Bargain!

You occasionally hear of websites accidentally selling iPads for $10 or something, due to a misplaced decimal point. Last week Amazon managed to offer the 174-track Ryan Adams box-set (download version) ‘Live After Deaf‘ for £7.49 instead of  £75.

So I bought it, and an hour later Amazon realised and pulled the, but it was too late…

It is every night on a short European tour, just Ryan and his acoustic guitar (occasional piano).  It’s pretty good, but it takes a lot of listening, I’ve only just finished.

 

 

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‘Forte’ – another short track

Another short track I made, this one featuring piano and reverb, with a bit of synth, etc.

‘Bendy’ – free download

A short track I did on saturday between 6pm and 7:30 (which is when I got ready to go to the pub to meet my chums)

There is a download button on the player if you’d like to keep a copy to play later.

Why not check out my Soundcloud page for more things?

Get a record deal? Are you mad?

These are strange times to be a musician. It used to be that the aim of the pop musician was to get a record deal. The main reasons for this were that there was no way you could afford to record an album on your own, you could never get the vinyl/CD pressed yourself, and you had no way of selling it if you managed to get that far. And if you couldn’t do those things, you’d never become stinking rich.

The situation has changed drastically in the past few years: you can record your album on your computer for no more than the cost of the electricity and the software, assuming you paid for your software. You can get CDs pressed for about £600 for 500 units, inc VAT (if you’re starting off small). And you can sell your CDs on the web, or downloads if you can’t be bothered with CDs.

The only problem with all of this, is that everyone else can also record, press and sell their music on the web. So now the problem is how do you get your music heard? You could give it away, but so there are millions of free mp3s out there no-one has the time or inclination to listen to. Also, giving music away for nothing implies that the music is worth nothing. You can get away with that sort of thing if your are an established artist (Nine Inch Nail, for example), but you’re buggered if no-one knows who you are.

And the final, possible biggest, problem is this: There is a whole generation who don’t think they ought to pay for music. At all. So I don’t think I’ll be buying my own island any time soon.

Music Amnesty – too much music

I have too much music. Really far far too much. Emusic is partly to blame, my bad habits are also in the frame for this one. I like to give each new record I buy a fair chance to be heard (unless it is really bad) and sometimes there is just so much new stuff for me to listen to that some good stuff just doesn’t get heard before my Emusic subscription re-spawns and I start again…

So I have put Emusic on hold for 3 months while i try to catch up with stuff. I have already compiled a playlist of music that needs a second chance, the slight problem of it running to 46 albums is not going to get me down…

Really what I’m trying to do is hear some old stuff I don’t play that often any more. Most of my CD collection is not yet MP3’d, so I suppose I could make a start on that too.