FimFiction Link - Short ID: 145660/octaves
Published: Oct '15 — Dec '16
Octaves is a 15k SoL story about the challenges of working in the record industry. Also, no romance!
Told almost exclusively from Octavia's point of view, she sees Vinyl pursuing a career as a musician. She doesn't understand much of her genre, but she's a good friend to her and supports her every step of the way.
Meanwhile, Vinyl goes through the usual steps of any small musician who gets to work with a big label. How demanding they are. How some like to micromanage every aspect of the creative process. How they set unrealistic expectations. How they wish to stripe any aspect of individuality of a product so they can market it to a wider audience.
This takes a toll on Vinyl. She never stops working, but we see how hard it is for her to keep fighting the executives to keep her vision, as well as how the critical reception for her first songs impact her.
The story is pretty good. Understated, perhaps. There's no scene where Vinyl cries under the rain and rips her contract apart. But it is solid in its ideas and the delivery.