I would hope so but I don’t think that we have lived in that world for a long time.
What of the fake Serbian steel mill worker? Seemed to of worked for him, sure people regard his music highly, but I think his ruse had something to do with people paying attention to it.
Marketing is worse than useless, unless you are targeting people who already like your stuff or similar stuff.
All these desperate wannabe social spamming techniques don’t do much other than annoy me.
I’d say get it to some DJs and if the music appeals to the listener they might check out your stuff, or send it to a label who release music which yours would fit into.
Is that a Total Request Live reference? I don’t believe Primus ever made the countdown.
Yeah that’s pretty much my plan. I did this quite well a few years ago but I’ve since deleted my Facebook and lost all my music contacts as a result.
To a degree we all create the reality we operate in. The way we perceive it.
Of course there are and have always been obstacles but actually today it’s easier than ever to have full artistic freedom and all the channels are open free of charge 24/7 at your disposal.
You don’t have to compromise in order to get your stuff out there like you used to 20 years ago.
Actually, what I’m talking about and not doing a very good job of, I don’t see as a compromise at all. I see it as just another way to be creative. And yes to be frank I think it’s a bit niave if you upload some great track to SoundCloud or whatever in hopes of it attracting attention that it will just based on that but I’m not saying thats how I want the world to be…
I ran a label kind of like this for a while. I put out music by my friends and me that we didn’t know what to do with - mostly inter-genre bass music. It was great for a bit, but took a lot of work, time, and money for promo, and I couldn’t keep it up for very long. It basically boiled down to the same issue, in that I was spending my music time on marketing instead. It was effective though.
I hate to do this again, but what do you mean?
I think I’m headed in that direction, but I’m going to try a different approach.
I want to incorporate a multimedia approach to it. Incorporate my art into my music since they are both the same parts of me.
One day I’ll find some like minded people who want to collaborate, or want to at least form a collective that is artist centric.
I’m just going to keep producing music and art, and put my intentions out there. Maybe people will be drawn to it, or it will just be a futile exercise of hubris.
Makes no matter to me, because I’ll have tried and failed without no regret.
Well… I might say something even more confusing. Our music is a product of our personality, yet we want it to sort of exist outside of ourselves? I’m not sure how the average listener responds to that, it seems like music has always been about connecting with the artist and not their instrument. Seems like a lot of people who make electronic music think that the general public cares about the technical process while I am more one to believe that those people actually care about the emotional process of the artist and that what gets them interested and why they might keep listening…
Anyways, excuse my disjointed thoughts I was trying to reply at stop lights.
Another Paradox!
I think all of this is right. All of it from both. See none of this is mutually exclusive, and it is all just different expressions of the creative process.
It’s the variables of the artist aligning with the subjectivity of an audience aligning that denotes commercial success, which isn’t necessarily the end goal of all art or artists.
Okay I get what yo mean now. Thanks for the clarification.
I find many of the usually accepted axioms about making art and expressing oneself very questionable.
For example the need to mean something, or to be recognizable, to “keep it real”, to be a bleeding heart, to show the world who you are, to be understandable, you get the idea.
I’m tilting towards an idea of art being less predefined and “honest” in the cliche sense bcs I’m not convinced at all that that would make the experience any more powerful, meaningful or interesting to anyone.
I asked about your paradoxical statement bcs I was curious to hear how you see things. Nothing wrong with paradoxes.
You’re not wrong, but also this is what record labels figured out decades ago. It really just depends on who you’re making music for; “anyone”, or yourself.
Thank you for taking the time to understand me. Hope you don’t develop a headache soon after. I’m neither disagreeing with @Strutter or trying to play devils advocate, mostly just reporting my biased thoughs and observations. I think a lot of people can get stuck in some romantic idea of being an artist and I’m not excluding myself but at the end of the day if you think you’ve made some great music maybe the world actually deserves that you put energy into getting it into people’s ears. Can’t really blame the public for not hearing some great track, so maybe just add some track tact and tha doesn’t have to mean cheapening yourself to some sickening degree.
Yes, but labels don’t make music, they make or at least try to make money.
Well, probably helps me actual to better clarify my thoughts. I think we mostly group people into the over self promoter and the sleeper while some middle gound exists in regards to marketing ourselves. I had more of an issue with the whole idea when I was younger and realized at some point what I was mainly doing was selling myself short.
They very often directly influence, if not curate, exactly what music is made and by whom, for the exact reason you gave.
Yes indeed. It’s business for them. The bottom line.
Maybe the core paradox of this topic is that we feel overly protective of our creativity yet yearn for it to be appreciated (and feel hurt when it isn’t). Creative fields probably have the highest percentage of people who self sabotage. I mastered that artform for several years but am kissing it the fuck goodbye as soon as I get off my ass.