john

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Steven!

It's a much under-emphsised aspect of performance. Posture not only has an accumulative impact on health but it can significantly impact the skill level you reach, or indeed your ability to play at all further down the road. Correcting posture is one thing early on, but once you learn bad posture and your body settles down into habitual practice, it can become a physical limitation that is a nightmare to correct... tendons too long or too short, abnormal joint ware etc... retraining muscle memory can be the least of your worries.

it worked fine for me, though I played in-browser

Hi Ruben, welcome to the Songstuff family!

Hi Arik, welcome to the Songstuff family!

You made the right choice. I was going to reply but was waiting until I had a chance as I was somewhere with crap internet and often no cell reception for a few days. Copyright is established as soon as you publish. The difference is in the protections and compensation levels you can obtain. I believe that this situation is even more polarised since the changes Trump brought in.... ie to have any legal protection it must be registered.

Anything that negates his claim is also useful to keep. Make sure you archive off emails and text messages. If he has sent any abusive messages, it is good to have a record, but the same is true of any agreements of work he undertook, promises of contracts, failure to carry out work, use of contacts, because emails can in some jurisdictions serve as proof of agreement. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Hey Bobby Welcome to Songstuff! you’ll need to have made 3 posts in order to posts songs to the critique board to get feedback. You are expected to post critique on at last 2 other songs for each song of your own you post. Rules are at the top of each board. I look forward to:hearing you Cheers John

I sing frequently. Just going about my day, shopping, driving whatever.... Singing at work or at the shops can have people looking at you, but generally they will be smiling... and they get used to it, and so do you. It just becomes what you do. It helps sort performance nerves too. Add in open mic nights etc and you can really begin to get settled in as a singer.

Hey Gang I thought I would start this topic on being commercial because it’s a topic I see raised a lot, but as a judgement, not a discussion. Commonly it is expressed as anti-commercial, or pro-artist-writing-for-themself, while intoning some moral superiority. The funny thing is that many such artists are happy to cite their love for other artists who they only know of because that artist embraced being commercial at some point. Where it is discussed, debate gets pretty heated, often invoking a perceived moral high ground. Often I have seen it highlighted by artists who believe in giving their music away for free, even to the extent that they believe all music should be free. All such musicians make their living doing something else to make money and so are quite content to condemn the many artists who scrape a living from the comfort of their home, or the idealism of a youth with no real responsibilities. I find it interesting that commercialism in music became such a dirty word, while being accepted in most other fields, to the extent that the idea that “music should be about the art” is the one and only. To make music to entertain is not a bad thing, is it? At one extreme we can make music for ourselves, and at the other make music purely for others. In the middle there a balance to be had. Ability to make money from music overlaps with making music for others, though they are not the same thing. Strangely, amongst artists, many have come to view it an artist’s mission to make art purely for ourselves. That doesn’t really get challenged. I mean, why is making music (or other art firms) purely for ourselves not seen as self-induldgent? So to this topic: How do you feel about an artist having a right to earn a living from their music? I don’t mean their capability to make a living. Should art be purely about you, the artist? Where do you come on the spectrum of art for self vs art for others? Is pop a dirty word? What is music for? I look forward to your answers! Cheers John

hey Trevor, welcome to the Songstuff family! Sorry to hear about your friend. All the very best with your goals

Hey Manny, welcome to Songstuff! What are you working on?

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Kim

Hi Kieran Ouch. Lesson learned: Get it on paper. Money is involved. Contracts protect you and your "friend". Everything not on paper will become a strain. It's bad enough when it is on paper, but at least when it is the people involved can point at clauses, including what happens when a relationship comes to an end. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. As ever I would recommend consulting an Entertainment Lawyer. Not cheap, but generally cheaper in the long run. If you are in England and Wales I don't think he has much ground to stand on. In Scotland contracts can be verbal, though even then I don't think his case would be straight forward. That said, if I were you I would take the hit and get it remastered without his involvement. Even is he did only pay £10, had a contract been in place he is right, he would have owned the master. Out of interest, who paid for the recording sessions? Other than paying that £10, has he done anything else for you? Just promises? He sounds a nightmare, so probably just as well you don't have a contract with him. A near miss! Cheers John

Hi Joe! Good to have you back with us

@Steve Mueske is managing the compilation. I'm not sure of the deadline although he was aiming for a fall release. I'll let Steve fill you in on the details I've heard some of the submissions and it's sounding excellent so far Thanks for your interest Robert!

The perspective I personally take is not about fame, but that doesn't mean no fanbase, or money. I have no pretentions of getting rich and fame doesn't appeal. That said, 5000 fans isn't famous, and the income you could get from those fans can pay for new gear, studio time, session musicians, a better fan experience etc. Stuff that would beyond my own pocket... Songstuff tends to suck up my cash lol Building a fan list doesn't need to cost anything. It doesn't mean being a sell out as some people think. Usually it just means catering for and engaging with fans. Importantly it means having listeners and encouraging people that your stuff is worth listening to and liking. It's nice not to release into a void!

Hi Ocki Ruise and Nxy Kly! Welcome to the Songstuff family! Once you have a few posts under your belt you will be able to post your works-in-progress songs to the critique boards for feedback or post finished works to the showcase board where if you want us to help promote them, Songstuff staff might select your songs to be promoted on our featured content page, our social media portals, site blog and our other sites. Apart from that, dive in, get to know people and have fun!

Thanks for explaining. That I can understand. Speaking for myself, I also think of interacting with fans through mediums other than music as another facet of the same conversation as the music itself. Just as a video presents something visually to fans, or a stage set, or even the venue help create a live atmosphere... they are all part of a greater "arrangement" and they all require design and creativity. As artists every way we interact with fans is part of a bigger picture. So, many environmental factors set a mood, an expectation. It can predispose people to give our music a chance, to dismiss it out of hand, or to feel completely ambivalent towards it. Without any great effort, if I post up music for someone to listen to, I would prefer them to at least be open to a positive experience. If I can give it that chance by omitting a word in my promotional post, that would seem sensible to me, but I can get why you want to do what brings you joy. I make music for myself and the people I jam with, but I also create it for the listeners and fans. At least I consider their experience of my music or art during creation and performance. I imagine most do in some capacity. The fact that marketing and promotion is, for me, another creative task, another interaction with the fans, makes it more fun than work for me. I try to keep it fun and interesting but I recognise there are a number of other perspectives. The fan's experience of my art is an important factor to me, but it is not the only one.

Hi and a big welcome to the Songstuff family! Pull up a chair and settle in Sorry to hear of your loss.I lost a best friend when I was 19 and separately a good friend who had been a co-writer. It must have left a hell of a hole in your life. It sounds like a great tribute to have put yourself into. As to "time is done"... I guess it depends what you mean. I think most get to an age where they think the pursuit of fame and fortune are well and truly packed away, or even stuff like touring, but music life just rolls in phases. For example focusing on writing, or as an online band or solo project, still recording and releasing but with less of an edge. Well done on 11 albums. You must have learned a lot during that process. Did you release more for vanity/fun reasons or as a serious pursuit of growing a fan base and sales? Did you rely upon download sales through established sites like iTunes, or purely streaming through sites like Spotify, or did you also do direct sales from your own site? Just being nosy! lol Either way, good to have you here.

I haven't jammed with anyone let alone a serious project for many years, though I forced myself to go do a couple of open mic nights starting last year and although during the first I was a bundle of nerves, by the second I was already settling into old familiar rhythms. Confidence is a funny thing. It has very little to do with skill but a lot to do with experience. On the last, luckily skills can be learned and there are some great engineers/producers to help you with that journey and believe me, it's a journey each of us has made, Awesome! Just don't think "I will do the recording first and then get to that other stuff". If your material isn't ready, then consider preparing your own platform in the background but learn by helping someone else with their project? Not only is it a great way to learn, but it is rewarding and for indie, cooperation is the way forward. Glad you found us

I wouldn't try to persuade you, but I would be interested in understanding this line of thought better. I could guess, if for no other reason than once upon a time (shock horror) I felt similar (although our reasoning might be different). I can say that now I look at promotion as another creative task. There is a difference between marketing and sales although they do overlap. Marketing is yet another conversation between the artist and their fans. There is a case to be said that as soon as you tell anyone about your music it is promoting it. Even posting it on a music website that does the promotion for you, you still initiated the activity by uploading the song. You are also branding yourself by using a logo, so I am interested in what marketing and promotion activities you find acceptable and which not or which are in no-man's-land? No judgement, just curiosity All that aside, can I ask, what do you hate about promoting your music? Can you tie it down to anything that started you feeling this way towards promoting your music? What do you feel uncomfortable with? Is it an underlying motive? Is it a general aversion to promotion? Do you have a reaction to other people promoting their music? etc. Are any activities at all okay? I know for myself I used to think of salesmen as all being like double glazing salesmen. In my mind they were not to be trusted. At all. They were unscrupulous, greedy and self-serving. But my dad was in sales. A different kind of sales (in the whisky trade) and he is totally honest and ethical. I later realised that I had held onto that childhood mistrust of salesmen and sales activities, and that somehow, to sell, was to be dishonest. Funny the stuff we carry with us. After I realised why I felt the way I did, I was gradually able to re-appraise marketing and promotion. I realised it came down to personal ethics. It always had. Much like a gun (and many other things in life). The choice of where and when to use it, and the threshold you have to pass in order to use it, are down to personal character. I am not a money oriented person. I can appreciate it's necessity in the modern world and the benefits that a lot of money can bring, but personal wealth accumulation is not what drives me (as evidenced by me running Songstuff lol ). It's not what gets me out of bed in the morning. I have taught quite a lot of artists about marketing and promoting their music. I promote Songstuff for that matter, though I do so fairly gently. Anyway, I am honestly not trying to pick at you, I just find such positions and feelings intriguing, so I hope you don't mind me asking.

For myself, I have been so busy with Songstuff that I have hardly progressed my own EPs. I have been planning to release some more or less acoustic performances as an EP, while looking to release some more electronic/chill based mixes under another artist name. I might still do this, I haven't yet decided. Just now I can't do the acoustic performance side due to tendon damage, but that is just how I progress from here. So I will in the short term musically focus on the electronic side of things. I need to rework my own website, whilst starting from the beginning (more or less) with my mailing list, social media and my blog. A similar level of work is needed for the electronic artist, plus a full site implementation. I have been working on an idea for promotional videos that are within my abilities time wise and gear wise. Video will be a primary promotoin route for the acoustic performances. Something more conceptual will be used for the electronic artist but that fits with the genre quite nicely. I need to draft engagement sequences for general mailing list, chat bot and blog engagement. I also need to draft pre and post release sequences. For the electronic artist, a ful branding exercise will be required. In both cases I need to put together a plan, plus assemble a core team and street team. Phew! Chances are RedCircle7 staff will be the core team. or a large percentage of it. I have already put together street team recruitment forms. I have identified pretty well all automations, tools and platforms required for marketing and distribution. I hope to be able to record 6/7 tracks for the electronic EP for release in November. The acoustic artist EP might be ready for then, but I think a more realistic time scale might be February. Before then I plan to release 2 stand alone songs for each artist to act as audience warmers. Depending on how those fair on the market I might push back the EP release dates and release a 3rd stand alone single. That's the ballpark plans!

It's good to do something that reflects how you perform it live, especially if there is a significant difference. What are you doing to prepare for the release in terms of marketing? Do you have a target release date?

Hey Erin, welcome to the Songstuff family! Loads of good writers and artists here. For example: https://www.songstuff.com/music/member-videos/