Insane

I am a career technologist, aspiring singer/songwriter + music composer. That should summarize my life as it stands now!

I am as underground and independent artists as they come and proud to be one. While I don’t have a great voice, I make it up with passion and commitment to write lyrics, compose music(well, try), and master them. What started as a curiosity-driven hobby two years ago has become a passion today.

While it has become easy to get started in the journey using the revolutionary strides being made on digital music scene, the other / dark side of the coin will prove that only a few standout in this scene.

It has taken more than 100 tracks on Sound Cloud with with an average of one to two plays before I realized that I have to change my strategy. I have started to focus on quality than quantity. A shift towards investing time and effort on writing quality lyrics to the songs that I want to use as a tool for story-telling, has made me far more appreciative of this art.

With a bank of nearly 300 million songs in its database and millions being added in just few days, what does it take to be discovered on this behemoth of a platform? Consider these guidelines from someone who has spent many distressing months of seeing no plays and still having highly limited followers to actually garnering nearly 3500 plays across tracks in just 10 days time.

1. Make quality songs. There is no substitute to this at all.

2. Tag your songs appropriately. As per recent stats of listeners on the platform, most plays originate from United States and mostly on R&B and Rap genre.

3. Have clear vocals. If you are a singer / songwriter or have vocals on your tracks, please make sure they are clear and optimized.

4. Spend effort Mastering. Learn the art of mastering your own tracks to get the maximum listening pleasure across devices.

5. Upload WAV tracks. Always upload high quality uncompressed files like WAV on this platform.

6. Market, Market and Market. If it is not out there, you are no where. Just like any product, you need to make people aware of its existance. Rather than focusing just on music, distribute your effort on using social media to increase awareness. This is a must-have.

7. Don't beat yourself down. Lastly, I would clearly advocate tuning your brain to learn from mistakes and experiences and constantly improve in all of the above areas.

Making music and writing song lyrics has been eye opening journey for me so far. I have gone from NOOB to a hobbyist bordering on passionate obsession. I had to spend considerable effort rewiring my brain to tone it down a bit and enjoy the experience rather than outcome of making money from these products of mine.

The song Insane depicts my life when it comes down to the music. Coming from a relatively conservative family of hard workers, inculcating harmony into my otherwise regular mode of work-life balance has been challenging and even harder to maintain. When I strarted on this journey, my own family considered as temporal insanity of mid-life crisis. Probably it was at that point of time. After two years, I would say, it is at most a creative outlet, just like the catharsis from writing this article.

Listen to Insane on Sound Cloud with the song lyrics below, and let me know what you feel about it in your comments here or on music platform.

Song Lyrics:

I am too old to be young.

I am too young to be old.

I look like I am in my 60s

While I am just in my 40s.

I am having a wild ride,

Making music on the fly,

Writing lyrics for the,

Songs that are mine.

I hope it’s not in vain.

I want to cause no pain.

I don’t want to hear any complaints.

Nor feel the disdain.

I tried to explain.

But there is no gain.

Living life in a lane.

Feels like a hurricane.

That has chained.

My sane brain.

I try to remain.

In this game

I hope it’s not in vain.

I don’t want to go Insane.

Insane.

Insane.

Thank you!