Before I start, I wanted to mention... If you haven't noticed, my website has been completely redesigned. After you finish reading, feel free to click one of the page buttons on the left or on the little menu next to my logo to explore around my page. It has my music, pics and videos. Okay... back to our regular scheduled programming:
This week marks the 1 year anniversary of getting my mixdown reels and getting down to business with this project. I'm proud of the work I did with Byron on this. It has far exceeded my personal expectations. I now have content with 8 songs, mixed, produced and released. And I'm starting to get the itch to do more!
Unfortunately, I could not complete my other goal; getting my tracks onto Lo-Fi Girl. Simply because they've noted that they're not taking music submissions at this time and with no indication as to when they're going to open it back up. I just didn't want to sit on these tracks and wait around for Lo-Fi Girl. I wanted to get my stuff out!
I knew I wanted it up on something like Spotify or Apple Music. And was hoping Lo-Fi Girl could help me get there; as they are essentially a label and would take care of all of that for me. But I needed to fall back on just doing it myself. I just wasn't sure if it was going to be easy or a pain. Enter CD Baby! Recommended by my best friend and brother, Jack Gilpatrick!
For a price (of course, there's always a price), they promise to get your stuff onto everything! Seriously... practically everything! Plus they offer the tools to do everything you need to get your stuff out in the public/copyrighted/getting paid, etc.. All the stuff a label does for musicians. Except you're in control. So this means my stuff rocketed out to Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, everywhere... And they even put it on Int'l streaming services worldwide. It went... everywhere!!
And it was all so exciting. But.... That doesn't mean people are going to listen to it. The Internet makes certain things easy... But there's still some hustle that needs to be involved. And sometimes it means getting out of your comfort zone. I guess it's the same when you need to play a gig in front of strangers and start charging admission.
Of course sometimes you get a pleasant surprise... In this case, I was invited to put my music on a UK based, Lo-Fi Hip Hop YouTube Channel, "Blossom." So big news! Now my song "Pablo" is up on their channel and streaming on their February playlist. You can check it out here (click the image):
They have over 30,000 subscribers, and each of their videos gets a hundred plus likes... I'm curious if this will help boost my numbers and expand my audience a little. It's really an experiment of sorts. We'll see what the results are. This part of the game is definitely a learning experience, which I'll delve into during another blog.
So anyway, in regards to that hustle... Well, next section I suppose. (If you're on my mailing list, you're already savvy to what I'm about to talk about ;^) )
-Joda
First of all I would like to give a big shout out of thanks to those who have shared my music on their Facebook, Instagram and social media platforms so far! Even the word of mouth and texting my stuff to friends has been great! I really appreciate it! It really helped me bring in some new listeners. And furthermore, I would also like to thank those of you who have supported me through purchasing my music... Either through my website or through one of the major providers that my album is on. That really speaks volumes to me. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!
If you would like to share my music with friends on your Social Media Feeds or emails or whatever... I would really appreciate it! Below are some tips to make the most out of sharing my music:
If you can post a link, or if you send a text or email, use this link (it's a quick way to get people to everything I'm on, both free and paid):
https://linktr.ee/Masterjoda75
For social media peeps, tag me using @Masterjoda75. It's the same tag for twitter/Facebook/Instagram. I'd love to see who's sharing my stuff so I can send you a personal thanks!
This is kind of cheesy... but if you're not sure what to say and how to place the above info, you can put something like this (but use your own words, so people don't think you got hacked or some junk)
Hey friends, my friend Joe just released some cool music. Click here to check it out... https://linktr.ee/Masterjoda75 You can follow him @Masterjoda75
Well... you get it. I promise I won't be begging you guys to promote or share my stuff on every blog I post. But you know, gotta do the biz part. ie... part of the hustle.
Finally, some of you may or may not know that I have a mailing list. Those peeps are usually first to hear the news on Masterjoda75 stuff and Blog announcements. Some are also the people who don't really care for or use Social Media but want to keep up with my goings on! I would love to put your name and email on my mailing list! As I feel that those peeps are the deep cut fans who have either been involved with production/inspiration/or who I know personally. If you would like to be added to the "inner circle," (sounds exciting doesn't it??) just CLICK HERE and add your first and last name and email. And I'll get you on it!
This really is quite a trip.. And it keeps evolving and changing from what I initially envisioned it to be. Hope you're all enjoying the ride with me. Until next time...
- Joda
Listen to and purchase my music here: https://linktr.ee/Masterjoda75
Find me on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/JodaProductions
Find me on YouTube here (subscribe): https://www.youtube.com/
Instagram: joda_productions