Kid Lightbulbs self-review, 2024 edition

Every so often in a corporate environment you are subjected to a performance review, and a common part of this process is the self-review. For much of my career I loathed having to write about myself, but now that I’m 36 and my body is starting to literally fall apart, I’m feeling a bit more reflective. (Everyone sharing their Spotify Wrapped / Apple Music Replay findings a few weeks ago also got me into reflection mode, too, although I agree with most people that the Spotify version was pretty underwhelming this year, and more so when you realize it was due to layoffs.)

And so I am sharing my self-review of everything I accomplished as a musician this year.

This is a big deal for me to even write at all because, despite being technically a musician for almost my entire life¹, outside of a few years in a previous band, I never took music seriously enough to justify writing something like an “end of year reflection.” It was always just a side thing I did to scratch an itch, to gain some sense of creative fulfillment using a craft & format I seemed good at. I didn’t set any goals for this year. I just put myself out there to see what happened, and then reacted and reflected as I saw things happen.

What I accomplished this year

(I wrote a version of the following on Threads a few weeks ago, I’ve updated it a bit.)

I’m not gonna focus on the Spotify Wrapped stuff, because that’s not what I’m proud of in 2024. Literally 65% of the plays & listeners are from botted playlists so the numbers don’t mean much of anything to me beyond the fact that they are greater than zero. Which is basically where they were in late 2023.

In addition to that, I somehow accomplished all this in 2024 too:

I got out of my creative shell and figured out how to talk about my music and myself as an “artist”, and people from all over the world are talking with me about it all
I finished & put out an album I’ve sat on for 10 years (STEP INTO THE OCEAN), & finished another one I’d sat on for 6 years (RUINED CASTLE). A few people have said that each of these are among their favorite releases of 2024.
I impulsively made a piano music album and people liked it, such that I now plan to make more piano music
I collaborated with some great folks here on some remixes & an entire covers album
I proved that my music has value via ~~$1100~~ $1350 in Bandcamp sales
I went on tour with my friends in Earthside, reaffirming my love for both live performance and playing bass (and the fact that I can still do both, if I’m honest)
I made and sold some merch! (Kid Lightbulbs t-shirts)
Someone wrote a poem inspired by lyrics I wrote!
I got some true fans: 13 Spotify folks have me as a top 10 artist + 6 folks subscribed on Bandcamp to support my stuff on a recurring basis with real money
I received some of the kindest compliments about my music and my ideas as a musician from other artists I respect.

This is wild to me. Stuff like this is what matters more than any listener or play count. I’m grateful for all of it.

(photo credit: roaming roach photography)

What I’ve learned

There are more than 8 billion people alive right now, and more than 5 billion of them have internet access.

This is a really pretentious way for me to introduce the idea that I’ve learned that niches not only exist, but have potential to be hugely important in music. You don’t need to worry at all about appealing to the vast majority of people. You only really need a few thousand true fans, maybe even less. The idea of 1,000 true fans isn’t new — but I think that, given the extreme over-saturation of all music across all high-level genres, it benefits most independent artists (or at least “alternative” ones) to really invest in finding the small niche of fans that love their stuff and want to dig deeper instead of seeking broader appeal. And with the size of the internet-ready populace, that may not actually be too hard to achieve with the right framing and strategy.

I haven’t landed my strategy in full yet, but I’ve done a few things that I’ve landed on and tried to share what’s worked (and not worked) for me. Because I’ve also learned that not nearly enough folks in music are transparent enough with their knowledge and insights. Gatekeeping still is everywhere in 2024, even among supposedly fellow small independent artists. We all need to be more transparent – not just Spotify, not just the major labels, each and every one of us. If anyone wants serious change in the industry or the tech companies increasingly running it, we benefit each other & ourselves by sharing everything we know that both is and isn’t working. Everything from your Spotify metrics (in full) to the obscure knowledge you’ve built that may be useful to an artist. And the more of us that succeed, the larger a voice we collectively have.

Above all: there is zero agreement among musicians on what success looks like, and therefore there is no single goal or strategy that unquestionably works for everyone. And it’s extremely empowering once you accept that and just start doing what feels right to you.

Kid Lightbulbs in 2025

I don’t have any major specific goals for my music in 2025. I’ve found that I don’t handle concrete goals well for this part of my life because (1) I have very limited time to work on it, and (2) Kid Lightbulbs is inherently a passion project of mine and creating undue pressure takes the passion out.

That said, I have a set of principles I want to keep sticking to, and a rough list of things I’d like to say I’ve done by the end of 2025:

Play at least one live show as myself / Kid Lightbulbs. I’ve finally found a few local open mics and communities thanks to some helpful folks on Threads. I would love to make a full-on band for this, but I’d be happy even just playing a solo set with an acoustic guitar or digital piano.
Release physical versions of my first 3 albums. I am currently testing a vinyl process via Elastic Stage, which would unlock single LP and CD releases. I’ll aim for simple vinyl LPs and deluxe CD editions.
Release another set of piano music. This will be easy, because I have one ready to release — just need to decide when to release it (likely on a Bandcamp Friday).
Collaborate more. I’m already signed up to remix one track and produce/arrange another, each for different artists I’ve met online. I’d like to also keep making covers of independent artists I like, building on the Death Waits cover I’m releasing in early January.
Make significant progress on a fourth album. I’ve already got musical ideas for roughly a full length album and about 5 songs’ worth of lyrics already. (Some may even argue that this is already significant progress 🤪 )
Decide once and for all on PR and commit. I try to keep Kid Lightbulbs cost-neutral, but 2025 may be the year where I am willing to put some money into promoting the project and/or getting help with making promo content, something I struggle with a lot (especially video). Given how busy I am in work and in life, and how much early (small) hype Kid Lightbulbs has, I suspect that it may be the time to invest in a little help here to keep my momentum going.
Write a lot more. I’ve been frustrated with short-form social media for a while — video continues to both elude me & shift to mediocre e-commerce, and short-form text social is quickly devolving into echo chambers and rage-bait, even on platforms intended to be reprieves from this. That all said: I have gotten so much fulfillment out of expressing my thoughts in longer form (such as this here post), and these longer-form explorations seem to be resonating quite well with folks online. So aside from my above musical aspirations, I want to get more ideas out into the world as prose. I think this may be a more important contribution to the independent music community than my music itself.

I’ve said it before: I am very busy. I’m hoping that this is not too much for me – especially since I’m already deep at work on some of these things.

Overall I’m absolutely blown away at what happened to me creatively in 2024. I am insanely grateful for the attention I’ve gotten and the friends I’ve made along the way (I know this is a silly thing to say but I mean it genuinely). I don’t expect the same for 2025, but I am at the very least excited to keep this going.

For those who are wondering, I’ve been playing piano for 32 years, writing songs for almost 20, and producing in some way for about 17 years. I’ll fully admit that many of my early songs and productions were absolute garbage, but I’ve now learned that you just need to make one, no matter the quality, and decide to make another, to consider yourself a “producer”.↩︎

Date

December 31, 2024

Previously