I want to be a singer-songwriter...

[Nic]

...but aside from writing the actual songs and designing pretty album covers, I have no idea where to begin. Who do I talk to? Where do I get started? I have an account on thesixtyone.com where I posted one of my songs a few years ago, but I've gotten better at singing since then and have also written more songs/have a dozen or so more in the pipelines. Is thesixtyone.com a good platform? Are there better ones? Any advice would be great.

For the record, the song was Dr Beat and can be found here: http://www.thesixtyone.com/theomelette

[Storage and Disposal]

For a career, it's a huge pain in the ass with no security. Even if you do come across the right people at the right time, there are no guarantees. It's exceptionally risky and if you do succeed, chances are all of the art will be taken out of it by trying to please whoever you're trying to sell your sound to.

There's my mini rant of why I never take music seriously. thesixtyone seemed great in theory, but I had so many problems with it I gave up in no time. I usually just use bandcamp for my music and only close friends ever listen to any of it, hahaha. I will say that my songs got more attention on thesixtyone than on any other site.

I remember Dr. Beat and I still think it's adorable. I also seem to remember a pi song? Was that you? I think it was. That was really cute, too. Good songs.

[cwbyrvr]

Thesixtyone used to be pretty great. I wouldn't recommend it now. Too hard to actually find anything new, too hard for the users to interact with you now. Sadly I don't really have a good recommendation for another place to put your stuff, but there are several sites aimed at start-up musicians and it may be worth it to give a go at several of them. Bandcamp and soundcloud are both good place to store your music for linking to people for download/purchase, but neither site helps you do the legwork.

[Nic]

Thank you! I started a soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/theomelette. Please support me! I shall post more songs as I go along both to soundcloud and to the Creativity forum. I have the lyrics to a bunch of songs I'm planning to write all written up already, in the hopes of creating an album (entitled Queen Arietta). I really want to get in touch with a few favourite singer-songwriters as well- Kate Miller-Heidke in particular as she's a real inspiration for me.

[Mathmo]

warning: this may be a totally unhelpful suggestion (at least for some months!). But I have a friend in New Zealand who is into writing songs and performing and stuff and I *think* one of the ways that she's met and got to know other artists is through taking part in February Album Writing Month (FAWM). I think you write a song every day for the month of February, something like that. Again, I'm just guessing, but I guess that being part of a community - esp if you go to meetups while you're all desperately trying to write a song for the day - can be helpful because other people might know where in your area offers opportunities to perform / might collaborate with you / etc etc. So. No idea if this will help, but you could check out their website http://fawm.org

[Tookie]

Everyone I know who has "made it" as a musician has done it the old-fashioned way: tirelessly booking shows and going on tour. Musicians are a dime a dozen on the internet, and people are much more likely to remember you if they see you live, so I would start there, and use a social media (etc.) presence to promote shows and help people keep following you once they're hooked.

[deanimal]

Tookie is right. You need to have profiles on all the big music social media sites (make sure you have reverbnation, facebook, and myspace pages for yourself as well). Then start going to open mics if you're in a big city, or getting booked at little holes in the wall if you're in a smaller place. Get as many gigs as you possibly can, play your heart out at all of them even if it seems like no one is paying attention, and promote yourself to a degree that is uncomfortable to you.

And record some quality demo songs to put on all those sites and have a demo CD until you can do a proper EP or something.

[Nic]

Thanks for all the advice people. I'm starting to wonder perhaps I want to be a classical singer and keep singer-songwriting on the side. A small part of me is still considering being a doctor or an academic too, so my options really are wide open. There's nothing to say I can't do some sort of combination of the above, either. All your advice is still relevant, as I'm still keen on writing an album of music and getting it released, and being a classical singer also requires a fair bit of self=promo.

[newlydiscovered]

You're in Australia, right? So maybe get yourself on triple j unearthed?

[Nic]

You're in Australia, right? So maybe get yourself on triple j unearthed?

Oo, I've never heard of that?

[trombonekatie]

Make a last.fm page, make your music available for free download. Make friends with other musicians on the internet, be proactive and email indie singer songwriters that you like. Learn about indie record labels, make friends with people connected to those record labels. Become involved in your local music scene, play in basements, sing with other bands, attend poetry slams.