Getting Attention

[john]

Hi Gang

 

What do you do to grab people’s attention? That could be at gigs, in the local press, in social media, in videos, in your blog... what do you do?

 

Do you think you do it effectively?

 

Do you think you could do more?

 

Cheers

 

John

[john]

Anyone?

[Silverwolf941]

 

[Richard Watashi]

So far, i do nothing much. I just go around two forums and, eventually place there or here a link to my SoundCloud music.

[john]

On 12/17/2019 at 10:01 AM, Richard Watashi said:

So far, i do nothing much. I just go around two forums and, eventually place there or here a link to my SoundCloud music.

Why do you limit yourself to just these activities? Lack of knowledge? Complacency? Fear? Laziness? Lack of ambition? Contentment?

 

If what you are doing isn’t achieving your desired goals, then something needs to change.

 

Key questions would be “what needs to change?”  and “How should it change?” The other common questions all apply to writing, designing, decision making etc...

 

• Who
• What
• Why
• When
• Where
• How

 

Exploring all that is interesting from an awareness perspective, but also as a purposeful exercise where you get to use your creativity to find a way forward to achieve your goals.

 

Normally our motivation or lack of it is due to a mix of reasons that we may or may not be currently equipped to deal with. This is stuff we can identify and sort out so that you can promote your music as effectively as possible by working smarter. That way you manage your effort and resources (time, money, people) and build in learning as you go.

 

It is better to make decisions form an informed position, than it is to  have decisions made for you because of lack of knowledge and understanding.

[Richard Watashi]

wow, thank you so much John. It sounds motivating, and off course these are great advices. Thank you.

 

And my answer is: it's partially because of everything you mentioned.

[john]

On 12/17/2019 at 2:39 AM, Silverwolf941 said:

 

hey

 

just wanted to let you know I had watched your vid Silverwolf. Thanks for mentioning Songstuff.

 

Quite a few good points for interacting with other musicians for building connections... but I disagree about who it is you are reaching. Musicians may be collaborators but most will not be fans. If you spend too much effort reaching musicians it gives you a false view of your reach and appeal, because many musicians have reasons other than liking your music for clicking like. You need only do a little promo on platforms like Twitter to see how poorly engaged other artists really are unless there is a reciporical element involved. There are always exceptions of course. True fans are genuinely interested in your music and there is no issue with being engaged because they are genuinely excited by your music.

 

look at direct sales as your main income stream... not just the music itself but a load of related stuff.

 

Incidentally, genuine fans want to hear your music and want to share it... but there is no harm in promoting to them as long as it is genuine, not spammy... but ideally you want the content you create make them want to share it simply because it is shareable... ie it ticks boxes as the kind of stuff people naturally want to share.

 

Good you are using mailchimp... but you need to look at writing autoresponder sequences to guide people towards a closer relationship. Treat listeners and fans with respect, be friendly, give them awesome value.

 

Really there is a lot more... but key thing is, fish where the fans swim. Music forums are very useful, great for finding collaborators, getting useful critique, giving useful critique and building relationships with people who get you, and of course getting awesome advice like you get here (cough cough) etc... but they are not good for building a genuine fanbase. Some (Songstuff cough cough) are great for getting tips, advice, tools, intelligence, etc for marketing music, for writing and recording etc. Music creation forums/communities are not great for finding REAL fans (though you are bound to find some).

 

Many musicians also rely too heavily on family and friends... downloading, playing, coming to gigs. Fact is though, most friends and almost all family are not fans of your music, they are fans of YOU. Your gran is not likely to be a natural death metal fan. At some point you need to reach beyond friends, family and other musicians, into the world of listeners, to find genuine fans of the music you make. That means going where fans are likely to be, getting their attention, keeping their attention and providing genuine appeal.

 

Fan relationships are like friendships, in fact in many ways they become friendships, but fans have different wants and needs. You need to learn how and where to talk to them, simple as that.

 

There a load more to it, but it is good you want to know and want to help others.

 

Being genuine goes a long way.

 

I hope this helps.

[john]

One more thing, the sooner you learn how to talk in ways that listeners and fans who are not musicians will relate to, the better. By saying something interesting to them, you might just learn what listeners like about what you do, and how you can talk about it in a way that is genuine and appealing.

[Silverwolf941]

@john Definitely a lot of good key points! Genuine interest is very valued here! The thing is with musicians everyone has their own interests and general genre tastes. And being a good musician, there's isn't enough time to interact with everyone so it is indeed in a scarcity value. However, I believe that based off of that it pays off to listen to peoples music who'm are similar to your own. I can't count how many valued connections that even if they weren't a fan I've either gained a new connection for artwork, theory, or business in general. I am one person and I understand that you can spend time trying to get people to listen to your music, but that won't work either. 

Here's the thing it's all in your personality. Nothing else. People listen and interact with you for a reason. What makes an individual unique, interesting and different than the rest? Everyone wants to be rockstars or music legends in general, but how do you get there? When someone checks out your social media, it's very uncommon unless you are a hot girl or something. That being said, no one cares about my music. That's the mentality I keep, and for good reason. Real world interaction helps, possibly the most, but value is the key factor. We all start somewhere and with interaction with other artist, that already have a fanbase. Even if it's 1-2 people those are connections you wouldn't have had anyways unless you know them personally. So when giving shoutouts to people on social media especially when accompanied by either good artwork or an intense intro helps when they share it. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Silverwolf941

[john]

Oh I am not decrying making musical or other contacts, or their value... more it’s being aware of how they fit into the overall picture.
 

As an artist you need to build music contacts, artists, videographers, photographers, musicians, promoters, recording engineers, producers etc.... but we very much need to reach out to potential fans out-with music creation communities, to give them the chance to hear our music, and to be fair to ourselves by letting the potential of real fans a chance to happen.

 

If we don’t take our music to the places listeners are, we just blow smoke up our own ass, creating an artificial world of pseudo fans.

 

So absolutely invest time in making music connections, but also invest time in finding actual fans. Of course, give yourself as good an opportunity as possible... don’t look for folk music fans at hip hop hang outs. Put your music in front of as many people who are likely to like it as possible. Talk the language they talk, look visually appealing to that kind of listener etc.... but give them a real chance of liking your music, by giving them a real chance to hear your music... and don’t push your music on people who are not interested or highly unlikely to like it.

 

I hope that all makes better sense

[john]

Nice to see you back.

 

You might find this useful: