Big thanks to Audio Acres for inviting me to give their new room a test run with my new song! Thanks to Bob Wittersheim & Alan Black for inviting me to the new recording room in Chelsea, MI.
I’ve been sick on the couch most of the weeknd. While watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Netflix, I compiled a list of the top 500 artists on Spotify played this weekend:
- The list of the top 500 changes a bit day to day.
- Most country stars don’t making the list of top 500, floating between 1 million to 1.8 million listeners a month, and an act needs close to 2 million listeners to break the global 500.
- Youtubers Boyce Avenue and Kina Grannis, while not in the top 500, are close; and have more monthly listeners than many of the top country stars. Country might be popular on the United States radio waves, but it’s not global like EDM.
- How is the Offspring a top 500 artist, but other 90s acts like Soundgarden not? I guess that Round Hill purchase of their catalogue makes sense.
Not surprising:
- The Voice hosts are making the list, but their winning acts never get close.
- The Beatles keep rising in rank and in monthly listeners by day.
- Nick Drake has more monthly listeners than Jim Croce this weekend. (Neither are in the top 500, though.)
- Tom Petty isn’t on the list, probably because his catalogue is broken into two separate artists.
If I find myself burned out, it’s usually because I’ve took on more than I could chew, or didn’t allow myself enough time to plan.
A recording project of an acoustic song becoming an epic production; a lesson plan that seems great on paper becoming 20 hours of grading; an excitement to tour taking me from Terre Haute to Johnson City in three days…It’s easy to blame the art form, but often it’s the approach that causes a flame to fade.
I interviewed Josh Harty, and he offered some similar advice for the Folk Alliance first-timer: “Touring. Don’t start too big or grandiose. Concentric circles around your base and keep working outward. If you keep going where nobody knows you and playing shitty shows where no one cares, your touring days are numbered. You need to keep up morale in my opinion.”
Martin Atkins gives this motto a strategy: the flower pedal, or five pointed inward attack:
It’s not the gatekeepers, but those at the gate (FAI Tip #3)
Music conferences are often seen as ways to get to gate keepers, but it’s the folks joining you at the gate that might be more important.
I asked my favorite songwriters, who are experienced Folk Alliance conference attendees, for tips when attending a music conference. Every one of them emphasized the role of community:
Brad Cole: “It’s probably more important to find chemistry with other artists than it is to stalk bookers.”
Josh Rose: “I have befriended some wonderful people through the Folk Conference circles: you, Chad Elliot, Heather Styka, Ben Bedford, and others. The mutual respect comes easily at these conferences and all I have been privy to is collaboration with these folks, not competition.”
Graydon James and Laura Spink from The Young Novelists: “You sit down and have a chat with someone about common interests. Get to know them a little bit. If you’re looking to have a career in music, you have to build relationships because it makes sense, not because someone is trying to take advantage of a situation. Maybe someday you will work together, maybe not, but that’s not even really important at this stage. Just meeting and getting to know each other a bit is the best thing.”
Andrew McKnight: “Small investments in making people feel appreciated in some way, and making it easy for others to join them… Leaving a trail of positive interactions wherever you go will surely build a more sustainable foundation for the decades of your career yet to come.” (From his essay in the book: Killing It in the Streaming Age.)
And here are some habits that might help from Camela Widad:
“I learned early on that business – for me – was about meeting people[…]I’m not so good with names, but I’m good with stories. After I meet someone, get their card, I immediately write down what stuck out for me about them. Some people I may work with, some I may not; but when I go back home to 100 or more business cards, flyers, and personal notes in my journal, those little bits I wrote down jog my memory. I contact everyone I’ve met with a personal note to thank them, remind them of who I am and how we met.I still have cards from 5 years ago and remember who someone is from my notes.”
* * * *
Al Kniola, radio DJ at 88.1 FM WVPE, sums it up well: “networking with your fellow artists is invaluable.” Attending music conferences is expensive, but there is an opportunity to find value in the songwriters standing in the corners of the rooms.
An immediate bond is formed quickly between traveling musicians. We’ve been bitten by the same bug; and one with the sickness understands you!
Someone from Iran listened to my music this month
If the Spotify data is accurate, someone from Iran listened to my music this month. A music listener from Gostar, a village that had a population of 89 people in the 2006 census.
It made my head turn.
But it’s slightly possible, because we are all connected on this world, not just by the Internet, but by our genes, our humanity, our stories.
I can also hypothesize that it is possible because I shared a week tour with songwriter Peyton Tochterman last year.
This is where it gets interesting, how our stories collide: Peyton toured Afghanistan as a cultural ambassador in 2012. He did a concert at the Citadel in Herat with Afghanistan musicians, and the concert was broadcasted on the radio, which spread into parts of Iran. Iranian critics weren’t happy about that. (Peyton told me a story how he’s blacklisted from Iran!)
“Critics in neighboring Iran were somewhat less gratifying. The Iranian press described our music as “dangerous” and “evil.” – Peyton
I met Peyton in 2013 at the SERFA (Folk Alliance) conference, and we planned to share some shows together; two years later that tour finally happened.
So here we are. Maybe an Iranian listener found my music through Peyton’s.
It’s also possibly an error. I didn’t think Spotify was available in Iran. Either way, it has me thinking about the power of music today. The world is indeed flat, which make Peyton’s quote stand out:
“What difference can a folk singer from the Blue Ridge Mountains make in a tortured place like Afghanistan?” It’s a valid question – partly answered by one of the State Department officers who said our visit did “more for diplomacy between Afghanistan and the United States than any diplomat had done, more then any road that was built, or any power plant that was constructed in the last year.”
Do you know that idea that all actors and actresses are six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon? This is applicable to music and art communities, too; but instead of Kevin Bacon, it might be you.
Go forth, share your art.
