The micro-blogging platform can be very useful for musicians.

Are you on Twitter yet?  It’s been around for a few years now, but has existed mainly in the tech world.  Only now is it really breaking into the mainstream and musicians are starting to discover it as well.

So what is it?  Basically, it’s a micro-blogging site, that provides a way to send quick updates to a large group of people.  In the US, these updates can be recieved via SMS (unfortunately Twitter recently cancelled SMS-receiving capabilities in Canada).  You can send your updates via web, SMS, or mobile-apps like Twitterberry from your smartphone.

How does this help musicians or bands?  Your fans can follow you on Twitter, and therefore sign up to receive updates from you, and the updating is instantaneous, and they can get their news from you right to their phones.

There are definitely ways to Twittering well though, which I’ll talk about in another post… in the meantime, check it out for yourself, search the twitterverse for folks you find interesting, and dive right in.  Sign up for an account and try it yourself.  It can be very useful, and it’s also borderline addictive, so twittering often isn’t difficult.

Negativity = Poison for bands.

Music is art, and art is subjective.  That means people are going to hate your band, even if you are ridiculously successful and millions of people around the world adore you.  And should you be so lucky as to have your music adored by millions worldwide, and you happened upon the last person in the world who still hates your band, and they told you so… you’d probably say to them something like “that’s fine, that’s your opinion” or “I do my music for my own enjoyment, not for someone elses,” or something like that.  You wouldn’t take that negativity to heart, you’d focus on your own successes and struggles.  You’d focus on your own art.

Why then, is it that there are so many bands out there who are completely obsessed with the goings-on of other bands.  Far too often, I hear things like “why the hell is that band on the radio” or “my band is so much better than those guys… how come they get all the tours.”

Well, the truth is there are many reasons as to why another band is achieving more success than your own, but don’t focus on the negative aspects of that fact.  And certainly don’t dwell on the fact that you think your music is superior to that of what is currently popular.  Those bands didn’t make their music for you.

Focus on the things you actually can control, and don’t be negative.  Write songs, write more songs, and then write some more songs.  Don’t think that just because you recorded a record that the work is over.   It’s not going to be your only album ever.  Put it out there, and keep writing.  Practice performing live.  then practice more, and then practice some more.  Play shows, play… okay you get the point.

It’s really easy to offer excuses, and complain about the fortunes of others… but almost every time, the bands that are successful are more focused on their own craft, and their own activity than they are focused on the successes of others.