Cultivating Your Garden

photo by *Susie*

I’d like to introduce the Gen-Y Rock Star readers to one of a few new writers that are going to be popping up here over the next few weeks. Today’s article is from Zach Frmmel, an indie musician from Orlando, FL. He was interested in writing for us to learn more about promoting his band, exploring some of the tactics we are talking about and also interviewing bands and sharing his own stories along the way. I look forward to having him play a part in the Gen-Y Rock Star team.

Living in a day and age when networking is both extremely vast yet highly effective, many musicians now ask themselves, “Where should I start and how can I efficiently make my project worth my while?” My band-mates, other musical friends and I have asked ourselves this question over the years and we have arrived at a couple helpful conclusions:

Start with what you know how to do and be open to learning new techniques on your musical journey.

These two concepts seem basic, and they are, but will always be helpful to keep in mind.

Since making music is the easy step, the next step would be to figure out the most pleasing and effective method for distributing your music. You can figure this out through research online and talking to other musicians in your community. If face-to-face contact with other musicians is not a strong point or interest to you, it could be an area to work on as a part of learning new techniques. Even though online sites like Myspace and Bandcamp dominate a large portion of musical networking these days, and can prove to be effective, networking and making connections in one’s physical community can prove to be more rewarding, as my band has come to understand more and more lately. We have tried online networking for years now and we have recently discovered that it is becoming difficult to manage all our connections in the vast space that the cyber world consists of.

Instead of fully relying on the impersonal cyber world to do a lot of your dirty work for you, I would suggest the term “Cultivate Your Garden” which turns the dirty work into something you enjoy and care about putting your passion into. This method stems from the idea of going to local shows you are interested in, meeting people in the bands, making friends with them after a few shows and exchanging contacts in an effort that suggests there is a mutual benefit for the both of you. This way of networking promotes several benefits: meeting real people and exchanging ideas which allows for a better understanding of how a musical community works. Like a garden, reaping and sowing can be a beautiful experience.  This gives you an opportunity to demonstrate the passion and commitment you have for your music and music in general, and opens up a chance for you to be in the right place at the right time.

The DIY Community

The DIY community also has plenty of new methods for exposing your music to others and showing your passion for music. For example, when my band went on tour we played in an artsy basement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the DIY community there was an amazing network of new faces and musical minds, and a lot of them ended up becoming new friends and new musical contacts for our benefit and theirs. We were so inspired by the DIY community in Bethlehem, and other DIY communities up North, that when we came back from tour we enjoyed becoming more actively involved with local shows and supporting new, local music. In return, we keep making lively face-to-face contacts and help to cultivate a healthy musical garden to establish a firm root system and room for our active seeds to grow.

A great balance of using face-to-face networking and using internet marketing and social media would be to perform in your community and allow your peers to hear and enjoy your music so that they will organically promote your music because you have proven to be a familiar face and an experienced musician. A musical journey starts small and eventually progresses. The progress of your music will depend on how strong your roots are and how much time and devotion you are willing to apply to your work. The fruit of a tree does not produce over night, and similarly, the recognition of your music might not develop over night either, but don’t let this discourage you. Even though more and more music is being made and seems harder to compete with, the fact is that more and more people are enjoying music as well which also acts as a balance in the music world. So as you look for opportunities in marketing your music try to prepare yourself by opening yourself up to new techniques and new ways of thinking so that you will be best suited for what might come you way.

This post was written by Zach Frmmel, a senior at UCF majoring in English Literature with a minor in Humanities. He plays in an indie band, GreatFriendofMine, and you can check out their music on Bandcamp here.

Tags: offline music marketing, Zach Frmmel