blog
After a long time of considering the pros and cons, I signed off my distributor today and my music won't be available for streaming (except on Bandcamp) anymore.
You might say now that I cut my nose to spite my face but I don't see it that way.
Please keep in mind, that this is a decicion I made based on MY personal situation and I don't encourage anybody to do the same! In most cases it might be great to use streaming platforms, but in my case it is not.
The basics: I'm not a professional musician (though my work rate and determination surely is ;-). Because I'm a pensioner now, I do not rely on money I make from music. Well, at some point I decided to publish, made an album, available on Vinyl or CD. Other than Daniel Ek claims, creating this "content" (let's just call it "music"), was NOT free.
It took a lot of money to the extend that I sold most of my beloved old synths to finance the courses I made to understand the technical aspects of recording, pay musicians, pay Vinyl Plant and so on.
Here are some of the advices I got when I naively started the adventure of producing and publishing:
Find a distributor and be present on as many streaming platforms as possible because that's where people find your music.
Obviously not. There are thousands of songs uploaded each day. A friend recently told me that it was possible for him to make around 30 songs in 2 weeks with AI. And that's only 1 person!
Progressive Rock seems not a genre for the majority of listeners, used to the "standard" of 2.5 min per song and this is backed by my statistics telling me that most listeners skip after a short while into the song. I also tells, my listeners are 50 years old and upwards. Are they "generation streaming" ? I doubt it.
"Drop your xy link and I'll add you to my playlist", "Drop those links and let's support each other"
I went straight into that trap, of course, it sounds good. Guess what? It never happened.
People seem to do almost everything for a few more clicks, likes or follower.
You'll get paid for each time someone listens to your music
Staring in awe on my monthly report, telling me I made 0.15 € in 30 days through streams, experiencing it myself, not just hearing from others, brutally pushes my nose on the fact that what happens to musicians on platforms like Spotify (others might be slightly better but its marginal) is plain exploitation.
It shows the lack of respect these people have for creative work.
Staying inside the system without being forced by circumstances (like making a living off music and being forced to use all possibilities) means to support it and to compromise my ethics.
So what now?
I'm still using Bandcamp because I got quite some listeners there and it is possible to communicate with people.
I'll keep doing my "beggars tour" among radio stations because until now it's what worked best.
I'll keep my website up to date and I'm planning to upload single tracks of the album for those who don't want to buy the whole thing.
So, from now on, you can call me an unknown but happily independent musician :-)
Btw…”You’ve Got To Stand For Something” is a great hardcore ;-) country song by Aaron Tippin!