Our band Ghosts of Eden is from New York City and we just finished working on our second record. Due to the fact that being a musician doesn’t exactly pay the bills, we tried to think of a unique way to raise money for our new album.

We created a project on Kickstarter.com and promoted it using various social media outlets and e-mails to our street team and fan list. Our goal was $3,500 in 60 days and by the end, we raised $3,650 from 49 different backers (half of which are complete strangers and fans whom we have never met). We hope to do more strategic projects like this to help get our name out in the future.

Tom Pino, Ghosts Of Eden

The band books their own gigs and sells their own merchandise including a custom made jewelry line from band member Cassandra Lawson. It features recycled materials including elements from all over the world. While scavenging for items on the road, what she doesn’t use, she throws away, hence leaving the space better than it was before. The word Cass uses is “upcycling”. The fan base loves it because it’s so personal and there is a story behind each piece of jewelry.

Tin Cup Gypsy, www.tincupgypsy.com

We developed our own brand with “The Slants” by establishing ourselves as the first and only all Asian American dance rock band in the world. To survive in the tough economy, our band has crated a unique niche by targeting a unique audience that is mostly untouched by performing artists: anime conventions.

Our electronic/dance rock sound and celebration of Asian culture fits perfectly with the attendees of anime conventions because they already are open to and appreciate Asian or Asian American culture. These efforts have helped support the band in other areas when touring outside of that industry and has caught the attention of major media sources, including NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Simon Tam, The Slants

The band was catapulted into the spotlight after placing third on “America’s Got Talent” in 2009. But fame hasn’t be handed to this New Hampshire band; they went from performing at high school talent shows to performing in front of 600 million people on “China’s Got Talent.” The band has now earned a spot on the coveted Las Vegas Strip, headlining at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino.

Creating their own sets out of recycled objects requires a lot of materials and maintenance, the amount of tape they go through is astonishing. But none of these costs are out of pocket, through their efforts of finding sponsors, all their essential elements: ladders, buckets, drum sticks and duct tape, are provided for them.

Recycled Percussion, recycledpercussionband.com

Our band, New Method, has developed a tour package that has been successful for a decade now. Through marketing our dates as “Faith & Family Nights”, we have been able to book shows with professional sports teams in arenas and stadiums across the United States. We use the platform to help the teams market their games, while we are also able to market our music and live performances to church groups.

The professional sports organizations now contact us on their own to book the “New Method Faith & Family Night Tour”, which has helped sustain us financially and has kept us viable in the industry.

Doug Meacham, New Method

Djizoes: started out like most other bands, writing a few songs and trying to get a few gigs locally. Because Switzerland is such a small market, not much can be done so they decided they should go out and play internationally rather than concentrating on the local market. In order to be taken seriously though, bands generally need to have a certain track record of shows and sales, which Djizoes: didn’t have at the time. So the band created Erkonos Management, an organization to represent them, book their shows and arrange promotion and tours.

The concept worked so well that the band has toured internationally several times and Erkonos Management has obtained mandates from other bands and organizations to setup tours and events, creating a new income stream for the band.

Jon Wyler, Djizoes

To promote my music I have established an easy to remember brand name for myself – ‘Saw Lady’ – which makes sense to people because I play the musical saw. I gain exposure for my music by giving free performances in public spaces.

When I do that I have a clip-board for people to join my mailing list, cards, CDs for sale, and I let people know what happened when I played in public spaces on my blog – thus connecting & engaging my audience further.

I display a QR code – when people scan it with their smart-phones they get a free MP3 of my music (and I get their e-mail address, for promotion).

I also started a music festival to promote the musical instrument I play – the musical saw, and I have been running it for 9 years now.

Natalia ‘Saw Lady’ Paruz, Saw Lady