It’s nearly time. I’ve learned to sing again. I’ve learned to use Waves’ Vocal Tune in a subtle enough way that nobody notices. I’ve learned to use Logic Pro X’s mixing desk, I’ve bought half of Abbey Road’s old gear and made it all work. I’ve found a few holes in my arrangement and added a couple of nice bits of discordant weirdness. I’ve got my ears in - it’s time to mix!
By this point, I’ve been running a monitor mix for so long that the song will virtually mix itself. So, just before it does, it’s time to start looking ahead. Or back…
In 2002, ahead of my first BTF album, I made a four-song EP, then a two-song single, both released on CD, physically distributed to a thousand radio stations in the US & UK over several weeks. Along the way, I recorded a further six or seven songs and at the beginning of 2003 was ready to produce and manufacture my debut BTF album on CD.
I approached all my radio station fans again, promoted new songs from the album and kept the whole thing rolling along for the next six months. Physical distribution deals followed (ripped-off, on two continents!), radio interviews and live solo sessions.
A month after all my promo and radioplay had died away, the music world changed and for the first time, an independent label like mine was finally able to make its music directly available on iTunes, Sony, Amazon and all those good places. Too late to help sell the album, but after the two-year process I’d been through to this point, it bode well for the future.
I’d generated enough interest and goodwill to carry me through to the second album, eventually released in similar fashion, CD, radio, sessions, in 2010. This time, I’d learned lessons and streamlined the process; targeted mailouts to radio stations, no more carpet-bombing, no wasting hundreds of copies on distribution to stores which were disappearing in droves - anyone, anywhere could now buy a copy online, easily, from a few dozen places, including directly from me. But honestly, why would you? The music world had shifted again: THIS time, the album was available from Day One, for free, on… SPOTIFY!
Forward-wind to now; new studio, new attitude, same old Bikini Test Failure and the first couple of new songs, nearly ready to go. I’m still excited - as excited as I ever was. (I’m just not sure why any more).
BUT how DO you release a song nowadays? Wait until you have produced a dozen, then manufacture a CD? (Well, I suppose you can…). Or do you just pay the $9.95 and upload your single, solitary song to your digital distributor (CDBaby in my case) and minutes later watch it pop up on your Spotify page? I presume radio promo now consists of emailing a download link. Then a follow-up email, “Hear it? Like it? Gonna play it?”
Then what? Send out a couple of tweets with a new bit of banner artwork, make a half-arsed video that no-one will watch?
Well, that’s seems to be the done thing… …wish me luck!
