Online at CDBABY.....Finally!

[Satchwood]

A big congrats to you Pinedog !!!  Sorry to hear about the crap you have to put up with at cdbaby....jeeez....but thanks for the public service announcement there! 

Hopefully they straighten things out and you start raking in the doe !!!

[Bosko Schwartz]

Thanks Bosko...hopefully your sales will be far beyond mine. The music biz in general is in such chaos at this point in time...putting a CD out there is just a roll of the dice.
I think i read cdbaby sometimes gets 100 new discs a day. That's mindboggling. Consumers are drowning in a sea of independent and pro music. In addition, the vast majority of today's listeners have no clue whatsoever what we here all have to go thru to get a good song together...let alone a whole album. Nor do they care. The only hope any home recording Indie's have is to be true to themselves in their creations and strive for the best they can do technically. If you are proud of what you have done, you are a success. Sales are another ballgame entirely.

P-Dog, that is kind of you to say, but I'm not expecting much, as far as sales go.  Most of my friends and family that said they were going to by the CD haven't yet, let alone strangers.  But I understand times are tough now and many don't have an extra 12 bucks, so I am not complaining.  You're right about how most people have no idea how much work it takes to put together an album -- especially when it's done by one person.  I think that only the few proud members of this forum and other "DIY" artists across the globe know that.  The only hope for real sales is to have some kind of REALLY BIG exposure.  And in doing that, you run the risk of selling out.  So far, I have not sold out, but I haven't gotten the opportunity to do so either.  If I did, who knows.  If that chance came up, I guess I would have to weigh my own integrity/ethical concerns vs. the opportunity to actually be able to possibly support my family by making music. 

I think the whole "to sell out or not to sell out" and "what exactly is selling out?" questions make such an interesting subject of discussion.  I have a good friend (the guy who mastered my LP) who started his own music publishing company.  He represents a few artists and just signed a 100-song deal with MTV to put those songs on "Nitro Circus" and some other ridiculous show I would never watch.  He's big into indie music and WAY left of the mainstream, and probably -- like me -- hasn't watched MTV in like 15 years.  So part of me is puzzled that he would so blatantly sell out like that.  The other part of me knows it's pretty smart to get any exposure possible, no matter what the venue, and that things like this are just stepping stones and building blocks on the way to being able to quit the day-job and focus on music 100%.  I guess it's kind of like how when most film actors start out, they'll take bit parts in commercials, crappy sitcoms, cheezy B-movies, etc., just so that they can technically consider themselves "working actors."  Most probably want to be in quality productions, but will take whatever work they can get.  I think this is a similar thing -- at least that's how I am looking at it.

I think the most important thing is that when writing and recording the actual music itself, an artist is not purposely creating something that he thinks will sell and thinks the general public will like.  In that respect, I can proudly say I have never sold out and will never sell out.  I know that you, Pinedog, and every single artist on this forum have that same amount of integrity with their music, and that's why everyone here has been such a huge inspiration to me. 

Good luck with your album, Pinedog.  You deserve huge amounts of success.

[Geir]

I'm just a big smile now


as these finally arrived: