We recently connected with Neal Wright and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Neal thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Since starting Wave Collector back in 2015 or so, I’ve always thought of myself as an artist, but never a businessperson or marketer. For years I talked about how bad I was at self-promotion, marketing, and business. Finally, at the end of 2023, I decided that I was tired of putting out music in the same old way without getting much traction.

I decided at that point that I could be as good or as bad as I wanted at promotion, marketing, and business. I committed to learning about music marketing and started experimenting with different marketing techniques. It took a little while, but I began to get the hang of it and started getting a lot more listeners.

Once I had a bit of success with it, I thought, “hey, I know a lot of people who could use help with this.” That’s when I decided to start a music marketing company and learn to do the same thing for others. It was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done in recent memory, but it was totally worth it. I learned so much and was able to help several clients find new fans for their music. Taking a risk by challenging my limiting beliefs has nearly always turned out to be a good decision.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a songwriter, musician, and music producer with multiple music projects. The main focus recently has been Wave Collector, my electronic music project. I have another project that I’m in the process of reviving called Fake Fireplace that is more in the indie and folk rock genres.

I started writing songs after a breakup when I was about 19. I was horrible at it for the first few years, but I really loved it and just kept going. In the early 2010s, I started an indie rock band called Burner Courage in Portland, OR. I’m really proud of what we did, but I was really inexperienced, and the band didn’t last long after the release of our first and only album.

From there I created Wave Collector and Fake Fireplace and slowly became more of a studio musician. Nowadays I enjoy making and releasing new tracks above all else. I focus on giving fans good music frequently and creating well-designed physical versions of the releases on vinyl or CD. I also create merch based around the project.

More recently, I have started a music marketing company called Lightweight Media helping indie musicians market their music and build their fanbase. I think what sets me apart from many others in this industry is that I’ve only recently made the transition from focusing very little on promotion and marketing to focusing heavily on promoting and marketing my music. I think this allows me to relate to musicians who feel like they just don’t have the “natural ability” to market their music and find new fans.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

On the business and tech side of things, I think paying musicians more in streaming royalties would help a lot. People have learned to think of music as something that should be free, which is probably due in large part to the dominance of Spotify in the music business landscape.

I think that having more social media platforms that show content to “cold” audiences, AKA people who have never heard of you before, would be really helpful for artists of all kinds. Currently TikTok seems to be the platform doing this the most. For many artists, platforms like Instagram don’t offer as much access to cold audiences unless they pay for advertising.

The biggest change I’d like to see is a shift in sentiment around what it takes to be a creative professionally. It’s common to hear people talk about how hard it is (I’m not arguing with that) without understanding exactly why it’s hard. I fear that too many artists will never try to make a living doing what they love because they have been told for so much of their life that it’s just not possible for them. While it’s not possible for everyone, it’s never been easier to reach new fans, even for artists who exist in a very specific niche.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a musician, I was repeatedly reminded that only the very lucky ever make it in the industry. When I would look into possible routes for promoting my music, I’d often hear from someone I knew or from some online content creator that it was a scam and wouldn’t work for me. As the internet grew and grew and the number of musicians putting out music grew and grew, I felt less and less able to distinguish myself from the others, and therefore less likely to make it as a musician.

What I had to unlearn was the idea that more and more people means less and less opportunity. In reality, we now have incredibly powerful tools to reach fans all over the world that we didn’t have 20 years ago. If you make an obscure type of music, you can get your music in front of fans of that type of music in many countries. You don’t need a label, you don’t need an industry insider, and if you are motivated, you can learn everything you need to know for free online.

I learned to stop listening to what people who weren’t succeeding in the music industry told me, and start listening to the people who were doing it for a living. I also learned not to trust one person’s opinion about a given strategy, but instead to try it myself and learn whether it worked for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wavecollector.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thewavecollector
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWaveCollector/
• Twitter: https://x.com/lewavecollector
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWaveCollector
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thewavecollector