Make Tuesdays “Independent Music Support Day”
I strongly believe in supporting artists that are pushing music forward. This is more important now than at any other time if you consider what has happed to popular music.
Pop music used to be artistically driven & the style & approach didn’t matter as long as it connected with people. Pop music used to be as diverse as any other form of music. Any band had a shot at getting a hit. I’m not saying the playing field was even across the board, but pop music was allowed to surprise you on occasion. That has mostly gone away. Now pop music is very tightly controlled and there seems to be only 3 or 4 similar styles of music that are even allowed to play the game. This makes it much harder for independent bands to gain any traction in the industry.
Because of this I decided to be part of the solution, instead of just complaining about the problem.
Last week on my birthday (July 24th), I decided to share my support of artists by buying an album by an artist I strongly believe in, and to share this support on Facebook & Twitter (If you’re curious, I decided to support Advanced Synthesizer Instruments – Resonance: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/a.s.i./id220192737). I plan to continue doing this every Tuesday from here out.
Join the Tuesday Music Support movement
Here’s how:
*Every Tuesday you will choose 1 artist (preferably independent or unsigned) to support that you think others should know about.
Support can be defined as:
1. Purchasing an album
2. Purchasing 1 or more songs by the same artist
3. Sending a donation to an artist who’s music has touched you, even if you received it for free
4. If you can afford to purchase a song or album each week, then perhaps once a month will work for you. At the very least you should be sharing an artist deserving of more attention each week. That alone will at least raise awareness to your peers.
*Next, share the artist you supported on Facebook, Twitter (or your preferred social site) with a link to their music & the hashtag #TuesdayMusic.
It’s really that simple!
Making up for the past
Many of us in the past (myself included) were frequent downloaders of free music. Free music that the artists would have preferred to be supported for. Because of this, I’ll be offering my support of some of these artists that I feel deserved my money the first time around. This doesn’t have to be all about new bands, but it should be about supporting those Bands/Artists/Producers who might be struggling even though they deserve to be making a living from their art.
I can’t imagine what life would be like without certain bands, producers & artists that influenced who I am today. Although I can attest to much of my childhood income going towards these heroes of mine, I think I’ve become a bit lazy, perhaps even a bit apathetic to the current struggles of the modern artists. We need to support more artists who are willing to take the risk of obscurity by not conforming to the norms & writing from their gut. These are the most celebrated artists from the past & for good reason. They knew where music needed to go before you did!
Music can never expand if we keep asking to be spoon fed more of what we want.
Just imagine if 1 million people took part in this every week? How many Artistic lives could we change?
That’s my vision & I hope you join me!
You can follow me on twitter to see who I am supporting each week Here
Happy Music Supporting!
Jason
Here is a small list of bands & artists that I want to thank for breaking the pop music norms & changing me in so many ways:
David Bowie
Tangerine Dream
Janes Addiction
Depeche Mode
The Cure
The Ramones
Talking Heads
Public Image Limited
Public Enemy
My Bloody Valentine
Led Zeppelin
Slowdive
Catherine Wheel
Kraftwerk
Talk Talk
Roxy Music
Underworld
Magnetic Fields
Toy Dolls
Joy Division
Leftfield
Japan
Bauhaus
Chemical Brothers
Love & Rockets
New Order
Happy Mondays
Suede
Orbital
The Charlatans uk
Dr Dre
John Digweed
The Orb
Guy J
Richie Hawtin
The Prodigy
James Zabiela
One Dove
Eon
Nine Inch Nails
Next, check out the great music from the Ableton community.
With that said, if you are benefiting from these posts, you will absolutely love my 2 bestselling books:
The Mental Game of Music Production
The Process for Electronic Music Producers
You can also Check out the: Ableton Courses & Instruments
If you are looking for personal guidance with your music production or Ableton, you can set up a free chat with me to go over exactly what your best next steps are to create the best music of your life. If it seems like a good fit, we can move forward from there. https://musicsoftwaretraining.com/private-coaching
Happy music making!
Jason