i have received considerable backlash for my ideas of creating a marketing campaign for my music. i will break everything down because i trust you guys as artists and because i need a true art, music, and creative opinion based upon the information i provide.
this picture is going to be taped on poles and signs and bus stops. but i need to make sure my ideas are not creepy or psychotic or uncomfortable for the general public, in particular youth and their families. i live in a quite suburban upper class area where most things are high end. private schools, high rent, nothing that is poor or lower class. i want to post this multiple times on places youth may see. obviously i would love for adults and parents to get this however, i am not in the market for adult audiences. not the typical suburban mom&dad. so my question to you is this. if i go through with this plan, am i projecting a complete psycho and crazy creep by doing so? posting this on pathways where youth may see it and possibly question what exactly it means? my audience will eventually be youth. because angst etc. but also my audience eventually will be far more adult in nature given that my content is deeply adult but not graphic.
this picture shows my handwriting on top, followed by a sticker i recently purchased (the exact parental advisory sticker) which i will place on the outside of each ziplock bag. the lighter signifies the flash drive i will place inside containing my adult but not completely adult content. some tracks are extremely family friendly, some are strange idm tracks most youth will not pick up on. does this idea sound crazy & creepy? be harsh because i need to know before i drop bombs. not actual bombs, music bombs- militant love widespread to reach all i possibly can. thoughts?
If I saw something like this out on the street in the suburbs, Iād be intrigued but also dubious. Itās generally not a great idea to stick a random usb stick into your computer and i think most people feel that way. It feels creepy in the context of the potential for a nefarious trick. Being trusting of strangers is a sign of naivete in urban and suburban neighbourhoods. If I saw this among the freebies and zines in coffeeshops, bars or music venues, I might be a bit more trusting but again I wouldnāt advice anyone to insert an unfamiliar usb stick. Iāve thought about this idea a bit before-I was imagining just leaving usb sticks on bus seats, on benges and random places like that and thereās the music and a text file inside- curiosity could prompt someone to check out whatās on there. But yeah usbās are scetchy generally, how about tapes? Stickers with a QR to your streams? Or you could go ahead with the ziplock usb but have a QR sticker on it that leads to a website that shows you are legit.
It is considerably creepy and mysterious, but if itās all in good fun and youāre OK with whatever type of attention it may bring (positive and negative) back to you, maybe itās worth doing anyway.
This reminds me of a noise artist who made the news by mailing random people his noise tape (Iād have to dig up the article to find out who he was, but itās safe to say he was an absolute nobody). The problem and reason why he got into hot water was because the little pamphlet he had taped to the cassettes said something to the effect of āI will burn these buildings to the groundā, and obviously some people took this literally rather than an artistic expression and probably thought he was going to literally commit arson or something.
The moral here (for me) is that you need to be OK with the backlash if youāre going to do something so bold. Personally itās not worth it to me (Iām 32 and I have no desire to be edgy anymore, let alone make any more music), but itās still worth it for a ton of people to come up with creative āmarketingā strategies like this.
Donāt get me wrong; Iām always doing marketing stunts to try to get people interested in sample packs and other things. But usually itās just giving out free coupon codes, running sales, and working hard to beat my own deadlines to get stuff out there. But at the end of the day, I think itās the quality that counts and not always the promotion tactic itself.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with everyone else. There is no way Iād stick a random USB drive in my computer Personally, I donāt find it creepy or anything. I would probably simultaneously believe it was just someone trying to spread their music but not able to trust it enough to put it in my computer.
QR codes, but still sketch and a waste of time. iām left with the same thing i always had. my messages & my website plugs. i guess i gotta prepare for a good year before i release any of this
whatever- what do you think about skate parks? or graffitiād bridges?
you wanna know what i think is bullshit? i think that i have to āappease to the worldā is bullshit. i think that i have to edit my content and approach because āwell someone may not like itā is bullshit. i should be an anarchist who doesnāt care what type of rubble i create. but iām not. i care about otherās fear. i care about families and children. i care about the general population and because of that bullshit i must put myself in a little box, EXACTLY like the music industry puts you in a box because, āyour music is not appealing to an audienceā or āyour music is not exactly normal and fit for radio playā āyour music is not safeā your music pushes the agenda of what people consider ānormalā and I AM NOT NORMAL!!! but because some lunatic idiot decides to shoot up a fucking movie theatre and because some moron decides to post texts about his sexual encounters with his teacher ALL OF A SUDDEN I AM A FUCKING BAD GUY. itās stupid. it is REALLY REALLY REALLY stupid. and in the end i can only thank myself for this. if i had just gone to college like a normal person i wouldnāt have to worry about ābuying flashdrives to push my underground musicā i could just do it. and not hurt my bank account. and cover all my bases of being āfamily friendlyā and āsafeā because i could just hire a lawyer if shit hit the fan. āno your honor he was acting out of loveā $2,000.00 later i am a free man. THIS is why i hate society. because of THIS. because i am not murdering school children, i am not kidnapping innocent college girls, i am not taping stuffed animals to a pole and lighting them on fire in the name of sexual discovery, i am not shooting up brothels because i canāt have sex with a woman and my parents never approved of me. likeā¦ there is no good anymore. there is no normal. it is all fucked political correctness and āyou must stay in lineā when did art EVER stay in line??? but guess what? if i do this wrong, i could get fucking arrested or evicted or worse. and then instead of going to my 9-5 job and paying my rent i canāt afford i will be in a jail cell AGAIN eating shit food with maniacs stealing my socks and my cornbread which isnāt actually cornbread. FUCK SOCIETY.
Have you considered submitting your record to a label online and seeing what kind of traction you could get that way?
I personally think your usb stick idea wouldnāt get very much traction. I agree with all the other reasons presented here in the thread. One more reason though that Iāll addā¦.
Nobody gives a shit. Seriously, they donāt.
You need representation to get people onboard. That or you need to get out and play shows to make an effort to gain a following. Those people will give a shit and will probably gladly chuck a usb stick in their computer should you get them on the hook at a show.
yes. i am seriously going to submit my music to multiple platforms idmf being the soul and then S27 & adultswim. you telling me ānobody gives a shitā really put reality into perspective. cut me down off my high horse and i needed that. i know i need representation and i know how i can do that. but honestly, iām done with the music industry. i donāt want the things i did ten years ago. i will do a handful of live shows but it will be on my own time and my own terms. everything for me is only digital now. and nothing is going to be public.
I understand being mad at the world or society but when you break it down itās all just people like you and me, trying to do our best and also hoping we donāt get a virus on our computer. Turn those eyes from inward-outward and see that weāre all part of the same whole. If you want to market your music, be the listener, how do you find music? What makes you want to check it out? What makes you care, and what makes you say " I donāt need to bother with this right now".
The IDMf Netlabel would happily listen to your record for consideration and review for potential release. We just reposted our submission guidelines earlier today in fact. Just trying to remind people of the process in case they forgot. Linkā¦.
And to clarify my nobody gives a shit point, I should have addedā¦.
But it isnāt personal.
Looking forward to hearing your release whenever it comes out on whatever avenue gets it out there.
Iāve tried a few guerrilla marketing campaigns in the past. Had decent tracktion with QR codes in places like coffee shops that allow posting, but as others have said people donāt really care unless there is some kind of interesting hook, which is usually the hardest part.
Be it online or IRL, you typically need something that pulls people in. Certain niches will repond well to certain things. Iāve released music exclusively on torrent trackers before but thatās typically not a good way to make money (if thatās your goal) and you donāt really get any feedback or know if anyoneās listened to it, you just see the peers.
Iāve always thought itād be cool to hire a graffiti artist and to get them to embed an easter egg QR code into a piece ( a legal one, not advocating for tying yourself to a crime ).
Itās a very interesting discussion point. Most of my ideas in this area though donāt really translate to awareness around a brand or sales though, more just fun marketing experiments.
Iāll add too, lots of people like those AR/treasure hunt type games. Leave clues in realspace that point to places on the web, that give you directions to the next clue, etc stuff like that.
Always thought that would be a fun way to release an album, try and design a AR treasure hunt for it. Again though, work intensive and kind of adjecent to the goal of getting people to listen to your music lol.
Personally, I donāt find it creepy or anything. I would probably simultaneously believe it was just someone trying to spread their music but not able to trust it enough to put it in my computer.
