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Mutlu
by Gary E. Andrews - 04/15/24 07:08 PM
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Leafs
by Gary E. Andrews - 04/05/24 01:49 PM
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They are not all full-length CD's, of course, there are EP's, singles, T-shirts and other things in the mix, but 1,000 new releases EVERY DAY!!!
The supply of music is endless.
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And each musician continues to think that HE or SHE is the one who will get noticed.....
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I just checked: 1,104 releases on Nov. 1st!
Unless you have a strong local live presence (or you somehow finagled a large on-line following), how in the world is anyone gonna find you? Fergettaboutit!
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Basically we are ALL INVISABLE..
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No, there are people who are visible ... and selling. Just gotta do what they are doing. Probably performing everywhere they can, supporting the local music scene, active in social media, write great songs, perform excellently ... etc....
It really isn't a "mail it in" kind of business.
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No, there are people who are visible ... and selling. Just gotta do what they are doing. Probably performing everywhere they can, supporting the local music scene, active in social media, write great songs, perform excellently ... etc....
It really isn't a "mail it in" kind of business. Anything (within reason) one can do to help stick out from the crowd helps. It's not enough to have great music anymore. Sidebar..I wonder if there are any "super-listeners" who are trying to abreast of it all? Even if you have one little tiny niche sub-category that you listen to, like "Math Rock" haha, I bet there are still too many choices and not enough time. I notice on Soundcloud, folks have made songs of mine their favorites--one among thousands, but are not musicians at all, just listeners. Listeners with thousands of "favorites" on their favorites list. Makes me imagine they scan new releases daily. EDIT: Point being, that in spite of this being a tough era for musicians, it seems like a golden one for listeners. Mike
Last edited by Michael Zaneski; 11/02/15 09:45 PM.
Fate doesn't hang on a wrong or right choice Fortune depends on the tone of your voice
-The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon) from the song "Songs of Love" from the album "Casanova" (1996)
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The way to be heard is by being better than 999 of the releases of the day. And not just with your music, but with everything around it. Gig more, network harder, build stronger relationships, etc. than the other 999 and you will be the one who makes the buzz. Otherwise, you'll just be one of the other 999 and chances are slim that anyone will hear you.
But, this isn't new. It doesn't only apply to music. It applies to anything and everything. In basketball, every team wants to win the NBA finals - only one does though, the one that worked harder, played better, etc.
Every athlete wants to win gold at the Olympics - but only the one who works harder, trains harder than all the other ones actually gets to win it.
It's easy to say 'oh, well, there are 999 others, how the heck can I be heard'. It's a lot harder to say 'cool, there are 999 others, I'll beat them and stand out from all the clutter'.
In every aspect of life. How many high school kids dream of an NBA career today? But only very, very, very few will actually stand out and make it first into a good college team and eventually into professional sports.
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It's easy to say 'oh, well, there are 999 others, how the heck can I be heard'. It's a lot harder to say 'cool, there are 999 others, I'll beat them and stand out from all the clutter'. All good points and very motivational. But, it is always a very good idea to try and accurately assess the challenge before you and the odds for or against you actually achieving your goals! A vast number of music hopefuls have no idea how unrealistic their goals are especially in today's music business. So, yeah, anything is possible but in all honesty, not very likely! I do it for the fun of it in the here and now!
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That's true, the odds are against you and if you don't do it for the love of it, you will not have much joy chasing the dream. Again, this goes for everything, musician, athlete, actor, etc. The odds are against you. But yet, some very few will stand out through hard work and determination. Kevin said: "It really isn't a "mail it in" kind of business." This is so true, but many think it is and start blaming "luck" or "the industry" when they realize that they actually have to work hard, much harder than in a "regular" job.
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After letting these numbers Kevin has quoted sink in, it's not the Sisyphean climb to make anything of one's music that I find depressing, but all the music that goes unheard, and I bet a lot of it is dang beautiful. It's rather sad if you think about it.
Last edited by Michael Zaneski; 11/03/15 06:40 AM.
Fate doesn't hang on a wrong or right choice Fortune depends on the tone of your voice
-The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon) from the song "Songs of Love" from the album "Casanova" (1996)
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That's why I hang out around here. The best music no one will ever hear! Ricki
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I just checked:
In top 100 sellers for today there are only four folk offerings, one acoustic and none for country or americana.
Bandcamp seems to be the haven for rock, metal, hip-hop/rap, pop and electronica/ambient.
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Joined: Apr 2001
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1000 a day and that is only one site. I would estimate 10 times that number are being created daily... year round, piling up year after year, decade after decade, yet the most popular radio format is playing the same 200 songs from the 80's and the next most popular plays the same 200 songs from the 60's-70's.
That's why no one wants your song no matter how good it is. There's no NEED for a new song... ever...really. If no one made new music again, the supply would last centuries of conventional radio.
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Joined: May 2006
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I just read that 12 hours of content is uploaded to Soundcloud every minute. Only about half of it is music, the rest being news items and podcasts, etc. So only 6 hours of music is being uploaded every minute!
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That's a lot of music! Of course, there are a few that break through. ... and there are quite a few doing what Brian has always suggested. Find those few true fans and hope you can grow it to a few thousand.
I wonder how many CD's have been sent in so far to The JPF awards? Colin: did you send any of your CD's in?
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Joined: May 2006
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Not recently but I think Brian had all of mine.
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Joined: Dec 2008
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I don't think there's much of a music business anymore. It's about dead and gone. Music is free. We pay to hang out with celebrities at shows and other events as Seth Godin says. Some have had their fun.
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We're closing in on 20K CD's this time around. Smaller than the last one thank God.. that literally nearly killed me. I still have a tremendous amount of work ahead of me. Worked around the clock starting yesterday morning and just finishing up at noon today. All I am doing is categorizing the music (i.e. what genre) which requires me to listen to at least 3-4 tracks to be sure it's primarily one thing or another. Often it either fits multiple genres, or doesn't really fit any of them well, so it is a one person job so it is consistent. I have always performed this function for each awards. The next steps are finding expert judges with time to screen 300-500 CD's in a large genres or 20-50 in a tiny genre for songs and the best albums, then it goes to the next set of judges then the next then the next then the next then to listening groups and mass input and then I have to total up all the input and notes and whittle it down to the nominees and break a lot of ties. Then on to the nominees and online judging (we still have to figure out how we're going to do it without a digital partner this year). I have to burn copies of CD's for judges around the world in stacks of 8 at a time for each CD moving forward each round. It's expensive and I worry that this year we'll lose so much money that we won't be able to do it again. But for now I am determined to see this one through as it celebrates JPF's 30th anniversary. I'll decide afterwards what is next for me and JPF. We really need a new website that works and updated message boards which right now cost more than we can afford as our donations have been a fraction of what they used to be. Users here apparently don't value us like they used to.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Now more than ever its about quality and connection. Not Quantity. Quantity doesn't matter until you catch on.
Nurture the connections you make when you have quality material.
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Now more than ever its about quality and connection. Not Quantity. Quantity doesn't matter until you catch on.
Nurture the connections you make when you have quality material. Jeez, I'll have to agree with you 100% Jody. Unlike our past debates. Best, John
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