Did you see the news? Facebook now has their version of Snapchat’s Stories feature, which Instagram replicated just a few months back. Now you can post short video updates – or broadcast live – to your various audiences across multiple social channels. You essentially have to create original content for all three, of course, but it can be done.
In 2017, telling your story – or any story – is key to developing brand awareness. The problem we face now is that most artists are telling their story in the same way. Everyone is offering video updates, often coupled with recurring live broadcasts, and everyone will continue to do so because it works. Video creates a connection with viewers that text updates cannot replicate, which in turn improves overall engagement with fans.
What the vast majority of musicians have yet to consider however, is telling their story through podcasting. Many artists have done interviews, perhaps with multiple shows, but very few have taken the job of telling their narrative into their own hands.
According to a 2016 report, 57 million people enjoy podcasts on a weekly basis, and that number is poised to grow exponentially in the years ahead. The average podcast consumer listens to at least 5 shows per week which, again, is expected to increase.
By starting a podcast now, before it becomes the trendy thing to do, artists of all sizes can forge a new connection with their audience while also attracting new fans. A podcast can be anything you want it to be, but for artists here are a few things they should be:
A platform to tell the ongoing narrative of your career
Created and updated regularly, on a schedule that does not interfere with time needed for creativity
A source of news and exclusive information
Encouraging of engagement
You can have guests if you want, but you don’t need them. All you need to do is engage with your audience, telling them about your work and where life has taken you as of late. What was it like to play Grand Rapids last night? Where do you turn when you’re looking for song ideas?
You don’t even need to answer these questions to have a compelling podcast. You could make a show talking about the places you eat on the road, or perhaps you and your drummer just talk about experiences as humans on this Earth in the journey of life. Be as deep or silly as you want, just be yourselves.
We’ll have a guide to podcasting available soon, but in the meantime this link will help get you started. Good luck!
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the host of Inside Music, a podcast about the music industry, as well as the Managing Editor for Substream Magazine. You should probably follow him on Twitter.
Last weekend was a wild one. Between the leaked Trump tapes and the second presidential debate it was hard for anything unrelated to politics to grab headlines, even in smaller markets. The one exception to this may have been Nicki Minaj, who surprised fans around the globe with the announcement she would be releasing her long-awaited third studio album at Midnight on Saturday, October 8. The rap star turned pop phenom told her Twitter followers the record would be titled Pick My Fruit and that every song was named after a fruit she loved. The tweets still exist, so here they are as evidence:
Considering the fact Minaj last released an album in 2014, fans were understandably excited to learn their favorite rapper would soon be gracing them with new music. Word of Nicki’s plans for the record spread like wildfire, with blogs and publications of all sizes posting the news before the above track list was even posted online. Everyone thought the next day would be filled with hot takes regarding the new record, but as midnight came and went in various places around the planet people slowly realized they were being played:
Minaj never made an official statement regarding her late night social media prank, but much has been written in the days since the incident questioning whether or not the troll was the best idea as it relates to business. 2016 has seen a surge in ‘surprise’ releases announced at the very last minute, and considering that Minaj has only released one song since her last album (the “Pinkprint Freestyle” dropped on September 4) the idea she might release an album out of the blue made a lot of sense.
Everyone enjoys a good joke, but lying to your incredibly patient fans about the existence of a new record in an age where everyone is champing at the bit for new content pretty much 24/7 is an incredibly risky move. While it would appear that many of Minaj’s fans found some humor in the troll there was also quite a bit of disappointment as well. Everyone has the ability to be patient, especially when it comes to waiting on a new creation from an artist they believe in, but everyone also has their limits.
If I had to guess I would say Minaj will more than likely release something, be it an album or just another single, in the coming weeks. Her fans may be trying to laugh off the Fruit incident in hopes something substantial is coming soon, but if nothing surfaces I am certain some will begin to look for other artists to support. Minaj may not be your favorite artist, but her words have impacted the lives of millions, and there are many looking to her for support or entertainment with bated breathe. Their excitement should be cherished, supported, and leveraged to urge others to feel the same, but in instances like this it is challenged. Instead of feeling like their adoration inspires their favorite artists they’re told it’s something to be used for amusement/humor. That’s not a good look for anyone, regardless of their popularity at Top 40 radio.
All this said, I am not expecting Nicki Minaj to fall out of the public eye anytime soon. Her career has propelled her far enough into the cultural conversation that one or two PR misfires are only going to have a minimal impact on her fanbase as a whole. The same cannot be said for other, smaller artist who may think teasing new material is a good idea. Those on the come up need to recognize that honesty and integrity go a long way towards securing lifelong fans, and pranks like the one being pulled with Pick My Fruit can potentially do far more harm than good.
Don’t be like Nicki Minaj. Maintain an open dialogue with fans through honesty and they will follow you anywhere. Leverage their faith in you for your own amusement and they will find someone else to support.
In 2016, it can be very easy for artists to fall into a mindset where they believe the fastest way to gain attention is to shovel out as many songs as possible as often as their budget and schedule will allow. While this approach to releasing music certainly works for some, it’s far smarter from both a financial and promotional standpoint to only release your absolutely best material and milk it for all its worth. A song premiere and video release should be considered the bare minimum in terms of promotion, but most never know what else to do with their music. This post, written in collaboration with the band The New Electric, will hopefully help you and other creative minds rethink the way you promote your music career.
Our story is one of a group of hard working guys who managed to push two singles into billboard charting positions independently.
Now the first ingredient was the music! The product, the everything. How do we write, record/make great music? The answer is, we work with great songwriters and great producers. “Well, are we not great songwriters and producers ourselves?” We might be, but everyone needs a co-writer and a producer, even writers and producers themselves.
Once we had music that we thought was great we decided to hire a radio tracking team to push our single for us. It was a pretty penny but ended up being well worth it in the end. The trackers sent us on a radio tour where we traveled across all of Canada going to every station meeting every program director and music director and DJ and at 3 or 4 stations a day.
Knowing we were going on a radio tour, we devised a strategy to make a chart with every stations socials, info and notes about who we talked to and what we talked about. We also planned to look like stars walking in, full wardrobe and hair no matter how early or how tired or worn out we were. We also did vocal warm ups before every radio performance stop. We did our best to charm and make relationships with these radio people in the short time we had with them. As we did this across the country our radio team pushed. We were featured, then some ads but nothing huge.
We started reaching out to fans of other bands on Twitter and started talking and building relationships with them. We eventually had a solid group of fans that we talked to daily so we started holding Twitter requesting contests. The stations were getting bombarded with requests for our song and then with a little luck and a lot of push from our team we won two radio competitions in the same month, Next Big Thing and Future Star. These put our song on the map and it started charting in the top 50! It climbed all the way to #16 over a 6 month period. We made a music video for the single that got picked up by Much Music we also toured give the single as much “Life” as possible.
To sum it up, we did a lot of work! We engaged fully on social media and found unique ways to interact. We looked and sounded our best at all times and always greeted everyone with a smile and a warm heart. I would say that It’s all about relationships and being someone that people want to work with. I can’t say if this will work for anyone else or why it did for us! We’re just doing our thang. Thanks for reading!
Gaining the attention of blogs and their readers is no easy feat, especially for unsigned talent with little-to-no history. You can write the best songs and have the nicest videos, but if you do not know how to network and pitch yourselves no one will ever learn about your talent. Once they do however, there will only be a small window of time for you to capitalize on having won a moment of their attention, and this afternoon we’re going to learn what you should do in the hours after first receiving media attention.
1. Take time to celebrate, but realize there is still a lot left to accomplish.
I was never in a band that became popular enough to appear on sites like Absolutepunk or the like, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t spend many nights wishing one of the influential tastemakers of the scene mentioned my efforts in their publication. If your music/video/album gets mentioned, celebrate! You’ve taken yet another step towards your goal of a career in music, and while it’s certainly not enough to pay the bills it does serve as a strong reminder other people in the world care about your art. Don’t take that for granted.
2. Tell everyone in the world about the news (and ask them to share it).
This one probably goes without saying, but the unwritten rule of exposure on music outlets is that the band featured will publicly share and/or promote the publication’s content once its live. Don’t just share link to stories with fans, but ask them to share it as well, and don’t be afraid to request they comment on the post if time allows. Sites that see a bump in traffic or discussions from coverage of your band are likely to cover your band again in the future because they believe there is a value to your content that other unsigned acts cannot provide. In order to show them that value you will need the help of your fans, and its up to you to sell them on sharing your work.
3. Engage the comments section, but don’t antagonize them.
If the reason you’re reading this post is because the first article about your music just went live, you need to understand the response in the comments section may be very slow at first. As much as sites love to help expose young talent, people are not always quick to comment (especially in a positive sense) about something they are unfamiliar with. A great way to combat this is to actively participate in discussions taking place in the comments section of articles about your band. Answer questions for people, offer insight into your creative process, and generally speaking do whatever you can to be a decent human being that is open to criticism. It’s not that difficult, but it can make a world of difference in how quickly people become engaged with your art.
4. Say “thank you” and/or support the publication that wrote about you.
You would not believe the power the phrases “please” and “thank you” have in the music industry. From labels, to bands, publicists, and everyone in between you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks they hear either of those phrases too often. People tend to do as they please and take what they want without giving much though to the process behind it all, but you can stand out from the countless unsigned artists of the world by voicing your appreciation to the sites that give you space on their front page. It does not have to be anything formal, but it should be sincere. People remember those who are kind to them, and they’re far more likely to want to work with you again in the future as a result.
5. Don’t be afraid to begin teasing your next announcement.
Once people learn about your art it’s very likely they will want to know everything they can about your current efforts. Using social media and the comments sections on posts about your work, take a moment to tell people about everything else you have going on while your name is still fresh on their minds. They might not buy the album or see the tour you’re trying to promote, but at least they’ll know of it and will have the ability to share that information with others if such opportunities present themselves.
While Googling “jobs at Poler” back in 2014, I came across a quote from Drew Dayberry who does Creative / Product and Brand Development for the company:
"My goal overall is simple, keep the Internet and the digital world a wild place. A place where brands can co exist with everyday people without buying their way into their lives. There is still a lot of it to discover and tons of never been dones so there is no reason we should all hide in those social networks.”
The site doesn’t exist anymore (here’s a cached version), but that quote has stuck with me over the years. As bands, brands, and people, we are filling up social networks with lots of our “stuff.” Photos, memories, travel stories, births, wedding, new songs, your latest video – and for anyone not on a particualr social network, well, they’re hidden.
So here we are in 2016, and there is certainly still a lot to discover. There are “tons of never been dones,“ and not just with whatever hot new social media network of the day happens to be.
Today bands and labels are expected to sit on social networks and clack away with specials and semi-persnonal interactions with their legions of fans. Peopel who work in the field are expected to be experts within a year, and grow, and engage in brand new ways. Email lists bustle with tour dates and links to iTunes and Bandcamp. Epermeral videos on Snapchat and / or periscope, interactions that disappear like sparks in the night.
But where is the nightly podcast from a band in the studio, or stories from the road? Reatlity TV shows thrive because they’re cheap and they’ve got interesting stories. Your band, your label, you art – you’ve got so many stories bubbling inside you. You don’t need to scatter your stories to the social media winds and hope they find root somewhere – you have an amazing audience already in front of you hanging onto your every word. By using the world wide web your stories can remain for fans who discover three years from now, and who even knows if we’ll still be using Twitter three years from now?
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
We received a lot of emails at Haulix from labels, publicists, and bands alike hoping to learn a few additional tricks or tips for better exposing whatever music they are working at that particular moment. We do our best to help everyone that comes to us, and we would hope many of you would respond in a similar manner, but recently we were contacted by someone seeking additional press who seemed to completely misunderstand what it is they needed in their career.
While coverage on blogs and in print is always helpful, it is not something every artist needs in order to be a success. In fact, history is littered with brilliant minds who lead long career in the arts without ever having a number one song or a feature in Billboard magazine. They probably wanted those things, of course, but in the long run they were not an essential part of a healthy career in entertainment.
So here’s what happened:
A call came in this week from an industry contact who shall remain nameless. During our chat, the person who called explained how they were running a label where almost every cost was covered by two very successful electronic artists. These artists have made literally millions of dollars from licensing and placements in everything from movies, to TV shows, advertisements, and even video games. They have been making money this way for years, all while continuing to release new music, but for one reason or another their label had struggled to garner much, if any, traction in the world of music journalism. Their artists were labeled as too electronic for rock blogs, but too rock driven for electronic blog, which left them feeling as if there were no place for them in the modern music business.
While we sympathized with the label owner and how he felt his artists were basically successful outcasts, we also felt that somewhere along the line the label owner had forgotten the point of press. Getting mentions on blogs and in magazines is something done by artists and their representation in order to generate more excitement for an upcoming release. While we could debate all day over the effectiveness of mentions on top music blogs as it relates to sales, the fact of the matter is that in this unique case the artists going uncovered by most members of the music journalism community had long proven their ability to financially succeed in the industry. They don’t need music blogs, or even music magazine to care about their efforts because clearly there is already a well-established demand for new content from them by people who have the power to make sure the artists in question can pay their bills (as well as the bills of their label).
If you or someone your represent are working full time on creating art, and by that I mean living a life that is not dependent on a second source of income, we urge you to not allow yourself to be frustrated if members of the journalism community do not take notice of those efforts. Just because someone with a blog or byline does not see the talent you or your artist possesses does not mean everyone else who has supported that act up to this point is somehow wrong or misguided. Headlines will come in time, but if you’re already paying your bills with music then you’ve already won the game of existing in this industry. You’ve reached a point of success most will never know, and you cannot allow the fact some teens and/or twenty-somethings don’t ‘get it’ hold you back. You don’t need them.
This is the latest post in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids.
Once you’ve decided that working with a producer will benefit your album, and it’s time to audition talent, it can be difficult deciding who’s right for the project. Producers are a dime a dozen these days, and if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, you’ll find yourself lost amidst all the options. Don’t fret! We’ve compiled a list of top traits to seek in choosing the best producer for your work.
Let’s start off by defining what a producer’s role is. The producer of an album is the person who balances artistic considerations with the technical aspects of record making in hopes of delivering a competitive product within the commercial marketplace. The career is a complex cocktail with equal parts musical knowledge, historical context, and perception. To properly integrate all this data, a producer must exhibit excellent multi-tasking abilities, as well as be able to wear multiple hats and constantly change his or her perspective to remain objective. Below are some questions to ask prospective producers to help guide you through the interview process.
4 questions you should ask a prospective producer
1. What’s your working style?
You’ll want to know this because if someone is used to working in 12-hour sessions on weekends at large-console Hollywood studios, but you work best in intimate home-recording environments, you won’t be compatible. Find out what type of studios they typically work in, if they have access to rehearsal spaces, and typical timelines and project pacing they prefer.
2. What’s your musical background, if any?
You don’t need to know your candidates’ personal vinyl collections, but you want to have a good sense of the genre neighborhood they live in. Find out if they play any instruments or have knowledge of other styles than what you’re familiar with. Versatility is golden when it comes to songwriting and finding sources of inspiration. A producer who is comfortable working with alternative rock but also has experience with soul grooves may offer you creative insight that can help give your record a competitive edge.
3. Who have you been listening to recently?
Production is an ever-shifting craft, and it must be constantly studied. Producers should always be listening to music, both old and brand new, being experts of their main genre. You want to find out the type of sounds that get them hyped, and you’ll want to have a general idea of the direction they’ll push you in.
4. Are you affiliated with a label, and do you have connections with publishing, A&R, TV/film, or radio companies?
This seems obvious, but a lot of artists are afraid to ask this in fear of seeming too hungry for success. The truth is, producers should have connections that can help get your music heard. If a producer is offended by this inquiry, he or she may not have your best interests in mind. The perfect producer will effortlessly balance your creative endeavors with specific marketing prowess unique to your project.
Now that you’ve got a sense of who your candidates are, these are the top qualities to look for in their answers.
5 qualities you should look for in a producer
1. Good listening
A good producer will know when to speak and when to take everything in. If you’re interviewing a candidate who seems to talk more about his past projects than ask about yours, he’s probably not going to offer you the focus you deserve. The right producer will make you feel as if you’re the only artist on his radar, even if he’s juggling multiple projects at once.
2. Confidence (not cockiness)
There’s no room for ego in the control room. As an artist, you should steer clear of producers who are looking to establish themselves or promote their brand using your talent. You want a producer who shows you she knows music and understands industry trends, but doesn’t try to sell you by talking about how much she knows. Actions don’t always speak louder than words, but a proven track record of humility speaks volumes. Remember, the producer’s job is to consistently bring out the best in you, not highlight her own success.
3. Empathy (but also relentlessness)
A producer must understand the multitude of challenges in making a record, from the physical to the mental and emotional strains. Nevertheless, producers are the people who make it all come together, enforce deadlines, and keep everyone on track. You want someone who’s keen on recognizing weaknesses, but able to quickly avert obstacles. Ask your producer about situations he’s encountered in prior projects that hindered success, and how he overcame them.
4. Challenges you to grow
If a producer has heard your material, she should be able to immediately provide you with detailed feedback on what she sees for you as an artist, what she envisions, and what you lack. A great producer will be able to recognize a hit song from a rough demo, and you want to ensure the person you pick has a good ear. It’s crucial that you seek out a producer who’s tactful in presenting honest opinions, because this will motivate you to grow as an artist. Negative feedback isn’t always easy to digest, so you’ll want to find a producer who doesn’t make you feel like giving up while giving you guidance. Ask potential hires what they hear in your songs, and what they’d like to hear from you.
5. Passion
As an artist, you’ve decided to make music your life, and you’ve no doubt made sacrifices along the way to pursue your dreams. It’s paramount that your producer genuinely loves music and wholeheartedly believes in you. You want a producer who’s excited by your progress and eager to make your record come alive.
Caleb Hsu is an independent vocal producer and freelance recording engineer based in Los Angeles. As a classically trained pianist and composer, he enjoys writing music technology features that combine his psychology background with current industry trends.
This post is the latest in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids. Enjoy.
Crowdfunding has become one of the best ways for independent musicians (and even those with record deals) to get the money they need to make their living. Creating an album or going on tour can be expensive, and it’s tough enough to sell music, so many acts have turned to asking their biggest fans for a little extra help, and more often than not, they heed the call.
As the crowdfunding industry grows, more and more options for fundraising are popping up, and it’s tough to choose the best site for you and your band. So, which one is right for you? Do you want to take your chances with the masses on Kickstarter, or perhaps one of these three options is your best bet? Where are you based? Where are you touring? What genre do you play? All of these are important factors, especially on some of the more niche fundraising sites. If you don’t think you want to be a part of the bigger platforms, here are a few smaller options that might be a better fit.
Best for: Australian bands, or those not sure how they want to crowdfund just yet
Based in Australia, Pozible has a growing international presence, and a track record as one of the most successful crowdfunding platforms out there (over half of all campaigns reach their goals). While it does offer the option to simply set up a typical project, the company is fairly innovative in its other offerings. One interesting option is subscriptions, which is a growing trend in the fan-artist direct relationship world. Fans can pay a monthly fee to receive something from the artist, which can be whatever the artist has decided.
Also, Pozible has a new option where instead of hosting a campaign just on Pozible.com, an artist can set the whole thing up and take the embed code and place it wherever they like. This is helpful, as any digital marketer will tell you that the fewer clicks the better when you are asking someone to give you money. Instead of your fans spending time on your website having to click through and figure out the setup of Pozible’s website, they can contribute directly from your online presence. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it can make all the difference for some potential donors – and when it comes to fundraising, every little bit helps.
Best for: Bands that need help doing everything connected to their campaign
This option is an older one and a lot more DIY, but it doesn’t seem to be too active these days. The Germany-based company traffics mostly in European acts and has a lot less for people to cut through than platforms like Kickstarter or PledgeMusic. Being smaller is a good thing in that your project can get more attention (especially on their “charts” page, which tracks popular campaigns), but it also means that there might not be as many people randomly searching for new things to support on the site.
The company also brags that they can help any musician using the service to take their project from start to finish, including connecting bands to third parties that will press CDs and the like. If you don’t mind an older look and want some assistance in getting merchandise made once your fans have pre-ordered something, this might work for you.
Best for: Bands that are brand new to crowdfunding
Rockethub stands out from the crowd in two main ways: education and money. First, the company is intent on making sure that artists using the platform (which doesn’t only cater to musicians, but they’re a big vertical) know what they’re doing and that they have all the tools they need to succeed. The site features a page called Success School, which has an entire curriculum based on the dos and don’ts of crowdfunding and teaches best practices. Like only a few other platforms, Rockethub also allows musicians to keep what they have raised, regardless of what they were looking to collect. This is a great feature, as many campaigns don’t hit their goals, which can leave the band right back at square one.
Best for: Bands in France, or bands that are popular in that region
Serving the French community almost exclusively, Ulule is a great option if you’re based in France (or the rest of Europe). A platform that’s popular in a particular geographic region can be a good idea if your music is doing well there, as there are fewer people using it, which helps your campaign stand out. Ulule is also interesting because it offers artists two options to raise funds: simply requesting money for a project, or selling many different packages and items for certain amounts. Different sites usually go with one of these two choices, but having both means that there is something for everyone. Only five percent is taken from successful campaigns, so you’ll get most of your cash… if you can reach your goal.
Hugh McIntyre is a freelance pop music journalist in NYC by way of Boston. He has written for Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and MTV, as well as various magazines and blogs around the world. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the blog Pop! Bang! Boom! which is dedicated to the genre of pop in all of its glory.
As much as you may like to believe your career in music is infallible, or that you have a gift for songwriting no one will be able to deny, I can guarantee you there will always be days when your best efforts come up short. Failure is an unavoidable byproduct of any creative endeavor, and regardless of what level of fame you reach in this business there will always bad days. The point of continuing to create is not to work towards perfection, but to take into consideration everything that has happened, both good and bad, and apply it to whatever comes next. Art, like life, is a constant progression, and the best you can do is learn how to frame each failure as something other that is ultimately beneficial to your career.
The number of ways you can screw up in music are numerous, and they range from writing a bad single, to performing in a such way that disappoints your fans. We cannot begin to breakdown every single instance of failure and how it can be viewed as a positive, but we can offer tips to help you deal with any instance where things do not go as planned. The advice that follows may seem fairly basic to some, but if applied to your next misstep we guarantee growth will occur. It might not be easy, but it will be beneficial to your creativity in the long run, and at the end of the day that is what matters most.
Start with the truth. Accept the situation for what it is, and be prepared to face it head-on.
Everyone has heard that line about how the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and the reason we’ve all heard it is because it’s absolutely true. You might have written the best song you believe yourself possible of creating, but for one reason or another it might not connect with listeners. Likewise, you may give what you feel is the performance of a lifetime, only to look at Twitter after the gig and read tweet after tweet complaining about the sound. In times like this it’s incredibly easy to take a defensive stance, but to do so would be an error. Accept that not everyone will experience things the way you do and try to see things from the outsider’s perspective. Be humbled by the fact you received any response at all, as most never do, and ask yourself how you could improve or change what you’re doing in the future.
The key to this step is honesty. It’s okay to say you love something that your fans do no, but do not blame them for not feeling the same. Art is subjective, but if you listen to your audience you should be able to find a way to do what you want while still playing to their demands. You don’t have to, of course, but most great artists find a way to compromise that satisfies everyone.
Look for the positive, no matter how small it may be.
Let’s say your new album was expected to sell ten thousand copies its first week and only sold fifteen-hundred. That disappointment would be quite a sting, especially from a financial standpoint, but considering the fact less than 1% of all the albums released in any given year sell more than a thousand copies you’re still among the most popular musicians in the world. You may not have ten thousand people clamoring to purchase your new album, but fifteen-hundred consumers is certainly nothing to scoff at. There are towns and villages all over the world that have populations far below fifteen-hundred people, and even less people outside those communities know they exist. You may not be where you want to be, but you are farther along than most, and that is something you should never take for granted.
The point is, there is also an upside. Your new demo may have gone over worse than Jar Jar Binks, but at least by sharing it with fans you learned something new about what they expect from you and what they hope to hear from future material. This knowledge can and should inform future recordings which, in theory, will be received better than whatever came before.
Do not be afraid to take time away from the internet
We are convinced there are at least two negative comments for every positive one on pretty much every song, video, or think piece posted online. People are far quicker to complain than they are to compliment, especially in a public forum, which is why you should consider taking time away from the constant barrage of commentary social media provides when things take a turn for the worse. If you know the incoming messages are going to be riddled with negativity there is no reason to wallow in the hurt feelings such commentary can cause. Absorb enough to understand why people are upset, then step away and take time to reflect on how you can improve your efforts in the future. You do not need the internet to do this, and in our opinion you shouldn’t use it. Stay offline until you have something new to share, and if that doesn’t go over then feel free to take more time away. In fact, take as much time as you need. The internet will still be here when you return.
Whatever you do, keep creating
No matter how you initially react to failure you cannot let the ensuing negativity defeat you. Keep creating, always, and do not stop until you decide you are finished. There will always be someone in the world who thinks you are not good enough, but you cannot let the opinions of a select few stop you from expressing yourself through art. Creativity is a gift that is all too rare in this world, and it should be expressed at every opportunity. Don’t let the haters win.
In a recent episode of the 100 Words or Less podcast, guest Tom Mullen (of Washed Up Emo) bring up a great point about “making it.”
11:54 “If you don’t know where the basement show is, you’re disconnected, because that’s what’s next or what’s really happening. So if you’re out there and you’re in a band, find a basement show… don’t aspire to get on the Ernie Ball Stage.”
Yes, your name at the bottom of the list of 100 other bands in next year’s Warped Tour announcement will look cool, but if that’s what you’re shooting for you’re toast.
Here are a few better places to focus your efforts.
1. Be the band that people want to help and hook up all around your local community. Show up for their shows, even when you’re not playing. Not everyone in every local band will be your best friend, but be a good member of the local music community. Buy other band’s records, travel to their shows, talk them up. Don’t do this so when of those bands “break” they’ll hook you up, but do it to be a good human being.
2.Get out there and book some shows in other states. Playing in front of new crowds won’t win you 100s of fans per show, but it might land you one or two, and you never know – they might become your new best friends.
3. Just as you shouldn’t yell “we got shirts for sale in the back” in between every song when you’re playing out, you shouldn’t make every message on social media about you. Before you post anything, reply to 10 fans. Don’t RT them: reply to them. After you’re done with that, talk about a new album you love, or a good band you saw at your last show. Do this for months, and on occasion, sure – announce a show, or a pre-order. At that point you won’t have numbed your online audience to a never ending barrage of “LOOK AT ME” messaging (like every other band out there).
4. Help other bands. Again, it’s better when we do it together. Element 101 took an unknown band out for their first out-of-state show many years ago. Who was the band? My Chemical Romance. When one band succeeds, we all benefit.
5. Make your own thing. Spotify sucks. No one buys albums. So and so band is dumb. That one promoter won’t book your band. Save your breath, time, and energy.
I got talking to Joe from Flintface recently, who is around my age and filled with much wisdom, and his words echoed in my soul: make your own thing. Make your own luck, your own tour, your own show. If you have a social media audience of 10,000 and an email list of 500 people from all the shows you’ve played in the past two years, you won’t need to rely on “getting signed" or being picked for a shitty side stage to “make it.”
6. Don’t talk shit with people you don’t know. If you’re trying to break into the industry, don’t speak negatively about any band, label, or outlet – you just never know who might work with who! I’ve seen this too many times. Someone says, “X band is the worst,” and then someone in the group says, “oh, really? My partner manages them.” GULP.
So don’t be disconnected. Be a part of something good, and if nothing is there, MAKE IT. Above all, work on being an awesome person that people want to work with and you won’t even need to grovel to play some sponsored side-stage.
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Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
