FROM A MANAGER’S PERSPECTIVE: Efforts need to be made by blues artists
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Like any other music artist from any kind of genres, the number one most important aspect is the song itself. A few people came to me asking me to manage them, but when I heard their songs, many of them cannot really show originality.
As a musician, especially blues, you tell stories through your songs. If you don’t even believe in what you say, how can you get other people to show interest? I’m not talking about how skillful the artist must be, but I’m talking about how genuine can the artist be with their own feelings.
Since Blues is a genre where you target a specific niche market, you really need to maintain the fans that you already have, while thinking of other ways to generate more. The simplest way is by engaging them in a short conversation, replying their emails, replying their tweets, wish them happy birthday, etc. Other things include rewarding them with free merchandise, free CDs and any other free stuff.
Recently, I created a silent quiz on the Ginda And The White Flowers (band I’m currently managing) Twitter page, where fans would recite lyrics from the artist’s song, and I would reward them with free merchandise. I never shared the rules on the page, but any fans who write a couple of lines of the lyric would automatically get free merchandise. And the winners would boast on the bands twitter page, how they won free merchandise. This created a spiral effect where the fans would be talking amongst themselves on how they won the prize. At the end of the month, I just say “Congratulations to all winners and thanks for participating. Stay tune for our next promo”.
When you start generating more and more fans, the next thing to do is to improve on your live performance. Get organized before going on stage. This means, you really need to create a song list beforehand, not discussing what to play next after each song. Another thing, for the front man, it’s also good to practice what you want to say on stage. Do it in front of a mirror. If you look awkward, that means that’s what the audience is seeing. One last thing about being organized, I always told my band to do your own sound check. Skydivers normally pack their own parachutes before jumping of the plane. If you make a living from music, you should really put all your hearts in every aspect.
All of these genuine efforts will be transferred to the song, the lyrics, the sound that are amplified by the speakers and received by the audience’s ears.
JankiCahyadi
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Nikki, 
Carl Winchester, 
Janki and 4 others are discussing. 
Janki, your points are so very well taken. Paul Marney Leobrera of the Bleu Rascals replies to every single comment on FB that refers to him, building an intensely loyal following. In March, that really paid off when there was a poll of Yahoo about which band should represent the Philippines at the Timbre Rock and Roots Festival. His fans turned out the vote — and the Bleu Rascals opened for Keb Mo and Buddy Guy in Singapore, beating out the most popular rock bands in the Philippines to earn the invitation.
Hi Janki. That’s a great post. I agree with you. When a artist don’t believe himself, don’t believe his song how can he make his listeners amazed? It’s not possible to give a great output output until it doesn’t come from inside.
It’s always interesting to get a view from this perspective. Interesting article, I’ve never thought that so many efforts need to be made by a musician.
This is a nice article which is inspired in favor of artist, music,to grow fans. Really there is no limitation of learning knowledge. So, i wish to it . Thanks for sharing.
Dear friends,
I really appreciate your comments. Sorry for the grammatical errors. It was 3 in the morning when I wrote the paper. I’ll write my next article during daytime
Thanks a lot for sharing Jankie. It is very true that an artist must be genuine in their feelings in their songs so that the fans can feel them too. Many aspiring Blues singers will benefit a lot from this post.
This post is so inspiring. I am an aspiring musician and I enjoyed reading it. Thanks a lot for sharing.