This came up as a question on FormSpring last night, but the answer seemed to be the kind of thing that it would be good to post here and expand on. So here's the question, and what I wrote in response. Feel free to add to it in the comments:
Any tips for any musicians looking to make it independant and starting from scratch?
start by being awesome. Make the music you want to spend the rest of your life listening to. Forget your audience, your audience is you. Make the music that would soundtrack your wedding, your first kiss, your best holiday, your divorce, your funeral.
Then read this - http://www.dannybarnes.com/blog/how-make-living-playing-music - it's the greatest thing I've ever read on the subject. Then read all the posts here - http://www.stevelawson.net/category/the-future-of-music/and at http://www.newmusicstrategies.com and at http://www.musicthinktank.com Digest it, argue with it, try stuff out, write your own 'how to' blogs based on your experience and hunches, talk to everyone, make as much great music as you can, then throw all that stuff out and live it. See what happens. :)