Apple Stream went live today.
NPR’s article didn’t report two important facts, so here they are: Apple did agree to pay artists during the three month free trial period, after T-Swift’s blog; they agreed to pay $0.002 per stream.
In sale terms that’s 495 streams to equal one $0.99 sale on iTunes.
Also, comps to company employees won’t be paid (DigitalMusicNews’s article) so when rich Apple execs is stream music off an iPhone, artists have to give that stream up for free!
(That’s such a ridiculously perfect example of income inequality in America, I have to stop typing to chuckle!)
I’m on the fence here.
I want the public to embrace a streaming platform like I have, as a consumer. I’ve been paying for Spotify since it’s USA launch in July of 2011. As a consumer of music, it’s awesome; however, for artists, it’s really not awesome yet.
Hopefully, Apple can convince 3x as many folks to pay $10 a month as Spotify has been able to accomplish over four years. Even after the free trial period, I estimate that it will take 200+ stream to equal one song sale on iTunes.
Sadly, most artists like myself will still make more money busking at a farmer’s market than anything streaming will offer.
PS: My appearance at the Ann Arbor Art Fair on Sunday–that I did for fun–would be worth 27625 streams during the Apple free trial!
Jackson Coffee Co. – Bookends Setlist
I’m making my first appearance at the wonderful Jackson Coffee Company this Friday!
Jackson Coffee Company – 7 PM
201 S Mechanic St, Jackson, MI 49201
no cover
June 2015 also highlights my fourth year of full-time music. It feels like I’ve graudated my senior year! In reflection, I’m going to play all of the songs from Burning the Boats & Where the Sand Meets the Tide releases in succession for one of the sets.
I left my teaching job at Holly in 2011, and these two EPs bookend that decision. Burning the Boats was release in Sept. 2010, the start of my last year teaching; and Where the Sand Meets the Tide was recorded and released in the fall of 2011, the start of my first year full-time.
Set List: Top of the Park, Ann Arbor, June 14, 2015
Photo credits: Chris Major-Talley
June 14, 2015 @ Ann Arbor’s Summer Fest: Top of the Park
- Only the Rain Knows Why
- Here Comes the Sun (Beatles)
- A World That’s Bigger
- Don’t Mess Around with Jim (Jim Croce)
- I Just Want to Be Your Last
- Burning Bright
- Love Birds
- Mahogany
Ginny’s second daddy show!
Yesterday went from “Here Comes the Sun” to “Only the Rain Knows Why” quickly!
Video: https://instagram.com/p/37YaUlDTZL/?taken-by=mikevial
Ryan Stanton’s video clip of the end of “Mahogany”: https://instagram.com/p/37VZ01kmGS/
Want to hear a studio recording of a song played at the show? Download a music bundle of all of my music here.
I say thank you, because you are awesome
On commute from Chicago to Detroit last week, Peyton Tochterman and I were joking about how the music business makes NO sense most of the time.
Live on Fearless Radio in Chicago
Peyton quoted Hunter S. Thompson: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
LOL!
Last week, and really the last five years, has been a contradiction to that when I focus on you, and not “the industry.”
Music has been a wonderful excuse to make new friends, and bump into old friends who attend a concert: friends from high school I haven’t seen in years, college friends with jobs out of state, musicians one their night off, Holly teachers on summer break, former students now with families and jobs…
Today, two days after a successful short run of gigs dates, I have to pause and write a thank you. I’m four years into music full time, and I couldn’t be doing it without your support.
This morning, I received my first poem commission!
Tomorrow, I leave for a mini tour of four gig dates, 600+ miles on the road.
I pause and reflect on this because when one starts out in any business, one hears “no” more than “yes.” When I was 18, all of the music schools where I applied said “no.” When I was doubting myself two years, I applied to an MFA writing program, and got another “no.”
None of these rejections have been setbacks; instead, they’ve been opportunities for me to reevaluate a new way to pursue what I enjoy doing: writing, playing music, and teaching.
And after 900+ gigs, I keep meeting people who say, “Yes!”
The real gatekeepers aren’t the college board members reviewing applications or the a record label executives listening to a CD. They are the people who host house concerts, the people who leave a buck in the tip jar, the people who attend intimate shows at a local venue; and the first gatekeeper we face is the voice inside our own heads.
Today, I remind myself that the first person who has to say “yes” is ourselves.
Chicago House Concert with Frances Luke Accord
PS: Still not convinced? Read this: Seth Godin: Pick Yourself
