Somebody said on here that nobody goes out to see local original music anymore. Sorry, but I would have to respectfully disagree on that one. The way I’m seeing things is that original music unsigned/local has finally got the recognition and success it deserves. A lot of people are buying albums from original bands and a lot of people go to their shows. Original bands are getting quite the crowds these days! How do these original bands get people interested in their music?

There’s a few secrets to that.

1) Good songs

2) Good marketing/promotion

Those are a few keys that will get your original band a lot of success and recognition.

I have learned over the years that people will not support your music if it isn’t good. It’s sad but that’s the way it is and you have to look at reality. Why are a lot more people supporting original music these days? It’s because I would think people have grown tired of cover bands. The digital age also helps attract people to original music. Social media and all that stuff.

If you play original music and you gig out as much as possible… you don’t get much of a crowd at your shows. Why is that? Maybe it’s because your songwriting isn’t good enough. Maybe people aren’t into what you do musically. Maybe you need a lot of work on your music. Also, maybe you didn’t promote yourself well enough??? Not doing enough marketing.

A lot of original bands around here that I’ve seen have gotten very successful and became established acts. These bands play all original music only and they’ve gotten a lot of recognition… not only because their music is probably good… it’s mostly because these bands are good at marketing. They’re good at getting people out to their shows. If you’re not getting much of a crowd at your gigs… you can’t be blaming your area or the original music scene, that’s your job to get people out to your gigs.

You can’t just book a show and expect a huge crowd to show up. You need to think of better marketing/promotion skills: make flyers, get on the phone and call everyone you know, make show invites, start newsletters, use blogs/websites, etc.

A large following will definitely not fall in your lap. You want to be heard, it’s your job to get people interested in your music. You also have to make your music as best as possible if you want a large following. People will not support crap music, that’s all there is to it. If you’re having a tough time trying to get people to your shows no matter how much you promote yourself, then you have a lot work to do in your songwriting.

This is nothing against anybody, I’m only speaking from my own experiences. When I get my stuff out there, I tried to promote myself as much as possible. You may have seen it before but I have had plenty of people who refused to support me. People still do that too. They ignore my music like if it’s nothing to them. At least, I have some people who actually believe in my songwriting.

I’ll have to agree that my last batch of songs seemed a little rushed and needed more work so that’s why I’m taking my time to study and practice my craft of songwriting. I wanna get better next time around, hoping more people would enjoy my songs. I want to take songwriting a little more seriously from this point on. Take the lyrics, vocals, guitar parts, etc. all very seriously. While a lot of people try to tell me, “don’t worry about if other people don’t like your music, playing music should be for you” — I’m flattered people say these things but like all musicians, I want people to enjoy my music too! I’m trying my very best. Writing good music is hard. I do want my songwriting to be at my best and I’m trying!

Kev