An Indie Musician's Diary Volume 4: Album two in the making

Wrong Genre, None Interested, Bad Mix or Skewed Algorithm? Who Knows?

I dropped a new song a week ago onto many music platforms and I dropped the music video a few days later. Now I have amazing stats to show for the first week: only 4 streams on Spotify and 25 views on YouTube. I was devastated. Probably the worst I have ever done. Why am I sharing this with you? Because we all have songs that look like duds in the beginning. This is one of them. 

I was listening to a live show from Michael Beatty and his wife Linda today and they spoke about a song he had recorded at the last minute for an extra track on a CD and no one noticed it for years but that it is going strong now, all the sudden, after 25 years! Some songs that seem like duds are just not at the right time or place and need some patience. They might get going long after you've posted them so don't give up.

But I get easily down about stuff like this and hearing Michael's testimony about his song, helped me out of the rut.

However, I still needed to consider why  the song flopped:

Some of the reasons the song got off to a bad start could be:

- Long time between releases >ppl lose interest:  I haven't released anything since February and people have lost interest. I haven't posted much at all anywhere this Spring because I was busy and distracted and I haven't sone much live at all. What happens when you don't water plants? Same thing with people. They need to see you often in order to like and trust you and listen to your songs. I know this but I just "put the song out there".

- very little promotion

- Also I was fighting meaninglessness/depression. There, I admitted it. I was down and saw no reason for killing myself trying to promote anything when I spend months doing a song and get very little response in return. I had lost my  reason for trying so hard and with it I lost my "oomph", my "whoohoo" and my pizazz. I simply don't see anyone caring about this type of music (Christian Contemporary/Worship). And, it's not my favourite genre either to be honest. I love rock, pop and ambient/electronic (Christian/faith-based) more.

But my heart was in the lyrics and I deemed it worth posting so I did it without promoting it. And now I have to move on.

- I didn't pitch it in time: Every artist knows they should pitch their song long before it drops (2-3 weeks before at least) to curators on Spotify. I didn't because I added it too late to get it considered.

Algorithms against me?

I got an extra follower on YT after performing live on July 9th at Red's Room (Facebook Live) and then I lost a follower again a few days later. I remember how it was on Twitter before they kicked me off their platform for no apparent breach of their rules. I saw how they took away 100 followers for every twenty that signed up. At one point I had 13k followers and many interacting and then silence. It was as if I was posting and no one was seeing my posts. Then I started being more active on others' twitter pages and the followers came again, but that is when they started taking away followers every time I added some. So I keep losing rapidly without changing how I did Twitter. I ended up down at 10k and then the lights went out. Suspended forever. I wasn't doing anything wrong as far as I could see.

I feel this with YouTube also. My followers stay the same or back as soon as I get some. Maybe my music sucks. Maybe YouTube doesn't like Christians or thinks that only young artists that sing about drugs and sex are worth showcasing.

Maybe I'm just doing everything wrong. In any case I am sick and tired of beating my head against a wall trying to get this music out.

I have no band, no support except my husband, no church, no manager, no mixing or mastering engineer to help me ( I do that now too), and all it does is cost money. 

Today I was asking God to speak to me about this. Should I start a business, go back into art, get a job, or keep going with this music? Then I tuned into Michael Beatty's live program. He read once chapter from Psalms (the 17th) and one chapter from Proverbs and my peace came back again. I get it, I know that I am called to do this. I know that I am up against the music industry and careful, traditional church culture. I know that the algorithms are difficult to face. I know that my music needs to improve. I know that it is o.k. to fail but I need to press on.

I added the song and the videos everywhere anyway and updated what I could, banners, hashtags, links and my direct.me/ekitzing links.

Whatever the reason for my latest flop. I have some other great songs coming that I do believe 100% in. And my TikTok account just went over 100 followers. Cool. So, everything isn't bad after all. But one thing is for sure, I should never put my hope in stats, only in God's love. In His arms I am always accepted, loved and valuable - His beloved kid. And that is where the real satisfaction comes in and remains despite my flops. 

Until next time.