I'm a centipede!
as a songwriter and singer and guitar player for me its all about writing a great song and singing and playing it well BUT is that gonna get you where you want to go? No is probably the answer. Because aswell as working on your craft, its about 100 times as important (worked out by random algorithm, finger in the air and standing on one foot) to graft, thats how you get your gigs, radio slots and whatever else it is that help build your profile and get your name out there. Its always about the songs for me as the artist but no one is gonna knock on your door until they know you have a door that can be knocked on.
I've always thought I have great songs and something different to offer even if you want to fit me in the singer/songwriter box. but its only in recent years I've copped on to the grafting factor, theres no room for modesty, if you don't ask you won't get. of course if you have people they can do the graft but as a solo act doing all the PR and other jobs that a manager would do, I have to do the asking.
So this year I've lined you some great gigs, playing my first festival and a great support slot coming up. Its all baby steps but 1 small step and all that........
Another thing I might say to fellow voxers who are putting up material and prefacing it with something like "this is only ruff but....." ...............the news is that once thats said no one is gonna listen. I'm no sage but if I were you and you are serious about what you do .........don't put anything up here or anywhere unless you are totally happy with it, unless you think its the best you can sound. there is so much music out there why would anyone listen to something that is half arsed or badly recorded? Its a cliche but .................put your best foot forward!
And heres one of my best feet, good job I'm a centipede
Nige ;-)
Comments
Good song btw....which destival you going to be at?
Out of interest where have these demos etc been loaded up onto that have done well?
Cheers!
Cheers Deodates! The festival is in Ireland its called Castlepalooza www.castlepalooza.com so should be good. Nige
Like Nigel stated there is no right answer and no rules here. Get a good recording but don't load the full version is one way, that's why iTunes and beatport do the 30 second previews to stop everyone recording the stream and ruining their profits. Or load edits instead the full tracks. The last thing an artist should do is load up CD quality recordings of the entire album and ask, what do you think to the world because those that like will just recorded it and keep quiet and those that don't like it will remain silent or bitch about it. Either way, the artist has little or no feedback and ruined their own sales. Loading demos and edits to places like vox is OK because it's that kind of scene, it's more a testing ground and labels here really see this as a marketing test base more than anything else from what I can deduce, it's more a focus group that's free and on-line. If you are going to MySpace and YouTube then you need quality stuff because once you hit those high traffic places then that can make or break you. Those kind of sites have 20 times more page hits than somewhere like Vox or Reverb Nation and if you switch that many people off with dodgy production quality, that's damage that will be hard to repair. If artists are going on-sale you have no option but to make sure you have CD quality recordings available to download or you don't stand a chance but even then it is wise to protect the ful versions. Give 2 minute previews maybe from the middle like Beaport because they are better than the 30 second intro which is a waste of time on most recordings. House music has 3 minute percussive intro's so 1000 tracks all sound the same if all you have is a 4 to the floor drum beat to decide on. Pop music is a little easier for previews because they are normally straight in with a bang on bar 5. As for where are these plays are going on that I mentioned, places like Last.FM, Reverb Nation, Imeem and Vox give good indication of plays. Reverb Nations media player gives the best stats to track plays and can be used as an embed here at Vox.