So You Want To Be a RockStar ?
By Ronnie Shapiro Stoeckel
When you are the ultimate superfan of independent artists worldwide , you deserve your own page . Welcome to the SUPERFAN page and the newest edition to our team , Ronnie Shapiro Stoeckel .
She is going to bring you the independent music scene from the fan perspective .
So , you want to be a rock star .
You want to travel the world , and perform your songs that went gold to millions of adorning fans . That ’ s great ! Now , how do you plan on starting ? You know there ’ s work to be done , right ? Back before this digital age exploded the way it did , kids would gather in a basement , or a garage , and play music . Maybe write some . But they ’ d play and play and annoy their neighbors , their parents , anyone within 50 feet . Then they ’ d walk from bar to bar looking for a gig .
They would have flyers printed and put them on every windshield , in every window they could find just to promote whatever show they had . And they would do
it with immense pride . Today is a much different time . Of course we have the internet , social media , YouTube , etc etc . Not to mention the millions and millions of musicians that are trying to “ make it .” Not too long ago a young musician ( who has actually been doing the music thing a lot longer than I have !!) was talking to me about how hard it is to do everything – booking , pictures , keep the social pages going , and everything else – with a family and a job . I said that everyone is pretty much in that same boat , and maybe
he should hire someone to help him . This person then went on and posted the same quandary on Facebook . “ I don ’ t have good pictures .” “ I don ’ t have time to keep up with Instagram .” People told him to hire someone (“ Nobody wants to work for pennies ” was his reasoning not to .) The excuses went on and on . And that ’ s exactly what they are – excuses . ( No , this was not Rofo Audio making excuses …. they know what needs to be done and do it ) I wanted to scream through the computer YOU MUST NOT WANT IT BAD ENOUGH IF YOU DON ’ T WANT TO DO THE WORK !!!! Seriously . It will not come to you . You will not get by on talent alone . There ’ s not just work , there ’ s A LOT of work . Do you really need to keep up with social media ? Unfortunately yes . You know what you need to do ,
“ YOU MUST NOT WANT IT but
BAD you
ENOUGH need to kick those
IF YOU excuses
DON right
’ T
out
WANT TO DO THE WORK !”
of your head . I ’ m sure you have 5 minutes to throw a post up on Facebook or Instagram . I ’ m sure you have people at shows to take pictures . You don ’ t ? Well find someone . I ’ m sure you have a friend coming to your show who owns a cell phone . You don ’ t need professional pictures for every post , not even for half the posts . I told him to use the scheduling option on Facebook – schedule a few posts in advance – this is such a timesaver !!! This past year , although you may not have had a show , I ’ m sure you picked up your instrument and played , at least practiced . How hard would it have been to set up your cell phone to record some video clips to post . You don ’ t need to film and edit an entire motion picture , Instagram stories can only be 15 seconds so you ’ d be editing that way down . Even IGTV ( Instagram TV for those not in the know ) only allows 15 minute videos . And TikTok ? I ’ m not even getting into that subject now . You can spend 3 minutes complaining that you need content for your social media pages , or you can spend 3 minutes creating that content and posting it . Have you submitted your music everywhere you possibly can ? Oh that ’ s right , you don ’ t have time . Well the radio stations aren ’ t going to hunt you down , no matter how good your music is . Create one standard email ,
then when you need to send it out , you copy , paste , change the names involved ( very important ! Don ’ t forget that !!!) and send it on its way . There is so much more I could say , but I think you get the drift . The list goes on and on . The bottom line is if you want to get anywhere in the music industry ( or any industry for that matter ) you have to do the work . Nobody is going to come to you , so stop with the lazy excuses and do what you have to .
To quote Nike – “ Just Do It !”
Bonus thoughts :
As we start seeing some light at the end of this long , awful tunnel we ’ ve been in the past year , I want to share something I saw on Facebook . It ’ s a little “ guide ” on how things need to be as we open up and start ( Continued on page 70 )
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