I’ve never been on instagram. I hate selfies and these people who live their lives online and on their phones. It’s appalling. Because I’m not on IG, I can’t even follow our dog who naturally has her own instagram page (updated by my GF).
I’m at a crossroads in my life where I’m about to take a new direction professionally. I’m planning to buy a business that’s been established in 1983 and which has basically no online presence. My plan is to update the business to 2020 by opening a web shop and starting social media accounts. I see social media as the most important way of promoting the business but at the same time I despise it.
My plan is to start IG and FB -accounts for the business and at the same moment get rid of my personal FB-profile. I’ll finally be free from that shit personally but on the other hand I’ll have to start prostituting my business to get some new customers for the business. It’s a two edged sword. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Problem with that is you’re back to square one. Cause now you got to promote the label you just created… And you got to hire someone to do it since you don’t want to do it yourself, and if you can’t afford it…
To add to the conundrum, you might be in the unfortunate situation (like me) of being the kind of artist who doesn’t have a sound that fits any label? Then you’re screwed. (Like me).
I think most of us here are bad at marketing, myself included and I’m trying to get better. You do have to get over that hump of feeling like self-promotion is Icky if you want to get anywhere. There is a good reason why every YouTuber says like & subscribe. In fact I would be willing to bet most of them don’t like doing that but they know it works and it gets them followers and it gets people engaged. Same goes for clickbait titles
Now in terms of marketing the question that you need to ask yourself is why should anyone give a shit about me or my music? Especially in this day and age when everything is basically free why would you expect people to give you any time when it could be spent an infinite number of ways?
The route I’m currently going down is known as go Giver marketing based off of a novella. Essentially the idea is to give things away for free and give people a product that they want and actually need from you. Do any of us know about Cuckoos music because we found him organically via labels and promotions? Or do we know about his music because he gave us synthesizer and sampler tutorials and lessons? Does anybody here watch Adam Neely? How many people do you think started listening to him and his band’s music after watching all of his videos that give us an amazing amount of knowledge? How many people do you think wanted to work with him after doing so?
Everything I do is still very modest, but some of my tutorial videos have a few thousand views and I think that’s pretty cool. In the descriptions I advertise for my lessons and link to my website so people can find my services. I havent gotten one yet, but who knows. If they like my piano lessons they may want one in person or over the internet.
I personally don’t benefit from social media for my business and good thing as I only have LinkedIn (if that even counts). I do however know plenty of business owners that use social media to their advantage and crush it without the nonsense. For many of them it’s their only platform, replacing the need for a website.
I stopped using Facebook and Instagram (most people forget that these two are from the same company) to promote my music a few months ago. So far it had absolute no negative impact on my plays, views and sales. I am using Youtube and Bandcamp a lot and Soundcloud a little bit.
I am not much of a social media participant but having some kind of social media presence on Instagram is rather easy and doesn’t really take a lot of interacting with others. Basically, make your account public and tag your videos with the equipment being used and the type of music you make. There are a number of accounts especially in the electronic music world that exist by searching the explorer feed using certain tags and reposting others videos. This is a sort passive approach to participation but I have seen artist/musicians gain a decent following utilizing proper tagging of content.
I had to use Facebook for werk. To test the apps we were making. What a shit show.
Facebook is distorting how we look at things.
When I lost that job I ditched FB, and felt like a weight had been lifted. I had the Gram to post one track to share with a buddy. I have no idea why I didn’t just send in a text. Deleted that account as well.
It’s really nice not being connected to any, ANY of those shit platforms.
Note: FB was built on hate. Zuckerturd used it to defame chicks that snubbed him at school. And app born of hate. Destined to ruin social conduct.
My experience for what its worth: the most money I made from music download sales in a year was 120 dollars.
At that time I had a one track on a compilation with a trendy niche label in USA, and was doing regular gigs to back it up. I got paid for the gigs.
Ive never done instagram, I don’t do facebook.
Ive done bandcamp since 2012. Now Ive got a distrokid account and they shove my stuff on all the streaming sites that I dont use either.
I also have a youtube account, which gets a fair amount of buzz, but I dont make any money from it, by choice.
Before the internet I played in live bands for years and never made money enough to cover fuel or drinking expenses. Let alone pay for gear or actual profit.
I dunno dude, if the end result is making money, then you need to approach from that direction. Which will affect the type of music you make. If the end result is making music, then yeah, I tend to have changed my view, and now I see the money as a pleasant bonus when it happens, but I’m personally not chasing it.
I had this exact same deal, but with spotify. Well, I’ve got stuff on spotify now. Has it made any difference? Nope. Will instagram make any difference to you? Not by the sounds of it.
Im starting to think that there are social media people, for whom social media “works”. Then there are other people, for whom social media is something other people do.
Either way, your noise toys are calling you… “fiddle with me Fin25… tweak by buttons and hear me shriek…”
SoundCloud has brought me many (digital)relationships with artists I admire, labels I’ve released with, and other great music people in general. I’ve only been producing in a semi-serious capacity for 3.5 years (I’m 26), and over that time the networking I’ve been able to do via SoundCloud is unmatched. Opportunities from booking agencies, labels, promoters, etc. can all start with SoundCloud.
Go where the music is, not where the posting is.
No Facebook, no Instagram, no Youtube, yes Bandcamp, yes SoundCloud.
Feels you’re being a bit dramatic, it’s a tool, use it as such. Follow artist and people you like, you don’t need to be fake, you can build an audience and a following organically that are actually interested in your music.
I would also open a Soundcloud and Bandcamp profile…
