There are artists building and sustaining careers by pumping out content around the same song for a full year.
There are also artists building and sustaining careers by posting multiple new snippets per week and releasing new songs every few weeks.
Which way is best for you or is it something in between?
It’s kinda like finding the right workout routine…which one is the best? The one that you’ll actually do.
Most people over the age of 25 have a full music bin.
They have something to listen to for all the major emotions, events, and seasons.
It’s hard to sell new music to someone with a full bin.
It’s easiest to sell new music to people who don’t have a full music bin yet.
And then some people keep a space in their bin reserved for New.
And then a few people, with some powerful magical musical electro shock experience, can realize they were missing your music without knowing it, and they’ll balance one or two more artists on top of their bin.
As artists it’s important to get mechanically proficient.
Put in the practice time, learn the moves, learn the words, know your instrument, watch the making-of videos, review all the music docs, learn how a song is put together.
But until you attach your emotion to it, with your own entry point, with your own earnest-ness, with your own insecurity…it will be just that, mechanically proficient.
»» This is typical in Nashville but sometimes it’s the other way around…all emotion and a clear lack of mechanics. Struggling to get from chord to chord is a tough way to sell your heartfelt song.
If something is hyped up and still satisfies the customer…then maybe it’s a good thing it was hyped up or else we may never have tried it.
But if, say, a waffle maker is hyped up and the handle breaks off on the first use…then the hype was a trick. It’s not a product problem. It’s now a trust problem.
When hype works, the product gets the glory. When hype doesn’t work, the hyper loses the trust of the consumer.
If you make music when you’re in the mood you’re probably going to be waiting around most of the time.
If you make music based on your mood you’ll always have something to write about.
And if you’ll always have something to write about you might as well get going.
»» And mood is simply a great starting point because you’re always in one. Feel free to go far beyond mood.
If everyone at the block party is talking about it it’s easy to think everyone is talking about it. And if everyone is, I should be too.
It’s not hard to find something to care about. Even when we’re not looking, things pop up all the time.
Better to give our attention to what we’re doing something about rather than trying to dethrone the neighborhood know it all.