Journal
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December 18th, 2004 @ 8:51AM
Please visit my music site at the link above: The Legendary Fred Miller
Well, traffic on my site has died off to just a few good friends to whom I am eternally grateful for their support. I am glad to have the opportunity to provide some enjoyment and entertainment for you.
I had hoped for a wider base from which to build my music potential.
Of the countless listeners reported to be on DM, I have elicited a relatively insignificant number. What has not been insignificant is the caliber of those who have expressed their opinions. I have always played for relatively small audiences but my purpose here is to see if want to pursue music seriously. Unfortunately being a musicians musician in and of itself is not ample justification for the time and resources.
I'm not sure if it is my style or skill level that is the problem. My concern is that without comments I have no idea. I have tried to incorporate suggestions into each new work and varied my approach and styles. It has not produced the results I had hoped for. I have been through many of the artists material and thought I could glean some insight into what it is I am not doing right. I have scoured my stats and compared them to others in similar time frames and come up with the same results no matter which way I analyze them. Something is wrong. I am stumped. Perhaps being based on current trends and popularity DM is not the appropriate forum for me to accomplish what I am trying to do.
I may have to dedicate more of my available time to a forum in which my music is broadcast to a larger audience. I am considering releasing some of my tunes on a local public radio station. I will continue to develop my music from the comments I receive here. I have many songs for which I have recently written lyrics. I will be hard at work putting them to music. This is a valuable resource. For those who visit my site, look forward to more tunes and improvements in quality in future works, as well as the wide variety of music I cover.
I will continue to post all my new material here and I will list any other site I post to here. Who knows, I may not have any more listeners and/or responses elsewhere. In that case I will have to step back and look seriously at major changes to my approach.
Keep visiting, and by all means make comments, I use them.
If anyone has suggestions for overall improvement, I could use it.
Thanks for listening
Fred
User Comments
 Rodrica
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Date: December 20, 2004 @ 10:36 AM
Fred...the fact that you are disappointed with the response at DM is disappointing in itself. But I have to agree with you   However...for anyone about to read this post...hear me out...
I have called for some kind of change here whereby new artists (and some of the existing talent) does not get buried beneath a load of chat or other artists' work.
I sometimes feel like a one-woman marketing operation here...I spend a lot of time pushing other artists' names and trying to come up with promo ideas for them and their music. I have pushed for there to be a way of introducing new uploads in a better way - I am very aware that this site often ends up concentrating on a handful of popular artists whilst many others are ignored. Not everyone has the time/ability to interact as much as others...we are supposed to be musicians, not orators or chat room hosts - so I agree that the site at present is not impartially promoting artists' music as well as it should. 
BUT...
That said however...as a professional marketing/advertising person...I have to say that publicising your music is always going to be an up hill battle - it goes with the highly competitive territory. I can assure you that it amounts to about 5% music and 95% time spent talking to contacts, other musicians, researching outlets for your music and literally grabbing people and making them listen - reaching far beyond the web alone.
My own fan base has been established because of a lot of ground work and promo activity...it is constant and time consuming. Unfortunately that is part of being a musician. It is rare that a musician can put music on the web and people simply turn up and listen...you have to do a lot of pushing and yelling to make that happen. 
If you can get your promo machine in motion, you have to keep it rolling...you can't go off and forget about it - your momentum will simply grind to a halt very quickly. You must have promo cds, biogs/literature/pics, car stickers, flyers (to be distributed only to specified targets), contacts and preferably someone like me who knows how to put together all this kind of stuff to your best advantage, lol!
Despite this knowledge, as you can see, I am NOT a international star! So it is worth getting the whole picture and the work involved into perspective...it's tough, lacks rewards, but you keep going in the hope of getting lucky somewhere! No amount of talent or marketing will guarantee that people will listen to your music...whatever site you are on. And that fact is based on my professional judgement as a media planner 
So in summary, yes I think DM could do with a good method of ensuring more people get heard and receive a more equal share of the publicity based on musical ability rather than interative/chat ability. But I also believe that DM does a far better job than many other sites. I would suggest you do a lot of additional marketing ground work and add/link other web sites. A combination of effort on all fronts will help to achieve results.
Also approach musicians whose work you admire and ask them direct questions about your music...their response will be invaluable, but not always complimentary, lol. Get out and about and speak to professional songwriters...I did...and it helped me understand the process a lot better. The criteria for a good song is not always what you might think - and much emphasis is put of the quality of the arrangements, production and engineering
Hope this helps Fred...and ALWAYS let me know when you've got more music up...just in case I miss something
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 GTLive
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Date: December 23, 2004 @ 5:57 PM
Not too many people would have ever heard my stuff if not for the wonderful lady who wrote a book right above this post. In fact nobody would have cause I would be playing for the 4 walls of my apartment again. And of course the fact that people like you post your stuff here to keep me listening and happy. Try not to be discouraged (tough I know believe me). You music is real, and that is important as can be.
GT
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 BlueDeliverance
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Date: December 23, 2004 @ 10:32 PM
Definitely pursue a career in music. Their is no guaranteeing you'll be a world-famous musician (I don't think musician's fame has much to do with fame, just marketability), but your music would be appreciated by many out their for your "fresh slant on old music."
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 sqrlcub
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Date: December 27, 2004 @ 4:08 PM
I couldn't have said what BlueDeliverance said any better. Do it for yourself and the people will follow.
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freddemillio
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Date: December 28, 2004 @ 5:57 AM
You know what I think and a  and a  and a  to you!
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