Solemn Tones Podcast

While this used to be the Solemn Tones podcast, it's time to re-frame, re-brand and re-invent.

I'm not an audio engineer in the typical sense of the word. I don't take on bands' projects or anything like that. I only work on my own projects, but some people often ask me which plugins I use on what, so I figured I'd talk about it. 

Audio engineering is complex enough already.

Hopping on trends and abusing them in the very short time-span that you can, is a very powerful shortcut to garner attention for your band.

I'm in a pretty awkward situation now... 

The "entitlement" issue that is holding smaller bands down.

Something that happened to me. 

Brands have more visual exposure than ever. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube... it's all extremely visual. If your photos aren't up to par, you're not up to par. Music may be the most important to you, but in the bigger picture? It's only one piece of the puzzle. 

The big pitfall I see local bands make and I've done this way too many times as well.

Many old people seem to think that streaming ruined the music industry.. here's why that's wrong.

Many new bands think they're still in the 90s where they will play some local show and they will then get picked up by a manager who brings them to LA and makes them superstars.  Whilst this dream may sound appealing, it is very far from the actual truth. 

There's a big difference between two of my YouTube channels and one outperforms the other extraordinarily. I figured it may be interesting in talking about why that is. 

Twitch as a platform went super viral because of the Drake-Ninja stream. This was super predictable.  Things get big in the "underground" pop culture first, whilst the mainstream ignores it, but at one point, things get too big to be ignored. That's what happened to Twitch. 

There is a big difference between small YouTube channels and big YouTube channels.  Some people may say some channels are more deserving than others, yet don't hit the same numbers, but that's rarely true.  Lots of people love using random standards of quality to push subjective beliefs, but in the end, it's really easy to spot why a small channel remains really small.  Today, I go over the key differences between a super small channel and a slightly bigger one. 

Pretty interesting how many people want to start a business for the sake of having a business, rather than to solve an actual issue.  The reason why you develop your product will ultimately define whether it works out or not. 

One major personal breakthrough for me was learning how to use habits to my advantage in order to keep a consistent content stream whilst simultaneously keeping my real energy for growth.

Audio and visual work is generally a sit-behind-a-desk job. This can lead to many health problems down the line.  While I am not a health expert at all, I wanted to share my thoughts on this issue many engineers, video creators and creatives in general, face. 

The internet is going crazy over 3 YouTubers asking 50 000$ to crowdfund their new album+music videos+merch production+promotion.  This discussion quickly seeped into production forums where the biggest hypocrisy known to man-kind unfolded. People who consistently nag about musicians needing to pay them more, are suddenly outraged musicians will be paying a lot of money for album production.  Here are my 2 cents ;) 

Whenever a new social platform comes out, there are a  few who catch the trend and ride that wave to the top.  Influencers like Logan Paul and Jake Paul come to mind  when thinking about who were the kings of Vine.  In this episode, I discuss said phenomenon and a new platform which has been catching some buzz lately. 

The one mistake I see every band make for some reason, is not take care of the little things.  This episode might be the least "fun" one but it's an important discussion to be had.  Almost every small band or even producer, I talk to does not file their taxes.  This can hurt you tremendously in the long term. 

I and many other creators fall into this trap at some point in our journey. We feel like our growth has stagnated and try to blame our gear, rather than our work ethic. So we decide to pick up a new toy and hope this fixes all our problems.  Today, I go over why that doesn't work.

The internet is a noisy place. More content is being shoved down people's throats every day. This saturation makes it harder to establish your first tiny fanbase. In this podcast, I go over how I think you can still reach your first subscribers (or fans) to then grow further in this crowded market place. 

There are levels of friction that can demotivate you from doing something important. You only have so much energy in a day. Today I talk about tackling this problem. 

I am gradually implementing habits to put out daily consistent content across many platforms. It will (hopefully) eventually allow my audience to consume and interact with my brand from many angles and that way, stay top-of-mind. 

Streaming has had a bad rep the past few years but the mainstream is starting to take note. As vanity metrics are being replaced by first week streams and even gold certification was forced to take into account streaming, we see a shift into a new generation of artists. 

Every year (or should I say every day?) the social media landscape changes as various updates are added to platforms in order to ensure their survival.  Facebook is no different. I am (finally) starting to get into a more consistent strategy for myself and my business and I figured I'd share some of the bare basics before getting into the nitty gritty.  I'd say this introduction is valuable whether you're in a band, you're an audio engineer/producer or you're a solo musician. 

Today, I thought it'd be interesting if we take a look at how big YouTubers grew in 2017 and the start of 2018 even.  I let my first YouTube channel fade into obscurity but my second (very niche) channel is actually growing fast now.  I thought I'd share some of the things I did wrong and learned. 

YouTube and Facebook comment sections these days are filled to the brim with people who have loud uninformed opinions.  If we don't change a certain mentality inside our community, it could mean the end for metal and rock in the long-term. 

In this episode of The Solemn Tones Podcast, I walk you through the mistakes I made when I first started selling merch for my music project and how you can avoid them.  I also delve into how you should approach such product given the 2018 market place and its changes. 

Today, I discuss how collecting expensive gear seems to be the norm for audiophiles, yet heavily limits your potential for growth.

Answering a question from the Solemn Tones forum. Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/184482895447859/

Today we discuss what's wrong with lots of audio forums these days and the kinds of people to watch out for.

Today, I chime in on the Analog gear Vs. Digital plugins debate, often raging in audio production forums.

Today, we discuss growing your Instagram account to promote your music.

Today, we delve into Facebook advertising and how it's the new way to win. We also discuss the mindset shift that you have to go through before blindly throwing your content at people.

Today, we delve into the depths of home studio recording and how you should build your first studio setup.

Today we discuss why quantity is becoming more and more important in the music industry. We also ask the question; Is YouTube dead?