I have been in the Music Promotion game long enough to see some reoccurring patterns, and one of the most common that I see is the lack of professional awareness found in many of today’s impatient, and attention-starved, indie artists. It is one of those common problems that takes what could be a great artistic product, and instead, holds it down below the waterline to drown it in obscurity. For many, the blame of low album sales, unimpressive Spotify streams, an empty calendar with no shows booked, weak social media engagement (you name it, I have heard the complaints) is all due to listeners just not hearing the new music…yet.
‘The indie music pool is a vast body of water that does not guarantee an entrance into the ocean of music-stardom, especially to those who think that just showing up is enough.’
The hard truth is that not all music is created equal.
Not every songwriter is a skilled songwriter, and, more-often than not, not every indie musician knows how to operate at an industry professional level. Technology has created an army of computer generated musicians pretending to be full bands, and trust me when I say that this can work for the ones that take the time to really learn the programs they are choosing to use, but herein lies the problem; musicians are craving the spotlight so fiercely these days, that many of them cannot take the time to really learn the depth of even one single program they use to make music. Choosing to lean on pre-recorded drum-loops, guitar fills and fabricated bass-lines can only take your music so far, and for so many of today’s hungry indie musicians, that is simply not ever far enough. The indie music pool is a vast body of water that does not guarantee an entrance into the ocean of music-stardom, especially to those who think that just showing up is enough.
I have mentioned ‘The Grind’ before (many times in fact) because success in any field takes far more effort than most are willing to put in; especially insecure artists looking to make a name for themselves before the whole social media boom dries up. It seems that many new artists believe in the idea that if you build it, they will come. What they don’t seem realize, is that building ‘it’ is not ever going to be enough, as one must know ‘how’ to build it, and then how to market ‘it,” and that ‘it’ we are talking about is the music itself.
You might have your own opinion on what makes a great song, but when it comes down to a song being ‘radio-ready’ or “fit for music journalists” then trust me when I tell you that there is much less of a grey-opinion-related area here.
The structure of your songs should have peaks and valleys, they need to have a proper mixdown of the levels, and above all else, they need to be fully realized before they are released to the public.
‘The reason your music is not gaining traction could very well be because it is not ready to share quite yet.’
If you want to break it down (and I do), then it goes much like this. If you truly want to succeed in the music business, then you need to write songs where:
A) The music stands on its own, without the vocals.
B) The vocals stand on their own, without the music.
C) You stand on your own, without either of those two things.
The first two deal directly with the songwriting, and the third one effects the marketing and branding needed to create an effective Music PR Campaign. It focuses on you and your unique self, something that is consciously required to know to truly stand out among the rest.
Music PR Firms are going to tell you that you have a great single, and that they see incredible potential for your music, because they are paid to sell you on the dream, not to offer advice on how you can make your music more commercially viable; and for this reason, we have a metric-ton of indie musicians cluttering up the music scene with half-baked songs and unrealistic ideas of how this whole music business works.
I am not pointing the finger directly at you (or am I?).
I am simply stating the fact that ‘quantity over quality’ is absolutely taking over the music scene, and it’s fucking disheartening to say the least.
I am going to do you the favor of telling you that the music scene is not as it seems. It is not always about you lacking the exposure or not having made the right connection yet. Many times, it is about the simple fact that you didn’t create a fully realized song, that you didn’t put in the initial effort to grind out the practice required to proficiently play the instruments that you are trying to play, or take the vocal lessons that everyone kept telling you to take. The reason your music is not gaining traction could very well be because it is not ready to share quite yet.
We don’t need any more impatient indie musicians rushing out music that sounds like a bad demo sold out of the back of a Prius.
Dare I say that the indie Rap scene is one of the current biggest offenders here. You would think that by now these new hustling Hip-Hop artists would get it, that the strength of your music genre lay in the power of your beats and the mindfulness of your words; but alas, it is a new generation of impatient fame-seekers who invested in Garageband software, mumble rap and vocal enhancers. It is getting difficult to find conscious indie rappers that remember where their genre came from, what it meant to create in this space, and who came before them. There is a reason that Dr. Dre is a legend, as he places so much on the emotional impact of the beats, and even more on the production value of his tracks, that even without his inspired lyrics the songs stand on their own. Look at Eminem, take away his beats and you still end up with a masterclass in lyricism. Go back to Run DMC, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Jay Z, Naughty By Nature, Public Enemy, and so many other great artists, and realize that they didn’t just create music; they crafted it.
They had a vision that left no detail out. They knew the beats needed, they understood the content of the lyrics they weaved together, and the revolutionary message that was placed within, and above all else, they never compromised their quality to escape the realm of artistic obscurity.
I am telling you as a Music Promoter, and as someone that wants you to succeed, that if you build it, they will not come. You must do better than create a good song, you must create an undeniable song. You must offer up more than just a carbon copy of a current trend in the scene, you must stand out as an individual that might even sound ahead of their time.
The world has more than enough lazy artists afraid to dig in and dig deep, and grind out the practice needed to create music at a professional level. It is chalk-full of celebrity-minded musicians trying to social-media/Gary V their way to a career that lasts in this dog-eat-dog scene.
We don’t need any more impatient indie musicians rushing out music that sounds like a bad demo sold out of the back of a Prius.
If you are serious about your music (and I mean serious as a heart attack serious) then please embrace the art of songwriting. Accept the level of professional mixing needed, the amount of time required to structure that glorious song, and make damn sure that the music, the vocals, and the message, all stand on their own.
Why pay for music promotion when you can learn to promote yourself?
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