Like My Fanpage and Other Junk Artists Say

Will you please like my fanpage?

How many times a week do you see a post that looks like this from an artist?

It's so sad really, because so many times when you take a leap of faith and join their page or follow them all they ever talk about is buying their CD, listening to their songs, joining their email list or what shows they are playing.

I saw one well-intentioned artist post dozens of petitions to 'listen and share' one of their new songs on Facebook. When the posts apparently weren't getting results, they posted in an annoyed tone "There's a lot of you who haven't listened or shared the song!" I've met this person in real life, and they are as kind as can be; they would never walk up and immediately start pushing you to listen to their tunes.

So what happened?

The sad truth is that many artists, while creative, are buying into a tired and totally false fairytale that talking about yourself works. They think saying "buy my CD" and "follow me on twitter" and "visit my website" or other junk like that will make you do it. But, let's face it, that's just not how the world works. It's not really natural.

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who ONLY talks about themselves? Boring and annoying. And it's such a shame too because people are all so interesting!

So now I'll get off my soapbox and ask you: What mistakes do you think artists make?