Music and Technology in the Indie World with Sync Manila
With so much technology running rampant in today’s gene ratio – including streaming services and social media networks – the way that musicians and artists create, promote and share their music to their listeners have completely changed.
Back in the day, radio tours and album launches were done left and right, but today, some artists simply release their newest albums on iTunes without even making any announcements beforehand (remember how Beyonce did that with her 5th studio album last year?)
How do local musicians survive in this day and age, though? A few weeks ago, SYNC Manila held a music and tech mini-conference at Black Market, Makati, presented by SPINNR Indie, the independent artists program of SPINNR.
Music and Technology in the Indie World with Sync Manila
SYNC Manila’s conference consisted of various speakers, including Peso Movement’s guitarist and music journalist, Francis Brew Reyes, who walked about how software and hardware are similar to men’s wear and The Voice finalist Lee Grane, who talked about how she uses the Internet to let her “voice” be heard.
“Technology brings people together,” she said, sharing her story of only having 50 Twitter followers before she appeared on The Voice PH. Within just 1.5 minutes of her performance during the audition, her Twitter followers reached 10,000 and soon after that, she had a whopping 36,000! “Of course, having that many followers also comes with social responsibility as an artist,” she reminds us. “Everything changes from then on out. You can still blab, but you can also use it as a means to share information and help a cause. Plus, your reach is international.”
Musician and Republikha co-founder, Vin Dancel, also talked about his startup that uses music and fun to teach kids valuable lessons through mobile apps, while laptop musician and beatmaker Similar Objects, and OPM rock royalty Barbie Almalbis talked about new music-creation technologies that can make anybody’s sound unique and innovative.
Music business professor Mony Romana also gave indie artists a lot of tips about today’s music business. “It’s all about knowing your audience. There is no excuse not to know enough anymore,” he reminded us. And it’s true. With a simple Facebook graph search and with Facebook’s fan page insights, we can already get all of the information we could possibly want on our audience – all with a touch of a button. “You don’t even have to pay for this information. It’s all out there for free.”
While it may be true that you won’t be selling a lot, you will be able to reach a ton of people in the process. The only thing left to do from then on out is to establish your brand identity. “Be different,” says Mony. “Ask yourself what you can offer that other artists can’t. Of course, you can also generate revenue through other units, such as band merchandise.”
After the talks, artists also gave rousing musical performances in tribute to the convergence of music aincluding Joee and I and Sinyma joined Similar Objects in giving rousing musical performances in tribute to the convergence of music and technology.
This SYNC Manila conference also happened to be the venue for the debut of SPINNR Indie, the independent artists program of SPINNR and the country’s first music streaming and downloading service.
To find out more about SPINNR Indie, visit spinnr.ph/indie.
