So I’ve been thinking. Wait…let me start at the beginning. My train of thought was something like this: wow, I haven’t written an email to my fans in way too long. I have to tell them what I’ve been up to or they’ll think I’ve forgotten them. Or even worse, they’ll forget about me. But I have so much to do for my record. I have to email John, Paul and Mary, and ask so and so about so and so. Maybe I should send an email explaining to my fans all the things I have to do. Maybe I should write a blog post about what goes into being the artist, the marketer, the creator, the everything.

Ta-dah! so here I am. Recently, I have been feeling pulled in so many directions and have been wearing so many different hats. I don’t think a lot of people (including myself) know what it takes to try to “succeed” as a musician these days. I won’t get into what the definition of success is but I will take you behind the scenes of all that it entails.

First, obviously, there’s the creation part. That part isn’t difficult on it’s own. Ideally, (and one day I hope to achieve this dream), I will be able to just create. To wake up in the morning and have coffee and go to my music room, where there is a huge grand piano and 3 different guitars and I will just play. But until that day, I have to do a million other different things.

After the creation part, you have to record what you’ve created. Some people say the quality of your recording does not matter but for this record I disagreed and I went for it! I hired a bad ass producer and bass player and studio musicians and the quality is sick. I think being proud of it is really most important. I can say that I am %100 proud of my record and will stand behind it no matter what.

The hat that I am wearing most these days, is research marketer. Now that my album is so close to being done, I have to figure out how to get people to hear it. I recently came across this guy John Oszajca who has a music marketing manifesto and I am about to get into some serious studying/reading. Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m just looking for things to distract me or if this stuff really is important but I do love learning and I’ve begun to understand more about marketing and business and I’m starting to love it as well. So if nothing else, I will just learn more about marketing and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Aside from those big things, you have to always be trying to get your name out there. So I blog (which I enjoy) I tweet (@danacarmel), I Facebook, I myface, I yourface, I youtube, I read other blogs, I try to book gigs, I’m constantly thinking of new ideas, I talk to other singer/songwriters, I listen to lots of music, and during all this I have to work to pay my bills, and keep playing/practicing my craft. Don’t get me wrong, Im’ not complaining and I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t like it or think that there would be some pay-off in the end. Namely, people getting to hear my music and getting to know me:-) But, it is a lot of work, and sometimes it’s easy to get distracted and to not know what it is you should be focusing on.

I’ll be transparent here and tell you what I dream of. Sometimes I think putting it out into the universe, as scary as it may be, just lets the universe know what you want and it helps you get it. Marie Forleo a woman I learned a lot about marketing from says “The Universe has your back”. I didn’t believe it-but when I DID start to believe it, I saw that it was true.

Anyways-my dream-is to have a team around me of people I trust, who will book my gigs, hire my band, play my music, give me feedback, help me with implementing the marketing (I’m not so computer savvy but I love thinking of ideas) and really just believe in me. It’s good to be independent but it’s also good to have support. Until that day, I am here plugging away on my own. If you have any tips, feel free to leave ‘em here.

love

Dana

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