what is going on in your musical life

all my friends call me a fool
they say
let bandcamp take care of you

Bandcamp and SoundCloud, where musicians go to promote their music to other musicians who are simultaneously trying to promote their own music.

Like online musicians' groups where you go to promote your gigs to other musicians who are promoting their gigs.

It is Ourobouros, the snake which either its own tail.

That said, it is all fun, I enjoy the camaraderie, and I like it all, but it takes a really powerful booster rocket to break out of the gravitational pull of musos. There is presumably a world out there of potential fans who are, like, normal people, but reaching them remains an eternal mystery.

Either should be eateth

You could always go into classical or jazz and ensure that your listeners will always be other musicians.

Lol, I was wondering who that post was going to be by, thought it would be Jordan.

You could always go into classical or jazz and ensure that your listeners will always be other musicians.

― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Sunday, March 14, 2021 3:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is also "rock" of any description since maybe 2012-ish tbh

Earlier than that surely

I'm under the vague impression that more "normal people" are using bandcamp and soundcloud now tho. Especially soundcloud

Who were the last rock band whose young fans never went to guitar camp?it's been a minute.

I might have guessed Tame Impala but for the countless "what fx pedal should i use to sound like Tame Impala?" threads on internet messageboards.

Maybe Paramore

I made a Bandcamp page in 2017 because I made some music and I was proud of it and I liked the idea of something that felt a bit more serious than Soundcloud, which to me is still a bit of a world of unofficial bootlegs and low-bitrate DJ set recordings. I posted the link to my Facebook and Instagram, knowing full well that in my real life I'd be lucky if a dozen people came along to a show to support me, much less actively enjoy the music I make. I'm not reaching anyone who is interested in it because it's their "scene" - they just want to support a pal and take an interest in what I'm doing, the same way I follow twenty different make-up artists I know because it's a kindness to them.

One person I went to school with and hadn't seen in many years gave it a play and liked it and asked me to do some soundtrack work for their exhibitions and installations. It's not like I'm sat here raking it in as a high-profile artist, but getting to turn what was a bedroom hobby into something I could take seriously, it's a buzz.

I put some music up last summer and every Bandcamp Friday last year I shared it again because, why not? I haven't this year because I've had a lot going on. But this month, despite me making no effort, someone found it and bought the music I had put up. Someone who I don't know in real-life - in other words, a person who has no investment or obligation to me as a person, someone who just enjoyed it enough to think that it was worth putting a number in the name-your-price box (when someone buys on Bandcamp, I get told their email address, and it definitely wasn't someone I know). It's a really nice feeling.

I would recommend it 100%. The worst that happens is nobody hears what you do: they're not going to hear it if you don't share and promote your material anyway.

I would guess that Imagine Dragons and 21 Pilots have young non-muso fans but the only kids I interact with are guitar campers, for the most part.

heh, and they say rock is dead!

You didn't say anything about good rock.

https://watt.cashmusic.org/writing/institutionalizationofrock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoF_a0-7xVQ

Mary Woronov? Don't think I noticed her tjere before.

I recorded an interpretation of a visual artwork for this project: https://newmusic.org/painting-music-ops-feb-21/ . It will premiere as part of the Mar 19 video. Also going to record a version of the prepared guitar piece from my album for this festival, to premiere virtually on the 26th; also part of the composers' roundtable and one of the guitar orchestras: https://newmusic.org/painting-music-ops-feb-21/ . Still working on a grant application as well.

Billy Gibbons is giving the keynote btw.

Cool

He's not actually. I'm sure Nels Cline is relieved that the keyboardist from the Hold Steady is looking out for his potential academic career as a rock guitar professor, though.

lol

it doesn't really bother me at all that rock music isn't mass culture anymore, it's kind of cool and exciting imo

Link for the festival, sorry: http://www.21cguitar.com/

xp don't tell Simon Frith

Lol @ Billy Gibbons keynote

Simon's brother was in Henry Cow!

I'm aware lol
I remember reading something he wrote about how disco is objectively better than prog because sociology

Good ol sibling rivalry

I've been known to flippantly attribute his whole career to sibling rivalry. xp!

Lol team Fred here

You could always go into classical or jazz and ensure that your listeners will always be other musicians.

― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Sunday, March 14, 2021 2:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Lol, I was wondering who that post was going to be by, thought it would be Jordan.

― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, March 14, 2021 3:4

Lol, my electronic music is definitely purchased primarily by DJs and producers, as far as I can tell. But that's part of what drew me to dance and dance-adjacent music tbh -- DJs actually need copies of music to play, and there's a culture of buying, playing, and sharing it.

I think I posted something like this upthread, but there's nothing to lose by posting releases on Bandcamp. I would just keep expectations low, since like others have said, it's hard to get anyone to pay attention outside your immediate circle. Even with a label and a wider reach, only a small percentage of those who hear about it will take the time to listen, and an even smaller percentage of those will actually buy something on Bandcamp. Tbh it's kind of a miracle that anyone does.

And it's easy to just look at the really successful releases on Bandcamp with hundreds of little squares below the artwork and think that just happens. All the releases look more or less the same after all, you don't see whatever irl scene or label/marketing/etc is behind it.

Anyway boxedjoy is otm, at least something unexpected will happen if you put something out there and maybe send it to a few people you like/respect, especially if you keep doing it. That's been the case for me, and it's always something different.

Thanks for the Bandcamp advice folks!

Simon's brother was in Henry Cow!

Wow, things I am shockingly old when I learned, I had no idea

https://watt.cashmusic.org/writing/institutionalizationofrock

― Canon in Deez (silby), Sunday, March 14, 2021 5:33 PM (yesterday)

this was a good read, thanks silby

My undergrad alma mater has had a rock guitar program since the early 90s. I suspect that this was not the pitch that made it happen:

It is not that it requires institutionalized pedagogy to maintain a tradition, but that it needs financial support to maintain its practitioners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAizj1BuAMw
We must do our alma mater.

https://watt.cashmusic.org/writing/institutionalizationofrock

― Canon in Deez (silby), Sunday, March 14, 2021 5:33 PM (yesterday)

this was a good read, thanks silby

― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Monday, March 15, 2021 2:50 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was excited to read this but found it pretty disappointing.

Idk if this is the right thread to discuss in any detail?

probably not

but i don't know. honestly, most people like me just don't post. if they don't know, they just don't post. i have the poster's disease of just posting, even if i don't know. i don't know. beats me

I think it would be best to dig up a relevant thread or start a new one. I'm sure there are more and better pieces on the topic.

Yeah, the article annoyed me, as was probably clear, even if I am all for 'institutionalising' any music (which is m/l the status quo in this country anyway). I could expand on another thread.

"annoyed" is exactly what it made me feel. I kind if want to start a new thread for saying 'no' to that article point by point.
Are you a professional music instructor, Sund4r?

I am, yeah.

dunno where to put this so it's going here

There’s a point in your life we’re you’re sat at work and the new starter tells people he plays guitar and someone says “ oh. Andrew used to be in a band” and you’re sat with a tie on and your wedding trousers and just feel terrible and they say “ he played Banjo with Muse”

— a.remote.viewer (@anewlinerelated) March 19, 2021

So I've made my wee bandcamp page and I'm going to try to organise my music into EPs or something. I was just wondering, when you lot are making music do you think about it how it would sound in the context of an album/EP or whatever or do you just treat each track as it's own thing?

So far I've just been taking each one as it comes and sort of starting afresh each time. I realise there's no right or wrong way of doing this, I'm just curious as to how other musicians think about these things.

bandcamp is the best platform IMO.

music streaming services' rise has precipitated a trend away from album releases and toward a steady drip of singles. obviously the album format is not going away, but maybe it's worth mentioning because it could mean there's less need for an album to break an artist, along with an increase in pressure to churn out more tunes. seems like it's publish or perish for the pop world as well as academia.

anyway i just think one track at a time. i'd been planning to cut a 2-tracker, but a catastrophic data loss event befell me, TWO very new laptops died for no apparent reason, and i was left dead in the water for several months as a result. i forget where i read that 2 is the ideal number of tracks for an EP, but it resonated with me. tons of dance music EPs suffer from filler tracks and remixes.

in my musical life i recently taught myself how to make tech house and came up with this track... or maybe it's 90s house. it samples paris is burning. i wish i could clean up the mix a bit, but all the data recovery software in the world could not bring back the session files, so the bounce of the ruff mix will be final: https://soundcloud.com/808mixtapes/davey-shindig-nerve/s-63y9hCl1kAA

shortly after i made that, i went through a cluster of tech nightmares and stopped making music for 4 months. just got back to it in earnest this week.

I think with an album/EP you just know. When I was writing and recording stuff last year I had about 20 files that I had been working on over the first three months, and I found that some began to make sense together in a way that others didn't. I had one or two that I really liked that didn't "fit" with what else I was doing.

Listening to a playlist of them on shuffle helped me a lot in terms of thinking of sequencing and intent, but I don't think it's as important these days. People might play your album or EP sequentially once they've bought it, but if they go on to your actual Bandcamp page the first thing they'll hear is your selected track.

also davey I really like that, Paris Is Burning can seem like such an obvious source of samples but I love what you've done with it