am I a clown
am I a clown.
no question mark because it’s not a question I need answered. What do I mean? See, now there is a question mark because one might be asking me what I mean about asking if I’m a clown.
Confused? Good.
am I a clown is because I make sound art, experimental noise music and other kinds of art and hardly anyone buys it? My Spotify and Apple Music currently have exactly zero listeners right now. In fact I have had zero listeners on all of the places you can hear my work. I have a few sales of music from bandcamp but nothing for several weeks. Am I a clown because I’m getting ready to put out a cassette of my experimental audio from the dumpster project on my website https://brflux.com . (side note putting a period after .com looks stupid).
Ok to the point of where I’m going with this.
The niche is hard to find. no that’s not it it. It’s hard for niche audiences to find you. I say audiences because your stuff could appeal to a bunch niche’s. It only takes a few people to recommend or share that they have found you and others will find you too.
How does one get found? Especially if they aren’t lost. I’m not lost. I’m just invisible to the niche. Kevin Kelly says all you need is 1,000 true fans and you are set. Here is the link to the essay if you want to read it: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
ok cool, how do I get those fans? Fuck if I know but I do know you have to make stuff and putt it out there in as many places and forms as you can. You need to keep making, communicating and helping yourself and others as much as you can. “Ok Brett smart ass I made stuff and nobody cares. I put it everywhere and still there are crickets.” My answer is make more and put it out there in more places. Talk to more people. Show up in more places. “Ok Brett smart ass. I can’t make stuff because I’m broke.” Yes we all are broke or temporarily unfortunate or completely unfortunate but this is where creatively works in your favor. Limits of any kind help you to be economic. I don’t mean economic in the money sense (but it can mean that as well) by economic I mean economy of use of your resources. What? I’m lost. Ok my explanation is stupid and unclear. Exactly! My meaning is nothing is ever gonna be perfect. Not the time, money, idea, material etc. stop waiting and just do what you can when you can. Try and fail. Do multiple iterations of the idea, object etc. if it’s not working set it aside and work on something else. Rinse and repeat. Soon you will have a bunch of ideas and half finished things. What happens next? A break through is what happens. Something makes sense from one of the stalled things or two of the stalled things become a finished of simi-finished thing. Or you abound on them both and work on something else. My point is as long as you have multiple things you are working on you can jump to the next thing if you meet a block. This helps keep your momentum and helps you to finish stuff. “Yes Brett but I get tired and or have all kinds of problems you don’t have.” True true but we all have challenges and no two people are alike. Take a nap. Take a week off. Take a year off. Do others things then come back to whatever you where doing with a fresh set of knowledge. But at least work a little here and there on the the stuff you are stuck on while napping or taking a break or doing other things.
Use your new interest in the thing you are stuck on. “Ok Brett all that is nice but that still doesn’t answer the original question not question of am I a clown because nobody cares about the stuff I do.” It does you just aren’t listening.
Make your stuff. Put it out there. Be your own cheerleader. Or don’t.
Now time for a shameless plug: go to https://linktr.ee/Brflux and check out my stuff. You may just be one of my 1,000 true fans.