April last year I decided to set up Green Eyed Records as a platform for music lovers to share thoughts and resources. I’ve blogged previously about some of the challenges for artists in creating and promoting music and I always return to the same conclusion, that a whole new way of thinking is long overdue.
The central idea for Green Eyed Records is “Creativity through collaboration” as in my opinion the old record label model doesn’t really serve the artist’s interests these days. Sylvie Simmons interviewed me here on the GER concept and did a great job of asking smart questions about the validity and viability of the whole concept.
GER on social media and the importance of momentum
Last April I set up GER on FB and Instagram to create awareness for the platform. Social media has become a key factor these days in promoting music awareness and this has been a great opportunity to gauge how people respond on these mediums. Of course some artists and FB enthusiasts don’t really understand how social media works and confuse “users” with “customers” on these platforms, sometimes with hilarious posts. Over the years I have literally been happy to “put my money where my mouth is” and support the promotion of great musicians, previously through the Music for the Head and Heart platform and now Green Eyed Records.
I fully respect that we all have different ideas on how to promote music, but I’m increasingly aware of artists snatching failure from the jaws in this respect. Of course covid has reduced a great deal of the live playing income stream and streaming has killed a lot of product revenue. This calls for a new way of thinking and in 2022 I’ll be running a series of new initiatives through Green Eyed Records that will help artists reach a wider audience beyond their existing core fans.
The GER FB numbers have grown at a surprising rate and at the time of writing are already
2,043 people like the page and 2,247 people following the page
The Boomer factor
In one of my great conversations with Sylvie Simmons, she pointed out that the FB music enthusiasts were mostly the boomers. “Baby boomers” or “boomers” are described as “The demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the post–World War II baby boom”
We started to notice that posts about classic artists like Carol King, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury attracted a huge number of likes and shares, way beyond my expectations. One photo of Freddie and Dave Gilmour generated 8.2k likes and 234 shares. Another graphic about bass players to my total surprise generated 7.6k likes and a staggering 1.7k shares!
GER for 2022
In 2022 in conjunction with Music for The Head and Heart, we’ll starting running some live showcase events which are part of the next phase of GER. I remain convinced that the best hope for music promotion is through collaboration and discussion. In these tougher economic and covid times, I’m convinced more than ever of the need for better ways to promote and discuss great music. GER is one small but growing group that will help promote “creativity through collaboration”