I think it’s a proven fact that bands/artists are pretty lousy at handling honest criticism. Why do many of them see what you’re doing is a personal attack when you know that’s not your intention? Whenever you criticize their music, the way they promote themselves, the way they handle things in their career, etc. — they all seem to get hurt and upset about it pretty easily. This has always been a problem. That’s why drama and feuds happen with other musicians. Why? Why do they usually get their panties in a bunch over your opinions on certain things? I’ve been dealing with this with musicians for many years. In other local music forums and social media. They would bash you in forums, block you in social media, and then they would want nothing to do with you. The world of musicians would seem like a big soap opera. This is part of why I have such a problem trying to get along with certain musicians who I always respected and was trying to support.

I’m just beginning to figure out why all of this is. I think the reason is that musicians really are ridiculously sensitive people. They take everything personally. I think the main thing is why musicians get upset easily is because musicians thrive on flattery. When they make music, and art… they put it out there publicly for the world to see… they expect all the feedback to be positive. It’s all ego, pretty much and they’ll never want to admit it.

I can handle criticism toward my own music just fine. If you want to hate me, fine go for it. I know I can’t please everybody. The world doesn’t work like that.

It’s okay to critique bands/artists signed in the major labels… people will have no problem but when you criticize the local acts, they’ll get all hurt about it.

If music is what you want to do, you got to be strong and tough. Don’t let the critics bring you down. I’ve had so many anonymous blogs bashing me, and people using youtube to make fun of me. All that is fine and good but honestly, I find that stuff to be pretty hilarious. I actually have a good laugh and find it amusing that people would take the time to do that stuff. I don’t allow bashing and criticism aimed against me here, in facebook or my youtube channel but everywhere else you can feel free to bash me all you want to.

You have to learn that feedback and responses to what you do is not all going to be positive. People have been treating me in a negative direction for years so I only speak from experience.

You have to learn how to handle the criticism in the world of music ’cause if you want to forward your career… maybe go as far as getting signed… there’s going to be all kinds of negative people the more you move forward in your career. You will get more bloggers, music critics, people in the industry trashing you publicly, trust me. It’ll happen. If you let the negative feedback get you down, it’ll be career suicide in the future.

So you have to learn not to take what people seriously. I never did.

Musicians just want to be flattered all the time by the positive feedback. This may seem pretty weird to you but I honestly feel pretty flattered and humbled when people hate me. That feels good too. Whether you like me or hate me, either one is good. That’s part of being a musician. You have to be able to take the hate just fine and I can do exactly that as you can see. I know I’m one of those musicians that you either love or hate and I’m all good with that.

Like the old saying goes, “if you can’t take the heat, then get out of the kitchen?”. Well, that’s what you should do if you can’t handle the criticism in the world of music. Being a “professional” musician is not for you if you can’t handle it, believe me.

Kev

One thing facebook proves is the way fans react to bands & artists. Not only bands & artists can have weird and strange attitudes, fans can be a lot weirder. I’m not knocking fans supporting bands in any way, am not jealous, there is just something I don’t get about them. Fans would stay loyal to their favorite unsigned band or solo artist. They would go to almost all of their shows. Buy all of their records, merch, etc. They would “like” every post they put up in band pages. Whenever people are trash talking this band/artist in a negative direction their fans would defend them and have their back no matter what. Fans would also like everything they do no matter if the guys in the bands are idiots and they sometimes do crazy things. You get the idea.

All of this is really strange to me.

I understand fans want to see their favorite band/artist succeed and move on up in their careers. That’s why fans do what they do. It’s their way of showing their support to this band and to make them feel proud and happy. It’s their way of supporting unsigned acts and the music scene. Trying to be nice and supportive. They don’t want to see bands get setbacks or to be put down by other people. Everything have to be positive about them. It’s the same thing with national music too. Fans can get pretty obsessed with artists in the major labels.

A lot of fans don’t want to look at bands with reality and honesty like I do. It is hard to be honest about unsigned bands without their supporters getting all over you and I’ve had that problem for years. It should be perfectly okay to be honest and have an opinion on local bands/artists but when you do people will call you a “hater” and will say things that you’re just “jealous”, and nothing more. The thing that people don’t understand is that music is here to be open for honest critique. That’s what we listen to music for. Review it, critique it. Listen to a band/artist and be able to tell if we like it or not. Or if you want to disagree with how a band does things, you should be able to say all that too. There should be absolutely nothing wrong with critiquing a band.

Again, I don’t understand fans obsessions with bands/artists. Do they really love them that much? I may be a fan of certain bands/artists myself but I’m not that obsessed with them. I maybe supportive of local music but I’m not gonna like and agree with everything they do. Sometimes I don’t understand people at all.

Kev

There’s a lot of musicians who mistakenly believe that you must promote and market yourself everywhere as much as possible. Especially on the internet. There are musicians who get so obsessed with promoting themselves a bit too much… not naming names. Is it a good idea? They would do a lot more than just facebook online. Local bands would use other stuff such as other local music websites and they would promote themselves everywhere as much as possible. The sad truth is… no… it’s not a good idea to promote yourself to death like that… and here is why…

1. It’ll annoy people – It’ll make it seem like you’re sending spam out to them. Shoving your music in front of their faces. Not cool.
2. You need to focus more on your music – Wasting your time on the internet promoting yourself is the same thing as playing video games for hours.
3. It’ll make you look desperate – Enough said?

You don’t need to promote yourself too much. I agree that marketing and promoting are both extremely important but all you need to get the word out of your music are just a few things. Just a facebook, blog, website, twitter and that’s pretty much it.

Not a lot of people will come hear your music no matter how much you promote yourself. People will find it on their own. If your music is good, they’ll come find ya and check ya out. All you need is promote your projects or gigs like once or twice and you should let the people make the decision if they want to support ya or not. Musicians are pretty obsessed with being at the center of everyone’s attention.

Just let the music speak on it’s own and people will come to ya.

You also don’t want to update your facebook like pages every five seconds, all day long. That will lead people to unlike your page and you will lose their support. Only promote things that are worth it.

I hardly ever use my facebook like page for my music but when I get new songs written, I’ll get it rolling again. It’s pretty annoying how musicians promote themselves way too much. I “unlike” their pages ’cause of that reason alone. All you need on your facebook like pages is like 1 or 2 posts a day.

Musicians are really horrible at marketing and I’m not afraid to say things like this.

Kev

Now, when I respond to bands on how they do things in their careers, criticizing the way they do stuff on how they get themselves out there… some of these bands act like I’m trying to knock them and get all over them. Some act like I’m trying to put ’em down. No. That’s not my intention. I’m only looking after bands & artists as a fan of music and trying to help them. Trying to give them a realistic look at things, ya know? That’s all I’m pretty much doing. I’m not trying to put down the local music scene (if there ever is one) like I’ve been accused of doing many times. I’m only trying to improve the scene. Make it better so to do that, I must do it with a realistic approach.

There’s nothing wrong with being realistic about unsigned music as it’s actually a pretty professional and good thing to do. Anybody who comes back being all defensive… responding to me with a negative attitude — swearing, writing me hateful e-mails/comments, etc. — you don’t have what it takes to become a professional musician. A true professional musician would respond to me and discuss things in a mature manner or they would just ignore it if they don’t like what I have to say.

I really believe there are so many young bands out there who don’t even know what they are doing and they have a lot to learn in trying to play music on a professional level. I just want them to be careful with things. That’s all I’m doing. Looking after them. That’s why they mistakenly believe they feel the need to enter contests & competitions, go through Pay to Play venues like Red Square in order to get somewhere. They also need to run their shows a little better and I’ll have a post about that soon. They also don’t need promoters/managers either.

That’s all I’m doing, really. Just looking after the music scene. Not trying to put it down in any way. If musicians want to hate on me for this, that’s their call.

There are musicians out there who have gotten success and have done it in a smart way. Like take Sean Rowe for example. I have followed Sean’s career for years. Way back when he was just playing gigs around the Albany area and now he’s signed to a big independent label. Already made his debut TV performance on Jimmy Kimmel. Sean got there by doing all the work himself. I watched him. He never had a promoter/manager. Never entered into battle of the bands and other ridiculous competitions. Never went through pay to play scams to get where he is. He opened for big national acts as well. He toured around the states and other countries just by himself, pretty much. That’s why I respect him as a musician more than anybody else. So you all should look after him for inspiration. That guy absolutely knew what he was doing.

You see? There are good ways of getting yourself out there successfully… you just gotta know how to get yourself out there, do it responsibly, and carefully.

I’m not trying to put down the scene at all. Only trying to improve it to make it better. Trying to get musicians to have friendlier and more professional attitudes and things like that. This area doesn’t have a friendly attitude at all. Albany’s been ranked #7 as the most unfriendly cities in America so go figure.

Kev

Edit to add: Post corrected for spelling errors and grammar mistakes. Should be better now.

There are quite a lot of band contests and competitions in the area. Local radio stations and venues hosting contests for bands/artists to enter to win big prizes such as studio time, open for a national act, merchandise, money, etc. Why are there so many of them? It’s because there is a lot of talent in the area. So they feel in order to promote their radio station or venue they would host these contests. There’s a lot of lame Battle of The Bands and Songwriter’s Night kind of contests where you can hope to win big opportunities. They register online. With the most votes, they get to go and compete by performing so people can go to that show to vote. Who’s ever the winner is gets the grand prize. The winner is usually chosen by the judges and the most votes.

Whenever these things happen, a bunch of bands & artists will enter immediately. They’re all hoping to win and get some exposure out of this. That’s why they enter these things.

The reason I disagree with these contests and band competitions is because I think this is a bad way to get recognized for. Why would you want to be known for that? I would want my music to stay away from these. I look at these contests & competitions as a small version of those reality shows on TV (American Idol, America’s Got Talent, The Voice, etc.). That’s why these contests keep on coming because of those shows. That’s why there’s more of them. Not just SPAC’s Battle of the Bands, there are similar contests like these all over the area. For example, the most recent one is Qruption where a local artist get to open for national acts at SPAC.

I don’t need contests to give me free recognition and free popularity. I would want to get that stuff on my own without the help of these stupid contests. Don’t get me wrong, though, I would love to open for a national act or get some big opportunity but I’m not gonna get it by entering these stupid things. I would try to get that stuff by making the music and just play. There have been bands out there who have gotten opportunities to open for national acts without entering any type of contest. They got there with hard work and dedication. They know how to get contacts from people from the industry is how they get those good gigs.

On top of that, the voting in these contests are usually rigged so what’s the point? The winners are usually chosen even before the votes are counted and they usually pick the winners to those who they think are gonna create a lot of attention in the local media.

I can’t stand these things for a lot of reasons. They’re just a popularity contest, nothing more.

I think it’s crazy how bands/artists jump into these things but whatever, ya know? They’re weird. They’ll do anything to get recognition even if it’s something silly as this. I understand your goals and wanna make your dreams come true but these aren’t the way to go about it, in my opinion.

Just be proud of your work and don’t take yourself serious. Sometimes I feel they get way into their rock star dreams. All you need to get recognition and good opportunities is to make the music and gig as much as possible. That’s it.

Kev