on our full release, with more.
We dive into the world of creativity and inspiration
First, I’m ThinkTimm
We've been coming from planet Earth
Now, without further ado
Let's take back our journey to pink
To talk and to explore
Why Make Music…
Welcome, welcome, welcome
To
Why Make Music… Episode 23
So, how you been?
What's going on? What's new?
I am your host, ThinkTimm
And I am here to talk to you about
The fine art of being an independent
Producer, musician, artist
A self-driven, self-created
And a self-entertaining person
Who likes to create music
Welcome, welcome, welcome
To the podcast
Hear on Why Make Music...
We, meaning I and you
The listening audience
Will take a journey through the creative process
The process of coming up with an idea
A flow, a hook into music making
Let me tell you that I have been
Absent from the podcast for two weeks
It's been a minute since I did one
Prior to the Super Bowl
And prior to the Grammys of 2025
In that time I did some rearranging of the computer
To make things run a little smoother
To make sure the sound is proper
To make sure I had all my perennial ducks in a row
So, on today's episode
We are going to talk about
What it takes to market yourself
As an independent producer and artist
In the year of 2025
I say that because it is a very busy, tight schedule
That you must keep to try to achieve
The things you want to achieve
Now I say that not knowing what your goals are
Only knowing what mine are
And, shockingly, I have some
Very, very big, lofty dreams
Of what I want to do
So, what I am trying to accomplish is
Building a community, sharing my music
My art, my ideas with the masses
Long story short, I am not short of any type of creativity
So, as someone who is independently doing this
And I know the definition of independent
May blur the lines from time to time
Because people are used to hearing the word independent
And there's a crew of folks out there working with them
But let me assure you, when I say independent
I am working by myself
I have family and friends and they support what I do
But they are not making music, they are not doing marketing
They're not planning, plotting, they are living their lives
And it's good, that's how it's supposed to be
It keeps me grounded
So, if you don't know
I have music that is currently streaming on all streaming platforms
Apple, Spotify, iheart music and all, the others
YouTube, Amazon, so forth and so on
Those tracks that are on there
Total up to, I do believe we are up to 176 tracks
No, no, no, I lie
156 right now
Six projects with 26 tracks a piece
Yeah, over the last six months
No, no, I'm killing it
But anyway, the situation is in reality
That means absolutely nothing
Because no one's streaming the music except for a few people
Basically so
My last invoice from United Masters
Which is my distribution
Was basically under $20
So, with that in mind
As an independent
You must try to do other things to keep your ideas, your brand afloat
Hence, Why Make Music…
Dot, dot, dot, the lovely podcast
It highlights the fun that we're having being a creative
So, other than the Why Make Music… podcast
I am learning to work with social media
I try my best and got lucky with Meta on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram
I shockingly found a large following
A large pocket of music
I tend to leave my post in India
Which is fine because like I say
New York is worldwide and international
And anyone can like anything
And appreciation for instrumentals can transcend all types of cultures
So, as let's count as of this weekend
We had 2 million views on last month worth of posting
Now how does that transfer over to any type of revenue?
It does not
I say that because like I tell you
As I am learning these so called algorithms used by these social media platforms
It's not necessarily about the views
It's about the following also
So, even though I have a clean slate as far as not posting anything of music or violating policies
I must get my following up
So, please follow me on all social media platforms
This is the commercial message of the day
Follow, follow, follow, like, like, like
Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe
Because those are the things that matter
To the all-smart algorithm at its most
Thank you, happy getting through
So, with the large people shot out to all of my listeners and followers in India
And those who view my videos
I thank you very much
And I say from the bottom of my heart I am completely thankful
And very much so humbled that you take the time to listen and follow
But, so, that's social media
And what I do on social media is that I try to host
Tracks, music, along with some creative graphic art videos
To get your attention, keep your interest up
And try to be as entertaining and try to drive traffic to your streaming site
Why to your streaming site?
Because you need to have your music heard
The reason I am trying to get my music heard is because
My ultimate goal is to hopefully contact music supervisors or sync agents
Which if you do not remember from prior episodes
I told you that sync agents and music supervisors are the ones who are responsible
For placing your music into commercials, into TV shows
And that is my ultimate goal is to have my tracks possibly featured in the background
And receive payment for such
Where as an independent artist I am losing no rights, no royalties
Because I lose no ownership of my material
So, the only way to do that is to attempt to contact sync agents and music supervisors
And try to get your music heard
And I liken this system to almost a laundry
Because I feel as though, yes, putting out a lot of material is over-saturation of the market
If you are trying to get airplay
If you are trying to showcase the material that you have
That maybe perhaps some tracks that you have will be fitting and suited for someone's project
I believe like the lottery
Why buy one ticket when you can buy a hundred and fifty-six tickets
Encountering to perhaps give a person an opportunity to show that you have material
And I am what the sync, I see things industry may call a one-stop shop
Meaning that I am the writer, producer, arranger, composer
I'm making music without any samples to be cleared
Without having to pay another envy
Because the only person I pay is the electric company for keeping the lights on
Don't I keep the heat on, and I keep the heat on, but I like it cold in the studio
Anywho
So I try my best to network and to get my music heard
I spend time emailing, not spamming
You write a nice email, you introduce yourself, you send the links and you let it go
I realize these people who make these decisions have lives
And you cannot intrude on their time
So basically you put it out there and you hope that they listen
And when the opportunity arises, you hope you get the call
So the best way I know how is to maintain my visibility, to maintain a good rapport
To try my best to build a good community and to keep myself out of any type of trouble
Not that I get in any trouble anyway, I'm a grown ass man, there's no reason for trouble
But with all that, that is the goal
So go to your streaming platform and look up ThinkTimm
That's T-H-I-N-K-T-I-M-M
And listen to some tracks
Honestly, there's a lot of tracks there so I don't expect you to listen to hours and hours of music that you're not interested in it
But if you are, so be it, I thank you
And tell a friend, share, say like, yo, you need some workout music, you need some driving music
You can put this stuff on in the background, speaking of the background
All the tracks you hear in the background of the podcast as usual
Are all my tracks which are all original
Which can be found on one of my six projects that are out there currently
Had to take a sip, had a bit of a drive, broke there, fell a cough coming on
Anyway, here we go
So the next thing I am into, I have currently, for the last couple months, I've had a
Gang of material, meaning artwork, t-shirts and things with this logo I'm using for the music
ThinkTim, which is my artistic eye that I use
And I have the, I have t-shirts and apparel available on teapublic.com backslash thinktim
And I have it also on threadless.com backslash thinktimm
And some cool merchandise, I kid you not, all of the designs are made by me
If you are by chance watching the YouTube feed, I am bringing up images of the apparel
We have hoodies, we have t-shirts, male and female, these shop sites are basically sites where
You create an image and you post your logo and your design
Here's a cool one, I actually used this artwork on the second album
Which was called the Beatanical Blooming, Booming Bouquet
And it's a old school boombox with a bouquet of flowers behind it
And all the artwork is done by me
And I feel like go check it out, what I told you, my goals are just to be a responsible human
I have regular responsibilities and I am just fortunate enough to be artistically and musically
Incline and very creative, so therefore I am attempting to find a way to of course
Parlay my material into some type of income
I have a family, I have children that are, if you did not know, the grey is not premature
It is aged by, it is earned by the age of living life
So I have children that are approaching college age and there's tuitions that need to be paid
And they like the finer things in life and I am trying to use my intellectual property
To further their life and their legacy of living well
So, don't have to buy, but at the same point I realize as I tell anyone I speak to around
I speak to a reference to music is that in 2025, music has become basically a stepping stone for your brand
It is basically a commercial for your greater ideas and what you are trying to put together
And how you want to represent yourself
And talking to my children, I remind them all the time that music and recreational things are part of that disposable income scenario
So music and the finer things you like, your collections, your hobbies and what not, that should all be part of your allotted disposable income
Meaning that basically you pick a career that's going to allow you the life you want to live away from work
Allow you the opportunity to have interests and have fun and the vacation and to do the things you want to do
And have things you want to have and set those goals high
And everything else you do can earn you money, but at the same time they did not come up with the title or the term
Starving artists for no reason whatsoever because if you really think about the numbers
This is why we make music dot dot dot the podcast
If you think about the numbers
Basically, maybe 2% of everyone that makes music can live that glorious life that you think you want to live
Now the thing is, if your goal is to generate passive income to make those n's meet or to equal a salary of a career
You must just work hard at it and it may be achievable, the possibilities of making money under the proper circumstance if you're willing to put the work in
And it is possibly doable, but the question I have for you is what are you trying to do? Are you trying to splurge and floss and get materialistic things?
Or are you just trying to work hard and make a good living and if you can build a good financial portfolio based upon your intellectual property
Why would you not want to do that? I admire all the artists that achieved the high rents because God knows if there is a God or the phrase goes
Who never knew that I would not turn away a policeman for someone's art that's doing well because I know the financial return will be great
But at the same point I am willing to work as hard as I can every single day not knowing what the reward is
And that's the point, you must work and you must work hard regardless if you see the finish line in front of you, behind you, not there, nonexistent, whatever the situation may be
I say that because I work and produce tracks for myself, I have no outlet of goal or whatever to say oh this is for this project coming up, this is, I do it because this is just something I do
Now before I'm going to segue into this situation where I'm going to do something that I was trying to do for the longest time but I finally have it set up properly
So over here on my other screen I have a track set up and I am going to talk about a nice clear version of my ideas
So here we have just a basic track that I've messed around with so I'm going to bring it in for you and I'm just going to need some of these extra sounds here
And how I came up with this idea is I just put on the drums and let the drums play a little something here to see what I come up with, a rather simple pattern, you know so that is the drums and you can hear it's kind of cruising
You know so we have the drums and you can hear that right now, music itself is something that is basically so audible and so pleasing to the ear
That you forget how naturally things are made, you know so you take that little drum section there and from there we went from the drums and I have some strings here
And I will bring those in, I'm trying to map this out here a little bit so I can loop it, there we go, there we go, simple
Now a lot of times when you hear music and you're thinking what is going on so I basically just took the more drum pattern and put some strings on top of it
I'm going to now, I'm going to bring my bass over that I had already done earlier and we can get into this little groove for a second here, the bass is a little sloppy but it's going to be okay
Oh my bad those are the horns
Where's my bass line go?
What I mean?
Hold up
This is live on the fly so I'm being honest I wasn't going to do this
I am going to reopen this track
And see what I got going on here
What's up?
Damn is it saved?
Oh man I think I just did something wrong anyway
I'll put a bass pedal on here real fast while we're listening to it back into the groove, here we go
So we have a bass
One, two, three, ten
Here we go bass line there
I'll just do a bass line there real quick
I'm going to make sure that it works
I'm just going to put a little quantizer there real quick, plug it in
I'll select all the tracks here
Just to clean it up a little bit
So what I'm trying to show you once again is that crazy tubing is a light metal flow
Now we slide over these piano lines of the head
Here we go
I'll take these chords out
And what I'm trying to show you is that the creative process should just flow
Just let it go, let it do
You take your time to let it do what it do
You know you have no clue how you want to be the one to lead
If you want to be the one to succeed
Just try to take it easy
Don't try to be too much
Just feel, feel the vibe and let it ride
How you going to touch the sky?
You know just flow over the track like that
This is something we have to think about, this is the pocket
Why Make Music…
You make music because you can
You make music because you love to do it
It is an easy flow just to find something and let yourself go
And get into it and you just take it easy
So this isn't basically just a drum track
There's drums, a bass line, and some horns
That's it
Took me a couple of minutes to get this together
This is a whole track
I just go through tracks, I recycle and bring things
No need to sample, no need to take from other people
You can do it, this is an example
This is how I want to show you
Interact across the momentum
You can work on finding yourself
You can just do what you want to do
Take the drums out
And see what it sounds like
Now you know I told you I lost my bass line so the bass line just threw over top of it
So here we go
It's all sloppy
Let off, it sounds ok but the drums are going down a bit
And now
The king's a little one inspired
You make me want to say a rhyme
Make me want to spend your time
Make me want to have the time out
Make you want to spend your money
Make you want to think it's funny how you want to rhyme and turn it out
You can be an inspiration
You can maybe lay it down
You can come around
You can listen to the sound
You can do what you're doing
You can be possessed
You can work with us your board
And try to be the best
This is my time
And this is what I'm doing
If you think about my vocal style
I'm not trying to ruin your day
Or ruin all your holiday
What you really want to come around and try to say
Think about the flow and how I really let you know
I am just gonna have to take it nice and slow
I am not here
I'm not trying to show you up
But I'm just trying to tell you
Hey, you can help or follow
I'm following what you're trying to do
And how you lay it down
This is no effects on the voice
And this is how I wear my hair
I wear it little by little
I wear it on my head
I wanna let you know
That I think I'm gonna rain
I got my time
And I'm gonna get it going
If you wanna rock and do it
I wanna let you know
That I am not a rapper or a lyricist
I'm just my do-so
I just wanna do this
Just like I used to
I'm a older man
And I'm living my life
I'm just gonna party
Gonna do it so right
If you come around
You can take your turn
And what you wanna do
Something you see in my mind
This is why I make music
Dot, dot, dot
I can rock an a cappella track so high
I can do an eskimo thing
Like I'm doing
What you think I'm gonna do
Maybe something new
Maybe you can test a string
Maybe you can try to dream
Maybe you can walk around
Maybe you can bring my cow
You can be the one
I really wanna party with
Let me tell you
My friend is my boho
We've lived for a big up to eat
So anyway
All I'm trying to show you is that
You can play around
You can be productive
You can do it independently
With your time
And just as easy
As you catch the flow
You can just catch it and let it go
Uh, uh
Yeah
Now, so this is another track
That's in the background
A step to the mic
And taste the high
This is the bless you get
For how to bring it right back
Not trying to drink my flow
I attack
Just trying to drop the logic out loud
What you need to know about the flow
It's like, no, anyway
I'm in a very playful mood today
Um
I wanna thank you
For tuning in
And I know
We are
Twenty-three
Episodes into this podcast
I've started
This journey
Into doing
Music and trying
To share with everybody
Uh
August of 2024
Of putting my music
Out on streaming platforms
Uh
Getting the distribution
Situation squared away
With United Masters
Uh, attempting to
Get my music out
To the masses
And try to get over my
Insecurity of
All the type
Of fraud
And fear that is around
Us today
And to share
Because there's no way
I would know
If my intellectual property
A.K.A
My music, my thoughts
Would ever
Be something
That people
Wanted to get into
So I had to give it a try
I'm feeling
Good about this
And thank you for those who have
Been listening
Twenty-three of anything is a lot
Um
I'm trying to get better
I am trying to play
The
Social media game
I am attempting to
Build this community
And make the connections
And I'm
Trying to share
My thoughts and my ideas
So
I thank you
For those who do listen
I thank you for those who play
My tracks
Uh, contact me
Hit me up in the comments
Email me
ThinkTimm@gmail.com
Um, that's T-H-I
N K-T-I-M-M
@gmail.com
I do have a website
And I need to get that domain name
Username up and make a scene so professional
So it'll be
ThinkTimm at ThinkTimm.com
It's coming
But like I said
Without the proper team
Working by you, behind you
You are working at your pace
And
Like I said
My journey does not stop
So therefore if anyone knows me
I am never bored
I am always busy doing something
Um
Last night I was editing
Ideas for a
Social media
Commercial type thing
To uh basically
Show off some of the
Attire
Without the website so this way you can
Maybe
Help
Can 2 million people in uh
India buy a t-shirt
If 2 million people
Promise to buy the t-shirt
I promise I will sell it to you for a dollar
So
Do the math, do the math
Don't be greedy, seriously
What do you need to live
Your life, what makes you happy
Music and creativity
Makes me happy
My family makes me happy
I'm learning to share
And it's bringing me joy
So
Pick me up on the social media
If you follow me
I'm sorry if all of a sudden
You get hit by
ThinkTimm
And WDMN
HND
WDMNation and music
DJ
Warm cookies only one and two
Eventually soon
The visual is gonna come
With her
Aka me
Spinning on the ones
And twos
You know what I'm saying we're gonna get something
Going and I'm gonna try
To keep you guys entertained
Once again
Thank you very much for
Tuning in
This is Why
Make Music…
ThinkTimm… if nothing
Else
Peace and be wild
Thank you
Thank you for
Paying attention
Thank you
Thank you for
Always tuning in
Thank you for doing
And being you
Embrace the future
Live your life
Peace
And be wild
This podcast is brought to you by
The good people at WDMN
You know
We're there
We're everywhere
We're like the
Fetters floating in the air
Peace out