Friday, March 1, 2013

Streaming Royalties + Thoughts on Music

I had post a couple albums on CdBaby just to see them show up on  iTunes.  For me, being on iTunes meant anyone who had an iPhone could instantly hear my music made years ago and hear my latest material from their phone.  The album showed up on iTunes, but the surprising thing was seeing streaming services pay me royalties for music plays.

Up until then, I was a die hard Grooveshark fan. Now I see and read that Grooveshark doesn't pay any royalties to artist in their catalog. I was quite happy to see that Rhapsody, Spotify, and Doozer do pay royalties. I have a few cents as proof.

I rarely shared my albums with anyone other than friends so I decided to change things a bit. Two of the albums I've made are on Youtube.





Selling albums or songs is a nice benefit, but the heart of making music is about exploration. Taking sine waves and effects and bending them into something new. Seeing what beats make others dance versus what patterns make them think. Taking new sounds and evolving them and building around them. This is the motivation behind the album I'll be releasing this year and since my kids positively affect my happiness, this album will be more dance-able than my previous releases.

Dancing was always difficult for me as a big boy. I would always rather play an instrument than jump on the dance floor, but watching my kids dance is such a pleasure. To see their freedom in a pure illogical response to a beat is fascinating! The music from this year's album has been heavily tested on my kiddos and I know I'm on to something if they start dancing or jump on a chair and wiggle around to the beat.

It is that freedom that I seek when I'm profoundly impressed by new music (Shabazz Palaces, Blue Scholars). And it is that freedom I work towards and hope to learn to express through music.

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