When making covers was cool
An amazing thing happened back in the 1960s during the musical renaissance. Artists from all genres covered each other's music, experimenting with styles and sounds. One of the eras biggest stars, Jimi Hendrix was incredibly humble and would jam with anyone.
The culture of cool around making covers of each other's songs helped elevate a new generation of songwriters and performers, and helped artists get exposure to new audiences. Culturally, it helped bring people together in positive ways during a time when it frequently seemed like the world was falling apart and on the brink of nuclear annihiliation.
The world needs something similar today.
"I really enjoyed making the cover, mainly because it's a great song and it was nice doing my bit to support such a great record."
- Kevin Kraft (The Van Goghs, Zu Zu's Petals, The Riflebirds of Portland), vt member and IONS research participant
The vt's cover contest
To help promote the vt's featured artists and the craft of songwriting, we have a cover contest. We ask artists from around the world to take a listen to the vt's current feature, find a song or riff or something that resonates, and submit a cover or derivative work inspired by the current featured artist's music.
Instead of creating extra work or making something over-produced in the studio, the idea is to do something simple and fun that is an organic part of your ongoing creative practice routine.
The best cover submissions we've received so far include live recordings of band practices or live perfomances.
"I was skeptical at first. Making covers seemed like lots of work, and I'm very busy.
Now I totally get it. I don't waste time with social media and streaming for all the usual reasons. Making covers is much more fun and I can see why it's a better use of my time.
Any serious artist would wake up every morning and listen to the vt first thing. They would be working on covers for every new feature. It just feels right."
- Rich Schwegerl (Lou Rawls, Taj Mahal, Ensembles, Island Voyage), jazz prodigy, lounge lizard & early vt feature
An indie music masterclass
The vt's cover contest is an indie music masterclass that levels up your ear training and performance skills. The regular practice of thoughtful listening via our cover contest makes you a better collaborator & performer.
By making the vt's cover contest part of your regular practice routine, you enhance your own musical abilities and set yourself up for musical career success.
Try it for six months and discover for yourself.
"Indeed it was an excellent learning lesson and I'm on a steep learning curve right now.
When you told me about the cover, I had barely gathered the skills to do it, including picking out the melody by ear - I had been practicing doing that for a few months! I look forward to learning and improving and participating. Nothing like getting the first one out of the box! Look forward to hearing more music!"
- Katherine Koyanagi, Koyanagi Law, a boutique indie music law firm
Collaboration-centric promotions
We can also help with your wider release strategy if/when you want to put your music on the major platforms.
MusicAlly.com: The saturation of available music is growing but 95% of this music isn’t being listened to (link)
The Guardian, UK: Streaming platforms aren't helping musicians – and things are only getting worse (link)
Still Listening Magazine: Have Streaming Services Ruined Music? Discovering new music has supposedly never been easier, however the algorithms on streaming services, in reality, hinder rather than help listeners expand their musical interests. Rather than broadening our tastes as listeners, streaming services have done completely the opposite, encouraging us to stay within our comfort zones and listen to similar sounding music all the time. Discovery playlists actually force us more into listening to more of the same styles rather than a mix of different genres we have never heard before. (link)
Part of the reason why releasing new albums on all the major streaming platforms isn't working for the vast majority of indie artists around the world is because of how competitive the landscape is and the services are designed with algorithms uplift content that meets certain criteria. When over 100,000 new songs are released each week, no human can keep up and listen to it all. Listeners all have their favorite sources to discover new music already, it's difficult to get anyone's attention and get a fair listen.
Before you release your next album, talk to us about how our collaboration-centric approach can help you find success on the major streamers.
Email us -- catalog [AT] thevt [DOT] co
no social media, sorry. email only.
The Observer: Patreon CEO Jack Conte closed out SXSW 2024 with a keynote presentation about how social media companies are working against creators in favor of profitability (link)
