What do independent musicians need?

[Solo.music]

I am currently working on a startup to provide support for smaller musicians navigating the composition, production, and marketing scene. This  startup, tentatively called Solo.music, is developing a series of free online tools to hopefully improve the musician’s experience. If you have a moment, It would really help us if you could fill out this google form about the things that bother you about the music experience.

Form:
https://forms.gle/MprHqwBf6Kz2JLHD8

Our Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/solo.music_business/

Thank you

[amanise]

Interesting. We definitely need help - well, I do at least

What I would benefit from the most though, isn't on your forms. I would really appreciate an online, and well maintained, roadmap of the Indie music scene from a business perspective.It's ok producing your music - you can be the best of the best at that - but how on earth do you get it into peoples ears - leave alone get them to pay anything for it. A good and up to date roadmap to help your navigation of it all would be especially helpful.

[Johnsy]

A full-time job?

[Sam Spoons]

The problem for most isn't the hours but the renumeration

[Drew Stephenson]

A few points on your form:
On the music publishing page the question "Where is your music published" is set up to only allow one answer when it should allow multiple options.
Also the branching is a bit wonky and if you don't click "I publish compositions" it still takes you to a follow up question on publishing compositions.
Also there a quite a lot of compound questions, these are generally things to avoid with surveys as they lead to confusion and make it harder to interpret the data.

For me the biggest issue is marketing. Apart from overcoming my own loathing of self-publication the other challenge is being able to commit enough time to do this effectively and still have time to actually generate any music.

[RichardT]

I would make a choice between composition, production and marketing. These are totally different skill sets and I fear that if you try to cover all three as a start-up you’ll be spreading yourself too thinly.

There is an enormous amount of material out there on composition and production. You’ll be competing against some very, very high-quality stuff and I’m not sure how you’d make your mark.

On the marketing / business side, I see a much bigger gap. Ari Herstand has produced spme good material, but it’s US-centric and it’s sometimes impossible to apply to the UK.

Some good UK or EU focussed material covering distribution, the streaming ecosystems, playlisters, submission sites, website design tools, blogs, promotion, marketing, royalties, PROs, sync, publishing, tax, independent labels, use of social media, radio play etc would very helpful.

[Drew Stephenson]

Some good UK or EU focussed material covering distribution, the streaming ecosystems, playlisters, submission sites, website design tools, blogs, promotion, marketing, royalties, PROs, sync, publishing, tax, independent labels, use of social media, radio play etc would very helpful.

[awjoe]

Indeed.

[Arpangel]

The problem for most isn't the hours but the renumeration

The problem for most isn’t the hours, or the money, it’s the recognition.

[BigRedX]

The problem for most isn't the hours but the renumeration

The problem for most isn’t the hours, or the money, it’s the recognition.

They are all interlinked.

For most of us, reducing the number of things that get in the way of producing music will mean that we can produce more and hopefully "better" music. If you are able to make a full time living out of producing the music you want to produce that can only be a good thing creatively.

Of course recognition for your "art" doesn't necessarily mean more money and therefore more time to spend producing that "art".

[Arpangel]

The problem for most isn't the hours but the renumeration

The problem for most isn’t the hours, or the money, it’s the recognition.

They are all interlinked.

For most of us, reducing the number of things that get in the way of producing music will mean that we can produce more and hopefully "better" music. If you are able to make a full time living out of producing the music you want to produce that can only be a good thing creatively.

Of course recognition for your "art" doesn't necessarily mean more money and therefore more time to spend producing that "art".

Reducing whatever it is that’s supposed to be preventing us from making music I find, personally, it makes no difference to the "quality" of my music whatsoever.
In fact, sometimes, when things are really bad, and I’m stressed out, I’ve done what I think is some of my best music, because I tend to disappear into it more to get away from what’s happening.
If things are fine, and I’m feeling relatively happy, I don’t actually want to do any music, I’m quite happy just reading, or going in the garden.

[Drew Stephenson]

In fact, sometimes, when things are really bad, and I’m stressed out, I’ve done what I think is some of my best music, because I tend to disappear into it more to get away from what’s happening.
If things are fine, and I’m feeling relatively happy, I don’t actually want to do any music, I’m quite happy just reading, or going in the garden.

Very Suzanne Vega.
She was asked why her songs were all so depressing and she explained that when she was happy she went out dancing or to do fun stuff, she tended to pick up the guitar when she was feeling more melancholy.

[BigRedX]

For me, having more time available to do music means that I can work when inspiration strikes and not on the one or two evenings a week left over after all my other commitments. So if I'm not "feeling it" I can read a book and not feel that I'm letting the rest of the band down because I'm not working on the new songs that everyone is so excited about.

[Arpangel]

In fact, sometimes, when things are really bad, and I’m stressed out, I’ve done what I think is some of my best music, because I tend to disappear into it more to get away from what’s happening.
If things are fine, and I’m feeling relatively happy, I don’t actually want to do any music, I’m quite happy just reading, or going in the garden.

Very Suzanne Vega.
She was asked why her songs were all so depressing and she explained that when she was happy she went out dancing or to do fun stuff, she tended to pick up the guitar when she was feeling more melancholy.

I can understand that.
Also, when I’m making music, I’m certainly not thinking happy thoughts, the things going through my mind at the time are the types of things that there are no answers to, that’s why I make music, they are things that are beyond words.