nairboman's insights #5 - I Gotta Be Me

It has been a tumultuous time lately. As time draws near to when I release my music for the first time publicly next month on CDbaby, Itunes, and Amazon, I have noticed myself slipping a little bit in the discipline department. I have spent a little less time marketing and a little bit more time ruminating. The truth is that I am not very fond of sitting in front of a computer hours on end trying to convince people to listen to and invest in my music. It's not that I don't think my music isn't worth it: I definitely do. In fact, I have such faith in the quality of my music that I am convinced that there is a good-size audience out there for it made up of people who are genuinely interested in music that seeks to be innovative. It's the fact that as an artist, I'm no businessman and have very little desire to be. Then again, I always kinda knew when the time came that my focus would turn to getting help from folks in my industry, rather than trying to figure out the ins and outs of marketing all by myself and from a few websites and books. The truth is that after my music is published next month, I will put a considerable amount of effort into trying to procure the services of a manager and a record company, preferably an independent one. Also, I want to contact as many local, state, national, and international similar artists, DJ's, radio stations(online and off), podcasters, journalists, and bloggers that can help. It's a big, wide world out there and spending six hours a day pasted in front of a computer screen posting stuff on social networks is not how I wanna spend most of my working time anymore, out of necessity for both my career and my sanity. I realize that I need to spend time marketing online as an independent artist, but my priorities have to shift a little to fit my needs and personality. I would also like to start playing live this summer from a laptop. The music I am releasing is perfect for clubs and events. Not to mention local marketing - I have a bunch of ideas for that: business cards, bumper stickers, playing my music from a boom box in public places, flyers, free sample CD's. I even have an idea for a sign in my front yard. Wish me luck, everyone. nairboman marketing Phase 2. My Band Profile

nairboman's insights #1

At the beginning of the year, I decided it was time to try to actually make some money with something I have done creatively, which I think is one of the most noble ways to earn a living. We are all creative at something, because creativity is a part of our nature. Einstein famously said "Imagination is more important than knowledge". The multinational corporations would like to stifle much of our individualistic creativity and convince us that the lifestyle we lead should be based on a generic monotony of familial repetition. It's no accident that franchise fast food "restaurants" and convenience stores almost all look the same, wherever you happen to go. This is part of their coercion.

Small businesses are disappearing across the land and I, for one, am saddened by this development. It means that independent variety and creativity are slowly dying in the marketplace. Corporations depend on a numbing sameness that they might call Branding and while they may have a lot of creative people working for them, the ultimate goal for them is to make their shareholders happy, not their creative artists, and even less so their "hands on" workers.

Next month, I will try marketing my music more locally. So far, I am making good progress marketing on the internet. My facebook, twitter, soundcloud, youtube, reverbnation, and blog are all experiencing continual growth. But marketing my Electronic Music locally in a conservative midwestern small town like the one I live in(Moberly, Mo., about 14,000) may not be so easy, but then again I believe people are by nature open minded. It's just that our social and corporate culture tends to grind some down into having "boxed in" taste in art and music. I have the feeling it wasn't always this way. Did people from 75-100 years ago only like specific genres mostly or were they more open to variety? I wonder.