The term "music has become a commodity" has been thrown about for many years. The fact is that music has always been a commodity.
The rapid advancement in technology has seen us bombarded at every turn to buy music. Every trick in the book is being used to the point of overload. Major companies in the music 'game' are abusing the listeners good faith and almost ridiculing serious independent musicians.
A monetary 'note' can be quantified. It can purchase you an item that you want. A musical 'note' can't be quantified, yet the powers that be seem fixed on making the public think otherwise.
A childhood friend of mine, Gordon Walker, used to sit on the footpath outside of his house practising his bagpipes. I would often sit next to him. It wasn't long before passers-by would
gather around to listen to him. This inevitably led to people throwing coins into the guttering as a sign of appreciation. Unbeknownst to us both, Gordon became a commodity. His music, to some people, was worth paying for.
This carried on for quite some time. Gordon never changed track. He continued to practise on the footpath. His genuine love of playing was, and still is, unwavering. This has led to Gordon winning every piping medal in
Scotland. Although Gordons' musical journey varies in nature to the vast majority of
indie music artists, there is one glaring similarity. Staying true to himself.
With the advent of the internet it is now possible for indie artists to have their music heard globally within seconds of creation without even having to leave their home. A wonderful thing but it comes at a price; many prices.
Firstly the indie artist has to have the equipment to produce and distribute their music. This is not cheap. The time spent on the creation of a song cannot really be quantified in financial terms for the indie artist. Often it is done in their spare time.
The next step for the indie artist is to choose what websites to put their music on. This is an area that is well worth spending time on. Research each site before submitting any music there. Read the monotonous fine-print.
Initially it seems like a great idea to put your songs and as many of your songs on as many sites as possible for free. Through experience I have found that this ends up being very time-consuming
keeping up with each site as ones' fanbase grows. Spreading oneself too thin has a two-fold negative effect on the indie
musician. Firstly, the artist themselves struggle to maintain the initial enthusiasm and secondly listeners become either wary or tired of seeing the same artist pop up on every imaginable site. This is a very difficult juggling act for the musician to balance. More often than not, less is more. Researching and targeting ones' audience is paramount.
As I've mentioned, select your sites carefully. I am not going to recommend or dismiss sites. Different sites are more appealing to different artists.
With this in mind it pays to remember that whilst your music is being heard world-wide you are also
advertising for the site from where your material derives. Many sites encourage you to have at least one free
download available on their site, their rationale being that this encourages people to revisit your page on their site thus increasing your fanbase. Going by my personal analytics I have found that people do visit the sites that I am on, download any free
music that is available and vanish. For this reason I now have only one free download on the internet, a track ironically titled "I'm Money." In the hope that listeners, promoters, the media and so forth 'get the message,' I deliberately used an expletive in the song....once.
It is a logical move for indie artists to have their music played on the radio, commercial or internet.
Radio station policies vary greatly and, again, it is well worth spending time reading the fine print. Research a stations' amount of visitors, demographics, scheduling, genres and
so forth. Although this will narrow your options it will increase your odds of having 'real' followers. It is imperative that an airtight release form is attended before submitting any material. You may wish to have certain terms used each time a song is played, such as the bands'
website, what album the track is from and where it can be purchased.
Many major stations request several physical copies of your album 'for consideration.' I have always avoided this. In the 21st century I cannot fathom why these major stations require several copies of a CD, let alone one. In addition they also tend to emphasise that your
CDs will not be returned which leads to the question, "what becomes of these CDs?"
Another option for gaining maximum exposure for distributing your material for sale is in digital format, which seems to be rapidly increasing in popularity in recent times. Again, it comes at a price. There is the initial cost of putting a digital album, single or video for sale in whatever digital store (or stores) that you choose or, in the case of many indie artists, can afford. Each of your products have an annual fee to keep your material in-store. In return, you get the distributers logo to put on your website or wherever you choose. Initially this is rather exciting to view but, again, you are advertising their company....and paying for it.
So....this leaves the indie artist with many dilemmas if they wish to, as I have recently decided to, make a living from their music. Most indie artists perform live which has many benefits but it has its' pitfalls too.
The major benefit of performing live is obvious. Fans of your
band get to hear and see you in real life. At gigs you may have CDs, merchandise, website signing forms and so forth to sell, as well as the money that you make from the gig itself. You also have the opportunity to personally interact with the people who have paid to hear and see you. This is of
paramount importance and I believe that, if possible, be as 'accessible' as is practicable at gigs. There is nothing better to the avid follower than meeting one of their favourite bands, let alone seeing them perform live. In addition, word of mouth advertising is a terribly under-rated form of advertising. It is well worth noting crowd attendances at every venue and keeping stats on venues, locations, age-groups and so-forth.
The pitfalls with performing live....and I'm going to bore you indie artists here because you know them....are numerous and the majority of which go unseen by fans. The bands personal commitments, writing the songs, deciding on songs, rehearsals, travel, sound & lighting equipment, sound engineers, road crew. If any one of these factors go awry, it will be noticed at a gig.
For the indie artist who does not perform live, such as myself, there are also benefits and pitfalls but of a different nature. The advantages that I have are that I write, arrange and record my own material. I can do this whenever I choose and avoid 'band politics,' schedules and conflicts of interests. I have 100% control over what and where my material is presented.
The pitfalls are that I do not have the personal interaction with fans who enjoy my music. I keep fans as up-to-date as possible with my musical endeavours via my website
www.scotsbob.com and on the
"Bob Findlay Music Page" on Facebook. I am also reluctant to send my material to radio stations as, through careful analysis, irrespective of their promotional promises, 99% of the time they simply don't happen.
I have recently been increasing my presence on
Twitter. I am slowly but surely fine-tuning my tweets to targeted audiences whilst being conscious of not posting similar tweets to similar 'groups,' making my tweets relevant with regard to demographics and to peoples interests. In addition I have also been fine-tuning my merchandise store at
Zazzle.
In conclusion I believe that indie artists should thoroughly investigate every site that they intend to utilise and bare in mind that you are promoting these sites as much as they are promoting you, irrespective of their flashy graphics and promises. At the end of the day, people are either going to like your music enough to buy it or they're not. Force-feeding doesn't work.
In my case, I'm not after wealth and certainly not fame. I am simply attempting to make a sustainable wage from my musical endeavors and doing it the best way that I know how; careful research, caution, selective advice and, like Gordon Walker, staying true to myself
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