Hello good people who come and read my occasional blogging
I am very pleased to tell you that I made the front cover of the Rocktologist (www.therocktologist.com) this month. Brian R. Banks reviewed my last album and the magazine enjoyed the article so much that they made "The Psychacoustic Tapes" their featured CD of the month.
I am very flattered.
At gigs I usually get quite a powerful response. My performances are like Marmite, people either love them or hate them, at least I don't leave an insipid impression. My music must taste of something.
I don't really know if anyone knows who I am online or away from gigs. Perhaps that is my fault as I feel nauseous at the thought of trying to sell myself, or trying to persuade other people my music might be "good".
What is "good" music anyway? It's entirely subjective, unless advertising has bombarded people's consciousness to the point that they feel that something must be good because everyone else says it is. I must not knock publicity as I think it is dead cool to be on the front of the Rocktologist. At heart I am a rocker! I love blues and psychedelic rock music and when I listen to it I feel like I am back home. Getting back to my point...I cannot gauge accurately how many people know who I am online, partly because I have not yet sold even ONE physical CD online. So last night I looked at my CD Baby account, CD Baby distribute my music online. I found a mysterious amount in my account $1.17.
What could this be???
Total Digital Distribution: $1.17.
Well that doesn't sound like much. But when I look into the details I find companies such as Spotify , Muve Music, Rhapsody, iTunes!, Deezer, Xbox ( Xbox??? I thought that was for playing games) and Myspace have all been selling or streaming my music online and deriving income from it.
The most I got from a song was from Apple iTunes!, I got $0.637, but that's an isolated case for most of the sales or streaming I get something in the region of $0.001.That's a tenth of a US cent. In contrast to the Apple iTunes!, the three items listed under iTunes Match - Americas earned me
a massive $0.01 or 1 cent for three songs that were streamed. I say they paid me this amount, but in fact I have not been payed. My $1.17 stays with CD Baby until the amount gets up to $10, then I will be paid. If I get paid on average $0.001 per download I'd have to be pretty famous to earn my $10.
(*Correction on 8/11/13: I got in a slight muddle when looking at loads of numbers late last night. For example Spotify have sometimes given me $0.0014 per stream and at other times as much as $0.00840 which is better, but I cannot see a logical pattern.)
I thought as an independent musician I could not get ripped off. I did so much work to write songs, perform them, record them, re-arrange them, master them, then paid to have them re-mastered, to get the artwork done, to obtain special codes for each track and get everything registered with different organisations, to have the tracks made into physical CDs and occasionally deal with problems and obstacles, basically playing all the roles of a record company and artist.
Who is making money out of my music? Not me!
The artist loses again, I thought that only happened when you were signed to a big record company with ridiculously unfair contracts.
But I have to say this...that behind my slight bitterness and astonishment at getting paid so little, or not at all at present - I am so pleased to find out that so many people have been actually listening to my music and like it enough to download it to a plethora of personal electronic devices.
Thanks folks, and thanks again to the Rocktologist and to Brian R. Banks for giving me a boost.
Love and Peace
Veronique
Making Sonic Marmite
I am very pleased to tell you that I made the front cover of the Rocktologist (www.therocktologist.com) this month. Brian R. Banks reviewed my last album and the magazine enjoyed the article so much that they made "The Psychacoustic Tapes" their featured CD of the month.
I am very flattered.
At gigs I usually get quite a powerful response. My performances are like Marmite, people either love them or hate them, at least I don't leave an insipid impression. My music must taste of something.
I don't really know if anyone knows who I am online or away from gigs. Perhaps that is my fault as I feel nauseous at the thought of trying to sell myself, or trying to persuade other people my music might be "good".
What is "good" music anyway? It's entirely subjective, unless advertising has bombarded people's consciousness to the point that they feel that something must be good because everyone else says it is. I must not knock publicity as I think it is dead cool to be on the front of the Rocktologist. At heart I am a rocker! I love blues and psychedelic rock music and when I listen to it I feel like I am back home. Getting back to my point...I cannot gauge accurately how many people know who I am online, partly because I have not yet sold even ONE physical CD online. So last night I looked at my CD Baby account, CD Baby distribute my music online. I found a mysterious amount in my account $1.17.
What could this be???
Total Digital Distribution: $1.17.
Well that doesn't sound like much. But when I look into the details I find companies such as Spotify , Muve Music, Rhapsody, iTunes!, Deezer, Xbox ( Xbox??? I thought that was for playing games) and Myspace have all been selling or streaming my music online and deriving income from it.
The most I got from a song was from Apple iTunes!, I got $0.637, but that's an isolated case for most of the sales or streaming I get something in the region of $0.001.That's a tenth of a US cent. In contrast to the Apple iTunes!, the three items listed under iTunes Match - Americas earned me
a massive $0.01 or 1 cent for three songs that were streamed. I say they paid me this amount, but in fact I have not been payed. My $1.17 stays with CD Baby until the amount gets up to $10, then I will be paid. If I get paid on average $0.001 per download I'd have to be pretty famous to earn my $10.
(*Correction on 8/11/13: I got in a slight muddle when looking at loads of numbers late last night. For example Spotify have sometimes given me $0.0014 per stream and at other times as much as $0.00840 which is better, but I cannot see a logical pattern.)
I thought as an independent musician I could not get ripped off. I did so much work to write songs, perform them, record them, re-arrange them, master them, then paid to have them re-mastered, to get the artwork done, to obtain special codes for each track and get everything registered with different organisations, to have the tracks made into physical CDs and occasionally deal with problems and obstacles, basically playing all the roles of a record company and artist.
Who is making money out of my music? Not me!
The artist loses again, I thought that only happened when you were signed to a big record company with ridiculously unfair contracts.
But I have to say this...that behind my slight bitterness and astonishment at getting paid so little, or not at all at present - I am so pleased to find out that so many people have been actually listening to my music and like it enough to download it to a plethora of personal electronic devices.
Thanks folks, and thanks again to the Rocktologist and to Brian R. Banks for giving me a boost.
Love and Peace
Veronique
Making Sonic Marmite
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