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The Joyless Promotion of Self

by weekes13 Comments on The Joyless Promotion of SelfDaze Blog, Music, The Daily Grind, Uncategorized

Oh mmm geeee why is everything so difficult and painful?!

And I don’t mean, you know, the actually objectively difficult and painful front-line witnessing of human suffering at my office job every day. I don’t talk about that!

I mean, just, like, everything else that should be less difficult.

Elaine Subway

Like, I was gonna bother you about my music today–just a lil innocent update for those of you who do not subscribe to my music blog (and if you follow both, I’m sorry to be repetitive and I love you and think you’re amazing and perfect and getting into heaven, no question, 100%).

Elaine Benes

You see, I’d like to simply be able to direct you to my new single on Spotify BUT I CAN’T. BECAUSE SPOTIFY DIDN’T DISTRIBUTE IT CORRECTLY, AND ALL I CAN DO IS WAIT FOR THEM TO MAYBE RESPOND TO MY EMAIL(S). Meanwhile, my song is up there, but it’s under a new, unverified artist named Weekes… thus dividing my meagre and hard-won fans in half!

Elaine Drinking

Any little hiccup like this is actually kind of a big deal because, as some of you may have experienced, it’s like really REALLY hard to get people to follow instructions to support your shit. It needs be like SO EASY and effortless, or else the majority of people (who even try in the first place – so that’s like 1-2% of the people who see your post) just give up. And I don’t really blame them. You sort of have to go out of your way to figure out how to help people on social media.

Elaine Holding Flower

I really love this new song, and I had scheduled to release it this week with some little fanfare and very clear-cut ways for people to listen to it to maximise exposure. Following, streaming, and sharing my music on Spotify (or Apple Music) is helpful. So, if I’m lucky enough to have people listen, they are most likely just gonna listen once during the week I post it (and even more likely just listen to the first half of the song before moving on)… so it’d be great if that one listen occurred on Spotify where it counts etc…

But ultimately, rather than wait for the Spotify gods to sort my stuff out (they won’t, I’m not important), I decided I’d just get my song out there this week.

Elaine Can't Take This

I mean, because it’s really about sharing my music with people who might be genuinely interested–and also, I wanted to offer a little charitable incentive for engaging with my new song! (Plus, on a totally selfish level, my birthday always makes me feel particularly anxious, and I’d like to counterbalance that by sharing something of which I am proud.)

Elaine Chuckles

So, listen up: proceeds from downloading ‘Replacer’ directly from my website (for just 99p!) will be donated to Hurricane Irma relief. Of course, you can’t download music from your mobile devices, so this involves going to your computer and finding this blog post again and then clicking on the link (oh, too much?? I’ve lost you already!!!!). Don’t worry, you can still stream the song for free from your mobile devices by following the same link and pressing play! PLEASEGODJUSTLISTENTOIT!

Replacer Weekes
Click me, I’m a link!

Good grief, though, I hate all this. A lot. A really big part of me wants to just retreat back into silence. But then I freak out inside, and feel like I must be producing things and adding value to something somewhere.

Elaine Idiot

So a toast to idiot me, on this day of my birth some 34 years ago.

Elaine Toast

May a miracle occur and my vocation be taken seriously some day.

xWG

Remember, these are some of the other hellish places you can find me:

Facebook

Instagram & More Instagram

Twitter

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weekes

Actor, Songstress, and Humour Blogger

13 thoughts on “The Joyless Promotion of Self” Leave a comment ›

  1. Well, hope you got my like on your new song! Like this too! Now really if I could figure it out, it must not be difficult, but I am Spotify clueless. It will have to remain that way. Hang in there, Ali! Keep the Faith! ❤️

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  2. Oh, I hear you! I always feel I’m walking a tightrope between being really, really annoying talking about my work, and not talking about it enough, so nobody sees it! So, although I have not treated myself to a copy of “Replacer” yet, I did manage to foil Spotify’s best efforts to hide it, and I’ve added it to my most-listened-to playlist. It’s flippin’ great! Everybody should drop what they’re doing RIGHT NOW and do the same! And don’t let this setback set you back… I’m pretty convinced at this point that 95% of success is just keeping going.
    Also, happy birthday! 😀

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    • Haha TAKE THAT, SPOTIFY!!!! It seems to be all in order now… until I distribute the next single! Thank you SO much for following! I’m in good company on that playlist. And as always, thank you for the encouragement. I’m pretty sure you could never be really really annoying, even if you tried… there’s no such thing as too many Beasties!!

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      • Brilliant! Let the Beastie deluge begin! 😀 And how about an annoying question about your music distribution for dessert… Are you planning on bringing out hard copies of your album, or are you sticking with just digital for now?

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      • Augh. Yes, I’ve been looking into that. I don’t think there’s any way I could do it in an official capacity (like through iTunes), but I was thinking about informally burning some CDs for those who have no involvement with digital music (ie B’s grandmother) or others who might want one. The cost to do so will exceed any sort of revenue from the album purchase so… it’s something I need to consider further. (While I’m obviously not planning on making any real profit, I would prefer not to go any further in the hole!) It might be a case of needing to set up some kind of shop on the website (like you). The considerations are endless, aren’t they?! Happy Friday (errrr Thursday for you?)!

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      • Aha! I was just curious. Boyfriend is a big fan of Bandcamp, y’see, and a lot of the bands on there sell hard copies of their work… Although I think that they still have to organise production and posting of these things themselves, rather than Bandcamp sorting it out for them. But, since you’re doing all this yourself AND working full time, I can see why adding “create and post out hard copies of album when I could do it digitally” probably isn’t a priority! Seriously, do you even get time to sleep any more? 😲

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      • Ohhh interestingggggggg. Yeah, I’m sure they have to deal with the production themselves. Honestly, I don’t understand where all these bands get the money to do all this stuff! Like to make music videos etc… would cost me a fortune to employ professionals! Ah well, at least I have stickers. That’s the mark of a real musician, right? 😉

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      • It certainly is… And don’t forget you have badges too, for a double whammy of high-end self promotion! And yes, there is some pretty slick stuff on Bandcamp (some surprisingly big artists have a presence on there) but we’ve also picked up tapes with simple photocopied inlay cards that sound like they were recorded on a potato, so it must be doable on a budget too. Admittedly, some musical styles sit better with grungy production than others… But did you consider asking students for help on this? Down the road from me, there’s a college that specialises in music and media… I imagine London has at least one of those too!

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      • Hahaha, yeah, and I guess it’s good for my music that electronica sounds less potato-y/like I’ve recorded in my bedroom (which I have). You’re absolutely right–wrangling up some students is exactly what I need to do to make a music video happen. That’s just takes, you know, some digging deeper for… initiative and people skillz. Lord help me!

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