You make a good point. Everything is crowded and noisy, and just adding to that mess isn't necessarily going to do you any good when trying to promote yourself.

However, if you're doing it in a very targeted fashion, then it could pay off. Putting a poster in a venue where you'll be playing in a month can work, not necessarily by bringing more people to that show, but helping build up name recognition. For example, there are a lot of artists that I feel like I know just because I see their posters at a bunch of the places where I play, but I don't think I've ever met these people or heard them play. If I happened to be somewhere that they were playing, or a friend recommended them to me, I'd definitely check them out because the name recognition reinforces the recommendation, or convenience of listening to their set if I'm already at the club.

I think the best way to promote yourself is to just be yourself, be a nice person, and let people know what you do. Don't force it on them, but if you think they'd be into your music, let them know.

I've given my newest CD to one of my neighbors, the guy that cleans the trains at the subway station near my apartment, and some other random people I see all the time in my neighborhood. They see me with my guitar all the time, and when one of our conversations turn to the kind of music I play, I just hand them a CD. Most of them loved it, talk to me about it whenever they see me, tell me about the people they played it for, etc. I never asked them to buy it, but they know it's part of my livelihood and some pay for it after the fact, presumably because they now know exactly who and what they're supporting.

I guess what I'm saying is you have to be able to get the people around you excited about your music first, and word will spread.

Thanks Cameron for your input! Yes I think the idea is just to expand my real social network, in the literal sense (not just friend anyone on MySpace) with new friends and experienced songwriters.

Also, my incentive to give dropcards for digital downloads of my music to strangers in the city during the holidays is back on my checklist! Well, I guess there just needs to be a balance of promoting your music (it can easily get out of hand) to the actually music making process.

I’ll agree with Cam on that one – name recognition is definitely an influential tool. When I lived in Toronto, our group of students used to go see shows all the time and eventually, we realized that some posters we saw (in the bathrooms mostly!) were the same at every club we went to. Songwriters tend to gravitate in a circle of musicians and a circle of venues.

I then realized one day at work (at a music school I was teaching at) that one of the substitute teacher that day was a girl who’s poster I saw many times around time – for some reason I felt that she was more credible in my eyes after simply recognizing her name.

I really have nothing to say on the topic but I just wanted to agree with some of the great comments up there!

I’m with Cameron and MojoBone on this: be your (hopefully pleasant, sociable) self, and make great art.