We hope you're having a great summer. Did you garden? Go on vacation? How are you nurturing your creativity?

 

Here in Massachusetts, the weather pattern has been hot summer days turning into thunderstorms, almost daily. We got in a few swims, a few hikes, and then back to the songwriter machine and novice marketing department.

 

Without fail, John is either customizing and toiling over another guitar, trying out new material, or feeding his Muse by studying other songwriters, writers, or musicians. New songs are in different stages and are backed up behind ones we are pushing out. Last week he had a song going and asked me to come over to listen to the tracks. After discussing it's pros and cons, we collapsed in laughter and shelved it.

 

I put 23 songs on Distrokid, a distributor that sends our music all over the world to 25 huge companies like Apple, Deezer, youtube, Spotify and so on. In the last month I estimated that we have gotten 5,000 views total, and this process of releasing songs to the world companies takes at least a month, so it's only the beginning. But it's not enough to rely on Distrokid. I have set up an account on Spotify with all the links, and videos, and covers, and artist bio for every song and now the next part is go through dozens of tasks and hoops to attempt to get on playlists! Oy vais mere!

 

I also put 32 songs on Bandcamp, another odd animal altogether! Bandcamp works very differently than all the other media. So far, it feels like spitting in the wind, but since many musicians swear they love bandcamp, and it's free, I'm doing it. 

Here's the link. Buy a song for $2 and help us get the ball rolling over there.

 

Meanwhile we feed the big monster, youtube, as often as you would feed your hungry dog. We get  some views but barely any comments. John periodically goes into a rage against yt, but I have to use all those free youtube links so if we want people to see our videos, we have to make friends with the monster. I am grateful we have a chance to show our talents for free on it, but yes, it is a huge job, and it takes more than a few years to see the payoff. But I do believe we will.

 

Although there are learning curves left and right as I navigate the towering project called music marketing, I am thrilled to use whatever I learned in art school! I get to design anything that has to do with graphics, photographs, and of course videos. In addition to that I'm developing art and ideas for our merchandise stores. I'll share some ideas below. Let me know which ones look like a good idea. They will go on the website soon and there you can get your discount as a valued subscriber.