akira^8GB wrote:Why did you erase your lengthy post? It was good 
Here is my best try at a recreation: if your stuff is good (and with a bit of luck), people will promote you, and you don't have to do anything.
1) I am a nobody in this scene.
2) I made an 8-bit Christmas album. I totally bypassed the chip scene. I spent a lot of time on it and used as many channels or whatever type of hardware or software I wanted so I could make a sound that everyday people could enjoy and relate to, not just chip enthusiasts. I noticed that my friends never identified with straight-up chip music, but they loved the xmas shit because it was so powerful and mixed/mastered in a modern fashion. I made them forget how diminutive an NES is and they bought and accepted my revisionist form of the "8-bit sound." More importantly, a lot of people really, really liked it.
3) I made ONE Facebook post about it on my personal page to share it with my friends, and was totally unprepared for the fact that the site would receive 2 million hits in 3 weeks... it was playing on [adult swim] and received kudos from IGN, Spike TV, and countless others... I was invited to perform on Engadget, did interviews, yada yada... It got enough attention that I started a campaign to raise money for Child's Play (and cover the $1,000 hosting bill I had at the end of the month).
Point being:
1. You don't HAVE to promote yourself if your work is unique, high-quality, and affects people on some level. They will do the work for you.
2. There are other ways to promote yourself than climbing the scene ladder - do something half-way unique or high-quality at the right time and the music will take off; make music that is compatible with "people," not just "chip people."
Have you ever busted your ass at a small business and hated the owner for never giving you a raise? That is kind of like trying to promote yourself in the chip scene. To extend the metaphor, you could instead have a desk job, make 4 times the cash, and get constant promotions if you relax, breathe, and make your music more approachable to the average listener. I think 8BW is the master of this (I know tons of people who listen to 8BW and have never heard the word "chiptune") and Anamanaguchi a close second - people automatically like the music, regardless of whether the chip was a 2A03 or a 6502, or running off Chipsounds. GOOD MUSIC IS GOOD MUSIC.
3. Don't feel that you must impress/compete with the chip celebs - you will lose. Nobody wants to book someone that "sounds like" Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, or 8 Bit Weapon; the scene is too small - venues can just hire the real thing. Make some music you like, use whatever you want to make it, just make something good and unique that people want to listen to. If people like it, they will spread the word. If purists hate you because you did not make another trance song on LSDJ, comfort yourself with the thousand or so positive emails and comments, the room of equipment your CD sales bought, and the $1,000+ you earned for sick children. I hope and pray that "chiptune' does not become the jazz of the 21st century- a homogenous blob of idol worship and cookie cutter music.
Bonus round: Have fun and don't be a dick. This music is made on equipment that was designed to inspire fun- a momentary glimmer of joy in a mostly dark world. If you are positive, people are more likely to spread the word about your work - think, "Duder12 is so cool brah, you can totally email him and he'll tell you about his mad chips!" And club owners, industry types have ZERO tolerance for assholes, trust me on this.
::hides under a rock:: "Cool story br0!"
