New Year, new plan, old songs!

Bloody hell it's 2014. Seriously how did that happen. 2001 was supposed to happen years ago, Judge Dredd should be getting ready to retire just before Marty McFly turns up from the past and we should all be using jet-packs.
I blame the state of our patent legislation. But that's probably a rant for YAMDAC instead.

So let's get back to the music, as I have been doing...
So the new plan is to re-invigorate my tunes, and the occasional cover, in the guise of a three piece. A bass-player has already been recruited and we hope to make a public debut in the donkey next week but we are still looking for a drummer / percussionist.
We're not going to be rocking out here (before anyone yells, "Judas!"), but it will be a little bit more rhythm-driven than previous incarnations recently. So, if anyone knows of, or is, a drummer who fancies slapping some skins with us, just let me know.

The other news is that I start a new job next week, sadly this means I'm no longer going to be co-hosting the open-mic night at the Wonky Donkey but Dan and Ali will keep that going and I'll still be popping down to play on a regular basis.
I will still be doing the monday nights at The Habit though.

So that's the plan for 2014:

• Play sets as duo
• Find drummer
• Rehearse
• Play gigs.

Sounds simple enough right?

How it's going to work (or Wait, what? Where?)

You may have noticed that I've recently started using soundcloud to post new songs rather than bandcamp, whilst still keeping the bandcamp site live.
What, you might ask, gives?
Well I was listening to a podcast by Steve Lawson where he talked about the various music hosting sites and their strengths and weaknesses with the conclusion (sorry, a conclusion) that soundcloud is good for single songs and demos, whereas Bandcamp is good for albums and finished, ready-for-sale works.
Having had a bit of a play with both sites I have concluded that in this, as in most matters, Mr Lawson knows what he's talking about.

So here's how it's going to work:
I'll be using bandcamp for fully completed stuff that's all ready for sale - at the moment that's the EP (Digging for Bones) and the album (A Driven Man). All there in PWYW* and a variety of formats.
I'll be using Soundcloud for drafts and works in process. It takes me a long time to complete a song; generally there's just me and I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times, so I get very into something and then get a bit too absorbed and hit a brick wall. At this point I'll generally park something for a while before going back to it. From now on I'll be loading these works-in-progress on soundcloud so you can have a listen and chip in any comments or suggestions. I don't care how much or how little you know about music, I'll always consider any opinions. :¬)

Whilst I'm explaining a few thought processes, here's a quick overview of my social-media web-presence.
Facebook Music site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drew-Stephenson-Music/168462393216571?ref=hl This is a site that just deals with my music (funnily enough). If you don't want amusing cat pictures, rants about courier companies and random links to various subjects scientific, just like this (and then be sure to do the whole "add notifications" thing that you have to do now as well).
Facebook personal site: https://www.facebook.com/drew.stephenson.92  for all the previously mentioned cat pictures etc that aren't included on the music site. There are a lot.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blinddrew much the same as my facebook page but also has a few business-strategy and customer-service type thoughts in there as well.
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/115421899490213383559/posts Similar to my facebook page but I don't use it very much. Not the best way to contact me really. Interestingly I can see no way of getting a hyperlink to my G+ profile. It's things like this that mean I don't use it so much.  Update: Thanks to Stew for finding that!
YAMDAC: http://yamdac.blogspot.co.uk/ My other blog for all kinds of stuff that doesn't directly relate to my music. Mostly copyright, cycling, design and other music stuff.
Myspace: ha! Just kidding.**

So there you have it, if you just like the music then keep an eye on this blog and the facebook music page, if you don't mind all the other inane stuff then add me into whatever stream is your poison of choice.


* PWYW = Pay What You Want, you set the price, from Zero up
** Actually I do still have a myspace page, if you're a time-traveller from 2001 and want to feel at home it's here: http://www.myspace.com/blindddrewsmusic

YAMDAC and what this site is for.

I think this site has been a bit confused to date. By which I don't mean that the content of the updates are confused, that's a reflection of my state of mind and I spend most of my time confused.
What I mean is that this site has been serving as both my music site and my blog, and this hasn't made for either a coherent website or been particularly relevant for those visitors who are only interested in the music and couldn't give a monkey's about my other rambling posts.
So from now on this site will solely focus on the music (gigs, new recordings etc) and I have started a new blog that will cover all the other stuff that's previously on here along with a few other things around cycling and design, which are additional areas of personal interest.
The new blog is called YAMDAC, please come and join the conversation.

Equations for the future

So the internet has been around a while now, the major labels are still suing their customers as their first response to free advertising (i call it sharing, the more dramatic amongst the industry call it piracy. Really? Piracy? Read some news articles on Somalian waters or the East China Sea to find out what modern piracy really is) but somehow they're still there and, more depressingly, we're still here.

But these things take time, a lot of time when your opponents (and perversely this includes people like the BPI who are supposed to represent me) have the ears of the government.

But to recap...

I think what we're seeing the beginning of is a mass levelling of the playing field.
Basically we will end up with fewer superstars but more people making a much more modest living from their music.
There are a multitude of alternative business models out there, they're all evolving, the trick is finding one that works for you.
Most of them are based around the following (which you'll see in a number of places on the web but i think it originated at Techdirt):
Connect with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = $
This is much the same as the 1000 True Fans theory but expressed differently.

Effectively it comes down to your ability to engage with your fans and persuade them to support you (CwF) and your producing a product that's sufficiently high quality to make it worth buying instead of downloading (RtB).

Personally i think there's a factor missing here, which, for lack of a better term, i shall call Elevation. And this what the current major labels do.
With the rise of free distribution mechanisms and cheaper technology there is more and more really good music being made. The challenge now for any artist is to stand out from the crowd, to raise yourself or your band above the level of everyone else and get noticed.
Sadly it's not enough just to be really talented, you still need some mechanism to elevate yourself above the noise level.
The major labels have massive publicity and marketing budgets, that's how they do it but it doesn't work for an independent act.
 

Unless you're an independent act with a corporation-sized bank account. No? Let's move on then... 

As always though, there are a number of alternative ways to do this. One way is via working out what your niche is and targetting that, there's a lady who writes songs about sailing (whose name i forget, irritatingly) who sells very well to, funnily enough, the yachting and sailing crowd. That's her thing and it's effective for her.

Another option is to consider your location and work out if you're in the best place for your music, different areas have different scenes, sometimes it helps to be part of that scene, sometimes it's best to be unique in your region. What you don't want to be is stuck in the middle.
Another option is to partner with a publicist / advertiser, there are people trying to make careers there as well and some mutual backscratching might be possible.

One approach that appears to be coming through is to target a really, really small niche, with a very high-end product (hat tip to Confused of Calcutta). The mass market is always going to be the territory of the major labels - don't try and compete, figure out what your Unique Selling Point is and work out how to make the most of it.

So i think the equation should actually be:
e(CwF + RtB) = $

But at the end of 2010 i find myself no nearer establishing what my business model is. So i suspect 2011 will be no more successful for me than this year was. Hopefully others will get further along that particular line.