An End-to-end Independent music artist story
I had been learning and playing the guitar since early 2005 at a comfortable age of 12. I’ve had three music instructors for guitar and music theory. I appeared for few guitar and music theory certifications as well, by Trinity Guild Hall (London) and joined an intermediate course much later by Nathaniel School of Music (Bangalore).
Although I picked up an instrument to learn at that age, I had been into singing earlier and even had an opportunity to get some basic vocal training in Hindustani Classical music. When I was in high school in 10th standard, I started writing songs and composed an instrumental track in 2009. I discussed it with a friend and we improved on it and another friend even added lyrics to it, but it never got materialised.
After my senior secondary (12th standard/PUC) exams, we got a 3-month break. I decided to spend that time write lyrics and composing. I wrote several songs and wanted to make an album. But I also wanted to put my best songs forward and since the ‘project’ was independent and the recording sessions were funded by my father, I decided to make an EP (Extended Play) rather than an LP (Long Play). An EP has 4-6 tracks as opposed to 12-13 tracks in LPs. It is based on track duration and its origin goes back to vinyl records.
I had made a musician friend in the city who was also a guitar, a brilliant one at that. One day, as we were chatting over ‘Messenger’ (Facebook, now Meta) and I told him about my project. Incidentally, he was planning to start a home studio and take up clients. So, we had a discussion at his place and decided to recorded five of my tracks.
Glad I got to be one of his first clients, I starting recording my compositions one by one. I used a software to convert music notations into audio and sent it to him to give him an idea of what I had in mind. We recorded the instruments. He suggested that he’d play and asked me to focus on the vocals. He played the guitar and piano sections of my compositions and added synth and other effects wherever required. The drums were programmed using a MIDI board. I sang for my first track ‘For Nothing.’ This song took the longest time to compose and is also the longest track in the EP, ‘Freedom of Emotions,’ but took only one take. Although we did record it multiple times for panning, variations, and other track requirements.
After the first track, I recorded a song dedicated to two of my close classmates who had accidental deaths. The next song was the title track, ‘Freedom of Emotions.’ I decided to work on this song with my friend, guitarist, and producer together. I had composed it with all the sections, melody, scale, chord progression and time signature and written the lyrics. He added variations in the guitar harmonics intro using layers and improved the strumming pattern and added a kickass guitar solo. The song had less lyrics and progressed quickly, so I gave him complete liberty with the section before the outro and the results were epic! Next, there was a track called ‘Break Free’ that his father really liked. Finally, we ended the EP with the only Hindi track in the EP, ‘Itni Sundar Tum Ho Kaise,’ which has the highest hits in the EP, followed by the title track. Like so, after mixing and mastering, in 2012 in the city of Guwahati, my music album was ready. The music in the tracks were played, mixed and mastered by Siddhant Das from Studio Dreamcather, Guwahati, which now stands closed.
Now as I was an 18-year-old with an independent music project in 2012, I didn’t want to go to any marketing agency. So, I decided to do it on my own, with absolutely no experience of marketing and promotions. Maybe taking up Commerce for 10+2 studies helped.
There were was no Spotify in India back then and online music distribution platforms weren’t quite active. I uploaded my tracks to platforms like SoundCloud and ReverbNation for streaming initially and shared the links to Facebook. I created and managed a Facebook Page and a YouTube Channel. I added my music to more platforms like MuSlate and SongDew. I also shared links to the songs and sometimes the tracks themselves with friends. I also availed the tracks for free downloads for a limited period. The responses were positive.
The album art that I used for ReverbNation was a simple a simple photograph from the balcony of an apartment flat that our family were living in as tenants in Uzan Bazar, Guwahati.
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When I joined Undergrads that same year, I performed many times in college events and performed my tracks and newer compositions as well. During my PG studies, I was invited to take up independent sections of events for music. I also performed in open-mics in various locations in Bengaluru. I was also into photography. So, one evening when I was clicking photographs for a friend’s music gig, she asked me to perform 1 or 2 songs as well. The artist manager at the venue was really impressed by my performance and we got talking. He offered me a gig as well. But I unfortunately had to cancel it later, as I got busy with my dissertation at the University.
When Instagram launched and I started using an Android phone, instead of a Lumia phone, it was a great platform initially for sharing my photographs to it users Although Instagram has evolved to be a completely different platform today for creators, businesses, and all other users for various purposes. I also uploaded short video covers of popular songs on Instagram over time, performed some originals, used Instagram for promotions and even went live to perform.
I also wrote poems, articles and stories on WordPress. So I added a section to my music links there as well, for people to listen.
Much later, when Spotify was in India and other music streaming platforms like YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, JioSaavn were also getting popular, and I had some personal savings, I decided to distribute my music through online streaming platforms including Apple Music Store using cdBaby in 2020. I was also into photography, so I managed to make the album art and artist profile photo on my own.
There was no revenue from the music distribution for eligible withdrawal, but it did help get my music across to listeners much easier. The same year I also decided to get a personal keyboard for stress-busting, practicing music, learning keyboards, and improving my musicianship as a hobby.
Through this experience that started as a small project backed by passion for a hobby, I learnt about one of the processes of getting your music out there and perform for music lovers. I learnt about branding, marketing, promotions, tax on intellectual property, international contract policies, socializing and communicating. I also learnt a bit of management, without a book. I learnt how to create an impact, remembering for whom musicians are really singing, playing and writing songs for – the people. I made many musician friends. We shared tracks, discussed music, supported each other, attended each others’ performances or concerts and sometimes even jammed or performed together.
Music is an expression. It relieves and entertains. It is created and even inspires creation.