Because of my sudden status as top X-factor haterrr, I haven’t had a chance to respond to some interesting comments I had in response to this post, which was about how modern musicians also have to be web designers, marketers, and pluggers (as well as writers, producers, performers… you get the idea). Andrew Dubber is the writer of one the blogs I linked, New Music Strategies, and he had some interesting comments in response to the original post, which you can read here. It summary, he talks about how a successful artist has to assemble a team of people who can do all that other stuff.

Of course, in the absence of an income stream, how do you get people interested in working to promote your music? The goodness of their hearts? More pertinently, Mr Dubber has written in the past about ways in which you shouldn’t try to make money from your music, and even said “I believe that, generally speaking, when you’re a musician and you manage to make music your job – you’ve failed”. So I asked him “How does an artist make money from music?”

His answer was reminiscent of Curly’s “one thing” in existential movie classic City Slickers: it really is unique to the artist. But that we shouldn’t get too hung up on “selling recordings” or “getting money for performing”. He went on to point out that there is a such a suite of customizable tools available to the broadly web-savvy, that the opportunities for creating a unique way of doing things were well within anyone’s grasp. Which made me feel even more like a whiner. No-one likes a whiner.

In other news… I picked up a review at God Is In The TV for Scrape the Paint. They said

“Eschewing the pitfalls of many solo artist’s this is an album with plenty of life and invention… free to download from the official website this five-track release has a melancholic, bluesy feel with Austwick’s strong voice and smart lyrics taking centre-stage… Instrumental track ‘Not New York (in the pouring rain)’ rather wonderfully has the sound of a genuine torrential downpour in the background, as well as Austwick’s occasional sniffing… [Scrape the Paint] ear-marks Austwick as a promising and prolific talent.”

It was a really nice review, and GIITTV is a great zine – I’m grateful to them for reviewing the EP, and I think it was very thoughtful and well-written; it’s certainly made me think about certain aspects of the way I arrange songs. Merry Xmas, dudes.