Getting your name out there

[Reek]

ah i see. so you deviously misled us. thought of bersimon as well but saw the account was too new for that

[Neko]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

I think he means there is no connection/relation to my riddle...

Aye, you guys got me. Neko, the creepy stalker did, that is. I dunno how did you find out it was Soothsayer but I am glad you did, I was 100% sure it was Bersimon because that's the nickname he used everywhere... Soothsayer dates to such a prehistoric era, I barely remember he used to go by this nick as well. Alas, its kind of a magician too so, not that much off.

Like I said, deep magic search. Not stalker powers, I do not have those.

Not sure what his account before that was though, I think he said somewhere he was not new to the forum.

But.....how funny you have your brother on here. I only had a friend of mine briefly joining, but deffo no relatives.

[SpaceGuitarist]

magic IP search you mean.

well ChaosFish also had his lil bro here I think (yaz0r?)...
in my case, I was the lil bro.

[Neko]

Originally Posted by SpaceGuitarist

magic IP search you mean.

well ChaosFish also had his lil bro here I think (yaz0r?)...
in my case, I was the lil bro.

Handy for finding siblings or sockpuppets ^^

[Polaris]

yaz0r is Chaosfish's brother ?


Sh*t like this is why I feel too young as member, even though I registered 12 years ago

[Reek]

yaz0r isn't CF's brother ffs


his brother was iReeb or something like that iirc

[Neko]

Originally Posted by Reek

yaz0r isn't CF's brother ffs


his brother was iReeb or something like that iirc

I could ip check ^^

[xesf]

Did met yaz0r end of last year in San Francisco. Did not had a chance to meet Fishos yet, but yeah his brother is iReeb, name Beeri.

[CS2x]

Originally Posted by Neko

Well you want to be an influencer, recognized artist yes? That was the question?

As I see it, and considering what you guys all said you have two ways:

1. the version where you commit to broadly one style, make consistent work that is recognizable, has a target audience and hits the right 'snare' (this is such a dutch expression i guess.....didn't realize it doesn't translate, lol) for that audience. This is the easy blue pill of the matrix. Still hard to be sucessfull as you got to be GOOD in the actual genre and there is competition.

2. go the mike oldfield way.
He got famous for creating something new. Tubular bells = his gem, his most personal and his favourite and most non compromising work (save amarok) which in fact created a whole new audience. He is the type of dude that can write a new album which may be pop, next his album is ambient and all sound totally different. Fans like him for him. He is his own style.

This is the hard version and difficult to achieve. You basically need to have an album or a song that somehow magically connects to people and stands out.

However, even then you get people who keep comparing your new work to that original break through. Mike always got fans complaining about his first 3 albums, and he even went back a zillion times to tubular bells in order to keep succes.

Hi Jess. Thanks for your two posts! It's interesting you brought up Mike Oldfield; I have all his albums and like many of them (less so the 'pop' end of things though.) I do find it amazing how 'Tubular Bells' became so successful. He is one example where the more interesting work achieved the larger degree of success, at least initially. My favourite of his work is the first four albums. But even more than those, above and beyond all his releases, I love Amarok. It's interesting to me that Amarok was his very worst selling release of all; I (and many of his listeners who actually bothered to listen to it) think it's brilliant, and at the time represented a real return to form. So Mike Oldfield is an interesting case, in that at different times he proves all our points.

It's true what you say about sound-design-based music not having a big market, but again there's weird exceptions that operate on their own playing field. And it usually seems connected with outside factors. I don't know if you're aware of the UK band Autechre, but they now make some of the most out-there, mind-bending, warped music. Many people wouldn't even consider it music because it's so extreme (I like it though, and can hear a lot of work goes into it.) But anyway: because they got big in the early 90s with much more accessible stuff and ended up as part of a 'scence', they can today literally live off making the strangest music, since they have the weight of reputation and a hardcore contingent backing them. In a recent interview, however, they admitted that if they were just coming out now with their current output, "literally nobody would give a s*** about" what they do. There's a few others like them who somehow have achieved a fairly high degree of popularity making some pretty extreme material. Again, their stories prove (and also disproves) all our points in a strange way.

I would say a key is to never give up. I think that's a good rule to follow regardless of outcome, but even that has pitfalls. Sometimes constantly outputting 'comes across' worse - as in, the more you share, the more downhill everything seems to go in terms of outside interest and the less traction there is. This is partly because of likes, listens and other stats that are visible to all (if your band page has you posting endless tracks with little response, it will obviously put people off, since people seem to like investing in that which already has 'validation'.) I saw that happen to a band I know, who happen to be excellent - but with every release they put out and with every bit of increased effort in terms of 'reaching out', no matter how good the material is, there seems to be less and less interest. Some bands do better with the whole 'mystery', put-hardly-anything-out and say nothing approach, because when they do do anything the hype is crazy. But of course that's in exceptional circumstances, and many people put little material out and nobody cares, as one would expect. Hah.

It's true that regular content is probably a good thing, though - and it seems today everyone wants 'in' on something and would prefer informal behind-the-scenes footage where they have a sense of 'ownership', or some casual impression of easy connection with the creator - where they can learn techniques for themselves, say, and easily reflect what's being shared back to their own aspirations or practice...As opposed to a more involved, constructed, artistic audio-visual piece that they have to sit down to watch and receive 'as is'. So any 'making of' stuff garners much interest. I know there's exceptions to this, and that it doesn't apply to creators who are already established, but we're talking about 'getting your name out' here!

It's amazing to me how some youtubers make a living off posting videos of them eating different foods. I don't mean videos about cooking or nutrition or whatever, because popularity there is easier for some of us to understand; I literally mean a clip of someone eating food, with not much more to it. There is no attempt in there to make anything 'beyond' roughly capturing the event, there is nothing 'constructed' about the affair: it's just clips of the people eating, and sometimes talking about (though not in culinary depth), food and normal life-stuff. Obviously there is a backstory here, some connection that made them 'blow up', but really these are interesting postmodern times we live in, where that which is raw, simple, quick, easily accessible/making no pretence to be anything beyond an act in and of itself - that seems to garner some real success. Perhaps it's one reason some electronic musicians go down the route of doing videos 'demoing' gear more than they make music.
On a semi-related note: a bassist I know who makes very strange music achieved success (within that small world of solo bass music!) because he has an outgoing, 'loud' personality and has lots of 'making of videos' and consistently outputs clips about gear and music creation. The videos are educational and entertaining. In his case it translated to interest in his actual music too. I usually prefer the whole 'faceless techno'/minimalist thing from the 90s (not that I usually like techno all that much - but in terms of presenting the music), but I'm not sure how well that works now - and at least in this bassist's case, his perspectives are thought out and he's open minded.
Anyway, those are some rambling thoughts an observations. It could all be irrelevant!

PS - I will share some of the more melodic material with you for sure. It may have to be a private link, since usually I have done that stuff for media contexts - although my last release was actually more about melodics than usual, inspired by 70s electronic/space music. But it still might be a bit on the wacky side. https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/...culptor-galaxy

[SpaceGuitarist]

Originally Posted by CS2x

Anyway, those are some rambling thoughts an observations. It could all be irrelevant!

Not at all irrelevant, CS2x, loved all your detailed answers in this thread, this is surely relevant reading material to which I'll constantly get back to read.