Why?

Why this blog? Why this site?

I discovered early on in my career that, as a performing songwriter and musician it’s really, really important to have people to play in front of. Seems a simple enough realisation.

Playing to an audience gives me a sense of purpose with my music, an end result to all of the hours practising, rehearsing and writing and of course it satisfies the ego but I also realised that just satisfying the ego was not enough. Performance is a two way street between performer and audience, without one the other ceases to exist.

I realised that for me to be a successful performer I need to be successful at giving the audience a reason to care, to touch move and inspire them and then find a way to keep them all in one group and give them what they want on a regular basis.

Hence this blog, this site. I’m using technology to reach out over the vast expanses of cyberspace to tap you on the shoulder and say “HI!”

I want to build a community of people around me and my music and I’ll be doing that by being me, being open and honest and documenting everything that I’m doing on my musical journey.

I’ll be putting up my music, my images, my videos, my thoughts, feelings and other interesting and useful things I find along the way. All because I want to reach out to you, my audience.

I know that might sound a tad arrogant but, I know that winning you over is not going to come easily. I have to prove my worth to you, prove that I’m worthy of your attention because your time is just as precious as mine so I don’t want to waste it.

If I’m on stage I know where my audience is. When I’m writing for this site I don’t know where you are, it’s exciting and scary all at the same time but it’s worth pursuing. My audience, my community, my friends are out there. I’ve just got to find them.

It is my hope that through this site (and what I put in it) will give you a reason to give me a go, to care enough to tell your friends about what I do, to come to my shows and to allow me to be part of your life through my music. It would be an honour and a privilege to do so.

As you can read, I take community building very seriously. It’s what the music industry is all about.

Peace,

Corey :)

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The Great Experiment Begins

My name is Corey Stewart and I’m a singer/songwriter/musician from Australia.

I’ve been writing, recording and playing music for over 20 years and in that time I’ve seen a lot of changes in the music industry and a lot of changes in the way musicians get their product out to an audience.

When I first started it was still a really big deal to independently release your own material. The reason being that, the only way to “make it” was to send out lots of demos and hope to get signed to a record label.

Being an independent musician wasn’t really a viable option. There were no broadcast quality home studios in those days so if you wanted to record independently you needed to have a lot of money behind you.

Record labels rules the airwaves and independence was only afforded to a few artists.

Today, especially with the internet being a huge influence on society as a whole, the tables seemed to have turned. Home studios are everywhere, distribution of music is much easier to manage and putting out a CD is the done thing for bands and artists.

In spite of all this, I haven’t released a CD of my own as yet however, this is where my Grand Experiment begins.

Since 2000 I have been fascinated and excited about the possibilities for musicians who market themselves online. Since 2004 I have maintained a songwriting blog and a music industry blog and branched out my experiences to include web development and online marketing.

Over the last few months I’ve been wondering if it’s possible to have some sort of success as a singer/songwriter/musician through using the internet and open source software only. I’m thinking a kind of independent open source music artist. An Online Music Artist for want of a better phrase.

I have been doing some research and I realise that my ideas are not necessarily treading over virgin territory. Artists such as Brad SucksScott AndrewJonathon Coulton and Ben Walker have paved the way before me, producing great music and using the internet to their fullest advantage at the same time.

Reading their stories and watching what they do (I subscribe to a lot of songwriting and indie music blogs) inspire me greatly.

I’m not necessarily here to be a trailblazer, all I want to do is to put my music out to anyone who wants to hear it, I want to perform my music to anyone who wants to see it and I want to produce music for anyone who wants to share it.

This site will document my journey, warts and all. My quest is to be a self sufficient, independent, online music artist.

My journey starts now.

Peace,

Corey :)

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