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I'm not sure how to start this, but I'm gonna start anyway. This is a rant.
For any of you who have projects you're always working on (Etsy shops, music, art, etc.), difficult is it for you to self-promote?
For me, it's pretty difficult. I write music, and I'm quite proud of the stuff I write and produce. But then the hardest part is trying to spread the word to try and garner fans. And the worst part is that I have a ton (hundreds) of "friends" on Facebook who don't share the link even once.
Now with our first record, we did get a decent amount of support. And by that I mean I had about 20 people share the link to the record more than once. It was actually kind of nice. But with the second record that came out this past October, I had no one outside of my mother and our indie label make mention of it. No shares, minimal likes, and absolutely zero feedback.
It truly makes me second guess on my songwriting ability, or that people honestly think that the music is trash and not worth sharing.
This isn't a cry for attention, and I'm not throwing a pity party here. I'm just expressing my frustration with the fact that people will share their favorite artists' music dozens of times on social media, and then are completely silent when their friends make something.
I really do go out of my way to share my friends' music whenever they put it out there. I know the struggle of creating art and then sharing it.
Art is vulnerable.
It's human.
It's difficult.
I hope all of you fellow artists out there are getting the proper support you deserve.
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Separatr
We kind of hate self-promotion, but we love sharing the day-to-day stuff about being a band. Sucks that so much social media is algorithm driven, it quickly becomes such a chore to figure out the most recent changes and it's easy to spend a lot of money just doing ads on IG to try and get attention. Spacehey feels so chill in comparison, it's honestly a breath of fresh air.
Yeah, it's nicer here. I have an account for our band, but I'm not on it as much as I should be. I still feel so weird posting bulletins about my music. I think what I've written and released is great stuff (most of it, anyway), but it still feels so... masturbatory to try and talk about it.
by Strongbad; ; Report
I know, self-promotion is pretty much the least cool thing to do, and also the only way to get people to listen. Especially with how much new music is coming out all the time now that so many people can self-produce at home.
by Separatr; ; Report
Damnit Brittany
I’ve owned several handmade businesses over the years and I’m the process of launching an online blog and platform to support women owned small businesses... let me tell you from personal experience your so-called “friends” will be the first people to discount your effort and hard work and the last people to support you. I have also found that those same people will also want to be the first people in line to cash in on your successes, like they’ve been there all along.
My advice, create for yourself, make things you are proud of and if you don’t have the support of your “friends,” you are doing everything right.
Colin Chaos
I identify with this too much.
I know it's my own fault, in my case, because I have three bands, so I'm ALWAYS releasing something new. People are just sick of me, at this stage. Add to that the fact that market is saturated with sound-alikes and non-lifers, people just don't trust their time to anything that isn't big, flashy and has a major label all over it.
I didn't mind it so much back when we could gig all the time, but you really feel it when you're stuck to promote from the couch for the foreseeable future.