So, in other news- it's 2008! My magical year of job-free limbo is coming to a close, and a new chapter is (hopefully) about to begin. As Kyle mentioned in comments somewhere below, my "collected works from 2007" came to a surprisingly appropriate 74 total minutes (give or take), which leads me to believe that the pagan Gods of optical storage meant for me to put them all on one CD and call it an album. As I'm hoping to avoid a technological plague (rains of blu-ray diodes and the shower flowing black with sharpie ink) I have no choice but to comply. No title yet, but I'll come up with one before long and then... well, then I guess I'll probably mail them out to whoever the hell wants one! Or I'll pull a Radiohead / Saul Williams or something, I don't know. We'll let it be a surprise.
In more financially "lucrative" news, my tracks were accepted into the Pump Audio catalogue that I mentioned a couple of months ago, which means they're now technically available for licensing to TV/film/ad projects. I'm not holding my breath for any sort of financial windfall from that, but it was a nice ego boost to know that my work was at least up to snuff by some measure. Fingers crossed that "It's Come To This" makes it into the next Ovaltine Hot ad! Good lord.
I'm also finally sending demo CDs out to a few actual labels. I chose four tracks to represent me: Undelayed By Reflection, It's Come To This, From A Platform Above, and South Without A Candle. Once I finish the CD label design (very bare-bones, nothing particularly flashy) they'll be in the mail to:
- Morr Music
- XL Recordings
- Shadow Records
- Planet Mu
- Hefty Records
- Myutopia
- Thermal Recordings
- Ninja Tune
...and maybe a couple of others. I honestly can't imagine any of them picking me up, but that could just be the rampant self-doubt talking. Or the realistic-doubt. Anyway, it can't hurt to try, and I owe it to myself to at least make the effort. See you in the big leagues, baby!
Looking towards the future, I'm doing my best to start this new year with a clean slate- I learned a lot in 2007, but now I need to focus that knowledge into something coherent. The truth is I still have very little idea what "my sound" is, and until I figure that out every track is going to be a struggle. So I'm taking the time now to think hard about where I want to go with the music I make. I know the answer is in there somewhere (hell, there might be a few), so I'm going to take my time and make sure I find it. With any luck 2008 could be the biggest adventure yet.
3 comments:
1. Sign me up for one of them "CD's" the kids talk about these days.
2. A cool label that I think would be interested in your stuff is Papergoose Records. Check em out!
3. Have you ever thought about just pressing some yourself (maybe hand number them to emphasize the limited edition-ness), offering the same tracks for download with purchase via some password protected site (slip unique passwords into the jewel cases good for one time use) so people can easily get them on their iPods as well, and walking them into Aquarius Records and the like? I'm sure the stocker/manager would give you a spot and it's another good way of getting it out there.
4. Guerilla marketing! An idea I had but never pulled off was going into all the Best Buys, Frys, etc. that sell sound systems and replacing all the sample CDs with your own music when no one's looking! Maybe make up flyers and put them under each floor model too...
I've said too much!
Word up, I love the guerilla marketing idea! I think that the big problem right now is that I don't really have a payoff for potential fans once I actually capture their interest. The Aquarius idea is a good one, and I think I really ought to figure out some way to do low-cost online distribution as well, so hopefully that can be taken care of in parallel to the whole marketing thing.
And I'll check Papergoose post hast!
after doing a search for that PG label it seems that in the past year they may have gone under. it must be music piracy!! another independent label bites the dust.
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