I’m fed up of the noise.

I’m fed up of the noise. I’m fed up of the same non-personalities being presented to us as the newest musical offering and I’m also annoyed that, seemingly, the understood alternative seems to be those artists who rely on ‘fashion’ alone (that is, arbitrary imagery that could be termed ‘random’ that is in fact nothing more than a desperate attempt for the artist to appear ‘original’ or indeed different, just by putting a hat on upside down, or wearing strange colours. Unless you have substance, the pictures are just a cloak to hide the artist’s lack of depth.)

Whilst the MySpaces and other sites no longer seem to command the channel to the masses as they once would have hoped to, the conveyor belt of ‘personalities’ offered to users on ‘featured artists’ are apparently only ever aimed at those people who can’t think for themselves. Until we consolidate a service that offers what we want, how we want, when we want, it seems that the white noise is going to continue. When people ask you to look something up on the internet, you no longer say “I’ll look that up online’, you say “I’ll Google it”… Until we get a music website where buying, browsing, discovery and spreading music is as well-known, established and trusted as Google is to searching for things, it’s going to be a rough ride for artists of depth.

Never before has being genuinely original, in a way that isn’t easily tangible, or replicated, been so important.

(If anybody feels they want any of these ideas referenced etc, to works previous published by them, just let me know. My resources and main references of ideas are listed on my blog. So any ideas you want linked from these sites, just let me know. I’m passing on ideas I’ve come across and I’m adding my opinions to the mix.)

...Sometimes they find you.

The desire for new music discovery is as strong as ever. But everything’s extremely scattered. A million sites, nothing’s really that intuitive, and most sites don’t really cater to genre specific perceptions of how music should be ‘branded’ and used/shared.

Blogs are good, but you’re reliant on the pace and choices of the blogger, so you can only get ‘close’ to what you’re looking for. As individuals I think we want to feel we’ve done some work in ‘finding’ new music, so blogs don’t fully satisfy our ‘browsing’ needs. Blogs are also full of white noise too, and you either have to download an mp3 to listen, or stream, rarely both are offered…

Indie music stores are dying. I think we need to try and mimic what was good about the indie store. The ability to browse at leisure. No real pressures, dipping in and out as you wish. Browsing the artwork too, or indeed other products on offer, t-shirts, mp3 players… a casual wandering. Maybe with a ‘radio’ stream in the background, that you can either block out or let play… a sense that you’re the boss and it’s as random or as specific as you want. You can either jump straight to that artist you’re after, and buy the CD and leave, or look to find something else… The ability to think “I feel like some acoustic music, with a hint of indie", and for that need to be met.

The major sites don’t really cater for the indie-store-browser. MySpace’s ‘top artists’ rarely change, or have any meaning… and we’ve all seen that ‘band photo’ on a ‘band feature’ on a million sites – you know, that picture with four guys looking sternly but cool, but with nothing behind the poses. Just ego and hollow melody.

PureVolume has a quite a nice idea when searching, where you tick box certain genres, and then bands (which can choose to call themselves three genres) are listed. You select A, B, C, genre, and bands with A, D, F, or B, C, G, appear. I’m also pretty sure you used to be able to exclude genre, maybe I’m wrong, but I thought that was handy.

So what does this mean for the unsigned artist?

I guess it means make yourself as indie-store-browser friendly as possible. Findable by the stumbling music discoverer. Broaden what you do out, then get specific. Try and reduce to what bits you are, what little bits make the whole. If you’re the Beach Boys, think, we sing about surfing, but not only that, surfing is a sunny feeling, hot weather, maybe we should look into that aspect. Surround yourself with similar bands by association. Your top friends on MySpace, (now I know you’re thinking, ergh, MySpace, but people still go to bands’ MySpaces) make some of the top friends ‘similar’ bands. But don’t over do it, only have a few ‘top friends’ a huge list does nothing. Not only that, when you are in conversation with fans, look at their profiles, learn the other bands they like, you might be able to recommend a band to them. Show them you add value on that score… or dare I even say it? Be human. As Andrew Dubber says it’s all about having a conversation.

On my MySpace page, I link to videos of my influences. This allows people to discover random artists, or allows them to think, ‘oh right, oh I do feel like some Green Day’ and clicking the link. (and whilst it technically is a ‘huge list’, it’s running parallel to my bio and info, so it’s more like on a music blog, or another area of content, rather than a long list of links…see?) It allows browsing people to jump around, follow their whim…. Just like in a music store…

…and just like in a music store, people don’t like to be bothered, or advertised at. Big displays get noticed, and largely ignored. If you find and know what your context is, you can better position yourself within it. Try and work out what makes up the artist you are. Mirror artists in your style area and try and offer value that’s not wholly based around you. That doesn’t mean copy them, but see the peripheral areas the ideas and music flow into. Learn where you fit.

If you make good music people want to find you. So get your music out there so they can. But know that they might just be browsing. Music is all about moods, even in the discovery stage. Be in and around the right context, for the browsers in the right mood for your music – then your music does the talking, but let the fan start the conversation hey? It’s not always about going to them… sometimes they find you.







(If anybody feels they want any of these ideas referenced etc, to works previous published by them, just let me know. My resources and main references of ideas are listed on my blog. So any ideas you want linked from these sites, just let me know. I’m passing on ideas I’ve come across and I’m adding my opinions to the mix.)

Twitter – Are you all you’re cracked up to be?

I doubt I use twitter properly. I doubt I’m alone in this.

I interact, I talk to people. I post tweets that have links in, some that don’t have links in, some that are ‘insight tweets’ (that is, “I think I’ll make some coffee now”), I’ve used hashtags, I’ve @replied to ‘famous’ people, I’ve spoken of content that’s not my own, I’ve RT’d people’s posts…

…and yet, I’m left feeling… what real value’s it added?

At the end of the day, it depends who’s listening. I know twitter has this and that benefit, but it’s white noise a lot of it, even if you follow good tweeters.

I see twitter as a catch 22. If you already have a network outside of twitter, or lean towards the techy side of things, it’s a nice little tool to give some quick ‘texts’ to the world about this and that. But if you enter twitter as a way of building from the bottom-up, it doesn’t really help you make that many connections. If I’m honest, I also don’t think twitter is all that good as a conversation medium; you have to limit what you say to 140 characters, make sure you put the correct @name within it, remember what you were saying before in another tweet you made,….blah bu-blah… Yes, yes, I’m sure you’re reading this thinking, ‘if you only did this or that, you’d get so much more out of it…’ Really? Actual real-terms, benefit? I’m not so sure. But anyway, that’s my point. I bet I’m not alone in this. I don’t find twitter that intuitive. I’m also unconvinced that following the bands I like adds much value, I think a blog on their website is much better. Is this twitter thing not just more needless transparency… silly information age we live in.

I’m also unconvinced that knowing about a new ‘demo’ a band is working on, or knowing a band is looking to record a new song, is that good-a piece of information. Am I the only one that prefers falling in love with the ‘finished song’ and then finding out about the process, or inspirations, or hearing the demo, or context AFTERWARDS?... When I’VE decided it’s worth delving into the detail?

It’s like band ‘bios’. I didn’t have one for a long time. I’ve since written a brief paragraph or too. But when I discover a new artist, I want first, very first, to hear a snapshot of a song or two, so I know where I am. Then, if I fall in love with the music and act, I’ll look deeper. I don’t want to have to wade through information to get the basics, not at first… and I sure as hell don’t give a shit about how old you were when you first started singing - I care about what the result is. If I like the music you make, I’ll then go looking for more information and history.

From a music/artist point of view, unless you actually respond personally to your fans on twitter, I think twitter is much like any other tech-fad. Bands will use it, but no real positive, tangible benefit will arise.

All this said; I have made some connections on twitter. But I’ll bet no more than any other similar forum might have helped make. I know it’s seemingly fashionable to either love or hate twitter… I just think, at least from the unsigned band perspective, it’s just another internet medium to get lost in. You’ll have some success, the harder you work with it... I think you’re better off concentrating on sending out demos and emails though.






(If anybody feels they want any of these ideas referenced etc, to works previous published by them, just let me know. My resources and main references of ideas are listed on my blog. So any ideas you want linked from these sites, just let me know. I’m passing on ideas I’ve come across and I’m adding my opinions to the mix.)

Wait.

Whilst looking for advice on how to progress as an unsigned artist it seems very common to find articles that say “10 steps to gaining radio play”, or some such article. Now, some of these articles obviously do have value and good advice. (Although, they’re always a nice round number aren’t they? That’s lucky.) There seems to be a lot of talk of “steps”, “Dos and Don’ts” although I can’t recall a “Dos and Don’ts” article that has a “Do” for one genre and has the same action as a “Don’t” for another genre. Is that not the problem with the discovery services too? Genres differ on how the fans need to be reached.

We all know the industry is changing. But I don’t seem to see many articles saying “Bide your time” or “Let the dust settle”. Things are cyclical, is that not the considered view? Then soon enough something will come along where the monetary value is back funding the industry again. Keep plugging away until the new systems kick in.

S’all dandy.





(If anybody feels they want any of these ideas referenced etc, to works previous published by them, just let me know. My resources and main references of ideas are listed on my blog. So any ideas you want linked from these sites, just let me know. I’m passing on ideas I’ve come across and I’m adding my opinions to the mix.)

Local Radio Interview

On 23rd Feb 2009 I had an interview on Spirit FM with Milly Luxford (On air (UK, Chichester) at 96.6, 102.3 & 106.6FM and online at spiritfm.net)

Here is that interview:

Part One

SpiritFm Interview with Stuart Newman (Part 1) by stuarttnewman

Part Two

SpiritFm Interview with Stuart Newman (Part 2) by stuarttnewman

SpiritFM: http://www.spiritfm.net/sn/features/studio-b2/