DKSTR
Offline
Finland

Get contacts to other people in your local/nearly local electronic music (dont be snobbish unless you really want to) scene, play opening slots to them, drink beers with them, whatever. I've always believed that good things happen to good people and people tend to remember people who are fun to hang around with.

I picture that in UK it wouldnt be too hard to get involved with people. YMCA shows and traditional pub shows to pub crowd or something sound weird to me but then again things are different in every country..also if something wont happen now, next year you're 18 and ready to go to play at least some venues, right? But if would have only one thing to say, I would say the key to get gigs is to know people, key to get your music listened, thats a lot harder/random thing.

ant1
Offline
uhajdafdfdfa

have you noticed that most of the "famous" chip musicians are really, really good at what they do (even if you don't like their genre or whatever)?

i suppose it's like anything else... how to become famous as a football player? be an exceptionally good football player, play exceptionally good football. how to become famous as an actor? be an exceptionally good actor, do exceptionally acting. of course you have to attend football team try-outs / part interviews, but talent is the key thing.

write chiptunes that make you think "i deserve to be famous" and then write chiptunes that make other people think you deserve to be famous. hopefully it's more about talent than self-promotion.

herr_prof
Offline
Unsubscribe

its a little bit of both, with a dash of luck.

Koala Kids!
Offline
Toronto, ONT

I just pretty much talk to people at local indie shows, promote my facebook page.
With the internet it's a great way to get stuff out there. I am really good at forcing contact info out of people so that helps me.

Just push push push.

Dot.AY
Offline
Melbtown, Lolstralia
DaPantz wrote:

Promotion becomes a natural extension of you as an artist once everything else is locked down.

So much this!!

Once you are old enough if you start going to shows all the time introduce yourself to local artists and embed yourself in the local scene (any genre), knowing people in your local music scene in real life is so much more valuable than having a few people give positive comments of your online EP release.

Internet fame has very little affect to getting shows and building a loyal following

Note!
Offline
Brooklon

A lot of good stuff in here. Pay attention to all of it and apply what you can. But most of all - have fun and learn everything you can about what you do.

The only thing that kinda bugs me is this mentality:

TraceKaiser wrote:

That's all fine and well, but it's pointless to make music if nobody listens to it.

Each person has their own reason for making music but, and this is just me here, it shouldn't matter one tiny shitlet if anyone ever hears anything you make. Make music for yourself - it's an expression of what you want to hear and if you really stay honest to that it'll probably be awesome and other people will want to hear it.

Keep at it, be patient, meet people, stay positive and make music like you'll die if you don't.

8-Bit-Rex
Offline
Chepachet, Rhode Island
DaPantz wrote:

Promotion becomes a natural extension of you as an artist once everything else is locked down.

Perfect statement is perfect.

And I completely agree with Note!
It's a double edged sword to make what you like and aim to please.
The best way to go about it is to write songs you really enjoy...be a perfectionist.  If there's something in a song that rubs you the wrong way, don't release it in an EP.  Tweak the song until every tiny bit makes you proud of what you've done.  If you're confident with regards to your own musical talent chances are others will enjoy your stuff and will help promote it even if it's only in a small way.
Don't rush things.  Come back to songs after a while.  Try to find your own sound.  Talk to EVERYONE about your stuff...you never know who may have connections or interest in helping you out. 

ex: I talked to a friend from a while back about chipmusic (which he never really heard much about) and it turns out he regularly sets up electronica gigs everywhere in this state and was interested in utilizing my material in his sets.

Things like that really make a difference.

Last edited by 8-Bit-Rex (Mar 9, 2011 3:35 am)

BR1GHT PR1MATE
Offline
BOSTON
ant1 wrote:

write chiptunes that make you think "i deserve to be famous" and then write chiptunes that make other people think you deserve to be famous. hopefully it's more about talent than self-promotion.

heart U

pixls
Offline
Philly, PA, USA

It's mostly hype really, you have be really good, but a lot of it is hype. get people excited about your music and the rest goes from there. excitement breeds excitement, and eventually you have a fanbase.

/amateur observations

MCP
Offline
Santa Barbara, California

Friends,

internet,

interviews,

I could never be that kid who wears his own bands T-shirt, but you really do have to talk yourself up.

boomlinde
Offline
Sweden

ESC
I share your romantic idea of self-fulfilling music, but playing live is really fun, too, so why not?

Last edited by boomlinde (Mar 9, 2011 6:51 am)

Apricorn
Offline
Wellington, New Zealand

What I do is make music
then talk to other people that make music
then you get them to talk to people that make music
eventually you will be in a show that you don't have to pay for the venue and you get free money for playing music.

smile

Evil Scientist
Offline
Bristol, UK

It sounds like there's just not much of a music scene for what you want to do in Whitley Bay. You'd be best off trying to get gigs a bit further afield.

e.s.c.
Offline
IL, US
boomlinde wrote:

ESC
I share your romantic idea of self-fulfilling music, but playing live is really fun, too, so why not?

well, the underlying current behind my post is this:
ive been making music as environmental sound collapse for what will be 10 years in september and its taken me that long to get up to having played approx 50 total gigs...most of my releases get less than 150 downloads...i frequently get ALMOST booked for gigs, but in the end i dont...if i concentrated on fame, gigs etc as if that were the purpose of making this music, id have given up a long time ago when making music is one the things i enjoy doing most

plus, this kid says he has 300 or so people following his youtube channel, and unless he spammed them until they added him out of pity, sounds like he already has more fans according to the internet than i do

making music with fame being your goal can only lead to dissapointment or soul-crushing compromise (with a handful of rare exceptions)

TraceKaiser
Offline
Whitley Bay, England
e.s.c. wrote:

plus, this kid says he has 300 or so people following his youtube channel, and unless he spammed them until they added him out of pity, sounds like he already has more fans according to the internet than i do

making music with fame being your goal can only lead to dissapointment or soul-crushing compromise (with a handful of rare exceptions)

My subscribers are for fingerboarding videos, not music. So I have a potential audience, but they aren't subbed to me to listen to my music.

Also, I only mentioned fame once, which was as a joke. I'm not talking about getting famous. I'm talking about getting a few more people to listen to my music, and getting any gigs, haha.

A couple mates and I are looking round some places to see if we can actually get anything anywhere. I'm friends with a promoter so hopefully he can spread the word, though admittedly he's been slightly useless in suggestions of local labels or anywhere that I can use as a springboard for my music.

Jellica
Offline
England

have you sent a demo to any of the many chimpmusic netlabels?
http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/1748/netlabel-list/