I'm a little embarrassed to admit this. I don't listen to music. In fact, I avoid it in every possible way. Yet, I create music, usually every day.. for others to listen to. This sounds like it came from some smokey movie scene, said in a dark, smoky 12 step meeting: Hi, my name is Ezra and I'm a musician, performing artist and songwriter, and I hate music.

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Dear Pandora, I'm sorry you're not feeling well. I Hate Music Anyway...

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I didn't always hate music. In fact, I listened and studied so much music in my young life, that I don't think I heard my own thoughts until I was 30.

I rarely go too deep into articles about the ever-changing landscape of the streaming frontier. But, Pandora news always tweaks my interest, mainly because I like the service. Not as a consumer. As I said, I actually do not 'willingly' consume music besides the music I am (or maybe a friend) making, at all... unless I have to, and that is where Pandora comes in.

Bob Dylan's quote sums it up. The thought of me streaming music to relax, feels like a suggestion to suck on a Land Rover exhaust pipe, there is too much, it's just pollution now.

Music can save people, but it can't in the commercial way it's being used. It's just too much. It's pollution.

I actually sat down to write an article about the 'Playlist' Killing Pandora. That is all Pandora is anyway; a curated playlist. They were the frontiersmen of streaming, yet they can't seem to ever make a profit.

As I was looking up Pandora stuff for the article, even looking at my music on there, it hit me... what a waste of time. I don't even listen to these services to hear the music.

I have in the past listened to Pandora though, just for research. Because I don't listen to music willingly, I have no idea what is going on in music. Such as, who the hot latest artist is, what is popular, etc.. I do read a lot though, so I usually know an artist's name but not connected to any music.

Every, and I mean every conversation I have with other musicians is awkward.
Artist: "You know man, it kinda sounds like so and so (artist)."
Me: "Never heard her"
Artist: "What.. What. What. How could you not know who blagh blagh artist is!"
Me: " I don't know"
Artist: "Well you know who so and so artist is, it's like her but not as Pop sounding"
Me: "Nope, I've heard her name.. But don't know her music either."
Artist: "WHAT!! Katy Perry? Where have you been?"
Me: "In my room. Making music.."

This creates a problem when I'm releasing music or sending music to a publisher. They, of course, want to know who else I sound like. I need to tag my music with the relevant artist to be properly digested into the big music robot belly.

This was quite an issue for me. I would never actually remember it was a problem until I was uploading something, then... DOH! Who do I sound like? I don't know... Can they be from the 70's?

The reason Pandora comes to mind is that they were usually my solution to tagging my music with relevant sound-alikes. I would just go to my channel and skip as many as it would let me, then I had a list of artist that at least Pandora thought I 'Fit' with. I didn't even have to listen, I just turned the volume down and skipped and took down names. So lazy of me right? I'm just being honest.

If you go a long time without hearing music, then you hear music that nobody else hears. – Tom Waits

If you look at my internet followership, it's not very impressive. Especially for someone who has been actively around for 25 years. Probably, roughly around 4000-6000 followers over many networks. (It was more but I deleted my SoundCloud account in a fit of sleepiness).

But, even so, I have done, I think, fairly well. I have a good email list and I've funded all of my projects. I even have year(s) spans actually making a living off solely original music. Not much money, but still, not everyone can say that.

I do more of the face to face, one person at a time 'thing'. I do use the internet, and I have made some good supporting fans, but like I said, it was more one person at a time.

My lack of knowing what 'da F&*$ is going on in music does not affect me in finding fans live, or even one on one, but it does affect me greatly with getting to mass Internet audiences.

Until five years ago, when I came up against this question field of "What other artist do you sound like?" I would just put my influences, plus whatever I found on Pandora. Influences that probably no one is searching in-MASS for regularly, or has even heard of. Artist like Christ Whitley & Daniel Lanois.

I realized as I got into the DATA, that these tags were not helping much. In fact, my recordings don't even sound much like my influences, they are just 'my influences'. Whoever found me while looking for Chris Whitley would probably not make the connection and might not even like my music. This wasn't working. So, I forced myself to listen to at least 30 seconds of the suggested Pandora artists, it was painful but when I actually heard some of their music, I didn't think it fit what I was doing at all.

This whole system wasn't working. It seemed, I'd have to listen to todays music to truly understand where I lay in the whole modern music world. Go figure... That was just too hard for me, so I found another solution.

I don't know WHO I sound like, Please Tell me

I'll share a solution I found, after I explain why, I think (I'm not real sure), I hate music.

Most of you might be thinking, "God, just turn on the radio or find some good playlist for Heaven's sake. You're a musician, this isn't right! What kind of egotistical music snob are you? Maybe you think your better than anyone!"

Maybe your even thinking you could suggest some good artists that I'd love to listen to. That happens constantly. I hardly ever even look them up.

I really have tried. I try to listen to clips friends send. I even buy a new CD every once in awhile with the idea that I'm going to start listening in the car again, instead of the silence drives I so enjoy.

The CD goes on the floor. So do all the little adaptors I buy with the idea that I'm going to listen to Spotify. I usually get about one song in, and just turn it off. Can't handle it.

The fact is, I do hear the music. I estimate, I probably hear a thousand songs a week if not much more. I hear music when I walk into the grocery store. then in the bathroom of the grocery store, I hear other music. Then in the elevator at some meetings I go to, then in their hallways, then in their offices, then again, in their bathrooms. Then I go out to eat, I hear music or music blaring behind a sportscast. I hear it at my kids sporting events, then I hear it when we get coffee afterward. Then I hear it on a train, cars that drive my street every 30 minutes, then I hear... should I continue? It never ends. When I dare to go in public, it is an absolute music onslaught.

The worse part about it is because I'm constantly mixing and writing music, music comes to my ears not as a nice groovy tune, but more like segmented sonic values, a snare sound, bridges, orchestrations, the rule of three.

You might expect me to say, it's also SO BAD. 'Music today is so bad.' I don't really think it is. I'm impressed by a lot of it I hear in the public bathrooms atleast .

To me, it's just painful. I can't endure listening to anymore. I can't voluntarily listen to it. It's like my soul starts shutting down.

Human Tagging Consultant To Save The Day

I started using a Tagging Consultant. Ya, I had never heard of such a thing either. Until I did. And I tried it. And it solved my dilemma. Now I don't have to listen to music, nor feel like I'm screwing my music's chances of being heard. Oh, man, this sounds so corporate-sellout, but I am outsourcing others to listen and be knowledgeable about the modern music landscape. And they are much more dependable than Pandora. This is the consultant I'm using:

Tag Team Analysis

It's an irony for sure. But what I have started doing is using a tagging service. An irony, because I'm sure these are the same services the companies use to pollute the world with. But I'm in the business of polluting the world too. With my music. I don't like to state that so clearly. I hate to think I'm a part of this, but I am. I can't find a better way to keep making my music.

A further irony is that you might even hear my music piped in an elevator or your favorite restaurant. I have specific in this specific area, deals with companies that feed this pollution into hundreds of thousands of ears a day.

Though I had made some traction in licensing my music to TV/FILM just through brute force in earlier years. I found that the moment I started using a human tagger to decide WHO I sound like, I saw instant results. Songs that had lingered in library databases, all of the sudden had much more interest. And of course, they did. It's an equation of: The searcher was searching for songs that sounded like so and so artist + my music is tagged with so and so artist + they listen and agree that I do sound like so and so artist = Bam, they pick it up.

I just started using them last year and already I've seen a huge boost in my deals finalizing. I plan to role their tags out into my public channels when I find the time.

Final note, I'm not a Creep

Well, maybe I am in other ways, but not in this way. I'm not trying to sell out. Not trying to be something I'm not. Not trying to advertise my music and cram it down everyone's throat. I'm just trying to survive.

I try not to complain much about the difficulty of being a solo artist, with no support in this day and age. It's absolutely exhausting. I don't complain because though it may exhaust my body, it's also incredibly exhilarating. So it balances out in the long run.

Up until last year, I was trying to do all that is expected of us msicpreneurs these days. I finally conceded to the definition of insanity:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

This year I've spent making a dream album. I quit booking during the album's making, though I perform sporadically. I spent a lot of time just thinking where to go next. The path I was on was too much. The results were also the kind you get when you're doing 'too much', which is: *not enough'.

I had woken each day to my music career hats, those being, A CEO, a video producer, a video editor, a videographer, a marketing director, a booking agent, a road manager, collections agency, a production artist, a product designer, a music producer, a marketing analyst, SEO expert...SEM, PPC, a web designer, a writer, an audio engineer, a fundraiser, an accountant, a technical supervisor, an IT specialist, a politician, a poet, a bum, a borrower, a pawn shop frequenter, oh ya.. um, a songwriter, a singer! ... And if you want to get real detailed.. a father, a husband, a son..

In Conclusion

To bring it all back around to Pandora. I'm not a hater of the new everything is free world. What is happing though is that musicians, and really every artist, are being forced into a corporate way. I can not sustainably sell a music product and remain a small-time tradesman in my town. I don't desire to be a t-shirt salesmen (which is the Merch solution). I can also not make a living telling fans to stream my music. That would be about $10 bucks. I'm essentially forced into either the global market or the fundraiser market. Both of which are distasteful to me. I don't think there was any conscious directing from the 'powers that be' to make it so difficult for the music-tradesmen mentality to continue. It just is what it is.

For me, right now, the solution is to wrangle it all in. Take stock of whether the music direction is even worth sitting my life in a cubical all day (Which is essentially what you end up doing, in a not so metaphorical way). Use the services that work for me, but not feel like I have to keep up with every area of new technology. Take some time and figure out a new way of life. This music life has become way to stiff for this hippy.

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If you like my articles, leave me a comment or question, RESTEEM and follow @ezravan you can learn more about me on my website thanks!

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