Yes, I absolutely want it badly!

I remember reading a year or two ago, while I was still questioning, was unsure of jumping fully into this music business as performing artist and all that, that one of the personal ingredients you really need is wanting it, really, really wanting it badly. And me thinking, well, I don’t really want it that badly, I mean, I can live without it, and still be happy and all.

Guess what? Today, November 25th, 2019, I know for damn sure, 100% that I really, really, want it badly! I got have it! I got have success in music!

You might ask, of course, what do I mean success in music? You can succeed with a small niche group who enjoy your style of music, bla bla bla. No people! I want massive success. OK, but let’s be specific, I don’t need Top 10, I just want Top 100 on the Billboard. I don’t need to be up there with Post Malone, Travis Scott and all of them, but I want Top 100.

Now, you might ask, why that level, why not the very top then? Because, I only want – and this applies to everything I wish for in life, have always wished for in my life, and I’ve always succeed at this, I only want and wish what I think, believe is actually within my capabilities, circumstances. And those indicate that my type of music is a bit hmm, not entirely mainstream LOL. Meaning, there’s a lot of “consequential” vis “breezy”; I’m just not willing to go all breezy at all. Furthermore, my style has a lot of background, multi-ethnic, multi-style elements, that, frankly, make for a difficult marketing pitch, an elevator pitch much longer than 90 seconds, and for very challenging, or impossible, listener segmentation.

The above paragraph became crystal clear today as I’ve received the first Crowd Review from ReverbNation.com ($35). It bruised my ego, that’s for sure! But, really, it exposed the difficulties I listed above. This particular kind of song Woke Up This Morning really splits tastes quite a bit in the 52 reviewers. It splits them on: i) the lyrics, some don’t like political lyrics, others don’t even understand what I’m writing; ii) the groove, is it Latin, not Latin, hmm what kind of Latin, isn’t there some 80’s sound in there?; iii) is it Pop? How can it be? It’s kind of folk… iv) The vocal, for sure it’s different, but maybe it’s just bad… too much Autotune, or Autotune not well done, or,some opined, it’s a great vocal…

See where I’m going with this? It will be absolutely impossible to get these different strands of people behind the same song.

However, grrrrr, the things that I know, and knew, are subpar with the song, reviewers overwhelmingly identify them. And that is the fuckin’ vocal!! I knew that and everyone else knows too! And a few other things as well.

So, the next songs will not be released unless I’m 100% satisfied with them. I cannot expect listeners to not feel when something is off. So I will be able to increase the amount of people who like the song. But I believe I will still be Top 100 material if I want to stay both breezy and consequential; if I want to keep my original, multicultural, multi-decade, multi-genre, very original sound imprint!

On a subsequent phase, let’s just say that I do reach Top 100 with one song. Well, then maybe I would set my sights higher. But at this point that’s a type of success way out of my reach – so I’m not interested in it. Period. However, the Top 100 is within my reach, but I got think carefully through the final production. And I want it badly, real badly, that’s for sure! And I got the stamina, the drive to work for it! Help me out dear reader, follower, fan. LISTEN, VIEW, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW. Let’s make some NOISE people!!

Thank you, thank you very much.

About Cindo Santos

Songwriter, guitarist, singer, performer, a human and social commentator, a fellow traveller. From Florida to Berlin and a lot in between!
This entry was posted in Insights: Personal & Social. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Yes, I absolutely want it badly!

  1. Rikke Laursen says:

    I love your music and your passion. I cannot wait to hear what is coming next.

    From one of your fans in Denmark.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.