Fans and Fake Fans
This posting is about a the new culture of music that is mostly supported by ourselves. It has become like a shared hobby group when I'm pretty sure that is not what many of us are intending by publishing our music and marketing ourselves. It is a culture of a lot of back-patting and encouraging words by the outside world with little follow-through, so we turn inward, or worse... we turn toward a fake fan base. Followers and rankings are ego boosters... At least at first, until you realize that they don't mean much. We know if we can measure it we can improve it, but where does that lead with fake follows and fake promotions? That floods our stats with fake support. That's noise. How do we adjust our expectations in a world of noise? And maybe there are times that the appearance of success could lead to it, but not likely for most of us playing in niche genres. I ranked number one for my genre for my city for the majority of my time on Reverbnation. I don't l