I want you to close your eyes and imagine a situation.
Are they closed? (Then how are you reading this? Why would you lie to me?)
OK imagine for a moment that I run a cruise ship company.
And you are an independent artist making psychedelic funk music (just bear with me).
I, generous soul that I am, offer you the chance to perform at one of our ports in the Bahamas for customers on our cruises. It doesn’t pay (obviously, I’m a cruise titan), but the ~exposure~ will be good for your career, right?
Every day a new ship pulls into the port, and masses of the (quite drunk) people stumble out of our cruise ship and walk past you playing in the local venue.
A few cruisers stop by and listen, while some chug along in their motor-chairs uninterested. A few stick around for your entire performance.
But one random Tuesday afternoon, you hear that a new ship is docking today that is carrying passengers to a Psychedelic Funk Convention in the Bahamas…. it’s your dream audience!
The ship docks, and the passengers pour out. You begin playing, and immediately the cruisers start flocking to you.
As psychadelic-funk enthusiasts, they are entranced with your music… everyone stays for the entire performance.
At the end of your set, the entire audience gives you a standing ovation before heading on their way to the convention down the street.
Still buzzing from the electric gig, you watch them disperse and disappear down the street.
And as the last Hawaiian-shirt wearing cruiser disappears over the horizon, the reality starts to settle in…
You just played the gig of your life to a room of adoring fans, and you have no way of ever getting in contact with them again! You were so caught up in the excitement, you didn’t even manage to get a guest list of their names…
So without any way to get in touch with your new adoring fans…
You return to the venue as the next ship arrives, this time ferrying thousands of grandmas who are in town for a Golden Girls convention.
They hate you and your psychedelic funk, but they think do think you’re verrrrrry cute.
Unfortunately for me, I don’t own a cruise ship company.
And unfortunately (maybe fortunately) for you, I don’t have thousands of grandmas saying that you remind them of their first love.
So what’s the stupid point of my stupid story?
Well, the situation I explained above happens all the time to artists I speak with.
Not in cruise ports. No, much worse, in life.
They spend all day trying to get people to notice their music (on social media, in person, etc)…. but if/when that magic cruise ship arrives… they have no idea how to actually turn it into a money/career.
And just while you were reading that paragraph…
The fans you’ve been looking for your whole life just hopped back on that cruise ship and sailed their cargo-short wearing keisters down to Mexico for some margs so they can UNWIND FOR ONCE.
How do I know this?
Alas, it happened to me. And now my music career is dead.
So how do you prevent this from happening?
Well, we have already begun.
No for real tho I think this series will help…. cheers.
Michael from mad records