Getting Known?

[GhostXb]

Hi!

So I've been producing music for almost seven years now, and I have a very small following. My Soundcloud page has 13 followers. I'm not saying that I'm incredibly talented or anything, and that I deserve more followers, I just never put the effort into making a name for myself. What I typically do is just make a song when I have the inspiration to do so, then just upload it to my Soundcloud and see what happens.

I've contributed to the last two charity albums that we did, and I've been continually learning a lot. The past year has been a real break through for me, I finally feel like I"m creating the kind of music that I want. Of course, I still have a long way to go.

I'm working on my first album, and I want it to be successful. I don't want it to just fade away into obscurity after uploading it. I just got out of a rather depressing few months, and while the worst is over, I still have a lot of challenges ahead of me. However, no matter how depressed I feel, or how stressed I am, I always feel comfortable making music.

I want my music to do for other people, what making it did for me. I'm looking to release my first album in December. What can I do to make it successful? Any advice is welcome, and thanks in advance!

(Also, its mostly non-pony, however, there are a few pony songs in there, and who knows, with season three starting tomorrow, I might be inspired to make more!)

[Motivfs]

Well, from what I heard, atleast from Zedd, is that he said that to become famous/more well known, you would need to remix first off, making originals will not get you out there as effectively as remixes.

Typically, if you do plan to remix, do it with top 50 material, you don't have to stick to this area, but try to stick around with what's popular, and post it on soundcloud for sure, YT is a bigger site in general, but there are always people from record labels surfing around soundcloud ALOT. That's where you mainly want your focus.

I'm not too sure if this is the kind of "Popularity" you are looking for, but I'd assume it can somewhat relate regardless.

[ChocolateChicken]

I can understand why you'd want your first album to be successful, but I have to ask, if it doesn't turn out that way, then so what? You've made it clear in your post that you love to make music and that it makes you feel comfortable, so I think that success shouldn't even be a concern of yours. What I'm trying to say is that I don't think you should ever worry about becoming known, popular, or successful, as long as you make music that you love.

But some advice: Why not wait until you do become more popular to release the album? This would also give you plenty of time to update the quality of your album as time goes on before its release, if there is room for such improvements.

[Peak Freak]

...

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Honestly besides promotion and albums and stuff, the best way is just to keep making music. I have made it into one album, made two terrible remixes that no one listened to, and I have 15 followers. (Not counting my 5 friends that follow me cuz that's cheating) I will try to make remixes, get on more albums and stuff, and get promoted, etc., but I really think the best way is too keep on pushing and building your portfolio. Just remember this: the larger fan base you have, the faster it will grow.

[bartekko]

Honestly besides promotion and albums and stuff, the best way is just to keep making music. I have made it into one album, made two terrible remixes that no one listened to, and I have 15 followers. (Not counting my 5 friends that follow me cuz that's cheating) I will try to make remixes, get on more albums and stuff, and get promoted, etc., but I really think the best way is too keep on pushing and building your portfolio. Just remember this: the larger fan base you have, the faster it will grow.

we take the "making music part" as a default mean for being a musician. I've been making music for over a year, and honestly, the only "major" hops in my career (+30 subscribers-like) were when my music was featured on EQD, and that was once and a half time.
Though it is true about "the larger fanbase you have, the faster it grows". There seems to be a breaking point where you start to get subscribers like a daily wage around 1000YouTubeSubscribers

[itroitnyah]

Peak Freak has the right idea. Promote yourself. And bro, no matter how much it sounds like attention whoring, just do it. Find more forums to post to that are made for musicians. mylittleremix is just a small place, so that won't get you very far. Try other forums like the one from boyinaband.com. That's the only other one that I really know about, but I'm sure that by searching you'll find more. gearslutz.com is there to help with out with all the oddball questions you have with music, although I can't really find a forum section on there for reviewing music.

PARTICIPATE IN CONTESTS. That is one of the best ways to get promoted, especially if you get a good ranking on the contest. Alex S remixed the Skrillex and Damien Marley - Make It Bun Dem track as part of a contest, I think. He ranked fairly well, and I think his follower count went up a bit. I don't pay close enough attention to his follower count. ArtAttack remixed a different song as part of an underground dj competition, or something like that and placed 5th.

remix already popular tracks. Remixing is another way to gain popularity fairly quickly. Some of Glaze's most popular tracks are remixes, and I think that without them, he wouldn't be quite as popular as he is today.

Collaborate with other artists. Another way to gain popularity quickly, depending on how popular the artist you're collaborating with is.

Make music as part of a fandom. Which, if you've created pony tracks before, you're already doing this. People are definitely more likely to investigate a song if it has pinkie pie for the art, then if it had a car. If Alex S hadn't make the CMC dubstep remix that basically started the whole pony music fad, he wouldn't be nearly as popular as he would be now. Same goes for his Party with Pinkie.

Find blogs that work on the basis of EqD, but are more oriented toward featuring music than anything else. Chances are, people visit these blogs, so even if a very small amount visit these blogs, like 100 people or so, your music will still get more views.

There are many many more things you can do to earn popularity, and these are just a few of those things, but these are the ones that, imho, will work the best.

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Ugh, what was the name of that promotion tumblr? I was going to link to it.

[Orange]

The number one thing to getting a good following is always, and always be to have good music. To have good music means it's that much easier to promote yourself, and you can let your music do more of the talking than yourself. Make it good enough and people will feel the need to start their own buzz. I know, for example, that I myself have ~85 followers on soundcloud, and I can only assume it's because of the music. The most I've done promotion wise is send a soundcloud link to some friends, and the rest just followed suit. I followed about 30 of my friends, used dropbox to get critique.

But, if you know your music is ready for promotion, then the best way is to just get lots of people (that are into your kinda stuff) to see it. Post of forums, start organizing your social networks, do what everyone else said above, but most importantly, make sure you don't let people down once you build up the hype and the fan base.

[Freewave]

Good music is the key. Original music is fine but if you're catering to a brony audience, of course have your music pony related. That's crucial. If you only have a soundcloud then GET a youtube account and release tracks on there as you'll see almost twice as large an audience and you'll also be able to get your tracks at least spotlighted by EQD. Also submit your album there when it's released. Again while you shouldn't slap a pony on a non-pony track you should try to get appropriate pony images on whatever you do so that it is viewable as a pony track AND looks like something they'd want to click on. Many artists will allow you to use their artwork so ask and get permission to make that a reality. If you care about the music and how you promote it (images, videos, and finding way to promote it) you can get grow a fanbase although keep in mind there's a LOTof people also doign the same. Don't forget your fellow musicians are just as important to "win over" as non-musicians so keep them in mind and get more involved in community events and listening to their work as much as promoting your own.

[itroitnyah]

Ugh, what was the name of that promotion tumblr? I was going to link to it.

The mlp-promotions tumblr? That tumblr isn't exactly the best place to promote yourself, from what I remember from about 2 months ago or so. The person(s) who runs it posts tons of content everyday. TONS. I got featured on there, but there wasn't any difference between if I had or hadn't been featured, because of how much he posts. I checked to see how many notes some of his features would get, and the pictures he featured would get around 5, maybe 15 if it was really good. The average piece of music that would get featured would hit around 3-5 notes. Mine didn't get any notes after about a week or so. I'll have to check out that blog later to see if he's slowed down on how much he posts.

Not saying that you SHOULDN'T submit your stuff there, just from my experience, there wasn't much change between featured and unfeatured

[Freewave]

^It's a nice blog but it's not goign to be a big impact on views. It will be a tiny boost and al ittle something always helps. Getting even a daily spotlight from EQD on your youtube might net you 1,000 views which you didnt' have before . With that always comes a chance for subs & favs. If you can get on there regularly and make people WANT to subscribe to you expect for those who favorite your videos and their friends who see their feed check out yout videos more and more as you continue. Again tho, every bit of promotion that you do can help a little.

Get on BMD below once you have enough of a "resume" put together so others can look up your profiles. Again every little feature can help.

[Lavender_Harmony]

One thing I haven't seen covered here yet is networking. I feel this is more important than promotion in the long term, as networking with like-minded musicians, in this community and outwith, will always have its advantages. Those people have the contacts, they have the number of a singer who's looking to work with someone else, they have the means to channel your music through their fans and give you exposure. Never underestimate the power of networking. Even if you send out 100 CDs to 100 labels, go to a networking event of 1000 and only come out with two new contacts, those will mean something later on.

It really all depends on how you want to progress. If you want to make a career, look down alternate paths for your music, look into commercial viability, stock libraries, production companies etc, and keep making songs, album music, as a hobby, and keep firing that off, and you might get lucky. If you want to be well known just for the fun of it, just keep going and putting yourself out there. Of course, you can DJ, play your tracks and get known that way, but al the above, promotion, networking and general self exposure is the key.

Lastly, a tip. Go find a very specific band you've never heard of in a pretty niche genre, and note down how you got there. Then find something moderately popular and compare those two paths. If you want found, that's the progression a fan would eventually go through to find you.

[GhostXb]

Wow, I wasn't expecting so many replies XD! Thanks everyone, it's all very good advice. I most certainly will put a lot more effort into promoting myself. I feel like I've been holding myself back, but I'm ready to put the work in!

[Aoshi]

Some things I've learned in 12 years of the underground scene.

Post everywhere. Simply posting consistently (once every two weeks, even without a song) and interacting with what small group of fans I have on YouTube has caused my follower count to steadily rise without any networking.

Worldly ear candy. Not everyone is on the internet. This pony music is fascinating and fun to those not familiar. Take in some physical cd samplers with the first song having your best, most clever hook to local indie music venues or hottopics and drop them in the black flyer they have there. Ask them to play it if they get a chance.

Remix popular work (already covered above). A lot of my recognition was gained through Linkin Park and Nine Inch Nail remixes.

Quality over quantity. Fans tell me to spend more time on my work and I believe it. If you look at the original Alex S. video for Party with Pinkie Pie he claims it took him 53 hours to create it. He doesn't have many songs at all, but all of them are massive because he spends so much time on them.

Don't go with the spam approach (BUY SOME APPLES) under any circumstance (nobody wants to be forced to go to your work over and over again) but never be afraid that you're acting pretentious to tag your friends in your video for them to see.

[TheDNRproject]

A lot of getting fans is making what people want. Look at Makkon for instance; he has about 8,000 subs on youtube. Now look at Alex S., Glaze, Omnipony; they have tons of subs. These people are not necessarily better than Makkon, but they make electronic music and he makes orchestral.

[Lavender_Harmony]

A lot of getting fans is making what people want. Look at Makkon for instance; he has about 8,000 subs on youtube. Now look at Alex S., Glaze, Omnipony; they have tons of subs. These people are not necessarily better than Makkon, but they make electronic music and he makes orchestral.

Actually that's irrelevant. The reason those people are more well known is due to them being around at an early date, but nowadays due to over saturation of all genres, recognition within the community in any large way is impossible.

[itroitnyah]

A lot of getting fans is making what people want. Look at Makkon for instance; he has about 8,000 subs on youtube. Now look at Alex S., Glaze, Omnipony; they have tons of subs. These people are not necessarily better than Makkon, but they make electronic music and he makes orchestral.

Actually that's irrelevant. The reason those people are more well known is due to them being around at an early date, but nowadays due to over saturation of all genres, recognition within the community in any large way is impossible.

I'm pretty sure that making a mainstream genre like dubstep would get you popular faster than if you made orchestral. Not anything against lesser known or non-mainstream genres, their music is pretty good too, but people generally choose to listen to a genre that they already like over a genre that they don't view as their favorite. However, you're right in that there is a ton of saturation in all the genres, so becoming popular, which is what many people made/make music within the fandom to do, is impossible or really hard.

[Lavender_Harmony]

A lot of getting fans is making what people want. Look at Makkon for instance; he has about 8,000 subs on youtube. Now look at Alex S., Glaze, Omnipony; they have tons of subs. These people are not necessarily better than Makkon, but they make electronic music and he makes orchestral.

Actually that's irrelevant. The reason those people are more well known is due to them being around at an early date, but nowadays due to over saturation of all genres, recognition within the community in any large way is impossible.

I'm pretty sure that making a mainstream genre like dubstep would get you popular faster than if you made orchestral. Not anything against lesser known or non-mainstream genres, their music is pretty good too, but people generally choose to listen to a genre that they already like over a genre that they don't view as their favorite. However, you're right in that there is a ton of saturation in all the genres, so becoming popular, which is what many people made/make music within the fandom to do, is impossible or really hard.

I make both orchestral and mainstream, hasn't boosted my popularity in the significant amounts you're suggesting. It doesn't matter what sort of music you make.

[Gray Ham]

I think getting known around communities and following people is a good way to get follows (not necessarily following everybody). I've followed a lot of people on SoundCloud for the quality of their music/for being friends of mine. Doing those two things has given me ~75 followers, and my music (to be blunt) is shit.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

From what you guys are saying, I feel swayed to remix some songs. As long as I don't remix Rainbow Factory...

[Captain Ironhelm]

I also have to disagree that orchestral brings less crowd than electronic automatically. I follow some very not well-known synth masters that have nowhere near the following of some of the orchestral artists I follow.

Most importantly you've gotta continually get better at what you do. Don't do something you don't love. Even if you hit it off, what good would it be to have built something up for yourself that you don't like?

[GhostXb]

I'm also in the process of learning animation, video effects, and refining my art skills, hopefully some nice video visuals will help me when I start uploading to youtube

[K3WRO]

Just remember, Success is not easy, you need to work hard, never give up, only give up if you don't like doing it.

If your AMAZING *cough Kyoga cough*, people might start discussing you like it's a cool thing, your content might be shared between people if your just Great, Even Companies might look up to promote you

I don't care if I'm not known, Music is my hobby, I like it, it takes my stress, It's just fun to do even when it's hard work, I like to impress people, and learn how to be better from doing more.

[GhostXb]

Well here's a preview of the album I'm putting together, includes some older songs, and some newer ones that I haven't released yet. I plan on making more, and I also have other songs that I wasn't sure would fit with he feel of this album.

http://soundcloud.com/ghostxb/album-preview

What you think? Good enough?