Ableton Forum

Can you recommend any good sites that cover the basics of being a DIY artist with no desire to use a production/recording company?

http://www.myspace.com/casiospittake

For releasing a record or touring or performing or building you own gear or what??

recording and promoting

check out this place for tips:
http://cdbaby.org/

then set up an account here and sell on their site along with all the digital stores they go through:
http://members.cdbaby.com/

That's what I did and it works really well.

Once you get a good base and start selling, you can also promo with many companies. But first, promo yourself as much as possible (web, flyers, shows, etc). Get some fanbase before you go through a promo company so they know you are worth it.

I went through http://www.aampromo.com/ and got really good results on college/indie radio stations and charts. I also did aheadpr.com, and it was a good place to start and got us some good reivews, but not as much coverage as aam. There's a lot of other companies out there that help.

The best thing to do is to go all out yourself first though, and get some shows booked, hand out CDs to DJs, promote on soundcloud/myspace/facebook/etc...

http://www.newmusicstrategies.com is an excellent source of advice and inspiration. Check out their free e-book.