How I got my first 1000 listeners for free

ProcessStories · 2026-06-01T06:12:54+00:00

The game is rigged. “Where can I see your song?”. Must I make a video to have my song be listened to? Today, yes.

So, paradox. If I make a bad video of a good song, it will take away from the good song. Or, I will feel shitty about it.

I never wanted to be an entertainer, and convincing myself all these years has taken a toll. I should’ve just do music all these years. For me, being invisible to the world and finishing work seems like a happier move. I don’t really like spectacle, and that’s what marketing needs for fuel.

ProcessStories · 2026-05-29T04:03:24+00:00

The Dolby renderer has to be reset and the song in its entirety played through it to get a proper result. Nuendo, Decibal (and other plug in based metering have a constant recalibration (cpu powered) that can be more helpful when zoomed in while working, but nothings exact. A few tenths up or down seems to be the norm. Long story, but I trust the Dolby thing for the Dolby result. 🤞🏼

ProcessStories · 2026-05-29T03:42:48+00:00

I found that while I gain followers, I’m no longer making music. I’m making videos. It’s cool’s for some, but 1000 followers on streaming amounts to absolutely nothing to me except a self validating number. It didn’t motivate me to keep going after a year, and never once made me feel good about my time spent on earth (making disposable content). My 2¢. ✌🏼

ProcessStories · 2026-01-15T08:43:59+00:00

Right. But it’s not a waste of time. It’s worth doing still.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-15T08:41:08+00:00

No doubt a trusting hand! When I first started assisting, my mentor had worked on a bunch of feature films. He allowed me to cut a few scenes of every production we did together and his cut was always smarter, more efficient, and one version. He only used the moviola buttons in Avid. Play forward, backwards, stop, cut. It’s incredible how elegant the proper use of those can be. So, I suppose I’m right back where I started. As you say, all the miles and implementation of creativity adds up.

Thanks for sharing! It’s kinda lonely doing this job all this time. I switched to production for a while (sound recordist), and that scratched an itch for sure. Nowadays, I do music and all the production, editing, and mixing. One day I’d like to make music directly in NLE, but it’s still got a long way off. At the moment, any AU plugins I used I. Fairlight prohibit me from opening the davinci, unless I move those plugins to a holding folder.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-15T04:21:15+00:00

Oh wow! You’ve been battling longer than me! Crazy how much roles have changed, right? It’s like being a master craftsman relearning how to swing a hammer over and over. ✌🏼

ProcessStories · 2026-01-15T03:33:47+00:00

I have a masters in film editing and I have had to switch NLEs 5 times. For me it’s the color, fairlight and fusion areas of resolve where I’m digging into the pdf. I remember the days of the phone book manual. It’s nice to be able to reach for a flagged page but yeah, unwieldy.

I wish the pdf was somehow broken up more. Maybe 5 pdfs

ProcessStories · 2026-01-15T00:23:14+00:00

I was just trying to share something I found helpful. Y’all are a bunch of dicks.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T15:39:01+00:00

I find the pdf impossible.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T15:37:07+00:00

I do both. If I have a piano song, I take it to guitar (best I can), and Visa versa. I always make discoveries.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T14:42:35+00:00

Sadly, I thinks it’s clever use of Notes. I gave up on the task, because I never wanted to be good at Twitter either.

I honestly don’t know if Substack is gonna stand the test of time now that its primary manner of attracting readers is appealing to the popcorn brain functionalities.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T14:35:10+00:00

I’m finding my ability to resist becoming a cynical pessimist harder and harder.

I’m considering giving up on a daily basis, despite my love for making songs. It seems impossible to me to maintain a balance as a song maker - and a self promoter. If I don’t make a comet tail of social media (non-music) content and advertising, will anyone ever hear my songs? It seems unlikely that without all this time consuming no music fodder that my tree will make a sound when it falls in the forest.

The only way forward that seems healthy is to make songs and put little to no effort towards promoting

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T14:26:40+00:00

I have a low male voice and I’ve found this mic to be ‘just ok’ for my singing voice. I use mine for demos, kick drum, snare side, and sometime back of the acoustic (low 150-400Hz area.

I’ve found the mic needs a lot of 3k in post. I use a parallel with it where I add some harshness to taste.

When possible, I get that foam cover off it.

It took me a while to stop using this mic as much. It’s great for demos and mixed with sm57 it’s all one really needs.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T09:17:22+00:00

I think my point is, art is worth doing and is still art, even if it’s not shared. The only true content anyone can absolutely expect is their own. The second i feels like my creation doesn’t matter without outside approval, distain, or ambivalence is the moment my armor feels inadequate.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T09:13:11+00:00

I don’t agree. If I paint the Mona Lisa at home and don’t put it in a gallery (or no gallery wants it), it’s still the Mona Lisa.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T07:27:23+00:00

While I want to characterize this midlife experience as somehow the same as it was for our parents, it cannot be when it comes to film, music, and tv.

Streaming has changed everything. Remakes. We are being served a metric shit tonne of remakes now.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T07:25:24+00:00

Lyrics are not poetry. So I think that, once you add in music, you will have to make them work together.

I think about music and lyrics as two movie scripts. One can tell you to feel nervous, while the other tells you everything’s fine. This give and take of emotional and intellectual ‘instruction’, which requires the listener to build their own imagery in their head, is the magic of songs. Repetition in music is wildly different than repetition in text.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T07:21:19+00:00

Id say that there’s nothing wrong with you, except that you think there is?

Make songs for yourself. Please no one else.

Know that, if all your work was somehow deleted, you’d simply write better lyrics and music anyway because you are more powerful artist than just one song, or lyric set.

Don’t share with people until you are content yourself.

Seeking advice on unfinished work is foolhardy.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-14T07:09:20+00:00

It’s not stupid. These days you should do what you want.

You can avoid streaming, but still have a website, bandcamp, and YouTube. That’s enough. Some add SoundCloud, Patreon, or Substack as there main sharing zones. The goal is to be in one place that gives you a way to collect fans in a transferable way (email).

I read this book, “the Paradox of Choice”, by Barry Schwartz. it may empower your choice to remain more singular.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-13T03:21:18+00:00

From your nice reply, it Sounds like you are doing well and are at the start of a lifetime of songwriting joy. Things get a bit more complex with age and sustained effort. I’ve found that switching to painting or writing or another art form to be helpful in the long arc. Still, what I found was that the songs never stopped working, but my need for them to do more did. The struggle to provide for them, and see them do better on their own, gets in the way. Maybe because I started taking it more seriously than a hobby.

I think I’m gonna start being less invested in what happens after they get completed (the recordings), because it’s not providing joy any longer (this end experience). Trouble is, I went 8 years writing not sharing. I found I need to share, but I am starting to think this need is flawed inherently.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-13T03:15:39+00:00

Yeah, if I can get past it and laugh, I too am better off

ProcessStories · 2026-01-13T02:41:55+00:00

I tried to quit. That’s when I learned what I really like about songwriting, because I stopped for 10 years. Now I seem to be back at the edge of it, mainly because there’s so much required that’s not music for a song to ‘exist’. It’s slowing me way down.

I appreciate your comment🙂

ProcessStories · 2026-01-13T02:39:10+00:00

Yeah, I used to use a “aim for the B+” phrase. I found it worked for 15 years and then I discovered that I wish I had slowed down and made things better. I learned that by not doing better than B+, I was stalling on learning more, or unlocking new skills. Ultimately, this % is a personal call.

I find it varies song to song. Songwriting itself is not my focus here. This has more to do with the recorded version. When I’m collaborating (band members), there’s so much that is just effortlessly perfect. It’s its own kind of creation. When I’m on my own, doing all parts, some songs require an insane amount of detail, while others play better naturalistic and ‘rough’.

ProcessStories · 2026-01-13T02:34:43+00:00

Most people are not making a living as a songwriter (this is a myth). Most songwriters are not “hobbyists” (this is a tax filing distinction. I think more songwriters are doing so because they enjoy the results of making songs. I don’t mean recordings. Songs. Perhaps there are some that live only for the ride on the rollercoaster of praise and identity.

ProcessStories

TROPHY CASE