Clyde Smith On The ‘Pretty Lights Way’

TThis is the full version of Clyde Smith’s commentary for the “Has Pretty Lights Shown Indie Musicians The Way?” article. Clyde Smith is a DIY music biz & music tech blogger @ Hypebot & Crowdfunding Music.

Clyde Smith

Pretty Lights employs a specific bundle of tactics including giving away all one’s music for free, connecting directly to fans via social media, offering fans the opportunity to pay and focusing on live shows as the key experience.

I would use those tactics based on how they fit with what I would try to do as an artist. Since we’re supposing I’ll base it on actual alternative paths that have faced me that are currently roads not taken.

Giving away all one’s music for free

I think this works for Pretty Lights because he produces a hell of a lot of music. I just checked the site and he doesn’t seem to have as much of his back catalog readily available as a year or so ago. But he’s still got a heck of a lot of music from the last couple of years and that’s not something all artists can do.

However, I think Pretty Lights started hosting his own downloads before there were such an incredible array of options from BandCamp to BitTorrent Bundles. I wouldn’t host those downloads on my own site and would probably start off with BandCamp.

If I got into more noise and production-oriented music and was putting out interesting sounds every day, then I might just start an ongoing flow of free music to raise my profile. In which case I’d probably use SoundCloud.

If I was doing work that was more difficult to realize, for example, compositions for live orchestra, then I might focus more on behind-the-scenes videos and live excerpts on YouTube as a free attention builder while saving the high quality recordings for paying customers.

Long term I’d be most likely to use a mix of free, pay with a social action, set your own price and fixed price offerings.

Connecting directly to fans via social media

Definitely. Pretty Lights has his own consistent style and I would have mine. Beyond the tips and tactics, I think one’s use of social media as an artist reaches its peak when tied into one’s actual aesthetic and ongoing life flow.

Offering fans the opportunity to pay

I think that’s gotten a lot easier in the last few years and I think Pretty Lights started using Topspin to sell stuff with this last album. He also has a PayPal donation button by his free downloads.

Unfortunately his “Shop” button on his website isn’t working. I would try not to do that! (Editor’s note: the website was updated and the Shop section fixed soon after Clyde sent us his comment)

There are so many tools and approaches to offering fans opportunities to pay now that it’s getting a lot easier. I would tailor the opportunities to whatever I was doing at the time though certainly employing now widespread techniques from pay-what-you-will for downloads to bundling recorded music and merch.

But I think the creative energy we’ve seen related to crowdfunding pledge rewards should be a reminder that every project can lead to unique offerings that fans will appreciate.

Focusing on live shows as the key experience

Makes sense to me. But if I was in a reclusive period I’d focus on something else as the key experience. I think being conscious of what one privileges and how one focuses one’s energy is key to any endeavor. My ideal would be to integrate my music making with my art/media making and that would define how I connect with my fans and supporters.

At the end of the day, I wouldn’t take the exact same path as Pretty Lights but I would definitely pay attention and keep learning from what he’s doing.

Read more opinion on the topic at Has Pretty Lights Shown Indie Musicians The Way?