Building a Creator Community Through Live Interaction

The video above is a repurposed edit of an Instagram livestream I made for our YouTube channel.

I released a new remix album with my band, Lorenzo's Music, and wanted to promote it while highlighting the artists involved.
I decided to feature a song each week on social accounts and YouTube and conduct Instagram Live interviews with the remixers on Mondays.
The interviews allow me to learn about remixing techniques and songwriting, and the videos can be repurposed as reels, YouTube content, and podcast episodes.
This promotional strategy is helping me build an audience for the album and make connections with other musicians.

I recently released a new album with my band Lorenzo's Music called "Lorenzo's Remixes, Volume 1." It's a compilation of some of our songs remixed by us and other talented artists I met on our music podcast.

This is our first full album release in a while – for the past year, we've been dropping singles one by one. While we love that approach, a remix album offered a new way to showcase our music and collaborate with talented folks.

Learning Through Collaboration:

The album features seven tracks, with four featuring remixes by other artists. We're honored to have collaborated with some fantastic musicians, including Joshua Hudes of Louis Lingg and the Bombs from Paris, France.

I wanted to ensure that each contributing artist received the recognition they deserved when the album came out. That's why I came up with a creative strategy to not only promote the album but also feature each remixer's work and get to know them better.

Weekly Featured Songs and Instagram Live Interviews

This led to the idea of doing weekly song features on our social media and YouTube channel.

In addition to the featured songs, I also decided to host Instagram Live interviews with one of the remixers every Monday. This allows me to connect with the artists on a personal level, discuss their creative process, and learn more about their techniques.

The Benefits of Instagram Live Interviews

Conducting these live interviews has several benefits for me:

Learning from the Remixers: Since I'm interested in learning how to make remixes myself, these interviews provide an opportunity to ask the artists about their techniques, inspirations, and songwriting abilities.
Expanding Content for Reels & Stories: After each live interview, I download the video and edit it into a reel for Instagram. Or clip moments that I liked for my Instagram stories for the week.
YouTube & Podcast Episodes: I also use it as a podcast episode by editing it further, adding background music, text, and overlays to enhance the conversation. This allows me to repurpose the content across multiple platforms and arrange the video to a side-by-side format instead of vertical to create a dynamic "behind-the-scenes" experience.

By repurposing the content, we're able to reach a wider audience and create engaging content across various platforms.

Learning and Networking

Promoting an album and building an audience is always tough, but by talking with other musicians, featuring their work, and learning from their experiences, I can not only promote my album but also expand my own music to their listeners.

You can listen to my musician podcast "Lorenzo's Music Podcast" on Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

To Do: Multitasking My Business, Music, and Comics

Sometimes balancing my multiple projects can often feel like an overwhelming task. I sit and think out loud about the tasks I need to juggle this week from my vintage reselling business, my band, and my webcomic series. In this video vlog, I begin the week by prioritizing tasks and setting goals. I'm going to mark them as I go along. ✅ = Done ⏲ = Still waiting Vintage reselling business - The Pop Culture Roadshow With a vintage reselling business to run, the first order of business is to pack orders from weekend sales on platforms like eBay and Mercari. As I pack these items I need to record a 'What Sold' video for my Pop Culture roadshow YouTube channel , turning the task into video content. ✅ Pack orders ✅ List new items I got from estate sales (See my latest eBay store listings here ) ⛔ Create a new "What sold" video for my YouTube page (Recorded not edited - Laptop upgrade issues) Band - Lorenzo's Music I've also got a new song out this month so I nee...

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Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

I have a vintage Candy Land game from 1955 by Milton Bradley and I was about to sell it so I thought I would add it to my personal art history course concept I've been doing . I'm going to try and see if I can find out how this game was created, designed and why? Here is what I found out about this game https://candy-land.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land_Wiki Candy Land is a board game about children exploring a world made out of candy and other sweets that originally came out in 1949. In every version of the game, there are a group of children that go through Candy Land. In the earliest versions of the game, it was a realistically drawn boy and girl. Drawing of the Candy Land kids I did on my phone ☝ https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land The game was designed in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott , while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California. It's rumored that Eleanor also did the original artwork but I didn't find anything that...

Can I Buy And Resell Copies Of My Own Book From Amazon KDP?

There are two questions that I get asked about publishing my webcomic books on Amazon KDP . 1 - Can I Order A Print Copy Of My Own Book From Amazon KDP? When I started printing on Amazon KDP I also had that question. The reason I put the books together is I was just kind of doing it for myself. I could make a paperback version of my webcomic books and then I and my family could get a copy. It didn't even occur to me that I could actually start selling the book in public. I thought it was just print-on-demand and then maybe I could order one. But when I print a book on Amazon KDP I can also get up to 999 copies and sell it on my own! I was able to get my own copies from Amazon KDP sent to me. As the author, I can get them at printing cost . So they're at a discounted price. The option to order author copies is right in the KDP publishing setup. The button is next to the book in KDP. 👇 The other question I get about publishing my book on Amazon KDP... 2 -...

Tom Ray

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