I couldn’t help notice this tweet the other day from musician Jon Gomm.

I’m sure these sentiments resonate with DIY musicians. A period of solitude whilst you create followed by a feeling of “icky-ness” when you ask people to buy it.

Asking for people to buy our stuff is hard for a lot of musicians.

We frequently lock ourselves away and maintain radio silence when writing and recording. Sharing your creative journey and your work in progress often feels counter intuitive and musicians have a tendency to push people away during this stage.  “It’s not quite ready” and “it’ll spoil the surprise” are all sentiments musicians will recognise.

We often get very secretive during the process of creating our music.

By detaching ourselves during this period we inadvertently ‘lock out’ our audience during a process they would love to be part of.  When our music is finally ready for release, we no longer shun our audience and ask them to get their wallet out. To some members of your audience, it sounds like you only want them for their money!

So how can we improve on this scenario?  How about during the writing and recording of your music you share the experience of creation. Use social media, blogs, videos etc. to show people what it’s like to create your music. Focus less on internalisation and more on communication.  Let you audience experience and share your musical journey, they really will thank you for it. Include them in the music creation process, show them what it’s like for you to record and create and when the moment comes for you to ask for the sale, it should feel a whole lot more natural and a lot less stressful.

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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