Too much pressure (The Selecter - Too Much Pressure (1980) (HD) - YouTube).
OPINION: If music is worth $ (which includes that it is not some niche masterpieces) it will sell itself - within the boundaries of the medium and time (!). Just publish on IG and YT and include the appropriate hashtags so that people find it. Like only what you like. Don’t feel pressed to like back. If you have a certain audience you could do live streaming - but that must be frustrating. I watched the great great GREAT liveset on New Year’s Eve of some electronice magazine - 7 people in the audience maximum - and even the live streams of some YT celebreties who make a living of it have only viewers (live) in the dozens… People like video-performances better than music itself. They respond to human beings and clues (like women - be they DJs, producers or background or salesperson). You can put your stuff on spotify and bandcamp. If it lifts off it will repay - but I wouldn’t count on that. Look how few plays the great Blake Baxter (UR) has. So basically the same as in real life. Most artists are starving, some become big for a flash-time, in the beginning you have to give it for free, then you will be underpaid and exploited. If you get a record-deal even more (pay back the “advances” - it works like a pimp business - work off the “investment” of the pimp/record label). The only way to have a normal life with it is to go to a conservatorium have a degree and become state-dependent artist in one of the state-(rather-tax-)funded cultural circles like in Europe. Good for living but: nothing new, only repeating past successes and copiing stuff - but hey - recurrent sufficient income.
Eh, promoting without any or with minimal money spent is always hard work. Before the internet it meant going to shows and leaving flyers everywhere. Now you have to play the social media game. If you want to utilize social media to the fullest, you have to know and love the game.
Instagram is IMO one of the funnest social medias because as you naturally can only follow what you’re interested in and there’s minimal text, you can pretty much fill your feed with things that make you happy. For me, it’s music related stuff from synths to labels promoting to my favourite artists. And maybe a few boobs.
I’d take hard work over Instagram.
Nothing wrong with hard work.
Heh, I’ve never been active in social media myself, outside of having a FB account for messenger basically and instagram because it’s fun and a lot of small tape labels only promote there.
Today I deleted my facebook account, I am now completely off most social network apart from mastodon, which I kind of lurk for no point (I don’t really post). It feels somewhat pretty good, as I mostly wasted time on there. I’ll play music instead.
Any of you completely off the big social network (fb,tiktok,twitter,instagram…)?
I deleted my FB account a few years ago, do not have a IG or YT account. I am on Twitter, though less since I found this forum. It’s annoying when I can’t get information or interact with commercial entities except through FB or IG and I can’t see anything. But I figure it’s their loss, not mine.
twitter do feel like a less abusive social network as far as connecting everything to your profile… but never really got the hang of it. I still dislike being connected trough gmail, but I do have a lot of work stuff on there too… anyway - feels good to remove some of that extra cruft. Hanging out on nice forum (like this one) is actually a good way to disconnect from other network.
Been off Facebook for years. Every time I see it I get sick to my stomach. I’m on Instagram mostly because I fling ridiculous memes back and forth with my partner. I’m not keen at all on social media.
Elektronauts is the only online community that I actively participate in. I very much enjoy the community here.
It is a really sweet community indeed. Having been ‘censored’ a couple time for rude comment, I appreciated the effort to keep all conversation civilized, I should simply stop chatting when I have a bit of tequilla.
There is a huge amount of abuse on Twitter. But at least the default is “wide open” and I can still get a chronological feed, not “tell them what the people who really pay the bills want them to see”. I liked the initial minimal feel of it but everything in the intervening years has been downhill, really. I agree that this is a particularly nice forum, even if it is tempting me into spending too much money.
and I know there is a whole lot of ‘fediverse’ of different social network aggregator, and some ‘chan’ which mix mastodon with image board and sometime irc server. There might be some nice creative/activist/spiritual mix of community out there… but I also don’t have much time or energy to find the perfect community of like minded netizen
I never got ig or tiktok, deleted Twitter and only have FB for an artist page I got there, and only ever go there once whenever there’s a new release to post the link. I got no time to waste on those silly things. Social media is one of the worst things humans have created. And we’ve created so much stupid shit already 
Recently needed a bare bones Linkedin account for online access elsewhere. I should prolly take advantage of their job listings but I’m not comfortable with the idea of giving them my data. Apart from that, nothing except Elektronauts. Tired of being farmed by tech companies.
Never been on FB myself, but I do have a Twitter account. Since last summer I haven’t logged into my account tho. It was a conscious decision after having realised how immensely toxic and polarising a place it is. Even if I only followed about 15 people there. I’m all for hearing both sides of a conversation but it’s not a place to have a conversation to begin with. It’s a place for people to shout their own opinion and then retreating back to their own confirmation biased bubble. Leaving that place seriously made me feel better.
Realistically, I won’t rule out FB or IG for promotional purposes sometime in the near future as I have a couple of things coming out I’d like people to know about but I’m not exactly looking forward to it.
I agree with everything people have said. My only social is a FB account. I’ve thought of deleting it several times and I never engage in politics or opinionated discussions. But I would definitely miss out on gigs/parties (when there are such things) I would not know about and music I would never hear, plus there are a few groups with useful gear & technique advice like on here. So for now it stays, but with all the usual reservations 
I deleted my FB a year ago, and even then I hadn’t been using it for about two or three years. I never had a twitter, and it seems to turn into a cesspool more and more each day. It seems truly, truly awful. As in, brings out the absolute worst in humanity awful, while somehow allowing the absolute worst in humanity to dictate the lives of innocent bystanders. In comparison, 4chan is awful, but an angry 4chan mob does not influence day to day policy making and whatever else.
I have an instagram and use it entirely for business and self promotion. My daily limit is set to 20m and I never even hit that…So I probably spend 10 or 15 minutes a day on it. Unless I’m talking to cute girls…
I still have fb and insta, mainly to (try) to promote my music.
I spend maybe 10-15 minutes a day with those, so in that regard I don’t see them as a problem.
Spend much more time here.
And on the damn news. This is what I should stop
Do it. It’s all spin and/or lies anyway. I cut off all news about 2 years ago, was like a weight lifted.
I just have IG and YT now, since the last big change on IG late last year I barely open the app because it removed the ability to shoot quick 60 second clips directly, without any hassle, and that was my primary use for it. You can still do it by shooting the video first then uploading, but too much hassle for me when I’m in the zone, so now I rarely use the app.
I have also significantly reduced the amount of news I consume, most of it is BS anyway, designed to keep people outraged and spending. I take a look at the headlines and that is about it, anything important will be hard to miss.
I got along just fine in the pre-internet days and in the early internet days, and that is something I have been reflecting on recently, seems like today people don’t use the internet, it uses them (ok, I’m being a little dramatic) I feel quite sorry for younger people who never knew any different.
But like any form of culture the internet is giving people what they think they want, too bad they don’t realise the cost.
I share the feeling. I still have a FB account that I only use to promote my art and music work. And when someone sends me a message on there (only on desktop, mever had the smartphone app). I stopped engaging in any discussions on posts. I really dislike the business practices of fb and the impact it has on society. Same for google and the millions of startups trying to become them. Still using gmail though. Been thinking of switching to email on my website hosting. But that will be a whole operation to get all my contacts to use that new one. Had more pressing things in my life to deal with. Might do it soon though.
Shitty thing is: I liked being in touch with far away friends via fb. Or even see what closer ones are up to.
Is there anything on the horizon that could fill that gap? Did Diaspora ever take off?
Elektronauts and 1 news outlet are the only ones I still use on regular base. Sometimes I still catch myself getting in compulsive checking loops, or responding to stuff that’s really not worth my time. Then I make a deal with myself to only get on it in the evenings, not in busy daytime, and it seems to work pretty well.
I’ve come to manage my available brainpower as a very precious resource.