Live Stream, Paid Promotion, and the Man Behind the Curtain

So, a couple of things real quick:

I did a test run for the new livestream event, and I think I can make it work. The audio won’t be studio quality, but it will definitely be different than the last ones. I still have a fair amount of rehearsing to do; it’s one thing to work on a single song for several days at a time, and then move on to another one, and another thing to play multiple songs in a row. I’m also having to work out using the pedalboard in the “live” situation. It’s all good stuff, and important for me to learn. I don’t have a date yet for when this will happen, but I will post info when it is determined.

I paid to “boost” a post on FB promoting the release of the new album. I’ve never paid real money for advertising before. I think the “Learn More” link comes to this page, so I’m trying to spruce it up and get it ready for more traffic. I sure hope something catches on. In the realm of unpaid promotion, I’ve been posting to TikTok in hopes of catching someone’s ear. So far the video of my cat talking has the most likes.

In this time of DIY artistry and promotion, we’re seeing a lot more of people expressing their truth and their struggles while the mainstream entertainment machine continues to try to make everything look glossy and perfect and effortless, and to take the humanity out of it. Even so, they are having much of their reality exposed via Zoom meetings from their homes, being invaded by unscheduled children raids and unexpected technical and aesthetic circumstances. I’m all for revealing the heretofore unmentionables in life, letting the world know that we are all vulnerable, we are all subjected to difficulties and unwanted results. PR spin and paid media exposure can only do so much. At the end of the day we all have our highs and lows. It’s okay to talk about what troubles us, and we get to see that we’re not all so different. While income inequality is rampant in our country, nobody is immune to challenges. The playing field is not so unlevel after all, it’s just that some of us have a lot more pieces on the board. The more you have, the more you have to lose.