i actually somehow managed 250 hits yesterday. that's a lot of hits. i've been trolling weird al...
i'm
sort of skeptical. i think maybe youtube might have given me back the
hits they stole. i'll find out when the stats update. a few hours...
i'm
not naive. i know people don't sell records over youtube or bandcamp.
i'm really surprised bandcamp is still running, actually.
i think i'm hoping that if i can generate enough traffic it may generate enough interest to get a distribution deal in place.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
i knew this was going to be a long process when i decided on it, but it seems to be working. that's growth month over month since i put the youtube site up at the beginning of the year. keep in mind that there's another week in july, so the curve will be up by the end of the month. i'm projecting a nice growth rate that is leveling off around 1.2.
i don't know how long i'll be able to maintain that growth rate. but, if it continues a few more months i can start expecting over 100 hits a day. if it continues to this time next year, i can expect closer to 200 hits a day. that's a lot of hits, and i'm skeptical myself, but the approach i'm using is additive so it's not out of the question.
see, here's the thing: i understand that youtube hits are not a measure of legitimate interest but a measure of marketing reach. people with a million youtube hits don't have a million fans, they have a million-hit marketing apparatus behind them. i'm an independent artist, so i'm mostly relying on trolling youtube to generate hits.
it's actually a win-win because i produce the kinds of comments that people like: smart and provocative. they generate responses and keep people engaged.
but, it's a numbers game - especially with the nature of the sound. get as many hits as i can and hope a few are interested, sort of thing.
i've had a few videos go down, but most of the comments will remain in place permanently. well, all of the comments will remain in place so long as the videos are up. so, the more comments i produce, the more hits i generate. or, so goes the logic. the growth can't be permanent. but, looking at the growth that i'm getting, i have every reason to think the bar is potentially set quite high.
and that's what i wanted. i'm mostly marketing my oldest stuff right now because i'm still "only" generating about 70 hits a day. it'll be another three months before i even get to my second demo, and then another seven after that before i get to what i'd consider more substantial recordings.
if the growth rate keeps up, i could be generating upwards of 200 hits a day *when i start promoting my more meaningful work*.
the idea was to emulate the kind of marketing that used to exist in the 80s, before everything got bought out. word of mouth growth, slowly, over time. one of the great things about this, and one of the reasons the 80s produced such a wealth of substantial underground music, is that it allows the artists to evolve as they're generating an audience. by slowly building up to my more mature works, i'm also emulating that artistic evolution.
i guess this post is bragging that my evil plan is actually working. i'm a bit of a bond villain...
i don't know how long i'll be able to maintain that growth rate. but, if it continues a few more months i can start expecting over 100 hits a day. if it continues to this time next year, i can expect closer to 200 hits a day. that's a lot of hits, and i'm skeptical myself, but the approach i'm using is additive so it's not out of the question.
see, here's the thing: i understand that youtube hits are not a measure of legitimate interest but a measure of marketing reach. people with a million youtube hits don't have a million fans, they have a million-hit marketing apparatus behind them. i'm an independent artist, so i'm mostly relying on trolling youtube to generate hits.
it's actually a win-win because i produce the kinds of comments that people like: smart and provocative. they generate responses and keep people engaged.
but, it's a numbers game - especially with the nature of the sound. get as many hits as i can and hope a few are interested, sort of thing.
i've had a few videos go down, but most of the comments will remain in place permanently. well, all of the comments will remain in place so long as the videos are up. so, the more comments i produce, the more hits i generate. or, so goes the logic. the growth can't be permanent. but, looking at the growth that i'm getting, i have every reason to think the bar is potentially set quite high.
and that's what i wanted. i'm mostly marketing my oldest stuff right now because i'm still "only" generating about 70 hits a day. it'll be another three months before i even get to my second demo, and then another seven after that before i get to what i'd consider more substantial recordings.
if the growth rate keeps up, i could be generating upwards of 200 hits a day *when i start promoting my more meaningful work*.
the idea was to emulate the kind of marketing that used to exist in the 80s, before everything got bought out. word of mouth growth, slowly, over time. one of the great things about this, and one of the reasons the 80s produced such a wealth of substantial underground music, is that it allows the artists to evolve as they're generating an audience. by slowly building up to my more mature works, i'm also emulating that artistic evolution.
i guess this post is bragging that my evil plan is actually working. i'm a bit of a bond villain...
geez, i'm really working my hands out this summer. that's ok, i obviously need it.
i'm three different types of guitarist. i did take some classical lessons, and there's a lot of stuff in my discography that is either performed on a nylon guitar with fingers or creatively utilizes chord shapes that are common in classical music but are not often found in blues-based music (pro-tip: that's actually how john lennon got his idiosyncratic guitar sound: he used classical chords in blues music. fucking honkies, right? well, it was ukelele chords. same thing. and, it's sort of what sonic youth did, too, in a round about way, by using weird tunings.). and, my lead playing is very blues-based.
but, my songwriting is very punk rock. almost everything i've ever listened to is some kind of punk rock, and almost everything i've ever written on a guitar is some kind of punk rock.
i used to spend hours thrashing along to bad religion and offspring records. people have this dumb idea of punk rock as being easy to play on guitar, because they associate showmanship with musicianship. it always has been a smokescreen. johnny ramone was moving his right hand every bit as quickly as van halen was, it's just that he was playing very fast chords instead of very fast notes. if you break it down to the physics of it, it's really no less difficult to do. we just have this very silly perception of the whole thing.
i haven't played chords that fast in quite a while, and the song absolutely requires them. i'm going to drive my neighbours nuts practicing it....
that's actually something you're going to notice in the next batch of material. the work i did with the singer in 01 and 02 was much more song oriented, which brought my punk guitar roots out. there's a lot of really unusual syncopation going on.
it actually used to drive him nuts, because it would throw him off on the timing. i can do all kinds of weird things and get back to the one, because i'm a musician, and musicians can do that. he didn't have any musical background, so what he really needed was some kind of a click track to stay in time (we never used them, though, i'd just cut his vocals up afterwards).
i'm three different types of guitarist. i did take some classical lessons, and there's a lot of stuff in my discography that is either performed on a nylon guitar with fingers or creatively utilizes chord shapes that are common in classical music but are not often found in blues-based music (pro-tip: that's actually how john lennon got his idiosyncratic guitar sound: he used classical chords in blues music. fucking honkies, right? well, it was ukelele chords. same thing. and, it's sort of what sonic youth did, too, in a round about way, by using weird tunings.). and, my lead playing is very blues-based.
but, my songwriting is very punk rock. almost everything i've ever listened to is some kind of punk rock, and almost everything i've ever written on a guitar is some kind of punk rock.
i used to spend hours thrashing along to bad religion and offspring records. people have this dumb idea of punk rock as being easy to play on guitar, because they associate showmanship with musicianship. it always has been a smokescreen. johnny ramone was moving his right hand every bit as quickly as van halen was, it's just that he was playing very fast chords instead of very fast notes. if you break it down to the physics of it, it's really no less difficult to do. we just have this very silly perception of the whole thing.
i haven't played chords that fast in quite a while, and the song absolutely requires them. i'm going to drive my neighbours nuts practicing it....
that's actually something you're going to notice in the next batch of material. the work i did with the singer in 01 and 02 was much more song oriented, which brought my punk guitar roots out. there's a lot of really unusual syncopation going on.
it actually used to drive him nuts, because it would throw him off on the timing. i can do all kinds of weird things and get back to the one, because i'm a musician, and musicians can do that. he didn't have any musical background, so what he really needed was some kind of a click track to stay in time (we never used them, though, i'd just cut his vocals up afterwards).
actually, i just listened to the three guitar tracks i saved and
let me just say that the samples will be....minimal. i don't know what i
was thinking working with that guy in the first place. sounds like he's
been playing for two weeks. i'm not sure there's a point in bothering.
but, i'm glad i have what i'm going to call my angularity back. you don't really lose the dexterity. you could pick up a van halen piece after not playing for five years and get it back in a few hours. it's more the mental aspect of the instrument that fades a little. meaning, it would be hard to write a king crimson song after a long period of guitar inactivity (although less difficult to play one, if you can remember it).
it explains why players like billy corgan go through these long periods that make it sound like they've lost it. people blame the lack of acid. i just think he stopped playing his instrument, and lost his proficiency.
when you reduce your guitar to a tool that you only pick up when you want to gain something from it, that's when you lose it. your guitar's gotta be your friend if you want to get anything out of it.
with corgan, i think if somebody could convince him to sit in his room and rebuild that relationship...
there's bits and pieces of it here and there in his later work, like he rediscovers it for a week and then gets bored of it again. he seems to have gone years without really seriously playing. a guy like that is looking for something that doesn't exist. his head's out of it, in the clouds, looking for meaning.
i want to avoid saying he grew out of it or something, because one does not outgrow the guitar. one may trick themselves into thinking there's more to life, but that's indicative of a lack of maturity, not a sign of it. it's a shame.
other people that have to work for a living lose the time they need. that's been more my problem. but i'm glad i'm out of that loop.
ok, so i'm going to get started on this....
but, i'm glad i have what i'm going to call my angularity back. you don't really lose the dexterity. you could pick up a van halen piece after not playing for five years and get it back in a few hours. it's more the mental aspect of the instrument that fades a little. meaning, it would be hard to write a king crimson song after a long period of guitar inactivity (although less difficult to play one, if you can remember it).
it explains why players like billy corgan go through these long periods that make it sound like they've lost it. people blame the lack of acid. i just think he stopped playing his instrument, and lost his proficiency.
when you reduce your guitar to a tool that you only pick up when you want to gain something from it, that's when you lose it. your guitar's gotta be your friend if you want to get anything out of it.
with corgan, i think if somebody could convince him to sit in his room and rebuild that relationship...
there's bits and pieces of it here and there in his later work, like he rediscovers it for a week and then gets bored of it again. he seems to have gone years without really seriously playing. a guy like that is looking for something that doesn't exist. his head's out of it, in the clouds, looking for meaning.
i want to avoid saying he grew out of it or something, because one does not outgrow the guitar. one may trick themselves into thinking there's more to life, but that's indicative of a lack of maturity, not a sign of it. it's a shame.
other people that have to work for a living lose the time they need. that's been more my problem. but i'm glad i'm out of that loop.
ok, so i'm going to get started on this....
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