#1April 11th, 2017 · 09:48 AM
1 threads
1 posts
United States of America
Question the the masses...
Good morning folks. This is my first post so I'll introduce myself a little. I play the drums as a hobby. Benn playing on and off for almost 10 years now. I Enjoy hearing the efforts of different people and I just want to tell everyone to keep up the great work and I can't wait to hear what all of you are working on!

Here is my question.

For those of you who have tried to release your own album/single, what was it that you believe caused it's success or failure? And what do you think made the difference?

I'm exploring ideas on how to make publishing your own albums easier. I'm not looking for solutions yet. I just want to Isolate the top road blocks and become aware of what you guys artists are dealing with. I want to hear your experiences and frustrations!

Thanks!
#2April 12th, 2017 · 08:24 AM
371 threads / 187 songs
3,394 posts
United Kingdom
Success /Failure is a huge subject. If you have the talent and the passion, that's all you need to be successful. The public will judge your talent. However it depends what success means to you.

I've produced three albums - for me personally it was all about actually doing it to the best of my ability. It was a success to which I'm very proud of. If making money from your music is a mark of success, then this is a different ball game all together. Personally I don't know anyone who is making good money from their music, but I know a lot of talented Artist's who earn the right of being successful from their music. My cousin makes money from music performing on a regular basis and has an easy life style, he has not produced anything, nor does he have any interest in doing so, he just enjoys performing, which people love him for.

I used a company called Rotenote.com to publish my music digitally - there were no upfront fees.  I recorded and produced the music myself and at the time it was very exciting and fun.

There are many members here who have done the same.

If you have produced any music, we'd like to hear it - We have some good critiques here.
#3April 12th, 2017 · 09:41 AM
1 threads
1 posts
United States of America
Thank you Denis, I appreciate your comments and you're right. Success/Failure is an entirely too broad subject by itself. There are no doubt phenomenal musicians who simply enjoy writing and playing music and could care less about selling their work. And it is my opinion that most if not all of these artists are better then many professional musicians simply because it is their passion and not simply a job.

What I'm looking for tips about the process of selling an album as an independent musician. If you are an independent musician and you've sold some of your work, what were some of the major contributors to your success? And if you didn't succeed, in retrospect, if you were to give some pointers to others, what mistakes can the community learn from? What would you do different?

I'd also like to know what tools and services you use/prefer. Do you use social media? If you have to do the grunt work on getting the word out on your new album how do you do it, and how could it be better?

Thanks again for responding!
#4April 12th, 2017 · 01:22 PM
371 threads / 187 songs
3,394 posts
United Kingdom
I'm the wrong person to ask these questions.  However in my travels a chap called Dezz Asante has approached the subject in great detail - how well it works I really don't know, but what he does teach makes total sense.
Try this link for more details:
http://classroom.techmuzeacademy.com/category/music-promotion-courses/
#5April 13th, 2017 · 05:02 PM
117 threads / 20 songs
1,422 posts
United States of America
Some of this is probably preaching to the choir, pixelsnpings, but it's the only perspective I can offer

I haven't pursued trying to sell or even properly "release" music, but I think there's a lot of overlap in anything related to small business.  I'm pretty actively working on a career in writing genre fiction, and all of the same concerns come up over there, too.

For people starting out, if it's really what they want as a paying career, I think they need to devote some portion of their attention each day to "the industry."  I used to grimace at a term like that, but every creative field has the monolithic Industry.  I feel like you have to have your finger on its pulse or else you're just throwing darts in the dark.  Finding success in the dark is just a lottery, and there's nothing to learn from it to increase your chances for another success in the future.

So then networking becomes a thing, because you can't know everything about the industry all by yourself.

Social media is a weird egg for self-promotion.  Most people don't like seeing self-promotion in its raw, blunt forms.  The best advice I've seen deals with trying to engage whatever audience you have by putting some sort of "call to action" out there, even if it's just a question.  You sort of have to be genuinely interesting enough that people will find something you said after the fact.  If it's worthwhile in a non-emphemeral way, then it means you added something of value to the big abstract "discussion," and some people will discover what you said, even if you didn't know you were talking to them at the time.

Social media is like catch-22 land for me, though.  You have to be genuinely interesting enough to create an audience, but until you have an audience, you're just talking to yourself.  I think that's where the networking is supposed to jump start the audience.  If you know people bigger than you, and they like what you say, they boost your signal by linking to your post or just retweeting.

It makes the whole thing seems incestuous and a big clique, but that's how industries go.  I think networking, even with people your own size, is probably the most valuable tool for self-promotion, because you can't pollinate an audience you don't have yet.  Networking is like trying to find another person to make a Venn Diagram with you, where some portion of the overlapping audience is mutually beneficial.
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