Moshkito
 
 
I'm not sure how to get the "attention" any better than most anyone else here. I think that one has to blow out the audience, and sometimes give them the finger ... not that you have to have just about anything to get the attention, but when your own family is not interested (or have heard it a thousand times), then it's time for a kick in the butt somewhere.
 
Are you going to stand up for your work? Or are you going to go back to the back room and disappear and change the song into something else again? You have to make a decision. You put blue paint and green paint on that canvas and did something with it ... and now because 2 people didn't care for it, you are going to put different paint over it? What does that accomplish? YOU decide!

Definitely agree with this!  I'm not looking to change the music I'm doing...  I'm fine producing music that will never be heard but my three or four friends who like this stuff (my wife won't even listen to it!  ;) ).  One of the biggest reasons I was thinking about this was to try to connect with others who might appreciate it...  It would be nice to know that someone was actually enjoying it.  It makes a huge difference busking when someone gives me a genuine thumbs up - I don't even care if they put money in the bucket...

Moshkito

slartabartfast ...

Apparently there are millions of musicians who have the wherewithal to post songs there who do not even have any friends or relatives who would be interested in their work...

 
This has been like that since time immemorial. There are hundreds of composers over the years, whose stories have been in novels, movies, plays and ... everywhere else. It can be as bad as someone's wife who does not understand his music, he writes a Symphony for her, and she still leaves! It could be your children that just don't get it, just like you don't get their stuff. Regardless, one has to create because they want to satisfy their own inner curiosity and feel, and not someone else's taste or crap! PERIOD.
 
I think, just like the old contracts of yesterday, that we .. WOWOW ... I'm gonna get famous!
With the public, it's all a crap shoot, and 1 in a million, regardless of how good, bad or indifferent, although there is a massive audience for weirdness, quarks, strangeness and whatever charm you can smudge in it. The point there is that no one will EVER agree on what is good or bad, or right or wrong, and anything can get done, and in the end, it will feel like no one cares, but I sincerely doubt that some painters in the modern age, cared a lot for what they thought ... it's all about what they feel, and how eventually it turns out! Someone out there will find a meaning in it, even when you had none!
 
AND THAT whole PART, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SPOTIFY, OR ANYTHING ELSE.
 
And this is the real issue of the computer age. Spotify, Blowhairdry, Bapuemycry ... are nothing ... absolutely nothing ... than a DATABASE. Heck, the other website about "progressive" says that ... and it's like ... it's the fans because of the numbers. 
 
As such, a little report every day ... simple enough! ... can tell you that this one got 2 hits, that one 15 and that one 175 and that one 200,000, and the rest none ... and that big one will have 5 distributors at your door immediately before you are done with sex and coffee, and they will likely try to get you to go somewhere else where the delivery method might expand your possibilities. They might even have a small offer, like a tour of all the bars in Pluto! Or Texas! Or Nicaragua!
 
I'm not sure how to get the "attention" any better than most anyone else here. I think that one has to blow out the audience, and sometimes give them the finger ... not that you have to have just about anything to get the attention, but when your own family is not interested (or have heard it a thousand times), then it's time for a kick in the butt somewhere.
 
Are you going to stand up for your work? Or are you going to go back to the back room and disappear and change the song into something else again? You have to make a decision. You put blue paint and green paint on that canvas and did something with it ... and now because 2 people didn't care for it, you are going to put different paint over it? What does that accomplish? YOU decide!

 
Mosh I'm an ARTISTE!  But seriously those professional schools, though they have very useful information  need to be realistic about job prospects.  I got sucked into paralegalism with one.  Best money I ever spent, but it didn't lead to a job.  (Admittedly it was during a time of a superfluity of lawyers out of work)  A legal practice is the last place this wide mouthed mason should be.

mikebeam
All great perspectives...
 
@slart - it sounds like you are basically saying that there are new opportunities here in that the artist has more control and self-determination, however that does not mean that the process will be any easier...  And in many ways there are new hurdles and it can be MORE difficult to get your music heard - but at least it's not at the will of the "Man"...  I can see that...

I think I am a lot more pessimistic than that. The fact that anyone can buy a lottery ticket is a lot of opportunities. The fact that the odds of any given ticket winning were previously mind boggling and have now risen to astronomical is the message I am sending. I am not defending the notoriously predatory practices of the big recording companies, but the "Man" never had all that much to do with it. There have always been people trying to get other people's music heard for their own (or their company's) benefit.  The most successful of those people spent careers listening to other people's music and either trying to feed current trends or spot new ones and match the best performers and songwriters to an audience. In spite of their efforts, they were more likely to fail than to succeed, since the listening public got the real vote. But the process did serve to weed out, not only the also rans, but the never should have runs as well. Presented with a limited number of choices, the public still had more music than they could consume, let alone pay for, and an individual artist had a chance to have an significant, if not enormous, following.
 
That can still happen, but notice that it has not to any major degree. The vast majority of digital plays still go to the artists anointed with a recording contract, even though many of those artists are complaining that they are getting ripped off by their contracts and the paltry pass-through from streaming royalties. The recording companies can shave a lot off their development costs by just checking the numbers to see if some band they have spent nothing to promote or nurture has gone viral, and then sign them up to a 360 deal with the promise of some real money and a significant promotion budget.
 
Individual artists who are trying to break out are now in competition with an endless supply of international talent and face a fragmented market with dozens of styles splitting the listening public into cantons whose borders they cannot always cross. The average listener cannot be a supportive fan to a couple of thousand different acts, anymore than he can be a supportive friend to hundreds of digital friends he may have on FaceBook. In a way, the opportunities of digital listening, are akin to the 45 rpm era of one hit wonders, where a hit song did not in any way imply a career. But unlike the one hit wonders, there is no overarching medium of radio play to pick and pump the hits directly from the internet. Social media can raise the profile of a group, and direct the listeners' searches to the chosen, but discovery by a blogger is no more likely if he has to stumble by accident upon a star. And there is a growing industry of social media consulting that stands ready to create the illusion of popular acclaim by robo-posting fake raves for those who have the money to promote the artists from whom they profit, making the democracy of the netizens an overrated factor. 
 
The artist can certainly control his art, if he is not dependant on anyone for income or access to exposure, an opportunity always available to a "failure," and to rare mega-successes like the Beatles, who can thumb their noses at the suits and make new styles. Overmanaged acts, slavishly following the dictates of the bosses view of the public's taste, or the censor's tyranny, have usually been less than spectacularly successful in every era. But self determination is not implied by that freedom. If you want to do your art, you can, but if you want to have a large and dedicated audience, it is not entirely in your hands, now or in the past. 

eph221
 
...
 Mosh I'm an ARTISTE!  But seriously those professional schools, though they have very useful information  need to be realistic about job prospects.  I got sucked into paralegalism with one.  Best money I ever spent, but it didn't lead to a job.  (Admittedly it was during a time of a superfluity of lawyers out of work)  A legal practice is the last place this wide mouthed mason should work.

There is one bad thing I have come across with folks I went to school with, that is disturbing to me. We all "learned something", and I, STILL, at my age, use many of those thoughts and ideas day in and out, because they were right and good. For some folks I have met, everything they ever learned was never worth anything, they just punched a ticket for my mom dad, I guess, and this is too weird for me. 
 
How can you go through life and not "feel" much and then expect to love something, when you did not teach yourself to love, and appreciate the good things, because a lack of perspective and appreciation for ANY learning is missing?
 
In the end, every spot has a lesson that you can use, and work with in some way. It was the same thing at the cable company. I never felt that I was just punching a ticket, and most folks would say ... it's just a job! ... and when you do that there is not much that will be learnt and will sync in for later.
 
It's all, about how you apply yourself, and your dedication. Right now, I admit, I am a bit lazy, but I am getting somewhat organized and ready to get going again in writing and many of the reviews I do. It was a mental break that was needed to study some of the inner thing and not feel that I was trapped in an escape of some sort, and not just spewing out words. I prefer that my words be worth a nickel, although I would be the first to not put a price on them whatsoever.
 
If you "have it", you can share it. For most, "sharing" is not possible. I share what I can and know, even though sometimes, it seems that I don't, and that is possible as well and I admit it all the time.
 
Be it digital, or printed, for me, is, pretty much, the same thing. If the time comes and the attention shows up, fine. If it doesn't, I know that I lived with what I knew and tried the best I could. The "what", at that point is not important!

I'm a gree.  But, surprise surprise pedro:  other's have different needs and wants than you!  I got a lot out of just about every learning situation. I also,see how unusual that is.  Whilst you don't mind spending gazillions on various pieces of paper, other's need more enticement.  I'm glad that some of these skools are being held accountable in the form of lawsuits.
 
btw this is the definition of gree:
 
Archaic to give satisfaction for an injury. Scot. superiority, preeminence, or victory. Origin of gree. Middle English gre ; from Old French gré, a step ; from Classical Latin gradus, a step: see grade.