No.110
Does anyone here have experience with actually releasing music? I put an album I made on soundcloud a while ago but no one has really listened to it which is unfortunate. Is it common to get more plays/supporters on other platforms? Wondering if it's worth upping to streaming or if I should focus on building a fanbase locally first. (once stuff opens up again, anyways)
No.115
>>110Might be worth offering use of your tracks for free or nominal charge to small developers of videogames, short films, Youtube videos etc? That is where I find a lot of music I end up liking.
No.980
>>3155Nice thread! I don't know anything about gear but I play piano and guitar. I do it for fun, but I'd like to find a way to get dollars from music. Maybe I'll start busking. I like playing blues on piano, and folk on guitar.
Here's a little tune I like to play on guitar. It uses dadgad tuning and is called "Midwinter". Idk who wrote it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_QsQmqLs9gHere's the kind of thing I like to play on piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E02TdInfxpgDo you have any recordings of your playing OP?
No.981
>>3155
nice thread, i play guitar and bass and i'm a huge gear nerd, i play for fun but i am looking forward toplaying gigs
No.982
>>3155
I play a little guitar. Some bar chords are still hard for me and a few strings are always muted.
Also am I just a noob if all I can do is chords and not finger picking and tabs?
No.983
>>3155
Also how does one get better at playing by ear? Is it just a myth?
I’ve been messing around with piano for a month now and I know a few keys that go good together, but don’t know any theory or when I look into it seems too complicated and too much work to get into.
Is it possible to be a good musician by ear only? I’m more interested in playing than doing the basics because I’m too old to start all that shit now and I just want to make some good sounding music
No.984
>>12574
unfortunately yes
No.985
>>12575
m8 work on basic finger exercises and simpler songs. You gotta start somewhere.
No.986
>>3155
Play guitar, have done vocals in metal n punk projects, and have been trying to produce some industrial techno n digital hardcore as of late
No.987
>>12626
I want to learn to sing good, are there any good guides that arent idealist bullshit and based on some science? I dont want to do dumb lip trills that dont teach you shit.
No.988
>>12627
i have the same question
No.989
>>12627>I dont want to do dumb lip trills that dont teach you shit.That's like a boxer who doesn't want to jump rope or do bagwork.
Singing's a physical activity. Your body is your instrument. Lip trills will improve your singing. No excuses, just get on with it anon.
https://youtu.be/PQUo7eimhWA No.990
>>12644
But i already can feel my diaphgram already, i want to learn how to control and direct it to make my singing more powerful and smooth.
Also every time I browse youtube they say some idealost crap like 'use your head voice
'. Isnt all voice from the head wtf.
No.992
>>12655I want to sing like the oldschool 50’s singers that sounded like guys with powerful voices like sinatra and all. I guess I’m mainly looking to understand the main concepts and get some tips that could instantly help my singing. Like in martial arts relaxation and whole body movements is a big concept. Just wondering what the main ones for singing are. I like practicing by diving headfirst and then getting the refining the basics down later
https://youtu.be/VvjWl7lvrnk No.993
>>12721Woops wrong link, like this dude:
https://youtu.be/VTSgGCgpeN0 No.994
>>12627
i also want to learn how to sing good, but my main problem is singing out of tune and i need help on that
No.1116
I was learning for a little while years ago but ended up dropping it. Learned all the chords, knew a range of some strumming patterns but struggled with those, was absolutely terrible at plucking. Got bored of learning how to get better, wrote some truly terrible original songs, then gave up.
I dont regret trying, it was nice.
No.1132
>>1116much easier to play guitar on a keyboard imo, lots of good guitar vst's out there to download
No.1146
I'd be interested to know how you actually became musicians. It's the one thing I just don't really understand how people get into.
I know the tiniest amount of music theory and I'm reasonably good at playing the simplest songs (of the "songbook that comes with $30 keyboard, one note at a time" variety), but I'd expect to understand *why* I don't understand how you make your own music by this point. It's like programming by copy and pasting: I'm hitting keys, the sound is coming out of the instrument, but if you ask me to tell you why it works I draw a blank.
I'm no further ahead with trackers or DAWs or anything, but in that case I suspect it's because I'm completely lacking in confidence when it comes to listening to things. I can draw a picture and immediately assess "yes, this conveys what I wanted to show" even if my art is bad. With music in a tracker I can never tell whether the pattern of notes I've made is pleasing, or if I've simply tuned out how irritating it is. Even then it's too small to be anything but one component of a larger tune, so it feels like drawing what you think is a passable three legged chair in what you intended to be a massive picture of a party.
Yet obviously people are breaking through and know what exactly they're supposed to stick at and practice to get good at it, so there's something I'm missing. Maybe being able to identify each note by ear suddenly makes music as intuitive as visual art. Maybe it all makes more sense if you try to write songs with lyrics with a guitar rather than trying to do instrumentals with a keyboard. I don't know, that's why I'm interested in how you all started.
No.1147
>>1146You're halfway there already. Just find the right chord progression, and repeat
No.3424
God damn, I've been hanging out in siberia, didn't even notice this board.
My setup is weird now. I got a resonator back in 2013, and played it straight for the longest time. Then later I attached a decent piezo and started running it through a delay pedal with slight distortion so I could play with a rock drummer without being too quiet. I really love the sound, but I don't really play out right now - I was really depressed before the last couple years, but 2020 destroyed the band we built… and I hadn't been playing out for years before that. It seems like this happens any time I get a group together and start booking shows, if it's not one thing it's another.
We were always mostly originals, and the cover songs I throw into sets are usually either niche or unusual versions of popular songs.
Attached is a clip from a bar set in 2019 we played as a duo. We're covering James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's Man's World."
>>992Hi, over a year late, but I can help you if you're still here.
No.7297
stickying this in case theres interest in these kinds of threads
No.7298
>>110Yeah… I do.
Soundcloud has never done much for me.
I used to play open mics a lot and depending on the night, the town, etc. I could sell CD-Rs ok…
As far as digital distro, I used to mostly use CD Baby. That mostly only generated CD sales for me for a while, but now streams from old releases constitute most of my income (although it's fallen dramatically since the end of 2021, from 2019-2021 it had risen to around $100 per month)… CD Baby takes an upfront fee for distribution, though.
I finally started on Bandcamp in 2021, and initially sales on there outpaced streaming revenue on CDBaby/Spotify/YouTube. Now it's sort of lagged behind, but nevertheless Bandcamp is worthwhile… Bandcamp has no fee for hosting, and I've found that pretty much every new
digital album I add sells. What's more, Bandcamp still has a culture kind of like the old CDBaby physical site did back in the day, where people are actively browsing BC looking for new music.
When you're going for promo, just… post about it wherever. 4chan, YouTube, Reddit, chat sites, whatever niche forums you're on, tell your friends, etc. Whether it's a good site or a bullshit site, you're looking for saturation. Like Reddit fucking sucks, but some of those guys have money. Soundcloud is probably good too, there's no bad exposure really, I just don't bother with SC anymore.
If you somehow manage to stay in contact w/ me and you add stuff to Spotify or sumt, I'll throw you on my list… but yeah, I'd build locally first.
No.7302
>>7300There's also this factory in Toronto (duplication.ca) that does CDs and vinyls and cassettes with a ton of options for novelty features
No.7310
>>110>>7298Streaming/digital is for promo like music videos and radio are, not making money
You make money by doing live shows and signing a contract with a label that can pay for professional production and physical distribution beyond the merch table/friendly local scene record stores and most importantly give you a salary
The internet can MAYBE help you make your name known for a short while which can help get you signed to a label, but nothing more, nothing less
No.7318
>>3424Sounds more like the Residents version
No.7319
>>7310>Streaming/digital is for promo like music videos and radio are, not making moneyI mean, BC's returns in the past year have been like 200x my monetary investment and I haven't played a show since 2021 or even really gone outside. Between BC and streaming, it's been enough to cover my phone - though I canceled that early last year 'cuz there's nobody to call anyway. Tbh the amount of money I've made off of it has outpaced the promotional value pretty significantly… like half the people who buy or stream are people who saw me when I used to do shows, and that wasn't even the same material.
>You make money by doing live showsTrue! I don't do that anymore, tho, but it's generally better!
>signing a contract with a label that can pay for professional production and physical distribution beyond the merch table/friendly local scene record stores and most importantly give you a salaryYeah, no. Labels are pretty unnecessary for most music and… honestly, most folks won't get signed, but could still be making walking around money playing shows or selling online. It's not anything most folks in most regions can bet on, and trying to cater to it is… not wonderful for the art, I don't know. If all you're doing is trying to make a career out of it, you could just play session.
>>7318I was honestly going for Demis Roussos subconsciously, and I hadn't even heard the Aphrodite's Child version before doing that iirc. Was really pleased to find it after!
No.7320
>>7319>BC's returns in the past year have been like 200x my monetary investmentHow much was your monetary investment
No.7321
>>7320I'm gonna say $1.00, but only because "200 x $0" is $0.
No.7323
>>7322I've made over $200 for no cost tho. And on Spotify & streaming (where there actually has been an investment, of around $30 for initial distribution) I've made going on $2k, which is almost 6,000x what I put in.
This is considering I don't do commissions, I don't do covers, I don't do soundtracks, & I haven't bothered playing live or networking since October 2021. If I was actually gaming it effectively and putting anything into promo, I would probably be making considerably more money, and as is this is basically the only thing giving me any money to spend at all. I don't discount it.
No.7324
>>7323That's not a living
No.7326
>>7324Most people aren't going to make a living off music. Honestly you'd be lucky to make a living off a
job. If I wasn't on an imageboard, maybe I'd assume I was surrounded by folks who have no use for $2000, but since I'm here I think the fact that you can make $2000+ (I get more every couple weeks) off just putting your stuff out a certain way is relevant.
Assuming that folks ITT already do music
for fun, I'd think that they could get spending money off
something they already do for free is relevant. Or maybe they should ignore that and get signed to UMG and make a million dollars. Look, I'm not saying
don't do that, but I'm saying that's not the only option.
No.7394
Does Soundcloud even attract people anymore? my soundcloud tracks are only liked/reposted by bots, except for a couple tracks that randomly got a lot of plays. I'm moving to bandcamp soon.
No.7501
What's the point of conservatories? If you want to catch up on your form, you could just play in a jam session or club band. If you want to do anything experimental, you're limited by your classes.
No.7507
>>7326>Most people aren't going to make a living off musicMost people don't make music
No.7543
>>7507Most people who make music aren't going to make a living off music.
No.7544
>>7543I don't know about that
You might as well try your luck
No.8293
>>7544do it for fun, doing it for money involves compromise and whats the point if you have to compromise
No.8294
>>7394bring your shit to local open mics instead will build up more of a organic response; do move to bandcamp too though, just use that to send people afterwards.
No.10642
My little bro wants me to make music for a video games hes making. Are there any free, preferably open source programs for doing so that you would recommend? I know I was able to rip Ableton Live a decade ago is that still a thing
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