Connecting the dots

Randomness does not get you very far. If you just do what you feel like, when you feel like, you won’t be getting far as a musician, artist or entrepreneur of any kind (and yes if you are an independent musician you should consider your self an entrepreneur). We see it all the time, people think if you build it they will come. But the fact is they don’t… So many new companies, musician or artists fail because they only concentrate on making something, not getting the word out to the public about what it is that they do.

You need to learn to connect the dots. This is what will change the odds in your favour. You need to become a problem solver at the very basic level. You need to become very good at finding information. And here’s one which some of you will not like, (I know as I hated this aspect years ago, now I love it) you need to read a lot! Read blogs, articles, books, online and offline. Learn every aspect of your field, learn how to get from A to B.

So let’s get in to the specific examples. You might have some kicking tracks. Now how do you get people to listen to them? Your first question should be where do you want people to listen to them. This could be Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify… Or it cloud be several options combined. So go on google and do a search on each of your preferred music services, teach your self how to use them and what are the right and wrong ways of promoting your music on these sites.

Your next step in most cases is to find people who might like your music. You see, having the music online does pretty much nothing. It is up to YOU to drive traffic to those music services. Now go back and repeat that last sentence until it sinks in. People don’t spend their busy life’s looking for random unknown artists online, it is you who need to bring the music to them. These should be your next dots to connect. Social media is your best bet as an unknown artist. So pick a social media site you would like to work in. Again ask google how to build a following and especially the specific kind of following who might be interested in your music. Yes, this information is available, you are not the first one asking these questions 😉

You should get the point by now. Figure out what is the next step you need to take to advance your career. From where you are now to that next step are the two dots you need to connect. Learn how to do this and there will be nothing stopping you.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE