In the present moment, with a dozen Josephmooon songs recorded, mixed, mastered, and scheduled for independent release on all streaming and download platforms 1 October, our focus for the next two months turns to those ugly behemoths of commerce – marketing, publicity, and advertising.
For the last decade, these responsibilities largely have been assumed by the independent artist themselves, having neither the backing of a (major) record label staffed with professionals ready to do those jobs, nor the capital to hire freelancers to provide those services.
It is a less than desirable dynamic, and takes precious time away from the musician who likely would be more fulfilled expanding their musical horizons – not stuffing stickers and CDs into bubble wrap envelopes for promotional mailings or, Tweeting about a new Spotify playlist. However, those activities do build character and no artist should feel themselves beneath them.
So, to give the music we’ve created in the last year a little better chance of being heard, we are going to engage help on the publicity side to pitch “our story” to a variety of bloggers and traditional media – newspapers, TV, radio. It is an investment, and one every artist thinks long and hard about before making any decision. And most probably simply don’t have the resources to outsource their publicity. Some are barely putting food in the cupboard and gas in the Econoline.
Sell a few CDs at the gig, a few t-shirts, and voila, taco money!
“High In The Sky” is likely to be an “emphasis track,” as they say in the biz. I think I may have erred and submitted the iTunes information prematurely, without making “High In The Sky” what Apple calls an “instant gratification” track. Oh well, live and learn. And between ISRC codes, DDp files, BMI registration, IPR forms, and a myriad of other formalities, my head hurts.
But THAT is what it takes to be an independent music artist these days. And despite those hurdles, there are still lots of songs connecting with lots of listeners, every hour of every day.
The question remains to be answered – can Josephmooon do it, too?
I am positive you can!!