It Starts With Bandcamp

     I really hate to call myself a "musician" in real life (and by "real life" I really mean "offline") because I don't make a living as a musician. I'm very far from it, in fact. I've made pretty good money from playing big shows with substantial crowds, but it isn't something I can ever rely on. I have a day job, and that's what pays the bills. 

    The problem here is that I would love to be able to tell someone who asked what I do that I'm a musician and then afterwards not feel like a delusional loser. How do you sell your music for a profit? Well, start with Bandcamp. 

     Bandcamp is an incredibly powerful first step for anyone who wants to start taking their musical career seriously, and it has gained enough popularity at this point that almost any local band you can think of has one. Like most websites that house user generated content, there is a lot to sift through before you find anything good if you're just searching for new music, but the beauty of Bandcamp really isn't in its capability to show you new music. The great thing about Bandcamp is that it gives the artist a homebase, and allows you to share your music in a very clean format and then check on the stats, like number of plays or downloads. Not only that, it also allows you to sell your music through the site, and Bandcamp's cut is substantially lower than a lot of other sites. Making physical copies of your first album is going to be costly and won't have the same amount of reach as an easy to access digital copy. The tagging function is another useful tool for the artist, as it allows you to see your ranking within any specific tag. For example, I always include the tag "Chico" and if you click on that tag, Bandcamp will show you where you stand in terms of popularity within the city.

I also use several other sites to upload music to, but they serve different functions for me. Bandcamp works well for uploading albums or EPs, while Soundcloud might be a great place to share your individual singles or that cover you made but aren't going to include in any collection of work. I'd suggest paying very close attention to visuals on any site like these. The way your site, banner and album art look is more important than a lot of musicians realize. You have to remember that no one ever hears the music before they see the artwork, and if you choose not upload any track art or if what you do upload looks unprofessional, you're going to lose plays. If people see a polished package, they're going to assume that what is inside is worth listening to. Often times these sites will suggest your music to strangers who listen to similar music, and you want to make a good first impression.

The internet has blessed us with many, many opportunities to garner plays and make new fans for our work. One of the few drawbacks to this is that there are millions of other people trying to achieve the same goals as we are. The good news is that because of the nature of the internet, where anyone can post anything they want, a well manicured, tasteful, and professional presence on the sites you use will put you above a massive number users in terms of accessibility. That means more money, more recognition, and more opportunities if you're willing to push your product hard enough. While Bandcamp and other sites are incredibly helpful tools, we still need to make sure we optimize our use of those tools.  

Making the Most of Your Online Presence

    One of the first and most important aspects of pursuing your career is maintaining your image. When you go to your interview, how do you look? When people look you up on Facebook what do they see? When a fan follows you on Twitter, are you making them laugh, or think, or providing them with quality content? Whether you choose to believe it's important or not, I think we can all agree that almost all people make assumptions about you based on how you present yourself. I can tell you that I've personally wished that many of my favorite artists didn't have an internet presence, but I've also been completely turned onto a random artist who seemed like a good person or made me laugh with their Twitter feed. 

    Phil Elverum, the man behind Mt. Eerie, is just such an example. His music I could probably live without, and to be honest I almost never listen to it, but I follow his Twitter feed with fervor. Simply put, he is witty and hilarious and he knows how to make you feel like you're a friend of his that he's PM-ing jokes to. He appreciates his fans, and provides them with entertaining and frequent tweets, and in my feed filled with news headlines and bland updates, it's invaluable. I wish Phil's online presence could be bottled and sold so that we less funny folk could pull more followers. 

    Jimmy Fallon's social media presence is similar: it's warm, it's funny, and it never feels forced or unappreciative. And sure, Fallon almost certainly has a person (or people) in charge of running his accounts, but the fact that someone is getting paid to do that just goes to show how incredibly, goddamned important it is to have a compelling and warm presence on the internet. For fans of the Tonight Show, it feels as if you're getting a tweet from a famous friend. Before you further your social network, make sure that you have a quality online presence. Put extra effort and thought into the things you release onto the web, always remembering that each post has the potential to gain or lose supporters of your work.  

    As a musician, if you're doing your job well, people will want to feel connected to you, often from a distance. You want retweets and reblogs, you want people sharing links to your new record on Facebook, and you want these people to stick around. Add people on Soundcloud, "favorite" bands on Bandcamp, share the work of other talented people on Facebook. Every person trying to make it in this industry needs all the help they can get, and every friend you make expands your network and theirs exponentially. I think I'm going to spend some time this week trying to expand my own online network. In the end, it's still a hell of a lot easier than standing outside of 7/11 trying to sell people CDs, so why not make the best of such an incredible and accessible tool? 

Intro

A recent photo of that guy S. Estates.

I’m a serious person. I don’t mean that I don’t have a sense of humor, or that I don’t get your jokes, or that I can’t laugh at myself when I get tongue tied. I mean that if I’m going to force myself to do something (and believe me, making myself “do things” can be a real struggle), then I’m going to be way too intense about it. If I’m going to make a music video, or record a song, or play a live show, I’m going to do it until I hate it, and then I’m going to keep doing it. I take my work seriously. If I care about something, I take it seriously. I’m a serious person.

For that reason, I feel like you should be warned going into this blog that I’m going to write about the music industry, social media, artists, and strategies for musicians like I know exactly what I’m talking about a lot of the time, but the reality is that I really only know one thing about “making it” in the music industry: it is all about luck and who you know, but mostly about luck. Despite my seriousness and my pretension, I am also a struggling musician who is trying to find the answers to success like any other nobody out there. I’m going to make observations about the industry and about artists. I’m going to examine methods for expanding your fan base as well as how to behave on social media so you don’t scare them all away. But it is important that you look at this blog as a personal commentary on my own journey, whether it be to success or to failure. I’m writing about these observations while I’m acting them out myself, not expounding on my own experience (for the most part).

With that said, here is a little about me. I am a “local musician.” I make music with my friends or by myself and I play that music in bars, cafes, clubs, and art galleries in my area, and sometimes I tour to the Bay or to Sacramento. I’ve enjoyed a bit of success locally, which is really, super nice, but I also think that local success has a way of blinding people to the flaws that will ultimately cause them to fail with a larger audience. I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of just being a “local musician.” I want more than that. So earlier this year I quit my locally successful band and decided to start a new project: Solar Estates. I’m about to finish up the debut EP, and let me tell you, there is nothing scarier than a new project and new sounds. Despite feeling reasonably confident, I don’t know if anyone will like it or even care, but I’ll be sure to update this blog when the results are in.