Y’know, it actually sucks that I need a strategy to “market my music”. I mean, shouldn’t I just be able to power up my internet loud hailer and shout “head this way for some interesting music” and have my thousand true fans appear?
Well yeah, that’s how it should be but I’m wearing my big boy pants so I have to square up to the fact that there’s a million or more musicians out there who are also competing for those ears. And a billion memes and TikToks and other junk that are competing for eyes. It’s hard to capture people’s attention.
So I’m doing a thing. A number of things, actually.
One of those things is this website. I’m blogging and opining, meandering and more. Thinking about all the stories I can tell that might help me attract and keep eyeballs.
Another is setting up my adeyjordan YouTube channel. I need to get content up there, get some momentum with new videos so that people might subscribe. And I need subscribers so that when I put out new songs I have an audience that will be waiting, and maybe talking and sharing.
But this sounds like a Catch-22 situation; needing to build an audience before I release new material. However I have a secret weapon: three legacy albums. They were initially released as The Jordans and as Adam Dennis, but I’ve re-released them on all the streaming channels under the adeyjordan flag.
My new YouTube channel has those three albums ready to stream in full, free of charge. The video is just a static image of the album cover, but that’s okay – someone could easily play the entirety of all three albums (Katydid, Hallelujah Mine, and F-35) for the sole purpose of listening. That’s cool, right?
It doesn’t stop there, however. I’ve started creating live action videos for songs on those albums. It’s a lot of fun and a great challenge to put together four minutes of video that meaningfully supports a song… and get it completed in a day or two, before going onto the next one. I’ll start releasing these videos once a fortnight, spruiking them on social media. Maybe some paid advertising too. The objective is to build an audience so that when I release fresh new tunes, people actually hear them!
So that’s The Strategy. I’m just kicking this plan off now, so it’ll take a while. I have more than three albums substantially complete and I’m looking to get people to listen.
That’s it: I want ears more than dollars! Not too much to ask is it?