's my last signature question. I'll treat you just like the artists I interview.  Let's say you were gifted with musical talents.  In fact, you were so good that you could play drums, guitar, bass, piano and sing flawlessly.  You were given the chance to pick your favorite musician of each instrument (including vocals) to put together a dream band, living or deceased, and then use the Indie Bible to get a tour going.  Which artists would you pick and how would you use the Indie Bible to set up your own tour?  Yes, this could be a long answer but oh, what a great finish!
 

David Wimble: I'll have to go all classic rock for this one. I would have Jimmy Page and Keith Richard as the guitarists and Keith Moon on drums. I don't really know my bass players, so I'll say Geddy Lee on base. I would round the band out with Shirley Partridge on harpsichord and Davey Jones on tambourine. I'll be propping the band up as lead singer.
 

Daniel/HRM: Thanks for the time and for being part of this brilliantly bound bible of beautiful building blocks for a blossoming promotional boost at a bodacious bargain!


David Wimble: It has been a pleasure. Any time!
 

Story and interview by

Daniel C. Morrison - HiP Rock Magazine

One of the best ideas I ever had seemed pretty tough to accomplish. I thought it would be awesome if I could go around the nation, or even the world, and get a list of every venue that existed.  I'd put it in a book and use it to strategically put on tours for musicians.  I'd make sure the genres were specified, the locations were grouped sensibly and then I would design a website of the nation's map and get busy on cool graphics and such.  I'd even do this for newspapers, magazines, radio stations, tv stations, etc.


As fate would have it, something like that was in the works for a while, minus the map with graphics.  The Indie Bible is just such a resource.  There might be more but this puppy is what I used to help me get a leg up.  Plus, it was affordable.


Do you have any idea how hard it is to find all these things that exist?  Especially with others out there who won't share this information because it's their Crown Jewels of business. If others had this information they couldn't make money doing what they do.  But the Law of Attraction states that there's plenty for everybody. So, screw you greedy buggers!

 

David Wimble represents the Indie Bible, this awesome resource of venues, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, etc. that will play your music, get you reviewed and more.  It's a great resource for the majority of artists out there who are Do It Yourself artists. 

David Wimble of the Indie Bible - www.theindiebible.com

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