More on Social Media & Promoting Yourself

I have written a few times on this blog about my mixed feelings regarding social media and, more specifically, about how I think encouraging self-promotion is damaging and distracting for young composers.

I haven't changed my mind, but I do have some more nuanced thoughts on the topic from a recent experience.

Not long ago, I wrote a piece for Baltimore's SONAR New Music Ensemble called "Decadent Music Box." I put it up on my SoundCloud page after receiving the recording and gritted my teeth as I posted it to Facebook. I say "gritted my teeth," because I grew up in a house where it was a huge no-no to brag and any kind of self-assertion or pride easily would fall into that category. I feel weird linking my music on Facebook because I know how it comes off to people who were raised the way I was raised. But I post my music nonetheless because I want people to hear what I'm composing.

In the end, it was a good thing that I did link it, because a fortuitous chain of events followed: a friend of mine tweeted a link to the SoundCloud recording on Twitter, the owner of incipitsify (a score/audio channel on YouTube) began following me on twitter and sent me an email asking to post my piece on his channel, and subsequently more people have heard "Decadent Music Box" than I ever would have thought possible. I got some feedback and more followers on both SoundCloud and Twitter. It's possible that this kind of exposure and these kinds of connections will help me down the road. For about a heady week or so I was feeling almost a complete about-face in terms of my attitude toward social media.

But, as the initial ego-trip has faded, I think there are some worthwhile things to point out.

First, social media can be very effective at temporarily putting a composer on the radar (at least the radar in our very small world)--almost alarmingly so.

Second, because social media is very effective, I had better be sure whatever is online is something I am proud of. In addition to being very excited about the exposure the piece was getting, I was also a little bit terrified, despite the fact that I do feel that it's one of my stronger pieces to date. The thought crossed my mind, however, that I would be cringing if one of my weaker pieces were getting this kind of attention. And, I think it's also worth pointing out that the more exposure a composer has the less likely that people will feel compelled to be nice and generous toward his or her work. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it's worth considering if you aren't sure you want that kind of criticism yet. And, in keeping with that...

Third, social media exposure doesn't guarantee anything positive. Just because someone has listened to my work doesn't mean that they listened to the whole thing, really focused on it, or even liked it. YouTube hits and SoundCloud plays do not indicate that I've necessarily written something meaningful. I understand the desire to write music that is liked by your audience (although, I also understand the desire not to worry about this at all), but social media doesn't always tell us what is liked (even the "likes" can be alarmingly political...), it simply tells us what is "trending"...what people on the internet are aware of. Awareness and appreciation should not be confused.

The ultimate job of social media is to provide us with networks and it is, actually, very effective at doing that if we use it well. This can be a good thing, but I still think that we need to emphasize, especially to young and emerging composers, that the "legitimacy" that social media may appear to give our work is still only worth as much as the musical content that we provide. Thus I stand by a statement I made in an earlier post that young composers should be focusing more on the music and building their craft, rather than worrying about websites, Twitter, and Facebook.

What I have learned from this recent experience is that I do need to take social media seriously in terms of its potential to connect me with musicians and an audience. It is, without a doubt, a powerful platform for marketing yourself. But, like all marketing tools, that's where its meaningfulness ends. I still need to wake up tomorrow, go to class, make lesson plans for my students, and figure out effective ways to compose the music I want to write.

Posted by Natalie

Wedding Music for Composers/New Music Performers

I have an idea about a new market segment that I bet most composers (and new music performers) have not thought to tap (or maybe you have, maybe I'm just late to the party): WEDDING MUSIC. I know, it sounds crazy, but hear me out. I actually think it might not be a terrible idea.

Here is the scene: You are a composer (and/or someone who performs new music a lot). You are getting married. You realize you need to think about music for the ceremony. Suddenly, you have a panic attack: "I'm a composer! Everyone is going to expect me to have SUPER AWESOME MUSIC AT THIS WEDDING!!!" Or at least that's what I did. You're probably all wondering why I didn't just write a ton of new music for my own wedding, since that would have (probably) been the most meaningful music to have- but wedding planning can be very stressful. Add to that the stress of writing the music for your own wedding- clearly whatever you write has to be absolutely perfect and meaningful, while still being "you"- and maybe you can understand why I didn't go down that path. I know people who do, and I admire them. But for those of us who decide we can't write our own music but still want something a little more true to us than Pachelbel's Canon (no matter how lovely a piece it is), what do we do?

Composers Behaving Badly

We've talked a fair amount about institutionalized bad behavior, but composers are also guilty of many bad behaviors ourselves, especially when it comes to how we present ourselves in our professional bios. I think we can all agree that writing a bio is pretty overwhelming. I can remember the first time I sat down and really thought about constructing mine for my website. What a horrible process! You don't want to sound too modest, because then nobody will take you seriously. But you also don't want to sound too overblown (although, unfortunately overblown bios are sometimes--often?--taken more seriously than modest ones). So how do you find a happy middle ground that makes you sound like a professional and not a braggart? I think the answer lies in avoiding flowery language and ambiguity, as both of these writing styles often lead to misleading and exaggerated claims.

Connections, Legacy, and Other Non-Musical Distractions

I know I’ve been spoiled by having several down-to-earth composition teachers, including my first teacher, who made a huge impression on me. This particular composer was neither interested in schmoozing nor in shamelessly promoting himself. In fact, he often saw through the schmoozers and wouldn’t take their schmoozing seriously (a truly valuable and rare trait in an authority figure!). During lessons he was relentlessly focused on the music. He never suggested to me that it would be savvy to embrace a specific style or idiom or to try to compose in a certain way in order to win the respect of persons (or groups) x, y, or z. He was only interested in helping me to write the best kind of music that I was trying to write. I left my studies with him assuming that this was how every composer was (or at least how every composer was striving to be).

More and more, as time goes on, I’ve felt somewhat disillusioned by the reality of what drives composers, how composers choose to market themselves and network, and the effect that this has on what our culture thinks of as good music (both in the larger cultural sense and within the music community culture).

Enticing the Artsy Audience

In our recent discussions about the orchestra, we've been spending a lot of time talking about the audience, and how to get new demographics to the orchestra (and to new music concerts). I have a new question: why does it seem that it's cool to like new art, film, theater and dance, but not necessarily new music?

Divide & Conquer: Rethinking Orchestral Programming and Structure

Sarah’s post in defense of the orchestra as an established ensemble is very timely, especially considering how many recent articles have been addressing the financial situation of the modern orchestra and possible solutions (for example, see Anne Midgette’s blog post on the inherent difficulty of standardizing an operational design for the orchestra). It’s not surprising that the orchestra is on our cultural mind, especially with the news that the Philadelphia Orchestra recently filed for bankrupty protection.

The orchestra, as an institution, is suffering from several problems and I will not be able to adequately address them all in this post. However, here are some topics to start with: 1) The classical audience is a fractured audience, 2) The community is a changing concept, 3) Conductors, music directors, and top level administrators don’t need exorbitant salaries.

Don't Blame the Orchestra!

I read a New York Times article recently that made a few conjectures that annoyed me, including this one:

“Some have argued too that there is nothing wrong with orchestras serving — in part — the function of museums, keeping the classics on view.”

I’m not the first, nor will I be the last, to discuss whether the orchestra is “dead” as an institution. I’m not really in the mood to debate that, but I think it’s really sad that people are ready to give up on the orchestra- it’s not the orchestra’s fault, as an ensemble, that it is constantly forced to play the same pieces over and over. (Another quote from the above article: “…you get performances which inspire the phrase: ‘Once you’ve heard one major American symphony orchestra’s Beethoven 5 these days, you’ve pretty much heard them all!’”) It is the conductors, administrators, music directors, programmers, etc.- all the people involved in making repertoire decisions. These are the people who are killing the orchestra, but there is nothing wrong with the orchestra itself. People write new music for orchestra all the time- it just hardly ever gets programmed.

Status Update: Getting Consumed by the Marketing Monster

*Note:  Don’t worry, the irony of posting on this subject is not lost on the author.

As somebody who uses Facebook and has both a website and a blog (albeit a blog that is meant for shared artistic ruminations rather than self-promotion), I'm often grappling with the positive and negative aspects of social media and marketing.