What I Want the Underground Music Scene to Understand
You can’t get institutional recognition without capital the institution recognizes.
TOP OF THE CHART
My recent all-MIDI jazz big band album, “jAzz.exe” briefly hit a #1 spot in an online indie-music album voting contest at a few points last month. While this fleeting achievement is partly due to the help of my relatively few FaceBook friends (who I appreciate and consider to be actual real-life friends even though we may have never met), I want to disclose my journey in an attempt to do what major companies are doing every day for themselves and their clients at the expense of those who do not have the resources to independently do the same.
I thought I should share my experience in doing this social experiment because I believe it had little to do with musical merit or integrity, and so that it is openly clear for those new to music as well as veterans in the industry regarding how we define “success” as artists.
DA CAPO
After noticing I had secured third place on the top 5 list (out of around 100 indie artists’ jazz albums), I was ecstatic that without doing any outreach whatsoever I had gotten on the list apparently on musical merit alone (and likely the novelty of the album itself). I then noticed there was an indicator of the amount of votes tallied, and my album was around 20 or so at the time I noticed I had placed — about the same as the others, except the perpetual leader in votes which seemed to be a fully produced and highly marketed act.
The tally for the top album was I believe around triple my own at the time and seemed to be comfortable there, as none of the albums seemed to be moving much at all the first few days. A few would slightly swell here and there while others would level off and drop from the list, with only one artist apparently making use of a FaceBook “share” button, but once the initial bumps subsided most of the albums fell flat — including my own to a degree, as well as the first place competitor (until other artists started to gain the lead). Another album had seen a sudden surge and shot up to first place, but then tapered off and eventually seemed to stop altogether (which is odd).
DAL SEGNO
Once I realized that the more refined and established acts were likely employing online marketing teams and voting strategies, I considered other ways I could use the internet to keep up with the seemingly exponential growth spurts of the top spot. The usual suggestions of “sharing on social media” did not seem highly viable, as I keep my primary social media friends list to around 200 and it appears many may have turned off notifications of my posts (possibly due to my political and/or sometimes-snarky posting). After reaching out directly to my closest friends and family, and without the resources for a traditional media campaign, I decided to put my energy into avenues I thought would likely not be tapped by traditional methods.
It may be obvious from my fake FB name and profile photo, but I am very uncomfortable with keeping my open information online, including anything tied to my “private” accounts used for downtime activities like watching movies or streamers. However, there is also a vast (and largely hidden) community of like-minded creatives among entertainment platforms who have a similar message and philosophy: the need to design our own plans and enact them.
THE UNDERGROUND
In attempt to keep up with the bigwigs, my outreach support strategy revolved around what I consider the “underground” community of creative people who have been relegated to the sidelines as “unimportant to society” and therefore “not valuable.” I am referring to a certain group of internet-cultured and likely-introverted (mostly younger) people such as “gamers,” “trolls” and the like. (My album concept was also designed with this audience in mind.)
I spent a lot of time that week courting what many might call “troll accounts,” particularly due to their honest anonymity and propensity for anti-establishment ideals as well as their tendency to be creative professionals in their side hustles and/or creative thinkers in their mediums. Many had titles like “graphic artist” or “recording engineer” in their anonymous bios, as this underground culture hinges on building mutual trust before engaging in public business transactions or collaborations.
THE STRATS
In addition to what the internet generally suggests we should do to promote ourselves in the digital age, I used these particular outlets in my strategy of “begging” for digital support:
- Social media (private groups, anonymous accounts, FaceBook, etc. asking for help)
- Reddit (spammed pretty much every subreddit about music or jazz that would allow it)
- Twitch (an avenue that was not suggested online, but that I think provided one of the largest returns for my time spent)
- Discord (often attached to Twitch; many encourage sharing of art in their channels)
Platforms I did NOT use:
- Twitter (I find Twitter is a more professional and somewhat bourgeoise platform where people — especially “blue-checks” — do not trust easily)
- Instagram/TikTok (I think TikTok might have been a better bet, but am not familiar enough with either to say for sure)
- Google Analytics (probably helpful for tracking, but a bit above my budget — i.e. $0 — and confusing so I moved on)
I visited a few of my own favorite media creators, as well as several dozen other communities I was not a part of. Some were smaller groups of people I knew previously from chatting online and were almost guaranteed votes — several said they would share the contest with others on their platforms for more support. Some were larger groups of strangers, some of whom were music related and others who were not necessarily. Most groups were extremely supportive by and large, or at least purported to be.
THE AUDIENCE
After engaging with the chat and/or host while joking about an incoming solicitation, my overall message was this:
“Can I ask a favor? …*express humility*… I am an independent musician who somehow got a spot on a top 5 for a major publication but has no institutional support helping me in the social media ‘likes’ game. Would you mind voting for my album ‘jAzz.exe’ on this site if you enjoy it?”
Of course the messages were much more succinct and varied but the general theme was the same across the board.
Some people were very comfortable with helping me, no questions asked; a few said they would troll me by voting for all of the albums, or just the ones that weren’t my own; others claimed they were able to vote multiple times; some completely (and understandably) shut me down, kicked or banned me from their platforms. Regardless, my sociocultural capital of having online friends & accounts were apparently valuable enough for at least some of them and/or their communities to decide to click my vote.
Some understood immediately that this was a transactional situation, and asked something akin to what’s in it for them. My general response was an exchanged “tip” of subs, likes, and similar signals of digital support — this is the underground social media economy to which we are all becoming privy, though some at higher rates. (There is also a Black Mirror episode about the long-term implications of this type of economy.)
AL CODA
These avenues are ones that mainstream, legacy media outlets are only starting to catch onto and attempt to replicate. The traditional methods of sharing with friends and family, utilizing airtime and ad space, and even posting on social media are becoming less viable methods of data collection the more time people spend on digital platforms. The historic “billboard mentality” is not working anymore — advancement is no longer based on plays, but rather “likes” as votes, leading to questions of whether the art is actually being consumed as intended, voting integrity/accountability, and the importance of eye-catching album art.
All of this took about a workweek of one person channeling energy into various avenues for a few hours each day — it was definitely at least a part-time job, and not unknown in the large-scale digital gig economy. The result was pretty clear: when I stopped hustling, the votes slowed to a drip.
Similar and sometimes much more drastic fluctuations appeared to be true for a few other albums on the list as well, which is said to be a commonplace sign that support might not be wholly organic. Even more alarming was the research I did later after realizing this was something that should be documented, which exposed the tricks and secrets technically adept teams can use to manipulate certain types of online voting contests — an increasingly commonplace tactic that sometimes utilizes computerized bots to sway voting results, including state and federal elections.
Gathering this information led me to a few thoughts:
- teams of people, or those who can employ teams of people, will immediately have an advantage.
- others on this top 5 list are likely not going through the same lengths I am, nor using the same avenues.
- what kinds of tactics are other artists and/or their marketing teams using today, and how do those tactics differ by generation and/or at each “level” of industry success?
- this is not worth it.
Once the publisher took the week’s top 5 list down (on which I was #2 at the time, somewhere around 100–150 votes behind the reigning contender whom as far as I can tell has not gained any votes since then) I went back to the Reddits and took some of the posts down, which were at that point gaining more “dislikes” that decreased the upvote totals of my original posts and were being taken down by moderators anyway for spam. For the purposes of this experiment, however, the spamming did its job — regardless of how slimy it made me look (and feel) in the process.
AL FINE
The bottom line is this (tl;dr):
- companies or hiring firms that employ new-age digital “promoters” to gain social and cultural capital for their artists can swiftly take control of contest outcomes.
- online artistic contests quickly become a game of who has the largest social media presence, the most resources, and/or the most spare time to hunt for votes.
- the underground economy of creatives is a largely untapped base of support for artists who are in need of assistance in establishing and stabilizing their careers, and should be utilized more often as an exclusive tool for artist communities (which is a growing and mutually understood trend among young people).
- the underground community of artists recognizes the inequities of corporate influence on artistic integrity, and develops a stronger sense of solidarity with those who are not at an advantage — i.e. each time an unknown artist gets a chance at a “break.”
- unless this pattern is addressed, artists’ network environments will continue to have a larger role in shaping and appropriating Western culture than talent, integrity or merit.
So what does this mean for artists and musicians?
As a whole, is technology providing artists with more or fewer career opportunities relative to each of their personal networking ability levels?
What can the underground music scene take from this social experiment?
A few last points to ponder:
- the internet is NOT a substitute for reality
- ideally, find ways to bring the focus off of screens
- “relationships are key” is only half the point
- support must be mutual for benefit to be mutual
- corporate media firms are only playing the game
- how can we build our own “community” media firms?
Anthony Casamassima is a professional musician, educator and community advocate. Learn more about his work here, and follow RealMusicInProgress on Twitter or YouTube.
