This week I’m writing about something I know absolutely nothing about. The purpose of this is more so for me to put on my thoughts on the topic and hopefully figure out how I’d like to approach this issue myself. What I’ll be talking about is the various ways of reaching people with your music and obtaining a larger audience.
For whatever reason, be it because I didn’t really feel that my voice was good enough or just didn’t have the time or was just afraid, I’ve never really put myself out there with my music other than playing for people I know and playing publicly, but never in an organized fashion. I recently decided that having a career in playing music is my ultimate goal, with the skills I learn from my education here at Penn State being my plan B (sadly this is much more likely).
So basically, here are the options:
1) Record an EP and play shows with the songs from it – This is definitely the “old-fashioned” way of doing things. In the past, there was really no other option other than to do this because there wasn’t an internet or shows like American Idol. The advantage to this is that you’re going to gain more dedicated fans, especially in your local area, who will ultimately care more about seeing you succeed. The problem with only spreading your music through live music is that you don’t have the potential for a massive audience like you do over the internet unless you travel A LOT. With this option, you can also potentially sell physical copies of your music if you need the money, or can offer free downloads on some sort of website if you’re only concerned with spreading your music.
2) Play your EP music on YouTube videos – This is a pretty bad idea so I’m not going to talk about it other than explaining why. If you post your own music on YouTube, nobody will care because you’re just some nobody playing music. Whether or not you’re good, you have no credibility, and your video won’t even reach very many people. While you don’t necessarily have any prior credibility playing actual shows either, you give yourself credibility by being physically present. Playing live is also just more exciting so people will be more likely to care to listen.
3) Make YouTube covers – This is also a decent idea. The main advantage to using YouTube is simply the possibly of having a massive audience. There’s a good chance, though, that they won’t subscribe or care about your music in the same way that live viewers do. The best thing to do with YouTube covers would be to find upcoming songs. This means songs that aren’t necessarily at the top of the chart yet, but have been getting more and more popular. The reason for covering these songs is because once the song is released, when people go to look up covers of the song, your video will already be there. Once a song is already at the top of the charts, making a cover of it can still be a good idea, but it has to be sufficiently different (in a better way) than the other covers that already exist of it. By beating everyone else to the punch and making it early, you effectively have less competition. YouTube is already extremely competitive when it comes to music, and so it’s best to eliminate as much of this as possible by simply doing what other’s aren’t and being different, or beating them to the punch like I just said.
So that’s actually everything I can think of right now. It’s also 5:30 AM and I should probably go to sleep. I thought I’d be able to come up with more possibilities than this, but apparently not.
In conclusion, the best thing to do is probably a combination of 1 and 3, and if you get a decent YouTube following, try to encourage them to listen to your original songs too. If people seem to be liking what you’re doing, keep doing it and keep trying to produce music that is better than what you’ve already done. When it comes to actually reaching fame, the best thing to do is find a record label. What record labels want to see before they sign a musician is that they’ve had a lot of independent success, so create this for yourself.
ccv5033 says
I’m with Sarah that it is awesome that you are willing to put yourself out there a little and make a plan to go after your dream. I also don’t know anything about making it as a musician, but could you maybe try shows like American Idol as you mentioned earlier? Or maybe your covers of popular songs can be used to draw viewers to your own EP music? Personally, I have found an artist or two that I really like on YouTube that way – following their covers and then finding their original music that is great. Is there a way that you can leverage the resources here at Penn State to make connections and learn skills you will need later on? Maybe a club or group you can join (I haven’t read your earlier posts yet so perhaps you already are). You sound like you have the beginnings of a strong plan moving forward — good luck! I want to come hear you sometime!
djc5627 says
You definitely have some interesting viewpoints and ideas. All of those options certainty have great potential. I would have to agree with the youtube idea. There are a lot of youtubers that post songs and get little to no views.
Sarah Elizabeth Bastian says
Although you may claim to know nothing about this, I would claim to know even less – I’ve never had musical ability, so I’ve never explored the field as a potential participant at all, in any way. I love that you started this post by declaring your goal of playing music professionally – I think it’s fabulous that you’re starting to go more public with this dream. With option #2, at first I thought, “Why would this be bad?”, but then your explanation made a lot of sense. I think you’re making good progress with your thoughts on this idea – keep up the good work!
tmc5525 says
To whoever has to read this for class, this post might be a bit boring and rant-ish. I’d recommend reading last week’s instead.