Indie Musicians Should Focus On Podcasts And Playlists Not Pitchfork And Paste [Kosha Dillz]
In this piece independent rapper Kosha Dillz shares explains the value and importance of focusing one's self-promotion in the direction of smaller more personal podcasts and playlists, rather than fruitlessly seeking the attention of larger media outlets.
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Guest Post by Kosha Dillz
I thought to myself what a beautiful time to be alive in 2016. This morning I drove my car from an amazing parking spot in Koreatown Los Angeles to my Beverly Hills trusted auto mechanic to handle my air condition unit which so unfortunately broke down in the midst of the California summer. While I am sweating bullets, I asked myself why I drive all the way across town to handle this car?
It is because I have trust in the relationship with the mechanic.
This is why I want to tell you about the personal relationship of bands and musicians and why you should take away your dreams of FADER, PIGEONS AND PLANES and PITCHFORK and shift it to the playlists and podcasts. I know what you are thinking… (wow , did Kosha just combine all that alliteration? ) Yes. I did use all those P's. But even though Pigeons and Planes and Pitchfork sound really cool…as so do XXL Magazine and Source Magazine and Paste Magazine…there are way more benefits for the podcasts and playlists, and here is why. AS always, if you have any suggestions, please put them in the comment section. mind you, I still want to be in everything, because I believe every eye and ear has equal value in the world of music fan-ship.
Alas here is my list…
1. Loyalty – Playlists and Podcasts are usually followed by actual users of the content (personal playlists) or the weekly podcast subscribers, and are popping up all over the place for the learning of loyalty in a more independent world. The blog people bounce all over, and rarely attend shows. You see many people in the internet want press, but the press doesn't always lead to huge turn around at shows with merch purchases. It must be the soothing voice of the host while you work.
2. A Specific Choice – Blog people need tons of content since it is devoured so quickly for the type of audience it engages. Podcasts and Playlists are carefully curated and selected in most cases, and are usually done by a fan themselves. There is a commitment here, and congratulations…you have been selected!
3. Attention Span – If you happen to be a guest on a podcast, the listenership will give you much more time since they are 30 min to 1hr, and you are one of those guys that listens for the entire time. The amount invested in time forces you to look the guest up even more. Blogs might get put to the bottom with a busy post day. By having this playing in the background, it sort of slides into the psyche of you.
4. Forever – Podcasts are forever. Blog posts, like my one on XXL from many years ago, and even the BET cypher, have mysteriously vanished from the internet.) Regardless, this means when building your press kit, you should certainly use PDFs, since links may go bad.
5. Real Humans – If you go to a show, I can't tell you that everyone knows what a certain website is. Many of the people reading this will certainly know that if you are country musician or indie rock musician, the website to cover you are completely different than hip hop and EDM. Podcasts and playlists are listened to by real music fans who attend concerts. Tastemaker blogs seem to be covered by industry people who try to get on blogs, who then only seem to talk the talk and never come to your show and buy merchandise. (Ie. My 2013 album premiered on between 10-15 major hip hop sites with Hundreds of thousands of reach and only achieved 15-30 album sales.)
6. Podcasts to iTunes – When you are featured as a guest, your name pops up under iTunes. This will link to your other songs and albums , which will lead to more apple music streams and purchases. Apple music stream currently pay the most off your streams. (.01 cents per stream)
Its frustrating guys. There is no specific way to make this happen. You can send your music to each blog out at the same time and get on every podcast and playlist, and it still isn't enough. I am literally going back to the world of human interaction, passing out fliers, grabbing radio play, and buying a billboard, because it is the most impressive to me and one of the only things I haven't seen.
Kosha Dillz is a independent hip hop artist who has an album called What I Do all Day and Pickle. He is playing Sept 5th at the Mint in Los Angeles. he recently did a Ted Talk and has an awesome video with Matisyahu. He loves podcasts like Breaking the Business, which he featured on from writing awesome hypebot posts like this you are reading. Contact him at rapperfriends@gmail.com and follow him on twitter and facebook
