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So sad to hear and too soon. I had the pleasure of working with Phil on a couple of occasions as a guitar player. I remember him as a kind, gentle and patient man. He will be sorely missed.
In my opinion, instead of putting it on Amazon yourself, it’s worth it to pay $19 more to have it on CD Baby and let them put it on Amazon.
With CD Baby, it’s a one-time fee and they distribute it to lots of places digitally and physically. If I remember correctly, if you put it on Amazon yourself, you have to pay them every year.
Also, if Pandora doesn’t accept it and it’s only on Amazon, it will probably just sit there. At least with CD Baby’s digital distribution there’s more of a chance that potential fan’s will discover it.
This has topic has come up a few times. I’ll try to find the links. I built a relational database using Alpha Five software. Very elaborate but keeps track of everything.
Last year I received two checks from Sound Exchange, totaling about $233 and one smaller check the year before. I have no idea how they determine when to send them; the checks just show up in the mail, which is always a nice surprise. I suspect that most of the money comes from having an album on Pandora.
If you have your music in album form, it might be worth having it on CD Baby. They will then make it available on Amazon, iTunes, and lots of places that I never heard of before. You never know when some of these seeds might land on fertile soil. Also, if you want to submit to Pandora it has to be an album with a bar code that is available on Amazon.
You might also look into Bandcamp. I’ve only made a few dollars there so far, but your music may have a broader appeal than mine does.
Another thought on pseudonyms. Think about actors. They do not have the luxury of pseudonyms. Some of them do get typecast but many do not. We watch a lot British films and TV shows and see many of the same faces show up in wildly different roles. Check out Hugh Laurie’s early works. Very goofy English comedy (BTW love “Jeeves and Wooster”) before “House”. A couple of American actors come to mind, Woody Harrelson on “Cheers” and now, Tom Hanks then and now.
it looks like you’ve changed the name of your library to be more closely linked to yourself
Yep, exactly.
If they are known as a composer who does who does EPIC cues, they don’t want to dilute that “brand” by doing gentle new age cues, or urban beats under the same name.
You may be right but for me, my “gut” tells me different and it’s the path I’m traveling. I’ve always been a bit of a serial entrepreneur so I’m thinking beyond just musically. As I mentioned above I’ll let you know how it works out! 🙂
Are you speaking more towards RF sites than other ‘more traditional’ libraries?
I’m thinking very broadly. When you factor in how we are becoming more and more interconnected through the Internet via social media, blogging, forums, YouTube, etc the possibility exists to cast an ever widening net for potential clients.
The Internet is becoming less “anonymous” which is a major shift. Some might call that a bad thing but it’s great for building your brand and credibility. Google Authorship is one way to do that and rewards you as an “authority” figure in your field.
I’ve been heavily into researching and studying the latest in SEO for my own music site and it has led me this line of thinking.
Keeping your “brand” consistent, I think, is very important. If not now, it will be in the future.
I’ll have to disagree a little bit about pseudonyms when dealing with the Internet and reaching an audience through the net. What with Google placing more and more importance on “authorship” and your “brand name” you might want to think twice about it. Google wants authenticated content when returning search results and branding yourself is important in the eyes of Google. Think about everything you post on the net including song descriptions. The more it can all tie back to your “brand” (meaning you) the more weight Google places on your content. Search for “Google authorship” to read more.
Anyway it’s the path I’m following. I’ll let you know if it actually works! 😉
@Michael. I think you are confused by the question. You can’t copyright a title so plagiarism doesn’t apply here. The George Harrison case was about “My Sweet Lord” being a lift of “He’s So Fine”. At least I think that’s what you are referring to and that’s a whole different issue.
While some might disagree with the practice, I’ve been doing it for years. Illegal? I doubt it but I’m not an attorney and you should consult one if you have doubts.
Yes, I did change the search engine. The old one was from Google and presented a number of problems. Many times logged in subscribers could not access the comments by entering the libraries that way. Also it was harder to find things I knew were on the site. Another problem was it was slowing down the rendering of the pages and making the site slower.
The new engine is very customizable and should eventually return more relevant results. It’s a work in progress.
The best way to get to the libraries is through the link in the upper right under “Access Music Libraries”.
You can switch back to the old style by clicking on “More” at the top right, and then “Switch back to Classic SoundCloud”. Visitors, however, will see the new version.
I don’t know a lot about it, but ReverbNation is another site where you can post tracks.