Finding your musical path

A few months ago I was at a party talking to the friend of a friend. He is a drummer, and not currently in a band, but he knows enough bands that need drummers that he gets to play pretty often. He also does some studio production work, and having a lot of contacts helps there as well. That has resulted in a career where he is doing what he wants to do, he can provide childcare when his wife works, and between the two of them they are getting by financially.

That wouldn't satisfy everyone, and not everyone would be able to do it. Obviously it did not happen all at once. Building contacts happened over time, when he was playing in bands. What I am getting at is that there are many different ways to be a musician. The key is to figure out what you want, where you currently are, and what the path is between those two spots.

If you have a satisfying day job, but you also play a gig every month or so, and between that and practices your need to play and spend time with your band is met, that is great. If that is all you need, but your band is not getting any gigs, then you need to start checking around with local bars and clubs, and do some networking. If you are getting a bar gig every other month, and you want to support yourself and your family by music, or you want to become very wealthy via music, this is going to require a bigger shift.

Now, about that band I offended. I don't know for sure that I offended them. As is normal, I wrote the review, tweeted the link in general with them as a keyword, tweeted the link specifically to them, and posted it on their Facebook page. A lot of bands will Like or Favorite or Re-tweet or Share, or reply and thank me, all of which I love. Sometimes there will be a delay, but usually not more than a week.

In this case, none of those things happened, but they had a tweet shortly after that about finally having something interesting to say. I had called their tweets boring and repetitive. It could be a coincidence, but it felt like an indirect pointed at me.

I was right though; they tweet the same things over and over again. If they are happy with their current level of success, that is fine, though I suspect the tweets are not instrumental to that level, and could be dropped. However, if they want different results, they should do different things. My point was that they seem to build loyalty fairly well with those they spend time with, so build on that. Visit more radio stations, more event promoters, and put in a lot of face time with fans.

I remember seeing New Politics when they opened for Fall Out Boy, and just from the performance I thought they would be successful; they were good! That was reinforced by seeing Boyd work the crowd. Soren and Louis might have been as well, but where I was standing it was Boyd, talking to anyone he could, giving out stickers, taking pictures of people holding the stickers, and engaging in any way he could.

Farewell, My Love is amazing for use of Twitter. They worked really hard in the beginning to get everyone to follow all of the individual band members. These members have endearing personalities, so as more people follow them and see their tweets, it strengthens the overall attachment for the band.

Also, they are constantly promoting something, whether it is their crowd-sourcing efforts to acquire a van, pre-orders, new videos, or new performances. They go through periodic spurts of repetitive tweets, but then they will offer something new. They also re-tweet the appreciation they get from followers, which serves multiple purposes as it reminds followers that they are following a great band, provides new content so that not everything is about pre-ordering the new CD, and makes the followers who have been re-tweeted feel good.

And about those tours, even though they had just completed one tour, and were already booked to open for Blood On The Dance Floor, they were asking for help in getting onto another tour. There is no resting on laurels here, and they are smart not to. Getting established doesn't even mean the same thing it used to now, and you can't take anything for granted.

The Gin Blossoms use Twitter in a different way. So far, only two members of the band are on Twitter, and it took a while to get the second of those on. However, the band account is really good about following back, passing on good information, re-tweeting, and giving what access it can. Maybe Robin will not get on Twitter, but when there is a web site chronicling his trip up Mount Everest, it can at least link to that.

Of course, the Gin Blossoms had an existing fan base from back in the day, so while acquiring new fans is good, a focus on reconnecting with existing fans is a valid approach to take. Again, you are using what you have.

Even with all that, Twitter is just one form of social networking, which is just one tool. The point is that you need to have a realistic view of what success would mean to you, and how you get there. Record companies are not fairy godmothers, and that's okay.

Tomorrow we will talk a bit more about money matters, but as you are building your picture of success, what I will recommend now is that you include sanity and integrity. I know that if you don't value them now, my saying so won't change that, but that doesn't mean that you won't miss them some day.