SFL Society presents Rule 2081 an online workshop for the independent artist.
“Rule 2080, record industry people are crazy..” - Q-tip from A Tribe Called Quest
Author: Hanifah Walidah
Reference: Bullshit or Fertilizer, Pierre Bennu
Contributors: TBA
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An Introduction
If Rule 2080 states that record company people are crazy, than Rule 2081 proclaims that independent artists have no choice but to take the future of art into their own hands. The 2081 workshop was developed to assist artists in understanding what online marketing is and by what means they can use it to develop their own careers and present new innovative voices towards the radically changing world of music, film and culture.
My name is Hanifah Walidah and I’m the author of Rule 2081. I have been cultural arts worker here in NYC, the Bay, internationally and online since 1990. I created this workshop because I have been the go-to person for my comrades regarding career advice and online navigation, and feel at this point I needed to organize everything I’ve been telling them over the years into one little interactive pill. Mind you, this workshop, much like Bullshit and Fertilizer is about tough love as well as new ideas. A lot of my friends have either been resistant to this changing world or have unnecessarily ran in circles around their careers for lack of knowledge and guidance. I don’t exclude myself from that list.
With the help of Peirre Bennu, author of the book Bullshit or Fertilizer (tough love for artists on the fence) and other contributors, we will tackle an artists real needs online and off. Bullshit or Fertilizer is a little self-published book that was circulated around the NYC underground scene in the mid-nineties. It has been translated into Japanese and to this day is still a reference when making sense of my daily existence as an artist.
Peirre and his wife Jamyla Bennu have created mountains of brilliant work in music, film, animation and even body care products. This is why I invited them and others (TBA) to be a part of the SFL Society and this workshop. I will refer to their book often through out this workshop.
I hope Rule 2081 will be a resource for independent artists on the edge of a brave new world. Though this workshop is open to artists who will come from many different angles, all will most likely fit into 3 broad categories of ideals around online marketing.
1) For artists who know that at minimum you must have a Myspace but find the plethora of online marketing and distribution options a bit daunting.
2) Or maybe I am speaking to the artist who still has not tasted the online hype and are politically opposed to believing in it.
3) In some cases I am speaking to the artist open to new ideas and the very real paradigm shift happening within the art industres and doesn’t want to be left behind.
I have been all of these artists and have known the chameleon like faces of fear in regards to my own career. Because that is what it boils down too, isn’t it; the fear of not making it.
So with no further a do, let’s get this party started:
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