Oodles of songs sitting on my hard-drive, what next?

October 10, 2007 6:03 AM

I've been making surrealish sci-fi electronic music for the past few years and as a result have a tidy little collection of songs sitting on my hard drive. I have no misgivings that commercial success is in my future and that is absolutely fine. But...

I'd like to do something with them. At one point I threw a dozen songs on a website but given the vast wasteland that is the web, it seemed kinda pointless. I am considering getting a small run CD (like 100 copies or so) just for my own edification and giving away to friends. A vanity project I suppose.

I wonder if any of you have come to the same crossroads and what did you ultimately decide to do? Are there other fun options I am not considering?

posted by ian1977 to media & arts (15 comments total)

There are plenty of electronic-focused netlabels who just might think your stuff is great. Put together a CD length collection and submit it - you never know. No money will be made, but at least you get "released."
posted by davebush at 6:42 AM on October 10, 2007

Spend a weekend reaching out to indie documentarians/filmmakers, letting them know you've got a wealth of music they could use in their next film?
posted by jbickers at 7:07 AM on October 10, 2007

Yeah, 2nding contacting filmmakers. Animators too. People always need music for their projects.
posted by Rykey at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2007

Can you post a link? A few years ago I found some excellent free electronic music by Dick Richards based on the Samuel Delany book "Dhalgren". He has the full album of songs posted in many places on the web and it is pretty popular.

There are plenty of places to post the music to gain popularity like the most obvious place - Internet Archive and blogs such as No Type.
posted by JJ86 at 7:16 AM on October 10, 2007

@JJ86: I've since dismantled the website, so no link I am afraid. I think there are a few links out there still with a song or two, I can email them to you if you like.

I've thought of internet archive. There is a lot of great stuff there. One guy made an entire album just recording himself twiddling with rubber bands and a follow-up album just manipulating paper (crumpling, ripping, etc)
posted by ian1977 at 7:21 AM on October 10, 2007

@Rykey & jbickers: I've thought of that, but not quite sure how to proceed. I suppose I could go to the local film school and post a flyer or something.
posted by ian1977 at 7:33 AM on October 10, 2007

Lots of good leads here.
posted by jbickers at 7:36 AM on October 10, 2007

Ha! ...I would have thought of that eventually, honest I would! :-P
posted by ian1977 at 7:38 AM on October 10, 2007

How about you post a sample to Metafilter?
posted by Nelson at 9:11 AM on October 10, 2007

This site accepts submissions. Just don't be a dick about it.
posted by sanko at 9:49 AM on October 10, 2007

Make a blog, make an inventive/cool video or two

???

Profit!!!

I've got a bunch of songs sitting around too. If I ever decided to put it out there, I'd make a blog and some cool stuff. People love cool stuff. If it's as cool as it sounds, it will eventually get picked up by mefi or boingboing. Sorry to say, but you'll probably have to kind of drift through space for a while in hypersleep waiting to get picked up by a deep space mining expedition.
posted by sociolibrarian at 10:42 AM on October 10, 2007

Hang out on a music/software/VST site like KVR and post your music there. You'll get feedback and tips, and more info on where to post it.
posted by Artful Codger at 11:51 AM on October 10, 2007

@sanko - That email thread was funny. Site looks cool too.

@sociolibrarian - What do you mean by cool stuff? Stuff as in stuff? ie matter, concrete 3d objects? Or stuff as in cool website stuff?

@Artful Codger - KVR is great. But I am more leaning towards finding original/fun/interesting ways of presenting my music, not so much for gathering feedback and such.

Thanks to everyone for the replies!
posted by ian1977 at 12:52 PM on October 10, 2007

All of it. Just show us more of your insanely cool ian1977-ness that goes along with the music. Make posts about how you made the music. Let people hear it and share the funny or cool reactions. Let people remix it or perform to it. Have an artist friend draw or paint after listening to it.

Come up with awesome names for the tracks (I hate when people generically label their music "track 1" - unless you get the mtv smackdown a la Tool's stinkfist, that sucks).

Make videos of you making the tracks. Or make cool videos with the track playing in the background. If there's something insanely cool on a video, and there's a track, or even a snippet of a track playing in the background, people will go nuts wanting to hear that track. Which explains why the hell I know who royksopp is.

But you have to put yourself out there, if you're really interested. Decorate your blog as you want it. Make it weird and different, but still use like rss and tags and older posts links and allow people to navigate it.

Post your inspirations - pictures, ideas, poems, and basically share all the stuff you think is cool. All of this will attract the cool people eventually, who think you're cool and think your music is cool, and are better for it. And in the whole interaction, everyone will benefit from finding cool things, because they'll see your cool stuff and perhaps post a comment or two with other cool stuff.

But really, most of the time you're not going to get any comments on it. Don't expect any. People will just look for quite some time. Just keep spreading the unique awesomeness that is you.
posted by sociolibrarian at 1:21 PM on October 11, 2007

ian1977, I don't know how to email you for a link to your music. Can you email me one at jimmyjay86 at the Yahoo or post a link here?
posted by JJ86 at 9:43 AM on October 12, 2007