A wise woman once said to get over her fear she needed dreams that were even bigger than her fear was. I kind of like the sound of that. Dreams should be so big, that fear has no business in your business. If you've got to scream your heart out to be heard, then be sure you use a megaphone, too. You've got to be bigger than fear.
Partly that's why I do all of this. My dream of adding my voice to rock's annals has helped me get over rejection, poverty, selfishness, worthlessness, depression and stage fright. All of these things are built on judgement. And judgement is based in fear.
At 58 years old now (and counting) I can confidently say I look more forward to playing to rock the place, than to get over my fears. And I have many. Here are some fears that get mashed together with finding fans and being relevant to them. Here it goes...
Would anyone do this if they knew they needed to not only take rejection from the audience, but from their peers? Would anyone really do this if they knew their chances of success are infinitely small, the chances of getting nothing for it are infinitely high, and the pile of money it takes to drive it is likewise infinite? And the number of fans they can get depends on how well you can compete with eyeballs on social platforms? None of the above has anything to do with music. It has everything to do with music business.
So, how do you find fans?
How about touring? Touring is expensive. Touring is completely unscalable. And touring is time consuming. You might make some money doing it, but if you get sick or don't feel well, the whole tour can be called off. There are busses, management fees, and endless miles piled together. I know folks who tour and I know there's money to be made, but living a life while touring is insanely difficult. Without a home base that can run without you there, you might as well just be single and save everyone around you the pain of being on tour.
How about Spotify? Getting on someone's playlist takes time to navigate. And getting on playlists you pay for only contaminates the data you're looking for when you try to generate fans online. You don't know if people are listening to you because they like you, or because they're just going down a play list. So, your data to get fans is contaminated.
How about videos? Well, if you make videos you need to make them all the time for folks who want to really deep dive into your music. Even The Beatles did this. You need to find a way to string them together to make them make sense.
How about a "Go Fund Me"? I have such a go fund me site here:
And after just over a week, I have no money in the pile. Why is that? No fans will support me at this level. So, that means I'll need to put up all the money to put an album together to market that album. The costs for all that plus photo shoots and the like is about $20K.
So, am I afraid? No. Am I insane for doing this music stuff? Yes. Absolutely. It doesn't make any sense. To me it does. But not because I want people's money. Sure it would be nice to maybe one day make a living from my art. But I'm well aware this dream is just that. More than all that, I just want to make a contribution. And I want it to be a solid contribution.
The funny thing is I know I can do it. And I'm afraid as all get out. But I also know what happens if I don't do this anyway: absolutely nothing. I go right back to doing nothing. And I will die an angry and bitter old man for never giving my dreams a shot.
And that's how dreams die.
I would rather take a shot and have nothing happen, than to never take a shot and have nothing happen. What am I afraid of, right?
My dream is bigger than my fear. I hope yours is too!
Love and Rockets,
Russ