Wendy King - Five Ways a Budding Guitarist Can Get Noticed

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Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Wendy King - Five Ways a Budding Guitarist Can Get Noticed

The music industry is on a roll. A report by the World Economic Forum highlights how global music revenues have risen by 20% since 2021, largely due to a surge in streaming which accounts for 65% of the industry's revenues. Over the previous year, streaming revenues rose by 24.3% and reached £14.1 billion, showcasing the impact of digitalisation.

Despite the significant growth of the music industry, the sector remains notoriously difficult to enter. Our previous post on "The Hardships of Getting a Job in the Music Industry" visits how it can be tricky to get noticed in the music industry, especially with its unfair demand for work experience. While internship and work placement can be a great way to gain valuable experience, it's essential that young talent makes an effort to get recognised and recruited for these opportunities. In this article, we visit how budding musicians— specifically guitarists— can get noticed.

Establish an online presence

We all know that streaming and digitalisation have become a key part of the music industry— making it a great opportunity for budding guitarists to perform and showcase their talent. There are many ways to establish an online process, primarily through social media. To ease some self-marketing processes, consider signing up for a service connecting you and a global audience. Our platform Jeeni is a multi-channel service that allows artists and performers to showcase their talent, keep 100% of earnings, and have full creative rights. Through online opportunities, you can expand your reach and visibility as a guitarist.

Add in guitar effects

While you don't need special gear to get started, investing in a guitar rig and effects allows you to not only practice with equipment important in your career later on but enables you to change up your songs and how you present them. Many guitarists rely on Electro-Harmonix analogue delays, which have helped produce modern music's most sought-after and oft-imitated sounds. The Electro-Harmonix Memory Toy is suitable for those just developing their rig, as it's a simple board with three knobs but still provides clean tones. This device allows you to add subtle delay effects that still elevate your tunes.

Try busking or street performing

Many famous guitarists like Glen Hansard and Passenger (Michael Rosenberg) started as buskers before making it big. If you want to try your hand at busking, having an amp is necessary to get your tunes heard by people. Roland amps are well-known for their portable PA systems, making them convenient for playing on the go. The Roland Cube Street II is suited for street performances as it's battery-powered, as well as having an angled back for floor placement. This amp enables electric and acoustic players to amplify their music, allowing you to build confidence and showcase your talent to the public.

Collaborate with other indie musicians

For those looking to reach more music fans, it's essential to collaborate with other musicians. However, it's important to be mindful of their music style— you're more likely to retain an audience if your music aligns with theirs. If you've followed our earlier tips and already established yourself to a small audience, you can bring bigger value to others, opening the opportunity to work with more prominent artists. Check out the Jeeni channels to spot potential collaborators.

Keep making and performing music

Although it may seem straightforward to keep making and performing music, many tend to ignore the need to simply put yourself out there to help you get noticed by someone who likes your approach. Aside from exposure, being able to perform constantly can help you practice and identify areas of improvement— allowing you to master your talent fully.

There are plenty of opportunities to learn and expand your reach as a guitarist. For more guitar-related insights and songs, make sure to visit our Guitar channel to inspire your work.

Written by Wendy King for jeeni.com

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03
Sep

The Creator of Jeeni.

Jeeni has returned to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “I admit we're ahead of our original schedule, but there's still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases. Then we can hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” It is day 5 today and we have raised 98% of our target £100K. If you want to see our pitch click HERE. Mel has been writing the best-loved column in top-selling tech magazines for over 30 years. Now he's agreed to share his work with all our members. He's a video games pioneer and musician, and to to find out more about Mel check out his Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Croucher. Here's one of Mel's latest! There was once a little Quaker boy called Charlton, who got sent off to a nice school in Oxfordshire. Charlton liked videogames very much indeed, and when he turned thirteen he became a fan of one particular game which was called Deus Ex Machina. It was hopelessly life-affirming and it allowed him to influence the plotline and outcome, just like a load of similar games. But it was also the first truly interactive movie, running in real time, with voice actors and a full music soundtrack. It came with a large monochrome poster of the face of a beautiful, innocent, yet alluring lady robot, which the boy hung on his wall. And that thought pleases me, because I was the creator of the game, and my intention was to blow the minds of children just like Charlton. Ten years later, he was no longer a Quaker schoolboy but a stroppy atheist, and he was making a living writing very naughty cartoon strips and highly scurrilous columns for a computer magazine called PC Zone. I hope his career choice was influenced by the naughty cartoon strips and scurrilous columns I was writing for the rival magazines he devoured, but I suspect he already considered me to be an old fart. Back then I believed it was my mission to take the piss out of anyone and everyone in the computer industry, and so did young Charlton. He was calling himself Charlie by then. Charlie Brooker. Today, Charlie Brooker is probably best known as the creator of the Netflix phenomenon Black Mirror. In a brilliant episode, he didn’t just nick my idea of an interactive movie where players influence the plotline and outcome, he went and did it for real. He set his episode in 1984, which was the year of my game’s release, and he hung my old poster on the wall for a touch of authenticity. And yes, he did ask permission. And yes, I was more than happy to give it to him. And no, he didn’t pay me. Brooker’s use of the branching narrative was absolutely seamless, and when the viewer-player-actor makes a choice via a mouse or remote control there is absolutely no buffering involved. And just like in my old game, if the viewer-player-actor refuses to make a choice, then the movie-game-stage makes it for them. In the future, I am sure this technique will become an active tool of the porn and ultra-violence industries, but consumers of mainstream entertainment have become more and more bone idle over the years. In fact vast numbers can’t even be bothered to select the crap entertainment they watch or play, but allow algorithms to select for them. So no, this is not the future of movies, it’s the past. Charlie Brooker didn’t predict this, and neither did I. It was predicted by Ray Bradbury in his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, where books have been banned because they encourage people to think, and the 1966 film of that story was one of my greatest influences. In the movie, the writer/director François Truffaut introduces us to a world in which the masses consume pap via personal screens, and believe they have choice in determining the outcome of all sorts of vacuous plotlines. They don’t, of course, and the purpose of such so-called entertainments is to pretend the people have a say in the way things are run, what choices they have, and what garbage they believe in. And here we are, more than half a century later, living in just such a society. And we don’t even need movies to condition the masses, we can use videogames. People who live-stream their gameplay are called streamers. People who watch them playing are called lost souls. Today more people watch streamers play sports simulations than watch live sport. This passive practice is ridiculously popular on streaming sites like Twitch, YouTube and a whole host of others. Even back in 2014, Twitch streams for computer games attracted more traffic than America’s leading cable and satellite network HBO, with professional streamers mashing up high-level play and banal commentary. Now they can extort big money from sponsors, subscriptions, and donations. Last year, passive viewers watched active players for more than 450 billion minutes of streamed content on Twitch alone, as the streamers jiggled and babbled while playing with themselves at FIFA 19, Monster Hunter World and all the rest. One such streamer is a charming young man called Richard Tyler Blevins, who sports attractive neon-tinted hair and goes by the name of Ninja. He has minted around ten million dollars from subscribers who pay to watch him play a game called Fortnight. Let me just make that clear – they are not paying to play Fortnite themselves, they are paying to watch Mr Ninja play. Fortnite involves a hundred players at a time who fight and butcher one other to the death until only one is left alive, all in high-definition video. There are currently 200 million players of the game. The youngest players are aged eight, which should worry their parents, but probably doesn’t because mom and pop are too busy passively watching some other streamer. The average age of a Fortnite player is 13, which is the same age as the schoolboy Charlie Brooker was when my hopelessly life-affirming game helped turn him into a potty-mouthed cynic. At least I know I succeeded in something. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

11
Mar

Weekly Round-Up # 11

The latest developments and additions to Jeeni’s mission! New Artists Join Jeeni’s database of talent! Prettyboyface: 'prettyboyface (Face for short) is an artist from London who doesn't really fit into a particular genre but for simplicity's sake lets go with 'underground rap'. Moved by an array of musical influences from a very young age, music has always been an integral aspect of his experiences and life in general. Being around producers in his later teenage years spurred Face into writing songs and eventually releasing them. He creates with the hope of making music that will make someone feel something.' Face has contributed five fantastic tracks to Jeeni’s hip-hop and rap channels so far and we can’t wait to review and promote them. Check out, ‘Escargot’, ‘HighSkool’, ‘Goddess’, ‘Alien’ and ‘Geneva’ on prettyboyface’s showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/prettyboyface/ A Year In Provence: A Year In Provence consists of five members: Matt Potter (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Adam Bacon (Bass), James Fermer (Backing Vocals/Guitar), Dan Wing (Lead Guitar) and Jack Smith (Drums). Originally all from Kent, United Kingdom. We all met in 2016 but after undergoing a few line-up changes, 2020 produced the current line-up. Influences for our music include the likes of; Catfish and the bottleman, The Black Keys, Two Door Cinema Club, Oasis, Kings Of Leon, Circa Waves and many more. AYIP has added two brilliant tracks to Jeeni so far, check them out here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/a-year-in-provence/?view=about New Content Contributed to Jeeni’s Database of Talent! Julience - ‘Love Lies Cold’ Julience is a UK-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He draws inspiration from pop and rock music. His songs show his love for the 1960s until the early 2000s while updating traditional sounds to stay fresh and up-to-date. Julience’s songs have powerful hooks and harmonies. A heavy guitar sound is consistent throughout. “The only modernisation Julience grants himself is the clarity and up-to-date standard in his production and performances. Something specific that separates Julience from other modern rock groups is his truly guitar-centric compositions.” Check out the full review of this track here: https://jeeni.com/blog/julience-love-lies-cold-single-review-blog-jeeni/ And check out Julience’s Jeeni showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/julience/?view=about Giack Bazz - ‘Gotta Kick It’ Giack Bazz is an explosive, relentless multi-instrumentalist songwriter based in London. The artist started igniting stages with his painfully honest lyrics and his screaming telecaster in 2015. He has since released three solo albums that were critically acclaimed (Blowup magazine, Decade, Rumore). “Outsider Music (Gotta Kick It) is Giack Bazz’s latest single. Arranged and produced by Deborah Verrascina and Sebastian Papa (The Royalty Instrumentality Project) provides the drums. It’s about finding it hard to give up on things. The title hints at the subgenre of misunderstood artists the likes of Daniel Johnston and Don Van Vliet.” Check out Giack Bazz’s amazing showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/giack-bazz/ Other new blogs: Artist Focus: Nnaomi Portsmouth based Nnaomi has been an essential Jeeni artist for some time now and has most recently added her newest single, ‘Hate Me’ to one of Jeeni’s most rapidly advancing and growing channels, RnB. Describing her own music as “euphoric, experimental and nostalgic”, Nnaomi is paving her own exciting path in the RnB and neo-soul corner of music. Check out nnaomi’s showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/nnaomi/ Check out the full blog here: https://jeeni.com/blog/artist-focus-nnaomi-jeeni-blog/ Artist Focus: RD Watson Considered The English voiceover artist, RD Watson is an indisputable legend of the recording industry whose voice has been heard by millions across the world. Roger Watson is an invaluable Jeeni ambassador. His showcase currently features over 40 examples of his first-rate voiceover performances including audio books like ‘Hairy London’ and commercials for ‘Diablo’ and ‘Jaguar’. His status as an industry icon has greatly broadened Jeeni’s representation of art and creativity and has meant that Jeeni’s mission is not limited to musicians but open to all artists that deserve worldwide attention. Visit RD Watson’s giant and fascinating showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/rd-watson-audiobooks/. Check out the full blog here: https://jeeni.com/blog/artist-focus-rd-watson-blog-jeeni/ Jeeni’s Giant List of Channels! Jeeni welcomes and supports a giant range of talent and art from music, spoken word, dance and more. Jeeni’s channels help viewers find exactly what they’re looking for and as a result, artists can select up to four channels that their art covers to reach those audiences. Jeeni’s prime goal is to bring attention to artists that deserve it and luckily for all of our viewers, Jeeni is packed with them. Jeeni has over 100 channels of talent ripe for exploring and compiling. Anyone and everyone can create and share playlists from all of the channels that we offer and it’s absolutely free to sign up. Finding talent on Jeeni couldn’t be easier, simply choose a channel that interests you, from ambient, to death-metal, to slam poetry and begin unearthing Jeeni artists and their craft. Check out the full blog here: https://jeeni.com/blog/jeenis-giant-list-of-channels/ Julience - ‘Love Lies Cold’ Single Review Among the rock n roll hall of fame legends that Julience clearly looks up to, specific inspirations that come to mind from ‘Love Lies Cold’ include Billy Idol, Guns N’ Roses and most notably, Iron Maiden. This 80s era is where rock was at its most mainstream and so Julience’s decision to honour that time is a lot of fun. It’s also so satisfying to see him fill in a market for those that weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to those days. Check out the full review here: https://jeeni.com/blog/julience-love-lies-cold-single-review-blog-jeeni/ music news music new music news Reach out to the Jeeni marketing team at doug@jeeni.com or ella@jeeni.com. Make sure you’re following us on social media to keep up to date with new releases from our artists, our blogs and any job openings. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeenimusic/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeenimusic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeenimusic Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/33222018/admin/

04
Apr

Zeeteah Massiah on Music, Performing and Life during 2020

Zeeteah Massiah is a Number One Billboard Dance Chart star who specialises in Reggae, Jazz and house music. Like many artists, the last year has provided many challenges for Zeeteah, but also a host of new opportunities and ventures that would have never otherwise have been possible. We asked her to tell us about her experiences over the last year whilst we count down to Jeeni's online JAM festival. It’s been the craziest year ever, but we’ve made it through thirteen months in and out of lockdown. At the beginning of 2020, I unveiled a brand-new sound and a wicked new band, and I was full of high hopes for the year. I was excited and ready to go. And then Covid hit. It took me three weeks into the first lockdown to come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be going on stage again for a long time. I was in a fog for weeks and then I thought: just because I can’t be on stage doesn’t mean I can’t make music. I suddenly had an impulse to record a new version of an old song that I’ve always loved – United We Stand by Brotherhood of Man. It seemed so right for that moment. Paul, my husband and musical partner, understood immediately the sound I was looking for, and we set to work in our studio. Three of my favourite musicians played on the track – remotely, of course – and family and friends in London, Germany and the Caribbean filmed lovely cameos for the video. It was such fun to do, and it got a wonderful response. You can check it out on Jeeni. And then a man called George Floyd died in Minnesota, and we were all plunged into a very different mood. I didn’t realise how painful many of my feelings about race were, and how deeply they were buried, until I started telling Paul, with tears in my eyes, about growing up in London as a young black girl from Barbados. I was constantly made to feel a certain way simply because of the colour of my skin. Here we are in 2021 and, sadly, many things are still the same. At one point I blurted out to Paul, “You don’t know how it feels to be Black”. He took those words and turned them into a song called You Don’t Know. We recorded it and made the video in July. It’s one of the most heartfelt things I’ve done, and I’ve been amazed by the incredible response it’s had and so grateful for the wonderful feedback. I did manage to squeeze in three London gigs in the gaps between the lockdowns: a reggae gig in Chelsea, and jazz gigs in Hampstead and in the West End. Better than nothing – and in fact, they were all lovely events. When it became clear that there weren’t going to be any more gigs, I decided to start doing live sessions at home with some of my favourite musicians and sharing them on YouTube. And so, the Massiah Sessions were born. We’ve released nine videos so far, in a variety of styles, and there are more to come. I was also invited to add vocals to a new rock album by a dear friend in Germany. Thanks, Günther – it was a blast. In February, I did a livestream with guitarist Marcin Bobkowski for a charity called Educ’aid Africa, run by Isa Bell, which is helping to provide music education to schools in Benin. A recent DNA test revealed that many of my ancestors were from Benin, and so the project had a special meaning for me. It was my first livestream, and I loved it. I’m going to be doing another one on 10 April, and hopefully regularly after that – join us at zeestream.live if you can! And so now here we are, approaching the end of what we pray will be the final lockdown. And soon I’ll be back on stage in front of a live audience doing what I love best. My first live gig of 2021 will be on Thursday 27 May at Crazy Coqs in London’s West End. Maybe see you there? In the meantime, I wish you all the best for what will, hopefully, end up being a much better year. Zeeteah will also be performing in the JAM festival which is a collaboration between Jeeni, AmplifyX and MultiView Media and will be held at 12 noon Los Angeles time, 8pm London time on Saturday April 10th 2021. To find out more about the JAM Festival check out our events on Facebook. https://fb.me/e/1etPauFMV

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