I realize it's a bit early but I am strongly considering not keeping my "Milestone" album up for sale on iTunes, Amazon, etc. The annual fee I have to pay to Record Union in order to keep it available on these platforms is not much, but as I never really sold much to begin with it's turning more into an unnecessary expense. To keep it available without having anyone buying it or any songs from it is completely purposeless. Of course, this means it will be taken off Spotify as well but no one's listening to it there either. I don't know how this will work with CD Baby. Probably will come down from there as well.
I released an EP about 2 years before "Milestone" and at that time I paid a one-time fee and it remains up for sale and/or play on all these platforms (minus CD Baby). By late 2014 when I put out the full album Record Union changed their policies and required an annual fee to keep the music up for sale. I do not know when they made these changes but I wish I could have had an advance warning. Not that that would have led me to release the album any sooner but it would have been a good heads-up and something to keep in mind. And even though the EP is not costing me anything to maintain for sale I may end up taking it down as well.
Why am I doing this? Well, one reason is cost as I mentioned already. But another is just coming to terms with the fact that this is really going nowhere. Not that I am going to stop making music altogether, although there are those low points when I do entertain the idea of just selling everything with the exception of perhaps an acoustic guitar. I haven't been doing much with music lately. And it's really a circular, compounding ailment. Why make music that no one is going to listen to? This takes much too much time and effort to just do it for my own ears. If I were a painter would it make sense to paint portraits and then keep them under my bed or in the basement or attic? What good is it if no one else can experience your work, your art?
It's all just too frustrating. People don't want to hear new music unless it comes from an industry-established name. If you're willing to do a cover by an industry-established name then you may get some attention. Otherwise there's no appreciation for the dozens of hours put into writing, recording & producing an original song. Granted, I allow for the general possibility that my music is not good to some people. But there is plenty of stuff that is not good being played on the radio and on commercials and on TV shows and in movies. There is plenty of music on the charts that is not good.
Seriously, I haven't even been writing songs or playing guitar much at all lately. I've probably lost all my callouses. And the truth is I don't even really care. It's not fun anymore and it doesn't matter like it used to. I am still going to finish up what I've been working on and do some more trusty old Christmas songs. I'll put them up on YouTube and soundcloud at some low-quality level just to discourage downloading. I'll save the high quality recordings for the few people who do appreciate what I do.
I have a Twitter account which I set up for my music under the name of Exit World, of course. You couldn't imagine how many followers I've had who are trying to sell me something, whether it's remastering my songs, airtime for my music (sounds like payola), promotion, etc. Basically the majority of followers I've gotten only want something from me in one way or another. I'm sure they haven't even bothered to listen to anything I've made. They find out I make music and then naturally follow me. The worst thing is that many of them follow for a day or two and then unfollow. That really is a plague over on Twitter, isn't it? Following to get you to follow and once you do they unfollow. I don't even bother anymore. I am also considering taking down my twitter account. There is no point to it. It's nothing more than a huge waste of time.
But I still have to pursue creative avenues of self-expression. I'm going to eventually start some other things--things that don't take so much time to do. Things that don't require anyone to zone in for 3 or 4 minutes. This is a visually-stimulated era and there is no denying that attention spans have gone south and permanently at that. I don't know how these things will turn out but one thing is for sure--there are some very busy times ahead!
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