In the olden days, if you were in a band and got a record deal, all the work would be done for you. These days, everyone seems to be doing the whole thing themselves.
That includes me. It’s a lot harder than I thought. Not only do I have to write, play and record the music, I also have to: master it, archive it, upload it, design the artwork, run the blog, update myspace/last.fm, get it onto iTunes, interact with the (potential) fans, send CDs off to radio stations, reviewers, and probably some more things I’m not doing that I don’t realise need doing.
The upside is; I own everything, and all income goes to me. Also, I have full creative control: no-one is going to make me go back into the studio because they “don’t hear a hit single”. If I want to put a Jive Bunny beat under my ambient space music and make a 25 minute mix of it with strange quacking noises over the top, and then stick it on iTunes, then there is nothing stopping me. Nothing at all.
(On the player is one of the bands on my label, Mink15. I happen to be in the band, but I can assure you they were signed purely on merit.)
What? Why Bother? 