DIY is Hard
If you are an Independent artist, you can either spend all your recording money on promotion and management or, you can do it yourself. DIY.
The good thing about DIY stuff is that you have complete control of every word, every picture, every font and color and song.
The bad thing is that DIY ie. create a website, a Spotify artist page, a Twitter account, Instagram, newsletter, timed song releases, email services, creating and growing fan bases, software platforms, digital distribution, PRO registration, copyrights, YouTube videos etc etc etc are so time consuming and left brained that the door to your right creative brain where all the magic happens, slams shut and now you’re a data processor. The last thing you ever pictured yourself doing.
I know once set up is over and the maintenance process runs itself, it becomes easier to split your focus between creating music and creating content.
One of the big problems for anyone who hasn’t been keyboarding since preschool is the lack of intuitiveness of the process. It’s the difference between the tortoise and the hare. Draggy and Zippy.
Back when the internet was just a toddler, platforms were easier to navigate because they performed only simple functions. Now they do so many amazing things that one can’t understand how to accomplish even the simple tasks.
Good thing is there is always someone to email or chat with that really doesn’t want you to give up. They may all be 14 year olds. Kudos to them for having patience with people who struggle with new technology.
I tried to teach my mother how to use a computer to do her banking on an iPad for Facebook and her phone for texting. Every other day she would tell me that she wasn’t doing anything on electronics because it was too complicated. Mostly, she couldn’t remember her passwords. Then we would spend an afternoon getting new passwords because she would throw away the index cards I made for her.
The final problem came when she installed a spam program that answered all her calls in Spanish. She was never able to access the messages on her phone again. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to fix it.
I had no more patience.
Now I see how the world is changing so rapidly that at some point people feel left behind. I see it in my patients. Some have cell phones some use the push button phones at the bedside.
I don’t want to be left behind yet. I will learn every platform if it kills me.
See- I wrote this blog! Another small step. Score!
