Falik on the Internet, Part II

I moved to Sparks, NV at the beginning of 2006, roughly 4 years ago, which is about 3 years after I put out my first CD "Streaks and Strokes", and just after I released my 4th CD "Elvolution". "Falik's Revenge" and "Bring It" were released in 2008 and 2009, respectively, which puts my catalog at 6 CDs worth of content, or about 70+ songs. I mention all this because you can't really talk about promotion without talking about what it is you're promoting, and where; all this doesn't happen in a vacuum. Even though the medium is the internet your potential customers are not computers; there are actual people out there to which you must connect. So, in retrospect, Falik's career has now expanded into two distinct markets; southern California, and northern Nevada, each with its own idiosyncrasies.

In southern California the weather is better, it's bigger geographically, more metropolitan, and there are more people, and lots of money. It creates more opportunities to go and perform, get exposure, and just connect. New trends are discovered and developed more quickly, everything is ahead of the curve. The competition is also a little more fierce, making it more difficult to be identified as "different" and "new", which in turn puts pressure on you as an artist to hone your skills.

The Reno/Sparks scene seems to work a bit more like island living. It's not very cosmopolitan despite the many casinos and tourist spots. The closest "big" city is Sacramento, California 2 hours away. The isolation is manifested by its geographical location; it's difficult to get to even when it's not snowing, which it does a lot. On the whole regional tastes reflect its isolation; economically depressed, consumers align themselves to styles of music, dress, and products to create identities, rather than originate them. It just costs too much. Everything seems to be "behind the curve". All this makes it easy to be recognized as "different" and "new".

The comparison between southern California and Reno is important because both have advantages and disadvantages, challenges that must be overcome. The fact that they are almost opposites in terms of how promotional strategies need to be developed has not been lost on me. I'll be frequenting this theme through my blogs.