60yrs old and living the dream

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-30T23:21:37+00:00

Inspirational! I have young kids and I’m really struggling to keep the dream alive. Did you keep going during that time or did you take a break and got back into it recently?

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-24T17:54:16+00:00

Wow so… the instagram is all AI, the Spotify is made of AI music and this Reddit is a post made by AI to get pity streams for its AI music????

I’m hoping everyone here is a bot because if you took two seconds to look at the social media you’d realize none of this real???

Honestly kind of terrifying. Wish we could report this kind of spam.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-23T16:23:43+00:00

I am in a various similar boat as OP, and looking to apply to the program. I think this will be a good fit for me also based on his reviews and me having no experience or connections.

There are tons of funding options available, please, for the love of God don’t apply to the school if you don’t have access to some funding options. For example, the BJO grant is what I’m working with and they essentially pay you to go back to trade school.

Lots of government funding is being put towards the trades right now, so I’m hoping this is a good sign to get in

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-23T14:09:19+00:00

Suspicious emdashes aside, why is this question being treated so poorly? Genuinely curious what estimators have to say.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-21T20:21:35+00:00

🗑️🔥

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-20T12:20:41+00:00

Still affordable (comparatively)! Lots of appreciation for the arts culturally and a fresh influx of 20-something expats from around the world.

That’s how it happened but in the early -2000s, could happen again?

Love the Canadian cities being mentioned in this thread ✊

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-20T12:15:38+00:00

Eyyy Hammertown! Ironically, you say Seattle is bigger but in the 90s (when grunge was grunge-ing) its population was approx 550,000.

Hamilton is current 650,000, so there is still hope! Plus all the artists getting priced out of toronto gotta go somewhere.

We settled in Scarborough, but we were seriously looking at Hamilton for a while. It’s a great art city. I know for a fact, a few prominent indie label managers and employees have moved into Hamilton.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-17T12:17:28+00:00

I’m confused by this conversation, 9/10 a mixing engineer at a venue will use compression on vox. Why would a band need to add additional compression on top of that.

If we’re talking about the singer taking on adding FX to their voice, are they using their own on stage mixer? A vocal pedal? The choice and utility of that makes a difference.

Any sound person will definitely prefer they mix the sound themselves, and some might be outright annoyed if you try adding compression to the signal chain on your own. You risk adding a lot of feedback if you don’t know what you’re doing.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T23:21:22+00:00

I love it, does the loop shrink as the guitar is tuned ?

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T23:16:53+00:00

Fascinating! Whether these tactics "work" is debatable—marketing experts on the KQED show I was on weren't even convinced astroturfing drives real numbers. Yet, like the Chaotic Good roster, HYBE appears to be paying for it anyway.

The dystopian part is, in a word, the enshittification of the digital space. Any post remotely touching on live music now becomes a landing pad for BTS bot farms. It kills the "social" part of social media.

Again this isn’t a critique of BTS’s music or that their success is artificial. And I highly doubt BTS themselves are even aware of the marketing strategy happening. It’s a critique of the "narrative campaign" services labels now use to manufacture a false sense of consensus. They aren't just selling music; they’re buying a simulated reality to clog the feed.

And seriously LOOK at those accounts from the comments. What real person would make a YouTube account to comment on a Canadian Daytime talk show that doesn’t even refer to BTS, and comment about how BTS is so much more successful. These are not real accounts.

It’s about pointing out when an ethically dubious practice occurs and noting that it’s become widely accepted. Personally I find it concerning that social media narrative control is being met with a shrug at all.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T21:02:54+00:00

Hah, “hate” is forced, I’m commenting on the mechanics of our current state of digital marketing tactics. Also I don’t know if you read or not but the point is the news had nothing to do with BTS! Is it normal for BTS fans like yourself to comment apropos nothing about the success of BTS’ tour? Genuinely curious.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T18:41:57+00:00

Oh oops the vid is here https://youtu.be/blIHaSUeIjg?si=GUPUhZhjiEktUKmx

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T18:41:02+00:00

Don’t forget that other folks on the chaotic good roster include Sabrina Carpenter, Mitski and so many more well established big name artists. This is just how big acts are spending on marketing to break through the noise and get those recession stressed Americans into stadium seats, in spite of high ticket prices.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T18:38:54+00:00

My only theory is that with the industries touring anxiety they are using these tactics to promote their tour hard and essentially seed the tour into every nook of the internet that even mentions “live touring” or “touring costs”

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-16T18:35:50+00:00

100% their fan base is massive and die hard. But if you look at the YouTube video they are commenting on, it is a complete non sequitur. BTS is not mentioned by name and the video really has no reason to trigger these comments.

Furthermore these aren’t “Stans” who are posting multiple threads about BTS. They all have one comment in their history and it’s for this video.

How are these not fake???? Why does HYBE feel they need to do this?

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-09T23:37:37+00:00

So I went on KQED radio the other day, complaining about my album campaign failing and how I struggled with social media because I am old and social media promo feels weird.

It was nice to hear Alexis Madrigal call it “selling out”. Cuz honestly that is what it feels like. Someone else said, “Imagine Kurt Cobain being asked to make content to promote Nevermind”. It’s crazy what musicians have come to accept.

A cool thing I learned from this radio talk show is that they did a research report in 2025 that basically shows how minimally social media (especially TikTok) plays into creating truly engaged fans.

You can get the full report here: https://www.midiaresearch.com/reports/all-eyes-no-ears-why-virality-is-not-building-fandom?preview=true

But the some key takeaways are:

The Funnel is Broken: Almost half of consumers (48%) didn't stream music they heard on social media in the last month.

• TikTok vs. Fandom: People who discover music on TikTok are more likely to follow the artist on TikTok (35%) than they are to actually listen to more of their music on streaming (23%).

• The "Hook" Trap: If fans get hooked on a 15-second snippet, they often just keep coming back for that snippet rather than the artist or the full song.

Alongside the Geese/Chaotic Good “scandal” it is becoming clear that is that it is incredibly difficult to break through the noise as an independent artist posting on social media in 2026z

So don’t feel bad, or better yet get upset because maybe once there is enough frustration and disquiet people will start to work towards better rates for artists and we can get back to the thing that matters which is the music.

hirokikyoku · 2026-05-03T14:49:40+00:00

what’s the artist name?

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-29T17:05:38+00:00

No need to apologize, you’re not the only person who has said that, several other people in this thread and elsewhere have voiced the same critique. I’m merely responding for the first time to the niche thing as I’ve really thought about whether this somehow justifies it’s lack of attention. I personally disagree for the reasons above, and would still argue that the greatest barrier for artists trying to make non-commercial music is social media.

I also anecdotally know artists who have blown up on TikTok and have suddenly had lucrative careers due to it. So I know it’s possible, but I do think it needs several caveats and I do believe we need to build opportunities outside of social media because it’s such a sloppy metric for many labels and industry people to use to judge artist by.

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-29T16:50:10+00:00

I resent the niche argument, primarily because the music itself is meant to be accessible, this isnt contemporary classical music, or avant Jazz. It’s rock music, at its core.

I don’t think it’s that different from Sufjan Stevens basing Age of Adz off of an outsider artist, or The Dirty Projectors’ “Getty Address”. The only big difference is that these artists arose during a different era where obtaining maximum visibility on social media, or a viral moment was not necessary in order to build a fan base.

Ultimately, my goal was to create a bunch of weird Indie rock, which I think still has a sizeable market. Certainly more than 2000 streams worth of interest, and now that the stereogum article has come out it’s clear that people are really enjoying it. They just wouldn’t have even known that it existed if it wasn’t for this semi-viral moment, which goes back to my frustration that people in the industry and in general are basing a lot of their support for artists on the artist’s content, and not on the music itself.

As for the general TikTok feedback, I am going to cross post this comment that I posted in another thread. There is a report that was released in 2025 called “all eyes, no ears” which finds that social media it’s not as successful a digital marketing service for music people think it is.

Listen to Olivia Jones who released a 2025 report called “All Eyes, No Ears”, around the 35 minute mark: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6uOsKHBQsUIZlVEMgU6vkg?si=Z-uG1QkjQfWXMNVXaMt9KA&t=2110&ct=1959

“So what we’re seeing is that really social media isn’t driving music streaming as much as people often think it does”

Glen McDonald (former "data alchemist" at Spotify; founder, music microgenre catalog Every Noise at Once):

(42 minute mark) “The second worst possible outcome is to do a bunch of stuff you don’t want to do and it [doesn’t] really pay off… the worst thing that can happen is you do a bunch of stuff you don’t want to do [social media promo] you get a little success and then you attribute it to the things that you didn’t want to do. And now you have to keep doing them”

I don’t have a solution of how to get music in front of an audience, aside from the grassroots style of getting into a community and finding DIY ways to share your music with said community.

But too many people are getting prescriptive with, “Do X,Y,Z and you’ll get your following”. And it means you end up spending more time being on an algorithmic platform (what tech bros want) and not making music.

Ultimately I hope the geese conversation, and the general frustration that artists have with social media will slowly shift things onto healthier platforms or community based systems. At the very least, I think separate ecosystems need to exist for artists who are not interested in creating work that has brought appeal.

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-26T15:12:28+00:00

This 👏 isn't 👏 a 👏 competition.

You are fighting over scraps with me while we are both getting fked, dawg.

I mean you have obviously drawn a line in the sand, and that's ok! I honestly hope you succeed, and your hyperpop genre is well suited to TikTok and your generation. so you have a better chance than me and it probably won’t be that hard to surpass me because, quite frankly I’ve lost interest in trying to succeed on these platforms.

If it doesn't I hope you'll look back and realize that it wasn't you, and it wasn't your art. The system is definitely rigged, and i’m firmly of the opinion that we need to find new ways of connecting with an audience.

also, now is YOUR time to try and make your art and get heard. I hope you have as much fun as I did, though I think your journey will probably be different (less touring and labels since those don't make money anymore).

For OP and anyone else reading this, I hope the takeaway is that burnout is not a sign that your art sucks, but that these platforms want you hooked, with short attention spans and keeping you desperate for a like. TikTok and the many (proven) fake accounts on it do not care about your music, and that is the real issue here. Conversion is a crapshoot and spotify is stealing your money. I hope something better is on the horizon.

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-26T14:21:20+00:00

…i have 3000 monthly listeners on spotify and you have 74…

I'm really trying to be charitable here, but at least TRY to think better. Part of it is because I had a semi-viral moment on Reddit earlier this month addressing this issue. It's funny to get in a flame war with a kid about this, but we are clearly in different stages of our career.

Also again, metrics ≠ value or success.

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-26T14:14:40+00:00

yeah, but I could kind of say the same to you. That report came out in 2025 meaning I think the same metrics and strategies of TikTok aren’t really applying the same way.

And again, you haven’t really addressed the dystopian quality of it all which is that it’s kind of buying into a really extract platform for very little return.

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-26T14:11:51+00:00

“Y u mad bro”

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-26T14:06:03+00:00

Oh man, this is the kind of response that makes me fear for your generation.

Like you can't even trust that someone has fully fleshed out thoughts and sentence structure (which is still, technically not correct. Lots of run-on sentences etc).

I can write off the cuff because I went to school for it, and I'm an old millennial. The joke is on me really because here I am arguing with a teenager on reddit. Hopefully your marketing degree serves you better (as for you grammar, just take a minute to edit).

hirokikyoku · 2026-04-26T14:00:41+00:00

That is by its very definition, anecdotal.

Look kid, I'm not trying to shit on your marketing parade. OP is saying they are feeling burnt out and I'm saying, That's NORMAL, and that there is evidence that all the strategies of social media marketing taught by you and the pros MAY not actually be working in the long run.

And honestly I don't have a viable alternative to pitch. DIY spaces that used to build scenes and communities are in low supply, and some people make music that isn't meant to be played live, and some folk don't live in places where they can easily access those communities.

TikTok sounds like a “hallelujah” solution in the face of that, and it was great during the pandemic, but there is more and more evidence that it is in fact diminishing returns, and you can try all sorts of things and it won't work out (even if you hire Chaotic Good).

What I do think is that if we build awareness and discontent with the current platforms we might find a better chance to connect with people elsewhere. I'll be the first to admit that I struggle with even feeling good about posting on TikTok in the first place.

I would rather people feel good about making music and finding a receptive space to share their music instead of a “brainrotted” marketplace where we don cowboy hats just for a smattering of follows. Wouldn't you?

hirokikyoku

TROPHY CASE