Week 6 Review and EP Launch!
Happy Wednesday!
Well, here we are! The moment of the Spring bansheebeat project we’ve all been waiting for – the release of my new EP, Techo Deluxe!
"Techo Deluxe" Album Cover
"Techo Deluxe" Back Cover
You can download it for free (or name your price) over on Bandcamp or stream it on Soundcloud. It’s also available on Spotify, iTunes, and various other music platforms!
While I don’t have too many new developments to talk about, I wanted to spend a majority of today’s post just reflecting on the project thus far and my journey in preparing for this release.
It’s honestly fairly surreal that it’s finally public; the amount of work I’ve put into this EP during post-production has been unlike anything I’ve done to prepare for a new release. My last several releases were never much more than “Hey, here’s my new thing. It’s self released, go download it for free,” and that was it: no promotion, no labels (other than ones that I help run), no pomp. That’s really what the most unbelievable thing about the lead-up to this release has been – the fact that I’ve been approaching it so much more professionally than ever before. At this point in my career, I’d like to think of myself as a professional; someone with just a bit more experience and skill than your typical independent musician-by-hobby. But, with an ever-competitive independent music market, it’s difficult to see exactly where the line is between amateur and master. I still don’t consider myself a “master” by any means, and I still have infinitely more things to learn and improve upon, but, honestly, with this release I feel comfortable in my role as an actual professional in my field for one of the first times since deciding to make creating music “my thing.”
While a lot of the concepts of effective promotion still elude me, I’ve learned a lot about marketing and visibility over the course of this project. Despite that a lot of my visibility relies on word of mouth, I’ve vastly underestimated the act of just asking peers and listeners to help spread the word. Yeah, if someone likes a release enough they’ll probably tell someone about it, but in creating somewhat of a “call-to-action” to help spread the word I've seen staggering results so far.
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts recently, and almost every one encourages sharing the material in some capacity, and it doesn’t come off desperate or needy or self-important! The other thing in terms of promotion I’ve learned is just the importance of being visible. It seems kind of obvious, but between the various algorithms that dictate what people see on social media and the how frequently people are able to see, hear, and just have any sort of exposure to something, just being “visible” is so important. Despite my best efforts to be as painfully visible as possible since the release dropped, multiple people that I know were anticipating it just hadn’t heard it was out, and it’s been out for several days!
I still have so much to learn about being a professional and successful independent musician, but this process feels like such an incredible step up in my career. I’m slowly shifting from “college kid in his dorm messing around on a computer” to “actual professional musician” and it’s really surreal! I still have an vast way to go, but as someone who's felt for the longest time that this would never extend beyond a hobby, a career somewhere down the line actually feels possible!
I just want to take a second and thank you; both for the endless support over the last several years and for taking the time to read these entries week after week. I wasn’t completely sure how this project was going to go, but it was really invaluable to use it as a means to stay focused on what I needed to do, as well as take a few minutes every week and just lay out how pushing toward these accomplishments was affecting me mentally and professionally. Self-reflection, in my opinion, is incredibly important, and in doing it via this project has allowed for me to consider new points of view and visualize endless approaches to accomplish personal goals. That said, working to keep up a weekly report as I embarked on this project is singlehandedly the only reason I managed to accomplish anything.
Looking ahead, here are some of the things I have to start working on now that the release is out.
- Design and order new merchandise
- Update my website homepage to feature the new album
- Storyboard music video
- Work on post-release promotion
- Organize a summer tour
I think that’s about it for this week’s update. I apologize for the more insightful departure from the usual activity based updates, but we’ll be back to our standard programming next week. In the meantime, I’m going to get back to work so that I can finish this project having accomplished as much as I can!
Cheers!
- Dylan