Are you chasing industry/music just to make money?

If not....

Focus on YOUR true fans and build up your own following one person at a time.

Stop worrying about the masses and industry. Most of them are idiots and follow the herd anyway. They literally need radio, TV and social media to tell them how and what to think and to tell them what is "good." Constantly jumping from one trend to the next. - Are they really your true fans?

Start with getting 1,000 true hardcore fans and you'll be far ahead of the saturated crowd you speak of. There's plenty of attention and mone to go around. You don't need millions of fans to create a solid life long business around your music. You just need a tribe of loyal true fans that support YOU and your music. Be "authentic," original and put yourself out there. Focus a part of every day on marketing and growing your fan-base. Always roll some of your profits back into growing your fan-base. Eventually it becomes self fulfilling if you stay focused.

 

i think the chances of landing one smash hit that puts you on the map permanently are pretty slim without a big budget.
you're better off just consistently putting new tracks out there without any notable interruption, so that you give off a strong first impression. no other option than keep doing this inifnitely until it works or doesn't. do it for the music itself or you won't survive the long plateau without going insane.

 

in case you make it...

 

There have always been more musicians than money to go around. Even when the biggest spenders were nobility and churches plenty of talented people just disappeared in the noise as some less talented but more savvy composers and musicians were hailed as the new best thing out.

 

"<Everyone> able to make music" ?
No; just musicians with skill. As it's always been.
So I guess you imply that just having a laptop and daw means that everyone can make music?

"To break"? Again no. And never having "broken", how would you know?
It's just the same as it always was; lots of budding wannabees, a lot mostly for the wrong reasons.
You think this is a new thing?
But the msm and the mass of web outlets and news etc make you think whatever they want you to. Obviously.
"Flood" is your perception, based on whatever.

The where, sorry? Lol. You are living in illusion, brother. Please take it from me at 48, having started work at 18 with a #1 Sony International artist.
But maybe you mean the already-rich can buy into this stupid industry that tries to use music theory to make cheap, fake candy for 13 year olds?
Yes; they are already on the "wealthiest ships". No hopping involved! And?

Not at all, but it really sounds like you have.
You imply that "we" or "people" are suffering due to wanting to be something illusory.
Well, if they have your point of view it would not surprise me.

Even if you meant "by any industry", still no.
Because this:
All of us as published song writers and session-musicians were doing it prior to being recognised by somebody within the recording and worldwide licensing industry.
I was happily just gigging in pubs throughout my teenage years, not wanting for anything else.
Then somebody offers you something. Because you have something they need.
So then we have been noticed by an industry, and have constant work and an income as a result.
And so all artists by default are "accepted" by the industry because they are a part of it.
"Noticed" has to happen first.
So I don't get your point of view either.
It doesn't tally with reality at all.


Basically, kiddies with dreams need to wake up.
But if they have natural talent and get picked up, so be it.

 

https://onlyfans.com/

 

Something else to ponder - "Starving artists" are artists that do not know how to market themselves or their art.
The good news is that marketing can be learned and purchased.

Even the absolute worst art (which is highly subjective) has plenty of fans out there. Fans that are ready and willing to support the artist. Just gotta get in front of them. Marketing does that.

If you want to make money with your art. You need to be strategic and treat it like a business. A lot of artists that people think just fell into wealth and fame had a strategic plan and executed it over many years. The lucky instant fame instant riches are few and far between. Like hitting the lottery. It's rare.

"saturated" markets are bullshit imo. Saturation shows you that there's LOTS of money and interest waiting and ready. I'd be leery of a market that isn't saturated with money. That's where it would be a guessing game and initial uphill battle.

 

Last edited: Jul 14, 2021

I just turned 65 and am retiring with 3 pensions and no debt.
Since cannabis and various byproducts are legal here in Canada my strategy is to:
Give live concerts in front of Cannabis stores for free product from the outlet or chain.
Who knows, it may become profitable.
On the other end of the spectrum, school concerts selling myself as someone who's worked with synths and sound technology for over 50 years.
Multi-marketing, although I'm sure they're all high anyway
Either way, I don't have to worry about success or starvation.
I can be as different (or weird) as I want from all the boring, similar edm that passes for music (and soundtracks) lately
A decent PA costs a fraction of what it was back in 1979 when I started. And modular synths? Haha!
And what you get is much better quality, especially in terms of signal to noise, hum and radio reception.
Haven't been plagued with those since the 80's.
Just give me a few more years with this tired old body so I can squeeze out some art.

 

or this little fcker...i think there heavy parallels to audio
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3205630/?ref_=tt_ov_st
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/

 

Viral marketing works.
I'm lazy right now, but wasn't he the one that just sold a NFT for an astronomical amount of cash fueled by viral marketing/hype?

 

no but he did connect to banksy as filmer and then became copiecat and did ride the banksy streetart stencyl hype hard , straight up into hollywodd fcktrd place and on top made a assembly line
check banksy's end statement if you watch the docu...its really worth to watch

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2021

I'll check it out, I never heard of it.

I might have been thinking about some other artist with the NFT craze.

 

Kind of OT to thread title? Everyone being able to make "music" would involve everyone studying music to a high level and being able to create something real; not buying a laptop. Just saying.

Exactly. Flawed from the start. Anything built on an unbalanced base of greed & control that abuses the medium it utilises will always be in a state of flux. Trying not to collapse. Thanks Adam Smith. But also, fuck you.
It takes much effort and energy to go against the universal flow!

Winner.

The actual 'secret' is that you are making music because you love it and maybe you love playing out to people because they like it, and that's when other paths might manifest as options.
It's only ever about the love of music and its effects. Enjoying living as a creative channel with the skills to be able to manifest what you hear in your mind.

I worked on a gig for matey who was in 10cc. Forget his name right now. Not Godley or Creme, anyway.
Just him and his guitar.
Every song was introduced something like "Here's a song that went to The Beach Boys". "Here's a song I wrote that was recorded by Fleetwood Mac." "This next song was sold by my publishers to Diana Ross". Etc. (Not actual artists he said, apart from Beach Boys I think).

So, never having to work again thanks to the royalties, why do you think he was sitting in front of people playing his songs?

Hey kids! I'm gonna repeat myself again here at AS:
I was told the UK Christmas #1 around September for a few years. Because industry.
Amy's deal was a guaranteed 3 x #1 album deal. It's all scheduled and worked out. Because industry.
(Incidentally, they couldn't edit anything good out of the Jamacian recordings. Because drugs. And when she died I told my friends to watch out for a ridiculously Melodyned and chopped #1 album. And behold I was right.
Because they couldn't have edited it to fuck when she was alive to come forward and say "That's not me!".
Easier for record company when we dead.)

If you love music, focus on it and it will become self-fullfilling.
Do not focus on what the industry is hawking.
A lot of fake creations; all "smoke and mirrors".

Just as we even have fake food now too, you know?

There is a presence around artists who have become celebrities, or even good non-celeb artists, yet they always had it before they became a celeb.
When Prince or MJ walked in the room, you felt it.
This can not be faked and is nothing to do with bling or wealth or perceived power.
Personally I have decided it is because they are self-realised beings via the vehicle of music.
In the flesh they are grounded and humble, and are nice people with a profound understanding of life.
And industry needs those empaths because it has nothing otherwise.
This thread OP and title, slightly Fosterish, seems to be coming from a wrong point of view that may involve believing that the industry magically changes us into something! lol.

 

i think someone mixed up "everyone able to make music" with "everyone able to download warez and freeware and buy behringer".

the latter one is true, but these two things are not releated to each other.

 

I used to know many people who where very good musicians. They were regular musicians, meaning, they were used to playing live in clubs for 4 to 5 hours, 3 to 4 days a week! They could play (almost) anything, jazz, salsa, bossa nova, you name it! One of them, though, stood out of the "crowd". He was born a musician. While others had to study hard and practice, he would play so beautifully, fluently and easily as one`s breath. Some of those regular musicians used to say - " I can study and practice my whole life and yet, I would never be like him "

He was a very simple man, not a show off, not a show man. You could not distinguish him from a crowd, until somebody gave him a guitar, a bass or a piano. He had something else (more) than others - pure talent. He was born with it.

He`s not (that) famous, nor rich, but one thing I know for sure. He`s an accomplished man. Sweet, pleasant and one of the most advanced (if I may, spiritually) human being I had the luck to know in my life.

So what is it that people seek? Love, fame, recognition? What is it?

The question is really, who are you?

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, an American film producer, said in a documentary called "Side by Side" about the democratization of movies:
- Nowadays anyone can make a movie, which is good and bad at the same time. The bad thing is that, most of them lack a taste maker.

Sometimes, being good might not be enough. And if you insist - ( I love this documentary... please don`t tell anybody ...)

 

Last edited: Jul 17, 2021

Thank you for the vid link, bruv.
Well done for dropping it in context of this thread.

 

who cares, I like making music.

 

Sorry and no offense but I find this post a little fascist/racist.
Of course is better for the music if more artists are involved in it.
You are embarassed by the many artists that now can find their way easier with the help of technology because they are "saturating" the industry and you can't be heard?
You will be heard if your music is strong enough, not if less people are able to make music.

 

A good band that can do something gives live concerts - then applies to some labels or is discovered because a music editor
or label boss has found it to be "good to very good". Then comes the record deal and a tour and television appearances.

With books or pictures it's the same, only the good or the right thing lasts in the long run ...!

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2021

And it seems the OP is whining about not getting their fair share of wealth and fame?

All these threads complaining about how people are just in it for the money and attention, but crying because they are not getting their fair share of money and attention.