In my very short and thus far un-illustrious musical career, I have already learned that by far the most difficult (and important) task as an independent musician, more so than writing, recording, producing or performing, is gaining (and maintaining) peoples' attention. Far too often, I see great tracks by talented musicians simply disappear into obscurity because they are unwilling or unable to advertise their music and brand in an interesting or effective way. Equally, without naming names, I can think of some terrible songs by artists who can barely string a few notes together which have gained unprecedented popularity thanks to exciting and imaginative marketing campaigns. This, by the way, is something for which I commend these artists, not begrudge them!
The question I have found myself asking, therefore, is how to draw peoples' attention to Emergency's music? Sex is the obvious answer. Unfortunately, this is not a weapon we possess in our arsenal. So we settled on stickers. With the help of our in-house graphic designer (an art student working on a strictly pro bono basis for the time-being), we made a QR code for our linktree, whacked it on a sticker and ordered 500 of those bad boys. We and an army of loyal fans have spent the last 4 weeks handing these out to strangers, leaving them on bus seats and sticking them to every friends' fridge we could find. It's a small idea which has thus far made little impact, but it only requires one sticker to reach the right person to make an enormous difference.
Artists need to be proactive and imaginative in publicising their material. It is simply not enough to post an instagram story with a link to your track and then just sit back and wait for the record labels to come calling. That said, you...the listeners...can make it easier for artists to get their music heard by a larger audience. Handing out our stickers, I was taken aback by how enthusiastic some total strangers were about our band. It was fantastic. While I have been generally thrilled with the support so far (thank you!), this did draw into focus the distinct and almost conscious lack of interest there has been from a handful of people I consider good friends. If you have a friend, or even a friend of a friend, who is making music and trying to get it out there, please listen to it! Chances are, you probably won't like it...but I'm sure they'd be delighted to know you gave it a go.