#106 - 26th July 2024 - What'll be important this weekend
Not even half-way in, the weekend is quite full already.
There is a wedding to attend to. Not mine. But still, it demands attention. It deserves attention.
With less time, one must increase focus! With the next release only 12 days away, I've got a clear priority list:
- understand the status of production for clips that were recorded a couple of weeks ago --> wtf are you, finished video clips?!
- proceed with vocal production of summer nights, which is supposed to be the next release for beginning of September. Worst case, we'll have to do a few more vocal takes.
- Print samples for the drummer to be able to play more tracks live. That's a task that always takes longer than you think.
- Enable merch for other countries. Priority is UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Nordics...maybe US?
- Finalize mixing "Bei Dir" for a friend of mine, who sent the snare track over that he produced
- analyze promo websites and their integrity. thinking of tracks to the max and boostcollective.
Issue is, the more I read and think about it, the less I believe in the currency called "# of streams". It certainly does not buy you a beer. What it seems to be doing though is, it legitimizes your existence as a musician, as an act. A booker, a label or even a potential fan is probably more likely to interact with you, if your streaming number is high enough. So you can't ignore it.
If - as a musician - you're aiming for monetization, say to pay the rent, streams won't do anything for you. In this scenario, my current thinking is that your upper funnel has two entry points:
1) TikTok where you get the reach,
2) youtube where there is potentially less reach, but according to user analysis, more people active looking for music
... and both must be pushed as paid.
From there, the main concern must be a conversion to something like Patreon, your merchandise shop, bandcamp or the youtube private community thing. I don't know what it's called. Oh and conversion to buying a live show ticket. This is what pays the rent.
I did not mention Instagram. I think Instagram is utterly terrible horseshit. Yet, the band does Instagram predominantly. This must change from my perspective.