Less talk, more action

You know, sometimes the hardest part of being an artist, in this day and age, is that it's so easy to get caught up in the promotion, marketing, blogging, and talking about what we do that we sometimes forget to do it. Make art that is.

For the do-it-yourselfers, there is a lot to do ourselves and if we're not careful we can end up chasing the wrong rabbit. I mean, it's great that we learn how to market the art that we make, in fact, it's a necessity. Have you ever caught yourself relating more to marketers than artists though? I know I have. That's why I've taken the last couple of weeks off from, not just this blog, but most all of my non art related pursuits. It's part of the self evaluation process I talked about a while back.

What am i doing right? What am I doing wrong? What's working and what's not? Am I digging myself into a hole or am I getting done the things that are important. I mean, the last thing I want to do is look up one morning and realize that I don't have anything to market.

Yep, sometimes it's good to just shut up and plug in the guitar, set up the easel, wet the clay, or fire up the forge. You know, whatever it is you do to express your inner god or goddess. Your tribute to the Muse. Your own unique view of the world and it's inhabitants.

It's important to talk about what we do, but it's soooooo much more important to just do it.

Later,

What do THEY know anyway?

I found this to be pretty interesting. It appears that music fans just don't really care what the critics have to say anymore.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories_old/070808critics

What does this mean for us? Well, it means that nothing has really changed. I believe that most Indies have always held the belief that our music speaks for itself, we don't really need the approval of music critics or reviewers to help move people to listen to us. Leave the pandering to the Major Label acts, we have a better tactic.

As "small time" acts, we have the opportunity to connect with the people who love our music in a way that Major Label artists can't. One on one. As is mentioned in the article above, a grassroots approach can be just what the doctor ordered. Though, with the ability to market via social networking sites, such as Myspace and Facebook, it has become not only easier to build fanbases, but also harder to stand out from the crowd. We need to innovate new and better ways to be noticed, and heard. What will you do to stand apart?