Hi,

 

My name is Marko. I am the author of the eBook "What About Your Backups?".
 

As technology continues to evolve, more and more musicians, bands and artists are choosing to go the independent route in producing their music. The amount of data being created – recording sessions, demo sessions, video footage, photos – is growing exponentially, and with it the task of managing that data. Suddenly, as an artist you’re required to act as a record label, publisher, PR company and more. If you’re serious about your art and are looking at making a career out of it, sooner or later the question of keeping your data safe will arise, and by extension your backup strategy.
 

When I mention backups and digital data safety to musician friends, bands or artists I work with, I’m always shocked by how little thought has been put into the subject. You would not believe how many times I’ve heard someone say they have their entire upcoming album on a single hard drive without any backup or copy whatsoever. Needless to say, I find this crazy, especially given how volatile digital data is. Even amongst those who do have a backup, for the most part, it is usually only one copy of their projects sitting on their desk or an external hard drive that they carry around as they go about their life. This, however, would most likely not protect them from a fire, flood, or similar disaster. In addition, it is often questionable if this backup is even up to date. 
 

I wrote this guide after hearing too many stories of artists losing entire recording sessions, important video footage, and more because no one had a backup strategy in place. I truly want to save you the pain of losing some of your most precious recordings, song ideas and other files that are a key part of your musical journey.
 

Throughout this guide I’m aiming to give you enough information for you to develop a good and efficient backup strategy, without overwhelming you with unnecessary details. There may be backup strategy guides out there that are far more in-depth, but I want this one to be practical and easily digestible, yet still advanced enough to be applicable for independent artists, musicians, singer-songwriters and bands. 

For those of you already in the habit of backing up your work, I hope that this guide will give a few practical insights that might help to improve your existing strategy.
 

This guide is, of course, written from the perspective of music production, since that’s my area of expertise, but the concepts presented here can be applied to any data storage situation, even your personal data. Whether you’re a photographer, filmmaker, editor, or writer, or even your personal data, the strategy for backing up your work is the same. Even your personal data could benefit from the backup strategy in this guide.
 

If at any point you have questions about the process or need clarification on anything, feel free to email me your questions.

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Thank you,

Marko Fazio

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