What I plan to do first in order to promote my CD
I am not the best example of the rabid, driven self-marketing artist that would be star. I am not 'hyperexciting', some of the music is kind of exciting, some of it is; well, just weird. I'm not even a particularly good writer, lots of typos, my grammar is a little bad, so thanks for reading...
So some of the tentative marketing steps I've taken:
I have an account on the MWS Media site. It is a fledgling content site, with a weekly "audio magazine". I listened to it, and I liked it: there is a friendly, FM-radio-when-FM-radio-was-still-a-frontier feel to the announcer's voice, what lacks in polish is offset by sincerity and a positive and hopeful vibe. The sound is pretty good, and the concept is pretty good: weekly audio installments via a blog as opposed to streaming radio. It's an interesting leveraging of the RSS feed technology. Anyway, I have passed along my music to see if it might be included there. There are other internet radio stations I am looking at as well: many charge a fee for you to register your music with them, then they play it/feature you, which rubs me wrong, seems a little too crass.
anyway... Now, I've got some 'product issues' to consider. Utenzil is not a DJ project that mixes and produces, I'm a musician that composes, playing keyboard and guitar, applying vocals or not, then mixing and producing.
"Electronic" music encompasses 'turntablism', and it is actually the case that a currently particularly 'hot' aspect of electronic music is DJ-centric turntablism. I do use samples from sound libraries, particularly drum loops. Many electronica purists disdain loops, you should only program your own beat patterns using single hit samples and MIDI-- I do some of that too, and I don't think you *should* only do anything.
At any rate I will likely provide some CDs to local DJs, have done so with one already.
Some other issues: I'm not a late night partier-- sorry to disappoint. Can't deal well with the second hand smoke thing in bars/clubs. So if I were to play out, where would that occur? This will be an interesting challenge. Maybe outdoors, that would be cool, but that wouldn't be possible in this climate for a few months yet. Maybe a cyber-cafe or bookstore? DUnno. Also, might need some visual effects. Computers are good at generating those, watching a person fiddle with a mouse is not like watching a person playing a fiddle, even. If so, then that means a projector, more hardware.
Also, there is patience. This works against me, because I'm not a youngish musician, I am an oldish musician. If you consider a project like Deep Dish, a DC-area originated DJ house duo, they've put out at least 1 disc per year since 1992 but eventually made out well, and they are still "youngish". But this particular genre is wide ranging in artist ages, as opposed to pop or rap.
So I kind of see where this would go if done best. The music needs to be more meticulous, intricate and more refined, more sophisticated in craft. If I play out, it will tend to be more a multimedia show, 'interesting and thought provoking' as opposed to 'club energetic'. It will always be niche, and because I'm more a 'responsible' fuddy duddy :-) I would seem like I can be relied on to create a soundtrack or theme song, maybe for an indie film or TV pilot. So I've registered with Versus Media, a company that matches up people looking for music for indie films with musicians who can provide it. That field is very competitive, populated by musicians with more rigorous formal training, also, but if I generate something that is usable for that, then that would be cool.
These are tentative steps, again, I am not much of a role model in the promotion/marketing aspect of things.
The CD has been out since early December. CD Baby has distributed it digitally to several MP3 download services, including iTunes, MusicNet, LoudEye and Rhapsody, but it takes a while (sometimes months) for those services to get it out there. I like the model of being able to download just the tracks you like, so this makes me feel much better in general: CD Baby is definitely cool in being able to have this sort of distribution setup.
So some of the tentative marketing steps I've taken:
I have an account on the MWS Media site. It is a fledgling content site, with a weekly "audio magazine". I listened to it, and I liked it: there is a friendly, FM-radio-when-FM-radio-was-still-a-frontier feel to the announcer's voice, what lacks in polish is offset by sincerity and a positive and hopeful vibe. The sound is pretty good, and the concept is pretty good: weekly audio installments via a blog as opposed to streaming radio. It's an interesting leveraging of the RSS feed technology. Anyway, I have passed along my music to see if it might be included there. There are other internet radio stations I am looking at as well: many charge a fee for you to register your music with them, then they play it/feature you, which rubs me wrong, seems a little too crass.
anyway... Now, I've got some 'product issues' to consider. Utenzil is not a DJ project that mixes and produces, I'm a musician that composes, playing keyboard and guitar, applying vocals or not, then mixing and producing.
"Electronic" music encompasses 'turntablism', and it is actually the case that a currently particularly 'hot' aspect of electronic music is DJ-centric turntablism. I do use samples from sound libraries, particularly drum loops. Many electronica purists disdain loops, you should only program your own beat patterns using single hit samples and MIDI-- I do some of that too, and I don't think you *should* only do anything.
At any rate I will likely provide some CDs to local DJs, have done so with one already.
Some other issues: I'm not a late night partier-- sorry to disappoint. Can't deal well with the second hand smoke thing in bars/clubs. So if I were to play out, where would that occur? This will be an interesting challenge. Maybe outdoors, that would be cool, but that wouldn't be possible in this climate for a few months yet. Maybe a cyber-cafe or bookstore? DUnno. Also, might need some visual effects. Computers are good at generating those, watching a person fiddle with a mouse is not like watching a person playing a fiddle, even. If so, then that means a projector, more hardware.
Also, there is patience. This works against me, because I'm not a youngish musician, I am an oldish musician. If you consider a project like Deep Dish, a DC-area originated DJ house duo, they've put out at least 1 disc per year since 1992 but eventually made out well, and they are still "youngish". But this particular genre is wide ranging in artist ages, as opposed to pop or rap.
So I kind of see where this would go if done best. The music needs to be more meticulous, intricate and more refined, more sophisticated in craft. If I play out, it will tend to be more a multimedia show, 'interesting and thought provoking' as opposed to 'club energetic'. It will always be niche, and because I'm more a 'responsible' fuddy duddy :-) I would seem like I can be relied on to create a soundtrack or theme song, maybe for an indie film or TV pilot. So I've registered with Versus Media, a company that matches up people looking for music for indie films with musicians who can provide it. That field is very competitive, populated by musicians with more rigorous formal training, also, but if I generate something that is usable for that, then that would be cool.
These are tentative steps, again, I am not much of a role model in the promotion/marketing aspect of things.
The CD has been out since early December. CD Baby has distributed it digitally to several MP3 download services, including iTunes, MusicNet, LoudEye and Rhapsody, but it takes a while (sometimes months) for those services to get it out there. I like the model of being able to download just the tracks you like, so this makes me feel much better in general: CD Baby is definitely cool in being able to have this sort of distribution setup.
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