Tweet, damn you!
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniAm I the only one who is. . .unsettled by this article?
I can see a "label" requesting that its artists engage with their fans -- promotion is promotion, after all. But to turn down a band, not because their music doesn't mesh with house style, but because the band members would prefer not to do social networking (aka "would prefer to focus exclusively on their music"), seems like somebody's got the cart before the horse.
A good band -- or a good book, for that matter -- will garner fans. A bad band -- or the author of a bad book -- will not garner sustained sales just because they're on Twitter.
In fact, I'll go so far as to say that some artists shouldn't engage with their fans. It's not that they're bad people, but they might be abrasive, or prone to panic attacks, or, yanno boring. Ghod, She knows, I'm boring. It's hard to be interesting when most of your life revolves around sitting in front of a computer, telling lies to yourself.
I accept (grudgingly) that one must promote, but I utterly reject the theory that I must Do It All. What works best is to do those things that you are either (1) good at or (2) like -- humans being what they are, those two things are very likely to be the same. When you do something that makes you happy, people -- aka, your fans -- will pick that up, and they'll be happy, too. If you're doing something (like, for me, tweeting) that you loathe, and that gives you a headache just thinking about it -- your fans will pick up on that, too. And they will be distressed, and not be happy right along with you.
Connecting with your fans in positive ways is what's wanted; not connecting with your fans, even if you'd rather throw yourself from the top of a speeding train.
...I am also worried about a world in which an artist's natural inclination to "focus exclusively" on their art is held up to ridicule. Artists make art; that's what we do, first and most importantly. The rest? Is icing.
I can see a "label" requesting that its artists engage with their fans -- promotion is promotion, after all. But to turn down a band, not because their music doesn't mesh with house style, but because the band members would prefer not to do social networking (aka "would prefer to focus exclusively on their music"), seems like somebody's got the cart before the horse.
A good band -- or a good book, for that matter -- will garner fans. A bad band -- or the author of a bad book -- will not garner sustained sales just because they're on Twitter.
In fact, I'll go so far as to say that some artists shouldn't engage with their fans. It's not that they're bad people, but they might be abrasive, or prone to panic attacks, or, yanno boring. Ghod, She knows, I'm boring. It's hard to be interesting when most of your life revolves around sitting in front of a computer, telling lies to yourself.
I accept (grudgingly) that one must promote, but I utterly reject the theory that I must Do It All. What works best is to do those things that you are either (1) good at or (2) like -- humans being what they are, those two things are very likely to be the same. When you do something that makes you happy, people -- aka, your fans -- will pick that up, and they'll be happy, too. If you're doing something (like, for me, tweeting) that you loathe, and that gives you a headache just thinking about it -- your fans will pick up on that, too. And they will be distressed, and not be happy right along with you.
Connecting with your fans in positive ways is what's wanted; not connecting with your fans, even if you'd rather throw yourself from the top of a speeding train.
...I am also worried about a world in which an artist's natural inclination to "focus exclusively" on their art is held up to ridicule. Artists make art; that's what we do, first and most importantly. The rest? Is icing.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-02 07:11 pm (UTC)