One of the few times when the braille version is useful even if you’re not blind.
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Did anyone know a good label that does physical copies and will appreciate really good but very weird album? I’m almost done with mine and I think they would appreciate it but have no idea of next steps…
you have to find other artists doing things that are in the same realm as your work. This has never been easier. Go on bandcamp they regularly have articles on the latest experimental labels and artists. Discogs is another amazing resource. There have never been so many amazing small labels doing physical releases. This is a golden age for experimental music but it’s up to you to tune yourself into it!
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Things aren’t that much different than they were back in the day, just that back then you had to work a lot harder for people to not give a shit about what you were doing. These days it’s easy to get your stuff out there and have it heard by comparitively more people than you could have in the physical world of gigs and self promotion, it’s just that the number of people who don’t care also increases exponentially in proportion with the amount of exposure.
It’s easy to feel like the problem is that the music isn’t getting out there and reaching enough people but the problem is mostly in expectations and ego. If you make some really good bullshit pop music and are very physically attractive and have a professional film crew and a marketing team to run your social media then your chances at exposure are much greater than making the music you want and enjoy to make and independently releasing it with minimal or no promotion.
Otherwise the struggle is the same. The void is the same. The ego is the same. Sorry but that’s reality.
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Well I’m fucked! Back to screaming in to the void!
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Very accurate diagnosis in my opinion. It was as hard back then, except for a lucky (mostly talented, but not always) few. I had 3 albums published, looked promising at the beginning, very good reviews in specialised press… nothing. I got more enthusiasm from strangers by noodling on bass at Guitar Center on Sunset Bvd. Go figure.
These days I do it for my own pleasure, release it but no expectations.
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I think part of the issue is the transition from music that you had to perform aloud to create, to music that we make on headphones and store on tiny little cards or spinning wheels.
50 years ago, if I wanted to make interesting loud music, it would be hard for me to do it by myself or without making the kind of noise that might get me noticed by other people who want to make loud music. And there’d be no real way to store or share it other than putting it on a tape or something—something physical that someone at some point might discover and maybe even enjoy, even if it’s long after I’m gone.
But now all my loud music goes right into a tiny little box that I know will get thrown out when I die.
Even if my niece or something finds one of my music hard drives and knows what it is, would she bother looking through it? Or combing through hundreds of bad takes to find the folder of good takes? Doubtful.
I hate putting my music on these little cards and boxes. It feels like I’m putting them in a mausoleum.
If I wasn’t so depressed, I’d start burning CDs, though I suppose those are hardly permanent either.
edit: “part of the issue” = I mean part of the psychological struggle of making music. Not so much getting it noticed by others.
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I also forgot to mention the power of nepotism! If you have famous parents then you can actually lower the bar on being attractive or talented by a relatively significant amount so if it’s not too late in the game for a person to get famous parents who obtained notoriety in the same or a related industry, then I would highly advise getting on that train as soon as possible!
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Leave Julian Casablancas alone!
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This is really good advice. Your music and the concept, visuals, the whole package has to really stand out. You don’t need connections, famous parents, lots of money behind you, and all of those things that people like to blame. You just need to do something that’s really impossible to ignore.
I had this epiphany a long time ago before Shazam I was in Amoeba and they were playing some kind of 50s r&b music that was cool and I thought “I don’t know enough about that genre/era, I should explore more.” But I didn’t actually go and ask what it was. And that got me thinking, what would it take for me to actually go find the person who is playing the music (it was a giant store in the old hollywood location) and get the nerve to ask them what it was? That’s a pretty good litmus test.
I could immediately tell the era and the genre and I was confident that I could easily find other stuff like it and explore on my own, but what would it be like to hear a piece of music where you had to know what it was but you also would have no idea where to even start trying to find it because it was so unlike anything you had heard before?
And that got me thinking of another time I was listening to college radio in my car and heard something that blew my mind that I couldn’t place at all. It sounded really modern but it clearly was old and I got to my destination and sat in the car and waited for a break for them to announce the songs and they never did. But in retrospect I think it was something from White Noise - An Electric Storm.
Anyway my point is just to think about what is it that would actually make you go out of your way to listen to something, pay for something, or want to learn more about the artist?
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Have you tried going viral?
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two things i’ll throw in - 1. go local, 2. enjoy doing it.
on 1 - it’s good to hang with people in your local space, momentum can build and you can all work together to make labels, put on shows, and start a scene. that can of course happen across continents, but give face to face a go, every local community could use this rather than focusing on the broader ‘void’ as you call it
On 2. you have to enjoy the process of doing the thing without any form of congratulations or success or whatever - you love the doing of it, that’s why you make music, not for whatever happens after. if you don’t dig it, move on and do something you enjoy. and you don’t have to beat yourself up about it - it’s completely fine to change your interests
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When you shout into the void
The void shouts back
It sounds like this:
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Having a jam group is really fun. That always gets me extra excited about playing music again. Makes it feel more real. The group I was in I met through selling gear locally and just chatting music a little. But now most of them have moved. Gotta meet more musicians here!
On another level I think I’d love to play somewhere live someday. Maybe soon!
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Sounds familiar!
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There are tons of good unnoticed artists nowadays. The number of music getting released on the web daily is insane.
What is your genre?
I can’t really comment on how to make it as I do it just for fun and to express myself. I often even release bad music because I refuse to fit the mold, edgy much. You should be the validation, not the people around you.
Some logical tips would be to work consistently in a genre and just produce stuff that matches the genre’s stars level. When you feel like you are on that level then start contacting everywhere about your releases and offer to play gigs. Magazines, parties, websites, labels etc. Then it will be out of your hand and you just hope for the best.
If your productions dont match the top level, you could also try to find some personal niche. For example learn to throat sing over your music and do that live or something uncommon like that. Even then you could branch out of the mold later with some follower base and hope they still want to listen.
It seems to be very ungrateful hobby. Not many of my friends ever even asked what my soundcloud is or commented about the music. They simply live in different world. You need to find the right audience.
And even if the first real try of getting out there does not work, don’t get discouraged! If you still enjoy creating, go further and try to find that sound they can’t refuse.
If you are unsure about the level of your productions, you could share it here for example and ask for critical feedback. It’s a small forum so it does not count as “releasing it” (unless you want to) and if you stress about that, then just delete the post afterwards.
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not sure what kind of music you make, but i completely disagree with this. i see many instagram posts everyday (kink, stef mendesidis, anthony rother, etc) with tons of engagement, because their skill levels are so high and the music is top tier.
i think finding a good label with a solid promo network is key - you can literally go from unheard of producer to having some of the top djs (not edc shit) playing your tracks all over the world while you chill at home. the right label can cut 500 vinyl records of your project and get them into the hands of people with similar taste with no expense to you. i’ve found most big labels to be very receptive to demos, and usually willing to give some feedback if you don’t have a lot of experience. your job before that step, is knowing the lane you’re going for, and making sure the demos you send to labels are both tightly curated to their vision, while staying true to your core artistic principles. if you can’t check off these boxes, you may not have a lot of success.
also, i would say above all else - if you’re making music mostly to be noticed and heard by others, you’re setting yourself up for massive disappointment (applies to many areas of life also). in my world, for the top artists i follow (dvs1/oscar mulero/wata igarashi, etc), i would bet that 95/100 of them would be doing this shit all day even if no one cared one bit about their music. the love of the craft itself is where the magic happens, and i 100% believe that this comes through the music to the listeners
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With good reason…its fucking boring. The reality is it’s just knob twiddling and button pushing. Thats not interesting to watch. And it doesnt relate to the sound.
Watching a sax player/drummer/guitar player etc is engaging to watch because its interesting, and the movement relates to the sound.
I saw a video recently of some dude doing modular jams, doing all these eyes closed bliss out emotional faces, while he’s twiddling knobs…
It was awful.
Another angle.
Most people want lyrics in their music, so they can sing along at home, in the car whatever. Instrumental music will always get put on a back shelf behind lyrical music. Always.
If you want your electronic music to get popular, put lyrics in it. For proof of concept see
Prodigy.
And Squarepusher that time he did a track with lyrics.
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build an email list of your fans. and not through some email-gated download portal, those suck and people hate them. just a “sign up if you want to get my emails” list. that is your first step to determining what kind of following you have.
and for a lowest stakes idea, try getting a soundcloud for artists account, use their boost algorithm on your tracks and see what kind of listeners are getting served your tracks. this can help identify a population that is interested in your kind of music.
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Can you give a realistic example of an artist or describe what level you would like to be appreciated at? Until you have a clear idea of that it’s hard to know where you’re aiming for? Any specific record labels you’d like to be on? What was the journey for some of their artists like?
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