If you need to tell me how big you are, send me your reviews, then you can't be that big or great to begin with.
I know, this sounds just the opposite of today's overwhelming world with a million messages and a fight for attention, but if you're an artist, your work must speak for itself, or else you're doomed. No one can convince me you're great unless I feel it myself.
When you hype yourself it just seems desperate.
If your label does so...then you have plausible deniability. It's one step removed.
And then there are the people who ask you to vote for them for this or that. I mean really? Once again, if you need to ask... If it doesn't happen organically, then how deep a fan base do you have?
And it is all about fans, and respecting them.
If I'm a fan I already believe in you, I want a personal relationship, I don't want you to sell to me. This isn't multi-level marketing, this is a human connection. Don't pester me with hype, deliver information that makes me feel like I'm related to you. Be satisfied I'm paying attention at all. If I really like you I'll tell everybody I know about you. But don't ask me to do the work, unless you're appealing to pre-teens.
Charts... I never get an e-mail from someone saying they're not number one or two somewhere. Klezmer vinyl in Afghanistan, I'm number one! How could you be so big if I've never heard of you?
Never mind that TV and press mean so little these days. And often appears like it's bought.
Now there are some acts based on self-promotion. Like KISS. And Howard Stern. It's part of their personality. But even Howard doesn't do this anymore, he's achieved status, he doesn't need to constantly remind others of it.
If I can't experience the work and be affected, want to listen, you're in trouble. That's the only criterion. Doesn't matter who says what, I'm not interested.
Let's be clear, I'm talking about career acts here. And that's all that really matters anymore. These are not the acts the majors are concentrating on. It's beneath the dignity of a touring act with a fan base to constantly remind those already buying tickets how great they are.
And in a world with so many messages, yours telling us about your chart numbers, your reviews, actually works against you. It makes you look tiny and desperate.
I know it's a tough world out there. If you make marginal music, or music that is not widely adopted, you need to accept that. You've got a niche, do your best to monetize and be happy. Don't get frustrated you're not bigger if you are that klezmer artist. The great thing about the modern world is there's room for more acts than ever before, but fewer are big hit acts. And it's not Spotify that is holding you back, Spotify is helping you, exposing you. It's that the mass of public just isn't interested. If the majors can't break new acts, what are the odds that you're going to blow up based on a review in a publication I've never heard of telling me you're great?
We know your status. If you need to convince us you're bigger, that just makes us uneasy, realizing we've invested in someone who is really not that big.
In our eyes, you're a giant, if you don't believe this, you're screwed.
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