A personal question about audience/support.

[bruno]

I agree with much that has been said here. For me, my approach is to please my first, and if anyone likes it - then its a bonus. Playing live again comes under the same category. Generally people like the idea of live music, but are less interested when its happening. Kind of how it is - unless they are generally drunk, and want to sing along with 'Hi Ho Silver Lining'. I'm kinda depressed with the general health of music - but we live in a sound-bite society, and most people simply don't have the attention span - even if being performed to by the most fantastic of performers. So, it is as it is - if I'm happy with it, then thats good enough for me.

[Farrell Jackson]

Weird...me? Hey I represent that remark, lol. My wife has heard me audition my songs so many times through the years that she just turns a deaf ear to it ...same with my close friends. They are all just a strange bunch. 

To quote  Joe Walsh:

"I go to parties sometimes until four
It's hard to leave when you can't find the door
It's tough to handle this fortune and fame
Everybody's so different I haven't changed"

Farrell

[Flash Harry]

i'm not a weirdo

You are.

[Geir]

i'm not a weirdo

You are.

I think I'm not in total unagreement of that

[Oldrottenhead]

i'm not a weirdo either.

[Johnny Robbo]

My take on the whole social media thing is that it simply doesn't work. I put a lot of time & effort into promoting my last album on both FB and Twitter, and was given "expert" advice from under a scheme run by the local council where they provided mentoring from a successful online marketing firm.

Me & the missus were running two businesses... my guitar & music tuition practice, and a retail gift shop. Both businesses qualified for the expert mentoring, and I managed to include the album promotion in the help I got regarding the guitar tuition side of things. We sat in a classroom & were shown lots of flow charts and demographic analyses of our target audiences and coached on how to compose social media posts in the most effective ways, as well as how to target those posts etc etc... all to no avail. It didn't generate a single extra brass farthing of money in the till for either business. The retail business has since closed - the recession may be officially over, but no-one seems to have told this part of the world.

I got heartily fed up of watching music that I'd posted on FB & Twitter slipping down the page without so much as a single comment, like or share from anyone - even when I shared it in music related groups where I regularly participated by commenting on others' work & thought it would be reasonable to expect the same courtesy... nothing. Even the band I was in last year didn't get a single gig or any form of work from being on Facebook - plenty of "likes" but none of that translated into paid work. I've come to think the best way to get yourself out there, and get feedback, is a well written website with a good Google ranking - it certainly works for me. It's not free, but compared with other methods of advertising, it's cheaper than reaching the same number of people by any other kind of media.

My lasting memory of social media is that people often use it as a place to be obnoxious. Usually when they've had a skinful of drink and decide to post comments and opinions of a "colourful" nature. So many times I saw friends & people I respect succumbing to that particular vice, making me think "I really didn't want to know that about you!" Hence I no longer have a Facebook or Twitter account - I have no use for them: they were no use at all in helping me market my music or other endeavours, and everyone I want to be able to speak to, I can do via forums like this, or email/phone... or just face to face.

Now then... I just need to print off some photos of my evening meal so I can post them to my friends, then they can all write their opinions at the bottom of the picture, put it in an envelope & post it back to me - I suppose Facebook was good for SOME things 

[Flash Harry]

Like John, I have had nothing from a facebook page. We get gigs by knocking on doors, talking to the people who book bands, pestering again and again.

I have had people ring up to book us only when they are stuck because someone else has let them down. There's no substitute to schlepping your shizzle. Hard frikking work. That's the way to do it. The music is the easy bit.

[Blooby]

I have had people ring up to book us only when they are stuck because someone else has let them down. There's no substitute to schlepping your shizzle. Hard frikking work. That's the way to do it. The music is the easy bit.

I agree completely.  That being said, the best way to get word out of an upcoming gig appears to be Facebook for us (and I don't even have an account.  Again, it's my girlfriend's.).  Likewise, when we had to cancel a gig at last minute, we let people know through her Facebook account, and word got around friends of the band very quickly.

Blooby