If you wrote it…
You’ve finished your recording, packaged everything, made your distribution agreements and are ready to sell your album. You know it’s going to be the next great hit.
But sales are slow. You’re wondering if you’re doing the right thing, because you don’t see any progress at all. You’re thinking about giving up music all together and getting a real job.
The best advice for every Indie artist is don’t give up. If you wrote it then it was meant for someone to hear it. Everything in life is based on timing, even someone hearing your music. There are other things that you should be looking at, such as, perfecting your craft and solidifying your support base with people that believe in you.
If you take your mind off of things, then the music will speak for you. In essence, your music is a seed that blooms at the designated time for a group of people to hear it.
If you wrote it…it means someone out there is going to listen! It’s just that time and opportunity have not crossed paths yet and maybe there are some back office things you’ve got to learn before it goes full blast.
So don’t beat yourself up. You don’t know how it’s going to happen. Your responsibility as an artist is to finish the product and not worry about how it’s going to get heard. You may be in a coffee shop and a stranger could walk up to you and in disguise, he could be a finance person willing to finance your music. You just don’t know how success is going to come these days.
Remember, if you wrote it, someone’s gotta hear it!
It can be hard when things aren’t going your way. I’m a writer and designer, and have the same problem - even people who would LIKE your work sometimes have to be in the mood for it.
Anyone who creates has to have a strong will, and a lot of patience - but keep at it, you WILL be appreciated!
Very true and wonderful article. I am sure there are thousands of bands who were at the point of tossing in the towel and letting everything go. I come from a family of musicians, so I know just how difficult it can be. But just think what would have happened if The Beatles decided to give up when things weren’t picking up for them yet. Music would not be the same today.
Yes, Leighdu, you’re absolutely right when you say that perservance is a key element in a musician’s ability to “sink or swim,” as it were.
I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, a musician - unless you care to count my three and a half years in two schools’ singing groups, but I am a writer (of sorts) and know how tough it is to keep plugging away and plugging away at something, and sometimes getting naught for the effort. Either an idea fails to jell or pan out, or websites cease to exist, or writer’s block sets in, but I’d be nowhere right now if not for two things, support from friends and perserverance.
And yikes! The music world without “Hey Jude,” “I Am the Walrus,” or “Eleanor Rigby?” Yikes!
There are certain points in life when things are not going the way you want, at such junctures of life this sweet kind of advice can be of great help.I have really liked the idea of the article where the author says that “If you take your mind off of things, then the music will speak for you”. This is so very true.Do your things well they are surely to be appreciated one fine day.
I so much agree with your point here. It is always good to get publicity in as much as being famous is concern. Many people do not understand how a own record or written songs mean a lot.