Welcome
Hello friends and supporters, thank you for visiting my blog. Here I will be posting thoughts and reflections on the current music landscape, in hopes of providing insights to artists like myself. Hope you enjoy!
Living a Double Life: Balancing Art & School
We are all familiar with the classic TV show Hannah Montana, which tells the story of a girl who appears to be nothing more than your average high school student, but in reality is also living a life as a pop star selling out shows. However, people may not realize how to true-to-life this story really is for certain artists. As an artist who has been forced to juggle school with my music career since its inception, I find the Hannah Montana lifestyle may not be quite as glamorous and fun as the show portrayed. Today I will be highlighting a few of my fellow artists who are also attempting to balance their academic and musical careers.
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The first artist I want to highlight is keni can fly, a fellow USD student and good friend of mine. Keni has been making music for as long as he can remember, but really began to blossom as an artist when he got to college and was finally able to record his music in his dorm room. "Before that point I was really just struggling to find a good place to record at," says Keni. "Once I got to USD I realized all I had needed was some privacy to record my music." While he may not have had access to high tech recording studios, this didn't stop Keni from recording countless songs as he found his artistic voice, and acquiring over a million total streams on Spotify in the process. Keni is majoring in visual arts and says that this major has been helpful in allowing him to grow as a visual artist. "For my senior thesis I am working on a music video that will accompany the project I just released," keni tells me. His latest video, 99' Pollen, is out now.
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Next, I want to focus on the artist Lames, a sophomore at San Diego State and longtime friend/collaborator. Lames began making instrumentals on Garageband during high school on a whim before eventually deciding to add his own vocals over them. "I couldn't find anyone to rap over my beats, so I decided to just do it myself," says Lames, "I never expected it would go this far." One of these early tracks was "Crossy Roads," which combines a whimsical harp melody with bouncy trap drums to create a memorable vibe. This track, released in 2019, has gone on to accumulate over 8 million total streams. "It is strange sometimes knowing how popular this song has gotten," Lames tells me. "One time I had a random person in my accounting class tell me that they were a big fan of my song, which felt exciting but also a bit off putting." Lames is currently majoring in business administration and considers music to be a hobby. "Music is my stress relief, but I don't think I want to make it my career at this time," Lames says.
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The last artist I want to highlight is also pursuing a music career while attending school, just not as a student. Hadji Gaviota is a 26 year-old substitute teacher living in the Bronx, who also has released multiple songs with over a million streams on Spotify. Gaviota, who is known for his breathy melodies and earworm hooks, sees his day job as a blessing and a curse. “On one hand, I do wish music was my full time occupation, but at the same time I think it is a great story to be a substitute teacher moonlighting as a rockstar.” Gaviota has made his day job a center point of his social media presence, consistently posting hilarious content that highlights the absurdity of his dual life. "A lot of artists are afraid to post about their day jobs on social media," Gaviota says. "I like to remind supporters that I am just another every day person like them."
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The Best Ways to Promote Your Music in 2022
The landscape of music marketing is an ever-changing one. While it is impossible to be know what is coming next, one thing is for sure: the internet is the best way to promote music in 2022. In this post, I will break down the most effective digital strategies that have worked for me in the past and that I plan to use moving forward to promote my music. Before I begin, it is important to note that different strategies and platforms are better for different artists, depending on your artistic vision. I will attempt to keep my advice as broad as possible so that any artist can gleam some type of useful information from this post.
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The most popular and effective platform for music promotion in 2022 is TikTok. This platform has exploded over the past few years due to its ability to create viral content like no other. Global superstars like Lil Nas X and Lizzo have seen their careers explode overnight due to the app's power, and now thousands of artists are rushing to the platform, hoping to replicate their success. But how does an average small creator stand out among thousands? The key is to combine your own personal brand with current trends when creating content. As a creator, I am always looking for trending content on social media that I can incorporate into my own posts. One page I recommend for finding good content is chooseyoursocial on TikTok. Obviously as an artists we hope to do more than just ride waves and be a flash in the pan, and this does not have to be the case when creating content. The incorporation of current trends in your content, whether it be audio, topic-based, or even a dance, simply works as a hook for the audience. However, the true question is how can you make the content your own? What part of your own personal brand can you incorporate in order to stand out?
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The next method I have used for promoting my music in 2022 is Spotify playlisting. It is no secret that Spotify is the primary place where music is engaged with nowadays. With 433 million active users, the platform is definitely here to stay. There are three main type of playlists on Spotify: algorithmic, editorial, and user-generated. Unfortunately, smaller musicians are usually not privy to editorial playlists, and cannot control whether they are placed on algorithmic ones. However, user-generated playlists can provide artists with lots of exposure. These are playlists that have been created by users just like you and I, and for whatever reason have gained large amounts of followers and engagement. Often times these playlists have the creator's contact information in the description, which you can use to contact the playlist owner and get your song added. There are also popular playlist curators that own a multitude of playlists with large followings. My favorite one of these curators is Masked Mortal. I highly recommend artists reach out to him as he has a wide variety of playlists that could be a home to songs from all genres.
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