Voting for the Austin Chronicle Music poll is over and I want to thank all of you who participated on my behalf. I’m honored! The poll itself is a popularity contest, there’s no masking that. Its outcome is not correlated to talent and in my mind the winners are not the “best” at anything other than effectively mobilizing their supporters to vote for them. For years, I struggled with this and refused to participate in the annual ritual of self-promotion because I believed that my music would be recognized by those who appreciate and understand it. I did not need a poll or contest to validate my artistic worth. I even peered down my nose, scoffing at those who blatantly campaigned for votes, thinking “how sad it is that THOSE people, who clearly aren’t as talented as others, have to prostrate themselves in order to try and rank in a popularity contest. How embarrassing!” Yes, I did feel that way until I made a pretty significant realization about myself and the business of music.

What music people like or don’t like is purely subjective. You can love or hate Coldplay – up to you. You can argue for hours on the merits of Katy Perry but in the end, you like her music or you don’t. Many artists who slave away for years and years and put thousands of hours into their craft have a hard time rationalizing this. Hours of practice time, pain and artistic suffering is a cool story but it won’t make people love your music (nor should it). Putting my ego aside and realizing this freed me from my musical snobbery and in fact, helped me to appreciate even more the hard work bands do to get noticed. And here’s the really important point I want to make:

Bands who succeed today are great at marketing and how good or bad the music is has absolutely nothing to do with a great marketing plan.

So in a nutshell – 1. get over yourself and 2. start marketing your music. And we’ll revisit this topic again next year when I ask for your vote again Thanks everyone.

Hello friends, it’s that time of year again. Would you take a moment to vote in the Austin Chronicle Music Poll? It’s easy and helps me spread the word about my music. Simply click the link below, fill out your info and scroll down to Best Performing Bands–>Jazz and enter my name. Next, scroll down to Best Austin Musicians–>Horn Player(s) and enter my name. Thanks for your consideration!
Austin Chronicle Music Poll