It's tough being a new Artist, with limited resources, whether it be time, financial, contacts and networks or know-how. It's difficult to decide where to start.
It's very easy to spend all the resources they do have on trying to get the attention of a manager, a record label, a radio DJ, a venue boss, a promoter... someone... anyone who will pluck them from the obscurity. However, an "overnight success" tend to have been built over many years and with a lot of hard work.
As with any business, it's essential to know what business you're in and who you are selling to. Who are your customers?!
In the first instance it's friends, colleagues, your peers and anyone who you can reach with a leaflet, poke, tweet or even talk too. Remember, when you start out you are are artist, manager, agent, promoter.
Do this well and work hard and building your audience and you start to feel a warm vibrating sensation and strange noises. The phone starts ringing (or emails ping, facebooks poke back and twitters tweet in return).
Stop allocating resources on the wrong people, and put everything into your future fans.