I was sad that yesterday I did a "Show HN" with a fun website I made for DJing youtube videos and it got a single upvote [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3890935] - sometimes front page is just not in the cards I guess.
Nah, but seriously - timing is everything with HN submissions - and if you don't get a few votes in the first 10 minutes of submission, then it's down the tubes. I find that posting early in the morning NY time (I'm not from the US, so it's actually late afternoon for me) is the best. I don't know if there's any data to back that up though!
Yeah I figured for a music thing, mid-afternoon eastern would be the best bet. But the other posters are correct, you only last about 10 minutes on the "new" page at peak times.
As for your Show HN not making the front page, I am not sure what motivates HN to click through on a submission and then up vote it. Possibly, the time of submission has a lot to do with it. There is a definite advantage to have by timing things right, http://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timing-1/
The challenge is - others know this, so the number of submissions at prime time tends to increase and your post can get knocked down the list pretty quickly.