jason from volo wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 3:56 pm many dudes now have their hand on their wang at the urinal and their phone in the other hand. Might as well take advantage of that.

Now you're running my speed!

Re: DIYing it, which I've done for more or less the last 20+ years, on and off, in one capacity or another...

Have had the growing feeling that rather than being my own boss, I'm my own exploited, thankless lackey. Take that as you will.

jason from volo wrote: I presume the artist takes care of all of the costs of the album/pressing/etc. Then the artist would send some of their inventory to someone else/company and that company would then take care of orders and mailing out the records/products?

That sounds a heckuva lot better than having to take in Bandcamp orders and mailing the records out myself...

Yeah. For an unknown band you might send a few copies to a distro on consignment, direct people to that place and then hopefully they order a few or handful more knowing you're serious. You don't make as much per record but they do a lot of the leg work, and it gives buyer the option to bundle other records with their shipping costs. As far as finding them or them finding you, it's no different from any other sort of band networking I guess. I think a couple of European distros found our music through a fb group called Noise Rock Now. International shipping can be prohibitively expensive though this guy in Germany had some workaround I wish I would have taken more notes on..

International shipping is the worst. I have friends in the UK & Netherlands who are putting out amazing LPs (I even collaborated on none) but to have them sent over here with all the charges, the records end up being $50+ a pop. Since its on the internet either way I just can’t. Maybe when i come visit.

I was taking a t-shirt to the Post Office a couple weeks ago to ship it to Australia, only to discover that there's a Covid restriction on 1st Class Shipping to there right now. I would have had to ship it USPS Global Express for like $70!

Fortunately I emailed the dude who ordered it and he's good to wait.

After a long (for me) hiatus I've got 2 new records in the can. I had pretty much talked myself out of pressing another record, but then the artwork came in and my self restraint disappeared. Maybe I'll pick one to get the vinyl treatment?

Anyway, what are other folks doing these days? It's mostly just bandcamp and streaming services, is that right?

BrendanK wrote: Tue Jul 11, 2023 1:59 pm After a long (for me) hiatus I've got 2 new records in the can. I had pretty much talked myself out of pressing another record, but then the artwork came in and my self restraint disappeared. Maybe I'll pick one to get the vinyl treatment?

Anyway, what are other folks doing these days? It's mostly just bandcamp and streaming services, is that right?

I just paid up to buy some physical copies of my own stuff as well. I haven't done this since... 2015. So it's been 8 years. I've only done it 4 times in 20 years of songwriting... And 2 of those 4 were short run cassettes... Maybe 50 piece orders. The other two were CDs, one 200 piece order, one was around 50-100 piece. Nothing too wild.

I'm okay with paying the money for it just because I've experienced the fact many digital files I thought I could maintain ultimately disappear or become fragmented over time, whereas the physical CD lasts, especially if you keep the shrink wrap sealed. Is my own stuff good enough to be on a CD that anyone cares about? That's another question I've had to wrangle with. I tend to just think it's part of the hobby and physical replication is actually smart to do in some instances (for promotion, but also to keep the files around a bit longer). It requires pushing your own feelings about yourself aside but also you are forced to figure out what's worth paying for. I try to instill some sort of guidelines. Like I won't put out a physical copy of anything else for at least another 4-5 years (maybe more like 7-8), depending on how this goes this time around.

At least that's how I feel less guilty at what could be categorized as an act of vanity, printing up copies of my own music. But no one else is gonna do it so...

As for how I'm getting my stuff out there... Cd Baby, bandcamp, bigcartel... Promoting via music videos and a YouTube channel. Playing all the instruments and writing my own stuff. Personally I think the digital distros while they have the most potential to get new fans (i.e. if your song happens to feature on some sort of prominent autoplay playlist)

I.e. your songs is playing over the PA at some bar or club somewhere and all the sudden hundreds of people are listening to your music and it spreads like that. Could happen...

Although gauging the amount of plays I've received on streaming platforms, this seems more like a fantasy than a reality. And they also have dropped prices which keys me into the fact someone has probably figured out the raw numbers by this point and the digital distro is going to be less desirable going forward because over over-saturation. Or... uhmmm something like that. Maybe major companies are going to fold, it will be replaced.

But I've felt this way for at least a decade, music video is the best promotional tool.