How it's going so far - Electric Kingdom and the haters!

*This is a super long blog with lots to share… So buckle in!

So, I'm hoping you all got a chance to give a listen to my album! I really hope you enjoyed it. In case you missed out, you can catch the link to listen here. Or click on the album cover image below. I think that the numbers on this release have far out-weighed anything I've released before, and I'm getting a lot of great feedback on it! I just love that people are enjoying it! So thank YOU!!!!

Before I move on, I'd like to shout out some promotions for the person who has been with me since the beginning of this project, and of whom none of this would have been possible. And that's Byron Kane over at The Vacation Village, who has produced and engineered my last three albums. If you've followed me and my blogs, you know exactly who he is, and what he means to me and this project. Now that Byron's time isn't being eaten up anymore by Masterjoda75 projects, he has been able to switch his focus back on his own musical and artistic endeavors. His main project right now is what is called, the D.A.N.A Project. And what better way to explain what it is than through his (or their?) own words:

This is an evolving project full of fantastic music originated by BK as well as art from other collaborators, you can follow him on instagram here. Or click the above image. You can also go straight to the music and follow this project on Soundcloud here (including his latest releases for D.AN.A.).

Byron has also taken it upon himself to be a keeper of the Electronic Music scene from the underground artists of the 90s, through his YouTube Channel, “THE B-SIDE: UNDERGROUND RETROWAVE SYNTH RADIO-FI” In his latest offering he is catching up with the latest tracks from some of us artists and posting our present and past works as a beautiful longplay of electronic music. And yes, you will find some nice deep cut and unreleased Masterjoda75 tracks in there! As well as music from my past Electronic Music group from the 90's, Digital 3. If you're looking for some fresh electronic music to study or work to, this is the ticket! I would suggest throwing a “SUBSCRIBE” his way, as I know he will have future offerings to serve up. He also has several other LongPlay tracks on the channel that you can check out if you're into underground electronic music. Check it out below… (and Like & Subscribe!)

Notice the shirt she's wearing? “VESPER LUX” Another artist's new project, who is working with BK, and who has also collaborated with Masterjoda75 in the past, Steve Nash. You can find his remix on my last album. Check out and follow his Instagram here, as he provided the cover artwork for this “B-SIDE” release.

I was kind of “on the fence” about adding the next few sections. Not only will it make this Blog super long, but it really is a lot of me ranting about my experiences. But you know what? You gotta share the lows and the highs. So read on if you would like!

So with the release of my album, it became an explosive week of promotions, ads, and DRAMA!! But to quote Byron Kane, who quoted Bela Lugosi: “There's no such thing as bad publicity.” And boy did I make a stink.. On Reddit!

The Reddit synth community is a trip sometimes. They can sometimes be snobby, gatekeeping, synth-nerds. As many Reddit forums with specialty artistic interests tend to be. And if that isn't enough for you, this particular subreddit has another forum called Synthesizer Circle Jerk, who make it a point to poke fun of the people who post on pretty much any forum on Reddit where synths or electronic music is involved. They claim it's all in good fun, but sometimes they can be outright mean or worse. So as an artist, there is some trepidation when considering posting your art to those forums. But those huge numbers of members on those subreddits are hard to resist. The trick is cracking the nut to avoid your post either being ignored with zero likes and zero engagement, or worse, being mocked and ridiculed.

Earlier this week someone put up a post of their synth studio (which some members of the r/synthesizers hate, because they hate everything). But he added a twist, he put the picture up, but then put, “this is my studio and the album I created with it.” And he posted a link to his album. I thought that was a brilliant idea. The studio pic gets the gear nerds interested, but content is added to bring value to the post. So I took the idea, I posted up my version. I did admit that I “borrowed” the idea from another poster, and added my link to the album. But I thought I would add an extra bit of flair. I also added my album cover, just so people could see the album. And at first it was going great. People started engaging, asking about the gear I used, etc, complimenting and congratulating the release of the album. All rainbows and roses right? But then it started with this comment:

“Spent all that money on modular, couldn't afford to hire a REAL artist!”

At first I ignored it, figuring, hey there will be haters. Because the issue this commenter had was, why did you AI Generate your album cover! And then it began; a barrage of comments about the album artwork, and that I was lazy, and that I wasted all that 2 years working on my album, to throw it all away on lousy cover art. blah blah blah. My inbox started exploding with all the toxic/negative comments over the cover. And then the comments started getting lazy… Yeah I hate the cover. That cover is ugly. I'm not going to listen to it because of the cover. Ie. Bandwagon comments. And I'll admit, at the end of the day, I was feeling a little down. Was it really all a waste? Did I just tank my project? As an artist, there is a sense of vulnerability when you put your art out there. This is probably a nightmare scenario for an artist. But the sun set, and tomorrow was a new day.

First, in regards to the album cover. I need to set the record straight somewhere. There are AI elements on the cover. Including the main character. But the design of the album and the font designs are all Joda. And some of it took literal hours to do. You guys have been hearing over and over the promotional slogan for my album: “The Robots are Coming.” The album is literally themed on a Robot/AI invasion. As you have all been hearing about for the last year or so (read my blogs, look at my art!). So I felt utilizing AI as part of the cover art, and even part of the music was appropriate to the theme. My thoughts on AI have evolved with this album. I used to think AI in general was bad for art. But I have found that it can be a useful tool in helping in the creation of art. I still don't believe AI should replace art outright. As I said, I still had a hand in the creation of the album art. And a human touch and human emotion is what makes art, art! And my music is 95% me. The other 5% is samples, and some AI generated vocal parts. I tried to explain all this to a commenter who seemed genuine. He said he was conflicted because he REALLY liked the music. So I explained the situation and my motivation, and he was happy and happily enjoyed the album. But the rest of the community didn't buy it. My explanation was the most downvoted comment on the thread. I mean, what can I do, the album cover for me, takes second seat to the music. This is why all of the album covers are designed by me and not a professional designer/artist. I can't afford one. All my money goes into the music. And any art I use for my album covers, either comes from royalty-free stock photos that I then manipulate, or in the case of the “Cello” single, a generous gift of art from my Brother. Or when I can get her to do it (she has a very busy schedule), my daughter, who is also a talented artist. She's done most of the vintage robot designs I use! But it did cause me to wonder… Is the album art THAT important? Or was this just a case of a few haters and bandwagoners? I turned off my notifications, and just waited to see the numbers the next day and if my stuff got any hits..

So what was the consensus when the dust settled. First, the attention. This was probably my biggest post ever on Reddit. It got 35,0000 views! That's right, 35 THOUSAND! It got around 40 likes (which is pretty good, because it probably got more likes, but people countered with downvotes). And many people don't engage Reddit by liking or commenting on posts. They're just there to check stuff out. And when I looked at my website hits… I saw this:

That beautiful little spike, is people who ignored the haters and clicked on my links page to listen to my music. And I saw it in the numbers on all my platforms. My hits on Soundcloud and Youtube (see below chart in blue) got wonderful boosts from people listening to my music. I'm waiting for the Spotify and Apple Music numbers to come in to see if I got any clicks. Could it have been more if the cover was different? Maybe. But I really don't think people care. It's not about the album art. It's about the music!

I just find it funny this high horse attitude coming from the synth community who are notorious for using Samples (which are taken from other artists, many times illegally), cracking software that they feel is too expensive so they refuse to pay for it, and using tools like chord generators, arpeggiators, sequencers, and loops, because they don't know how to play musical instruments or know music theory.

Anyway, the 24 hour flame went out, and that was it. If I attempted to engage with everyone's negativity I just would have added fuel to that fire. I knew it was going to burn out. And it did. There were a few comments that trickled in after the initial blaze, and those were positive. And I'll leave it with this last comment that I received, which warmed my heart after the chaos:

If you reached this point… You are awesome! (or very bored? :-D ) So until next time! Peace out! Go check out my album! And judge for yourself!

MasterJoda75

How it's going so far - Electric Kingdom and the haters!

1 comment