is in Hawaii - Kailua-Kona, on the "Big Island" to be exact. My blogging on this site has been confined to topics dealing with marketing and promotion strategies, and I'll keep to that.Demographics for Kailua-Kona: the town itself has a little more than 10,000 people, the entire island less than 200,000. Sparks/Reno is around 420,000.
Surprisingly enough, though, I find Kona to be a bit more cosmopolitan, the people a bit more open despite it's lack of population. That may be the weather's influence; average temp is 70-84 degrees (that includes lows).
Popular artists from Kona include the band Pepper
and Jack Johnson
. On the ReverbNation.com site those two acts are listed as numbers 1 and 2, respectively for Kona. Yours truly is at number 3. Yep, that's me, right behind Jack Johnson as being the most popular artist on ReverbNation.com from the city of Kailua-Kona (including surrounding zip codes), HI. It must be noted that there a total of 64 registered artists from this area. When I changed my profile from Sparks to Kailua-Kona, I was number 4. It took a few weeks to get to number 3.Getting to number 3 on ReverbNation.com involved a couple of different strategies, all involving exposure. I started "fanning" every artist on the site I could find who was in my category of "world/reggae / electronica". Unfortunately, I wasn't getting fanned back. So I changed my genre from "world/reggae / electronica" to "electronica/dance / world", then started fanning those artists, with more success.
I've thought a lot about the natures of a "world electronica" artist and an "electronica dance / world" artist. It seems that "world" artists take themselves very seriously - probably a little too seriously, in my opinion. Not to sound too disparaging, but they appear like missionaries on a holy quest. Sounds great, but there is a flip side - they may come off as musical zealots, giving the impression that their artistic expression is the only one that matters, as does their purpose of bringing a specific music of a local region to the world, which they can't do if you're cluttering up the air waves with your "crap". This means that there is not much of a feel of "community" towards other artists. "Electronica/dance" artists seem to have an entirely different slant. I think this may be because the artist's purpose or motivation is focused on the effect that the music has on the listener, rather than on its origination. I think this makes it more "fan" music, than "musician" music.
With that being said, the response I've received from electronica dance - and hip hop / rap - artists has been favorable. I've experienced a lot more fanning and plays. And because of ReverbNation's "social media" hooks into Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, when someone creates activity in ReverbNation
those channels become populated with content, as well.ReverbNation also has modules that can be incorporated into personal websites, and I've used this to great effect on my website http://falikshow.com, which adds to the exposure and stats. In the past month Falik has risen as high as 276 on the national electronica/dance charts, ranking higher than other well-known artists, such as "Thievery Corporation". All this after having moved to a smaller demographic. Can you say "bigger fish in a smaller pond"?
Facebook has helped immensely, as well. I've gotten in touch with a lot of old friends who have taken a liking to Falik and they've spread the word, actually doing most of the heavy lifting. As an artist you must make yourself available, because it's your fans that make you popular, and you don't have anything to do with the latter, whereas you have complete control over the former. You must keep an open mind and put yourself out there in whatever media you can and let your fans take you the rest of the way. Also, you must remember that you're promoting yourself - warts and all - and your music is a by-product.
Kailua-Kona is not much of a market for electronica/dance, not like L.A., or New York, and probably never will be. That is not unless Jack Johnson straps on a sampler. Then all bets are off.
