Hello, world

The internet democratized the release of music, but the open water that is now accessible and onto which you launch your small craft seems infinite. You and literally millions of other people are trying to get billions of other people to pay attention to their artistic grains of sand in the ocean.

Nevertheless, we persist. Or some of us do, for some period of time.

Shake the World is now on the !earshot distro list, so the songs are available to programming directors of campus and community radio stations, but I need to follow up with individual emails to individual program directors to try to gain visibility and possibly to send them Bandcamp links.

Once OneRPM finally gives its blessing, the songs will percolate out to streaming services. I'm supposed to follow that up by making playlists. I didn't do that for Mostly Still Underfoot, and it shows in lack of plays. I need to learn how do use my Spotify for Artists account to better advantage.

Did you ever notice that just making music is not enough? If you create a work that no one hears, it might as well not exist. It's like the proverbial tree falling in the proverbial forest devoid of sentient listeners. Unless you do, or someone does, everything possible to get the work noticed, you're not taken seriously as an artist. You have to do business kinds of things to have artist cred. Talent ain't poot unless someone knows about it.

The other night, I saw the documentary Hitsville: The Making of Motown. It shows how Berry Gordy masterminded a one-stop shop with in-house writers, producers, promoters, marketers, and eventually musicians, all in the service of the recording artists whom Gordy signed. The collection of talent was incredible, but what struck me most was the supportive environment in which they worked. You didn't have to be talented at everything. You had a building (and later several buildings) full of myriad kinds of talent.

I've only been part of a tiny indie label, but at least some things were taken care of. Now it's all up to me. I miss having a band of people with talents I don't possess and connections with musical support people who do their thing better than I ever could. I love doing some things myself but can't stand doing other things and consequently don't do those thing well.

I'm not trying to "make it" like in the old days. I'm retired and doing fine and can afford to make music for love. But for me, music has always been communication, and communication needs listeners. I envy visual artists who can grab eyeballs with relative ease. Even writing has a lower threshold of entry. Music requires more attention and is easy to pass by.

It's my choice. I will either learn whatever promotional tricks an old dog can learn, or I will learn to content myself with creating for a tiny circle of listeners at best.