A horse with no name

As a band without the promotional and distributional help of a record company how would I distribute my music to my audience? I wouldn't have the benefit of being publicized with little to no work on my behalf, so I would have to get the word out as well as my music out for people to hear and buy. I would have to hand out fliers and demo CD's to the right people. I would probably start by handing out demos and ads for my band outside of venues that are playing similar music so that the right crowd is getting to hear my band. I would also hand out fliers for up-coming gigs for my band to try to attract some kind of crowd to my show, where I would also be selling my CD for anyone who likes what they hear (the price would have to be reasonable to try to build up as many listeners as possible). I would also create a MySpace music profile that I can send to as many people that I think would want to hear my band and most likely some that wouldn't. On that note, I would also create a band website, not one related to MySpace, and have it available to the public to hear the bands music, read biographies on the musicians and just get an overall feel for the band's music.

As for being compensated financially for my music... that would be tough. I would have to perform private parties for a small source of income. At any and all gigs, I would sell CD's, shirts and other small merchandise to try and support our musical cause. These ideas are not big money makers, but fortunately for me I am all about making the music than the bucks. But that would definitely prevent music from becoming my main source of income and being able to put maximum effort into the music. I'm going to continue thinking on how else to make a living on music without a record company...