It's very complex, difficult, expensive, interesting and fun to be an independent music producer. Volume three covers my attempts to: make acoustic improvements to the studio; cut down my production times; learn the art of mastering in-house ad muc...
As a DIY musician we have to do just about everything when starting out. Recording, editing, mixing, promotion, making music videos - you name it. I recently DM:ed Bobby Owsinski about how hard it is to keep all these things moving forward simultaneously.
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So let's play!
As indie music producers/songwriters and musicians we watch YouTube "how to" videos to learn all about how to increase our followers on social media and then the trial and horror process begins. We post this and we post that hoping to snag a new follower. If we don't watch out, we'll find ourselves selling out souls and missing the whole reason why we exist: to make great music and have fun.
Mindset
Don't lose your soul!
Jesus warns us in Mathew 16:26 of wining the whole world (being popular) but losing your soul in the process. No where else is this true than in the case of social media posting! Of course, we can gain 1 million followers if we only work at it. But at what cost? The risk in posting to social media is that we think we need to do everything the experts say and that we must get followers no matter what in order to be successful- so much so that we stop creating new music. That's when we "lose our souls".
One specialist said, and I won't name names, that you should commit yourself to getting 1000 followers by doing this: find 12 different hashtags with 20,000 to 250,000 hits within your niche and comment four words on ten different posts with in these hashtags every single day for 90 days. That is four words times 120 posts: that's 500 words each day for 90 days. 43,200 words in 3 months. No big deal right? Well I tried it and it ate up all my time.
In addition, I saw all the younger, more beautiful people with the perfect smiles and with many more followers than I had and got depressed after about four days of this nonsense. Oh, I got new followers but then a few unfollowed me afterwards as soon as they snagged me. (I could see it on my follow meter app.) It seemed like a lot of work for little payback, and the price was my sinking humour...
How to gain more Instagram followers w/o selling your soul
This is the formula that I found works on Instagram: Be yourself + make sure to keep making music daily + post great content at specific times (according to Instagram stats Friday evening is best) + be consistent: when you post; your branding colours and the quality and type of posts + watch your stats, see what works and learn + use the hashtags that have better traction (w/i your niche + have around 20,000 to 250,000 hits) and place these in your post. Make sure that you mix lifestyle, music creation/events and your mission in an interesting way, tying everything together to share who you are in an honest and humble way. Be thankful and mention your fans and others you admire in the industry from time to time. No one wants to listen to someone who is egocentric.
Tools
I've been at the social media school of hard knocks now for about four years and counting. I see new apps popping up and new tools to use all the time and I can't possibly go into all of them here. But I can share what I am doing right now to grow my fanbase and I hope it will help you to grow yours too. .
