Welcome to Why Make Music… a podcast where we dive into the world of creativity and inspiration,
Hosted by ThinkTimm. We're broadcasting from Planet Earth, now, without further ado, let's get back on a journey to think, to talk, and to explore, Why Make Music…
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to episode number five of Why Make Music… I'm your host, ThinkTimm, and I am here today to talk to you about a cool subject.
It's called promoting independent music. Now, you're probably wondering, who am I, and why am I explaining how to Promote Independent Music?
As I begin every episode, I like to share a little bit about myself and tell you why I am who I am and why I am doing what it is that I do.
I am an Independent Musician, Producer, a Hobbyist turned Independent Musician, Producer.
The reason why I say a hobbyist is because I have lived my life and I am currently making music for the enjoyment and possibly for whatever opportunity comes my way.
The year is 2024. Today is September 20th. And right about now, everyone has a podcast and everyone is on social media and everyone is sharing their experiences with you.
So I figured, why should I be different? I love what I do. I love my life away from music and I love creating music.
So, the title of the podcast is Why Make Music… And as I said before, in the four previous episodes, Why Make Music…, I do believe, is a great, great conversation starter.
If you were to ask anyone why they do what they do, I know for a fact that it will stimulate conversation because people love to talk about what they love to do.
So since I love to make music,Why Make Music...
So, my earlier episodes, I've always started off the podcast with a story, a tale of something inspirational that tells you a little bit about myself and what it is that I like to do.
So, here we go.
Episode number five, promoting independent music.
So, I am what you would probably call someone from the old school, meaning that, A, I am not a young person anymore.
So therefore, a lot of the stories I tell you don't necessarily involve technology or the technology that we have right now.
When I was a young guy and I was in school and you know you meet people and you engage in your hobbies and the things that you want to do, I met some guys in a class of mine, or I met a guy in a class of mine who said at the time that he had a group.
The group went by the name Versatile, which was great because at the time I was young and I was trying to stretch my musical legs outside of my home and not just play with family members or people who gathered around my household or people on my block.
Because the thing is people who you grow up with they've already pretty much know who you are and what to expect of you.
So, this was a person who went to my high school who lived in my area, but further away from where I live that so therefore it was a whole different new experience as far as meeting up with them and doing things and finding a place to meet.
So, we exchanged information long story short, and I go over there and say in order for me to go, I'm like at the time, my major thing was playing the bass guitar, I had a cool Fender jazz bass guitar.
And if you know anything about instruments, in order to bring or if you know anything about traditional normal instruments, not acoustic but bass bass playing in a band base.
You had to have a bass amplifier that you plug your bass into the court, and that court went into the amplifier, and not only did you have to have an amplifier, you need to have a speaker.
So, here I am.
I'm in my teens.
And I want to go meet with this guy and meet with his friends who have a band.
And I have to get my father to help me lug my equipment over which he was happy to do. I'm like he too was a musician, a hobbyist, he had a band so he knew all about gigging and the fact that I decided that oh I want to leave the house with the equipment and go do something,
he was all for it. So that just meant that they first and foremost, we had to pack the car up. He had to take me and then when I was done, I had to call them or give them a time frame you know, this is before cell phones.
And I think this was like right around the time that pages were popping but,
whatever. Anywho.
So,
I told him, yo, I'm gonna have to meet this dude over here at sudden such houses not his house is his friend's house blah blah blah. That's the band, so I'm going to show up so I figure I'm going to go there so I get there.
And pops pull up. It's me, my buddy, my best friend. I'll call him microphone mover 101. He is down, he is still down with me to this day. It's my left hand my right hand my number one day one guy with me.
So we unpack the car. I bring out the base, you know, nice little, you know the tape leather wrapped base shaped guitar case.
You know, bring out the end, nicely padded face little faux leather wrap around all the knobs and whatnot. And then we bring out the big huge son speaker out the trunk. And now, for those who are living in this day and time, you need to Google it.
It was a Sun speaker (S U N) speaker. And I kid you not this thing with at least three feet high.
Three feet wide, three feet deep, it was a complete cube on wheels that did nothing else but be a speaker was a huge ass woofer inside of it. And you plugged up your amp to it. And you played your bass, and this is just for the base itself now, don't get me wrong, you can plug
other instruments into the amplifier but or you could plug everything else into the input but it was just a instrument speaker for a said thing and mind you this thing what I said, it was a three by three, period, point blank.
So, I come, we pull up around the back of the guy's house. We bring stuff out the car.
I can literally sit my amp on top of the speaker and I can sit I can literally sit on top of the speaker myself. So, I do that I plug it up everything I play around for a little bit. Now mind you, let's fast. Let's rewind back a little bit.
And I said, Oh, this dude told me the name of the group was versatile. So I'm thinking like okay, I'm going to get in where I can fit in because hey they might already have a bass player, the group is called versatile so I'm trying to figure out why are they called versatile.
So, mind you,
everyone there.
I say everyone, maybe two of the five people, not counting me, and microphone mover 101.
Played the keyboard.
And we're now talking about like a back then it was popular keyboard with like the Yamaha DX7, we're talking about, they had a Casio keyboard.
It might have had a function and drum machine, or the drums were coming from the keyboard.
But, needless to say, the tracks that they made were cool at the time and versatile turned out to be a pseudo rap group with a lead singer.
But I must tell you to this day, meeting this young dude that could sing was very very amazing because from the appearance, you would not think that this guy was saying.
And sure enough, when it was time for him to show what he could do. He had a really great voice, and it fit well, very very very well with what they were doing.
And we had a good time, and I have not seen those folks since then because actually I'm not mistaken. The friend of mine who was my gateway to this person I think was maybe two years older than I was at the time so I might have been a sophomore, and he was probably like a senior.
And once he graduated and went on our friendship went in separate ways more or less but shout out to you, if ever you are listening to this and you know who you are, you give me a holler, look me up.
All my credentials are on social media, and you can give me a holler and we could say what's up hey how are you, and we could talk about versatile.
Side story very very very side story.
I wish I was home, or I wish we were rehearsing at my house at the time frame because I could have recorded this because it was one of the most monumental things I've ever seen and my draw actually dropped to the ground, like seeing us.
When the miracle happen. That will catch you off guard.
And you don't even see it coming.
So in the same environment, while we are with the group, versatile, and they are talking and figure out what it is that they do, whatever and everybody's introducing themselves and saying, oh I'm this person I'm this person and this is what I do so forth and so on.
And I turned to my homie, my buddy, my friend, microphone mover 101 who, mind you,
basically was like I guess my producer, my manager, my guy, my roadie, my ace in the hole, my guy who will do anything. I'm like, we had a videotape gigs, that's the dude. We had to move stuff that's the dude.
The finances, that's the guy to this day. That's the guy. If ever you don't do it anymore because of the show called Dateline, you don't bury bodies, you don't do anything bad or negative but before we knew that you couldn't bury bodies.
This is the dude who had to shovel along with a few other people I know that got shovels in the back of their cars for times that were needed that we were younger and immature and didn't know any better but now we're old men.
But, they asked my man if he could sing.
I just want that to marinate with you for a hot second now.
The reason why I say that is that I don't know if you recall early on and maybe like the introduction tape, I was saying that I tend to record everything when I have rehearsals here at the house or at my house when I was a kid growing up or whatever so forth and
I have decades of material. I don't think I have any tape, any recording of him singing unless it was like at a school function on stage, singing a Christmas carol or singing something for an event, or you see him singing while we're out someplace to a song
or you will, but whatever.
But never, ever did I think.
This is the one time I'm going to put it out there because there's a song called
The Greatest Love of All. It was done by Whitney Houston in the 80s. And it was phenomenal, inspirational song.
And I'm sure if you are a music lover, a liker of music,
a person who lives on this planet earth, you've heard this song.
They turned and asked my man, microphone mover 101, if you sing, if you can sing.
And he did not skip a beat.
He nodded his head.
He said, yes, he can sing.
And without any warning.
He started into singing The Greatest Love of All.
You know how it starts off? I believe the children, so forth, so on, whatever.
And he sung it. And the room was dead silent.
I don't know if it was dead silent because everyone was astounded of how he sung.
I know I was dead silent because he said it.
He sung it. He stepped up. He did it. There was no shame in the game.
There was no, hey, I don't normally do this, but whatever.
My man had the confidence to step forward and sing.
And that is the first and the last time I ever heard him sing a song.
And shouts out to him, homie, if you're here listening, or when you're listening,
because I know you will listen. I know you're not here, so I don't know if I said you're here.
I'm here by myself. But, shout out to you, my man.
And remember, just a hint of information for you.
If you're going to name yourself, if you're going to name your group,
and you're picking out names, and you like the name of a group,
and you happen to pick a name that has a meaning, and it's called Versatile,
and everybody in the group does the same thing, just think about that one there,
just for a little bit. For all these years, I never spoke on it, never said much about it.
They were good guys. I wish them all the best.
And again, when I'm in the area, I think about them.
But, shout out to all of us who grew up in the 80s, and I hope everybody's still alive,
and I hope everyone's living and loving their life.
But let's get back onto the subject today. So, episode number five, promoting independent music.
What do we have to think about that? So, a couple weeks ago,
I spoke to you about the landscape of independent music.
I discussed the sheer volume of music being released.
The internet said at that time that there was easily 120,000 tracks released on a daily basis,
because of streaming, because of technology, because of creativity, because of everyone is creative.
The playing field has been leveled. When I say that, that means that there are no more costs for high-end studios.
There are no more reasons to say, oh, my song is not comparable to a major artist.
There is no one saying there's a completely right way to make music.
There is no one telling you that what you want to do does not want to be heard, because you can do it.
The playing field has been leveled. This is why right now streaming has almost or basically
dismantled the record industry as we know it.
I say that because there are no more huge hundred million dollar deals being given out.
There is no one sitting back writing letters trying to get with a label or go meet,
because the thing is that you can do, and if I'm not mistaken from my understanding,
they want to find you almost in a complete state of independence so they can then
supposedly propel you further and invest their money into you to make a profit.
So the landscape of independent music has changed. So you sit back and you think of the competition
and what that means to be an independent artist. That means that I'm competing with everybody.
I'm competing with major artists. I'm competing with the guy who just decided that,
oh, I want to make a song a day. I'm like, if you could record it and it sounds good and it flies.
It's 2024, folks. People have attention deficit disorder. People cannot listen to music for a long period of time.
People cannot listen to a podcast like mine that might run 45 minutes to an hour long.
I cannot expect people to tune in. So once again, I am humbled by the fact that you do.
I just want to let it be known that listen, I'm no different. I listen to what I want to listen to.
And it's a hard sell to get me to listen to something else because we all do it.
We like what we like and there's such a large variety of music to be had.
Why do I have to fish around and try to find something else?
And then there's a other situation that the only thing that basically does change the game of how things are looking at
is the fact that you've got to realize that as an independent artist,
you are the person digging into your pocket to make things happen.
So you are the one that's spending the money. You are the one who is investing your funds
and trying to come up with budgets for advertising and marketing and finding ways to get yourself heard.
I will tell you from personal experience, throwing something up on social media
does not necessarily get you the recognition or get you the attention that you want.
So I do hope that everyone who is making music at a lower level that is trying to go further.
I hope that you budget your time and your money and also your expectations to be very well.
Because like I said, there are so many people out there that are willing to work around the clock
and willing to make videos. They are trying all different ways to commercialize themselves and their ideas to go further.
Point being that you have to have the time, the effort, and you must put it in there
because there are literally hundreds of thousands of people that are willing to outwork you.
Bang, that's it.
So as an independent artist, there are some dilemmas that you encounter.
And it's funny because I talked to you about time and your support group and your unit that you were working with.
So for example, myself, because like I said, I'm doing this because I have a genuine love of music.
So the hat that I wear in this situation is that I am a songwriter, I am a producer, I am a composer, I am a writer,
I am the promoter, I am the marketing person, I am the art design person, I am the think tank, I am the person.
Now, I bounce these ideas off my family. And like I said, when you do something for a long period of time
and you do it all the time, I don't expect anyone to jump for joy because ThinkTimm has an idea that he wants to go
because ThinkTimm has always had ideas of doing things. ThinkTimm has thought about making a podcast for the last decade
and I've never done it. ThinkTimm has thought about putting my music on streaming networks and I never did it till now.
So all I'm trying to tell you is that when you wear these hats, it's very, very much so time consuming.
And it's something that you have to learn to juggle your time and juggle your life.
So make sure you have all your ducks in a row and realize that, oh, there is a large sacrifice that has to be made
to your friends and your surrounding as you are making music or as you are putting yourself into anything.
If you're a writer and you're writing and the time it takes you to come up with your ideas,
sometimes that might take away from your quote unquote personal life. And it's okay sometimes.
It's not something that you can always walk away from, but it's something that you have to be aware of every given time and every given turn.
So that's another thing. I want to talk to you a little bit about playing devil's advocate more or less.
So you're investing your time and you're investing your money into making music. You spend a lot of your time putting it together.
You spend effort learning the equipment and you do your research. You do your homework. You look up facts.
You try to, if you're into live performing, you go where the performances are to venues, the clubs, the open mics.
You sign up for festivals if you're on that level. If not, if you're not on that level, if you're just a home reporter
and you're recording at home and you make your tapes, I'm not even going to call them demo tapes, because right now the thing is that
in my opinion, the quality of a song is pretty much apparent from the beginning to the end.
There are very few rare occasions that if you were to hear a song in its earliest form and then you hear it in its finished form,
it might be a little bit more polished. It might be a little mixed a little better, but the potential of a song is there.
The reason why I say devil's advocate is because that's kind of like a personality trait.
It's kind of like when you have personality situations where it's like you're creative, you're analytical,
and you're kind of introspective about everything because you're not necessarily running into something completely blind.
You have these strengths and you realize that you have to test the boundaries of what you're getting into.
You have to research. You got to check it.
So it's like, I guess it's kind of a dichotomy of things because as a creative person, you are a dreamer.
You create things that don't necessarily exist. Your satisfaction or no, your gratification comes from the satisfaction of other people.
So you create something and a negative response could basically shatter you or it could drive you further.
You're fully aware of this. So I'm playing devil's advocate by saying like, oh, there are so many different things going on in your life
that you have to find time to make time to do this. If this is what you choose to do.
The question I ask all the time, why make music? I make music because fortunately I had the time to do so.
And the times in my life where I did not make music, it was a constant thought in my head.
But time did not allow me the luxury of hours to create, to put something together where there was definitely and still there isn't a great financial return for what I'm doing.
Like I am doing this strictly for the love of making music and sharing it.
If by chance something comes from it, which as you get a plan, you work a little harder, you position yourself, you try to put your ducks in a row.
So this way you can be available for opportunities and you learn what the opportunities are.
I told you before that I have a nice large catalog past, present and future things that I'm in the process of working on and putting together.
And currently the tracks that I'm putting out, actually today, September 20th, 2024, I put out my second project on streaming platforms.
It's called, I like that beat right in the background, it's called "Botanical... Blooming Bouquet". It's a play on beat and botanicals, botanicals are gardens or flowers, you know.
It's a booming bouquet versus a blooming bouquet because all the tracks are named after flowers.
Once again, like the first project that was the emotional court feelings, which were all feelings.
All the songs were titled after feelings, emotional feelings, and it was at the end also, it was the first one.
It's called "Botanical" and they're all beats, once again still doing an instrumental thing and each song is titled after a flower and there's 26 of them.
And I know the crazy thing is that you're probably thinking like, just do, yo homie, you just put out a thing, a project a month ago.
I am willing, I am doing this, this is what I do. I have been fortunate enough to have the time that I am going to put out as much music as I possibly can like I'm running out of time.
The reason being is that I told you I would love to figure out a way to interact with someone who will be able to utilize this music, whether it be through beat leasing or whether it be through sync licensing.
The music is here. I'm going to make the music that you want to use the music, contact me, and we can figure something out.
But that's my purpose right now currently.
You come to this revelation when it comes to like self-fulfillment and you have to shift the conversation into positive aspects of being an independent artist.
When you're doing things by yourself, you have to realize that there is no motivation other than the fact that you want to get it done.
You create deadlines for yourself.
I do believe in my regular real life, I am a, I wouldn't say I am a type A personality. I'm kind of lax, but I stay true to a schedule of putting things together and I'm very routine oriented.
So with the thought of transferring that into my independent musical journey that I'm doing, I have high expectations of myself and I have set goals to accomplish certain things.
And if you were to follow me on social media, no, I don't post every day. No, I don't. Overfill your timeline with nonsense.
I'm learning how to interact and how to connect.
I'm doing this because I like to share and a like would be fine. A follow would be good. Conversation would be great. I tell you, leave a comment in the comment field.
Leave a comment on the social media sites, on the podcast site that you listen to your podcast. I'll get back to it. I'll answer.
Eventually I'm going to branch into, like I said, doing more of a, I guess a conscious stream of videos.
I see how that's kind of popular because I am learning. I am learning that we have to market.
And since I do not have a marketing team behind me, it is me. Think Timm. That's T-H-I-N-K-T-I-M-M that is pushing this forward with the support of my family, the support of my household, the support of my friends.
It's crazy because this is something that I think that every musician wants to do. And you just have to realize that all it takes is someone to ask you a question of why.
Why make music? Why do you do what you do?
And it's a very soul searching situation because I find myself looking for an answer.
And I find myself asking myself, is this something that I could live without doing? And the answer is no.
Because, like I said, whether I'm sitting here doing this podcast or talking to you and trying to get you interested in what I'm doing, I will be doing this regardless.
The only difference is I wouldn't be recording what I'm talking about. And if there's no one here but myself at the time, I probably wouldn't be talking out loud. I'm not crazy.
I'm not that crazy. They say if you talk to yourself and then you answer yourself, then you have a problem.
So I can pretend that this microphone is someone else. So therefore, if I'm talking and I answer myself, I feel like, oh, I'm answering the question that perhaps you're saying or if you're listening to this and perhaps you're thinking, man.
So what's your favorite artist? I told you I would never. I'm not going to get any names.
I'm not going to do that because
I like a lot of different things. And sometimes I see how when you put names or titles or you put yourself in a box by liking, by confessing your likes out loud to people, they tend to misunderstand or they tend to prejudge you.
So I honestly can say to you that I like and I love all types of music.
I like all types of artists.
I have learned to appreciate anyone who wants to share their talent and share their ideas and be creative.
I am learning. It is taking me years to learn that no man, no person, no woman, child, man, person, anyone
can stand by themselves.
Now, the position that you hold while you stand in a group of people, you might be the strongest link, you might be the weakest link, but it is a position that you hold.
You are nothing without the team that you have around you. I told you this before. I said this in an earlier podcast when talking about the journey of a musician or a creative person or even an educated person who's going to school, a person who plays sports, a person who's driven on their career,
a person that decides, oh, I'm working out today, I'm going to go train for a marathon, I'm going to prepare the best meal, I'm going to wash my dog or clean my cat better than I've ever cleaned my cat before.
I'm going to clean my room, I'm going to do my housework, I'm going to get an A on my exam, whatever the situation may be.
You work hard for that and there are people behind you rooting for you to support what you're doing.
That's that team, that's that support group that I think everyone has and sometimes people don't know that they have it. So, my thing is, I get older,
and I laugh and I joke and I say, oh, as an independent person, you're doing it by yourself, you're wearing all those hats.
That's me playing devil's advocate.
I'm not by myself. I have a very strong support team, my family, my friends that allow me to feel comfortable enough that the things that I've shared with them personally as far as music,
I feel comfortable enough because they made me feel as though it could be shared with other people.
It could be shared with the world. When I go on my little crazy independent artist rant saying, I know my stuff can be as good as that person, you know, like real talk.
People can tell me like, yo, ThinkTimm, think about it, homie. Think about what you're saying. Your stuff is not necessarily that good.
But my support team has been there for me and it has allowed me the confidence to move forward, the confidence to want to work hard and to achieve something that maybe one out of 120,000 people a day feel.
You know, that support, that feeling that, oh, what you did matters. Your creativity is something that the world needs to share, be a part of.
You know, like there's programs, there are people who want to take your money and run and they tell you, I can promote you, I can promote your music, I can help you out.
There's no guarantee. There's so many people you have to understand. Sometimes the flip side of this is like, oh, maybe perhaps there might probably be more money on the other side of the music game as opposed to being a creative.
You know, like I said, it's a business.
And the people, a lot of times that are making more money, it's not necessarily the artists, it's the business folks who have set up the foundation of how the business is ran.
That's what I'm telling you.
You must do it for yourself.
Realize that the only doors that will open are the doors you open yourself.
So, with that being said, I want to thank you for listening to episode five of Why I Make Music.
And we were talking about promoting independent music.
So, stay focused, stay strong, build your brand, reach out, try different things, make music, do podcasts.
If you're heavy into social media, do your thing, start a dance challenge, ask people, talk, engage.
If you're a dancer, if you're a video person that wants to be on camera, get in front of that camera, make something, do something.
If you're a writer, write. If you're a singer, sing. If you're a songwriter, a producer, make music.
Once again, this is ThinkTimm. The podcast is "Why Make Music..."
This has been episode five.
Check me out on all my social platforms.
ThinkTimm.
That's T-H-I-N-K-T-I-M-M.
And thank you once again for listening.
I am very grateful for all of you guys.
Peace.