If you were a carpenter and a song was a chair...

[foosnark]

In the words of They Might Be Giants:

If I were a carpenter
I'd hammer on my piglet
I'd collect the seven dollars
And I'd buy a big prosthetic forehead
And wear it on my real head

[jancivil]

The song that sells has a LOT going for it. If you aren't out selling, I mean with a live act do not expect people to care about what you're doing to this extent. There has to be this excitement, this place in a person's world, what it does to validate them, there is something very relatable. And this information is conveyed to a person via strong, even overwhelming marketing. It used to be said, if you want to place in the Top 40, find the particular slot you can replace there.

I had interest in what I did for a very short period where the band's persona, and its individuals' personae, and look was the thing. The music was about that image. But, you're selling tee-shirts and an image. For a whole lot of people, music is as much a jacket, a bumpersticker for your idea of yourself, to project to the world what you want them to see, as it is about the sound.

It's so much worse since the internet and copies - yes, shitty copies, doesn't much matter - disseminated widely.

So this focus on the mode of operation of sales kind of appears to me as putting the cart before the horse. If you want money, basically it's a lot like panhandling, you have to hit people up all the time, play the percentages. "Crowd-funding"; like all of this, you have a presence established. And Herodotus is right, people are selling samples, there's much better money than songs, many well-established artists have figured this one out. But establishing a presence is about being relatable, to what extent can you form an image that appeals. Music for money is a hard row to hoe.

[Jace-BeOS]

snip

Damn dude, though I don't really disagree with anything that was ONE LONG post!

It's indicative of having no life on my part. I got excited because of personal experiences. Everything I've ever done was either too late to get anywhere (the market / business was changing) or I wasn't obsessive about being the best (I'm not remotely competitive). Turning 40 has me reflecting on my life's non-accomplishments. My post was as much telling myself the facts (as I've observed them) as it was about sharing my perception with others.