Thursday At The Links
Bonus Round Tomorrow, cuz next week we're dark, December could be long....
With all of the news cycle about elections and as Chrissie Hynde would say, “the phone and the tv and the news of the world…” you may have missed last week’s interview. I think Mr. Koehn has a lot to say to many of my readers: how to successfully understand a “sound guy” (I know they’re not all guys - but even the female at the mixing board probably gets called the “sound guy” a lot), how to deal with a musician’s constant companion - self criticism and obsessing over mistakes and the quest for perfection, and the insight gained from years of performing, mixing sound, and all that goes with “the business”. Link if you skipped over last week’s post or want to re-read - worth it:
For today, I’m cleaning up some links I’ve had on the waiting list, and there’s a lot of “singer/songwriter getting songs out there” type of links, heavily leaning towards Disc Makers/CD Baby posts. Why? Disc Makers and it’s subsidiary, CD Baby/CD Baby Pro earn their money by selling independent artists a pathway to releasing their songs to streaming services and creating merch for performers to sell at live performances and online. That sounds a little mercenary, and there are plenty of other companies that do essentially the same thing. What sets the Disc Makers/CD Baby business apart, for me at least, is the pretty comprehensive articles/YouTube videos and other materials that explain a lot of the business side of things in the music world. Yep, they’re in the business of selling me things, and I’m pretty clear-eyed about that, but the approach of actually informing me about the business side of things as part of the pitch is also pretty interesting. As always, the disclaimer - I’m not being compensated in any way by any of the companies in the Disc Makers/CD Baby world. I did email corporate Disc Makers previously to see if I could do one of my interviews with CEO Tony Van Veen, but no response and I don’t hold that against him or the company - they’re busy and I’m a little guy in the big ocean of the the music business. There are other links to informative stuff as well, but today’s links are tilted towards the singer/songwriters in my audience. Disclaimer - I’m not compensated by anyone for this SubStack - but you knew that already…
Here we go:
Building an online music brand - Cold, hard truth: They aren’t coming to you when you start out. You have to take your music to them. “Them” are the audience you want to build, the streaming services you want to get heard on, and the more niche players such as the people who decide what music makes it into films, television, commercials, etc. They’re usually the “music supervisor” (and staff assistants to the music supervisor) for the production company and they listen to literally thousands of songs as they sift through and finally choose the relatively few pieces that make it into the production. Yours has to stand out from the crowd.
So step by step:
Part 1 of 6 from Tony Van Veen - Independent or label? The other parts are on the YouTube sidebar - interesting stuff
Having a plan is the best approach, IMHO...
Release your single first - This is a strategy call - single or EP/compilation? I think the points to consider include whether you’re releasing your own original music, covers of other artists music or a combination. Your own stuff, IMHO: Have a number (at least 4 or 5 original songs), then release what you feel is your strongest song as a single first, gauge reaction in streams/sales keeping in mind your job is to promote your music - interactive social media with your story and videos and production pictures, live performances, any other promotional avenues you can afford. Release a second single at an interval - another judgment/strategy decision - build on reaction to your first single, release the second before any buzz you’ve generated dies, but don’t step on your first one too quickly. Finally, based on your sales/audience reaction, release an EP if revenue justifies the expense of studio time, mastering and production. Tough calls.
If you’re releasing a combination of covers and original songs, you may be able to release one of each more contemporaneously because you’re probably reaching different listeners - but your cover has to be interesting and different enough from the original to generate interest in your original stuff. Miscalculation here can damage both avenues. An “all covers” compilation/EP may be a consideration but you lose the advantage of early market feedback and the additional production costs of an EP may not justify it. Choose wisely.
Okay, moving on to other sources besides Disc Makers/CD Baby, if you’re mixing recordings at home, you may have, like me, developed a bit of an addiction to relatively inexpensive plug-ins for your DAW, and Waves is kind of a gateway drug. Their pitch is a bit more upfront than Disc Makers, but there are some good tips in this:
Our friends at Acoustic Guitar have a lot of good stuff for acoustic guitar players, but in their instructional articles, they’re a little heavy on scored music and a lot light on the tool most of us use most often for both playing and writing guitar music: chord charts with lyrics showing chord changes. Still, good information:
Songtown has a lot of great articles for, well, songwriters, and everyone writing songs can use a lot of this:
There will be a regular post tomorrow with the Bonus Round answer, but next week we’re going dark for Thanksgiving and all of us here at Michael Acoustic (OK, it’s really just me using the editorial “we”….) wish you a great Thanksgiving and wise Black Friday shopping choices!
Bonus Round: There’s reason to believe…
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic