If anything will paralyze a self-conscious musician, that’s it, lol.
But I understand what you’re getting at.
If anything will paralyze a self-conscious musician, that’s it, lol.
But I understand what you’re getting at.
The tactic of just doing something totally weird works for lots of people! Replace your synths with fish.
Okay … looking seriously at your posts … it sounds like you’ve done everything you can think of, and you’ve hit a wall.
I don’t know what you should do. Nor, most likely, do most of the other people posting here, unless they’ve succeeded in the way you want to succeed. And I haven’t, so I don’t know.
Here’s what I do know, in case it’s of use—four points:
Shyness is your enemy, I think. Don’t post music you’re ashamed of … but keep working on your music, and push it out into the public. This is not an answer to your question, but it’s a necessary first step. You can’t wait to be discovered and praised, we don’t live in that era. You have to arrive at music you’re proud of, that speaks for you, even if it isn’t perfect, and push it out there.
It will help if you know yourself, honestly, know what you need and why. Then you will know if chasing after recognition in electronic music will get you what you want. Maybe there are other ways to get it. I can’t speak for you.
If you really want what you say in the OP you want, then I think you need to both continue making the best music you can, and get next to people who are actually succeeding in the professional music world. Not necessarily the stars, but the people booking the festivals, ghostwriting the tracks, whatever will tell you how it’s really done. Then you can decide if you want to pursue it, and if you need to seek collaborators to fill in your weak spots (which I don’t know).
Napoleon Hill’s THINK AND GROW RICH has been useful to several professional musicians of previous eras (Cameo, Bad Brains). There’s a lot of psuedo-science nonsense in that book (it’s almost 100 years old) but his basic steps for defining a goal and pursuing it may be useful to you. fwiw. (Edit: If you look into this book, I would seek out the original [1930’s] version, which is usually the easiest Kindle ebook to find anyway; although it is the most anachronistic, it is straight from the horse’s mouth, Hill’s own words.)
Hope this helps. I’ve avoided jumping into this thread since I don’t know the music business in this genre at all … but I’m drunk, it’s 5 am, at least I wish you well…
I can understand the frustration coming from making music and releasing it on various social meda… but then get no reaction or feedback at all.
I made some Octatrack House video on YouTube more than 10 years ago where I got more than 10k views sometimes and a lot of nice feedback for my music. At that time, there was not music “dawless”-made House music on YouTube at all and even less made with the “new” Octatrack.
But now, YouTube is flooded with Electronic Music in all sorts of form. Which is great on one side, because of the “democratization” and less depence on labels. But on the other side there are so many “trashy” jams were someone records his music with a crappy phone, presses two buttons in 5 minutes and just play a loop.
As you can tell I’m a bit frustated ![]()
On the other hand, “shouting into the void” is not limited to Electronic Music at all. I was quite heavily involved in the DIY-scene in the late 2000’s and 2010’s and there are so many 7’'s in my closet from short-lived Emo or Straight Edge-Hardcore-bands that no one wants to hear any more.
Coming from the DIY-perspective I can support the message from several people here to get involved locally, meet like-minded people and make music together with them.
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s not the right place and the right time, in the 2010’s in Germany you could rarely find spots where someone was interested in classic Chicago or Deep House, either it was cheesy Vocal House or dark Industrial Techno. So I was kind of reliant to social media to get my music heard.
Sometimes I miss my drunk @ 5am days.
I mostly wake up still drunk at 5 am these days!
Good for you then! You figured it out!
Getting out and organizing events is key to getting heard.
23 years ago a few mates and me were making music but had no avenue for it so I bought some second hand decks and a CDJ booked a night at a local club and then stood in the street handing out flyers for 2 weeks. It turned into a crazy three years of us all playing a mix of our own and others tunes out twice a month and having an absolute blast. Made no profit, gained a lot of friends and lost a lot of brain cells. I couldn’t recommend it enough to anyone wanting to be heard.
On the points made about watching a person perform:
Why is it then, that watching a dj play a couple vinyls in a nice space is so entertaining?
I watch this quite a often with djs on youtube and it’s a pleasant background thing with a moving image.
My guess: you see the person, a face. Of course the music has to be awesome and thats totally individual to a persons taste + mood at the moment.
And most of the djs I enjoy to watch come along as real people who could be a friend or buddy.
From personal experience, the videos where I show my face get the most engagement even if it’s just for a brief moment.
I dont know how he makes it, but its very original.
same for this guy: ok he is making music over 20 years now, but he is well respected in the scene, and releases on his own.
I am a big fan of both producers, so its possible, you just have to be following the path.
Love the first one, lonely raver. Thanks for sharing.
I wasn’t aware he was in that show!
You didn’t know Ozzy was in the Osbournes?
I think the way forward is to stop making music with the goal of releasing it and instead focus on playing it live in some capacity, and take it from there.
Right now, the system is designed to benefit the distribution services. There are all these people making music and paying for it to be distributed to streaming platforms, but getting nothing in return.
My plan is to keep things local and focus on having fun with a community. Maybe a scene will start to develop, and then I can think about releasing music if any traction builds.
I’m more interested in who jumped and where? Is the void still relevant?
The void is relevant if you jump into it! Go ahead and jump, jump!
Did he know he was in it?
It’s a tough world nowadays. Might sound gatekeepy but things were way easier and better before social media and during the early days of social media before being a brand became more important than the music itself.
Wait, that’s close, but I think it’s a little more like
Play live. Have your stuff available to stream and on Bandcamp. Get lucky.