New album out soon! Pre-Orders ready to boot!

[The Omega Cluster]

I think Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Pantera etc have all made music they love, for themselves. Yet they still treat it as a business..

Working for yourself is better than working a 9-5 in a shop imo.

I find the idealogy of "I write music for passion and if I try to make money out of it it somehow means I'm less passionate about it" just a completely different train fo thought to me. I'm not saying that is the mentality you have, as reading text online is so hard to convey a clear message.

So I won't assume. With maximum respect, I just see it as: I write music that I love, for myself, and I think that other people may like it enough to support me to continue to do so.

So I promote myself in order to allow people to know I exist so the option to support me is there.

I make decisions financially based on in vs out so that I can write off time and have the only expense as a free one if possible. (I say write off time because time won't stop, regardless of if I'm scratching my ass or recording music).

To be clear, NONE of this is supposed to come of as condescending or "holier than thou" etc, just my thoughts on it, I find discussions can turn real ugly with opposing views online due to lack of clarity in communication.

Cheers man!
-JP

Perhaps your goal in life is to become a self-sustaining musician, and I can respect that. However, my goal is not to become the next Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Pantera, etc. I have a degree in sciences and will probably make a career out of it, hopefully. Right now I see my music passion the same as a passion for collectibles, for art, for stamps, miniature trains, etc.: people will spend money on it and never see it again, but they do it because they love what it brings them. I love what making music brings me, and I don't expect to make money off of it. If I do, well, all the better! And if I ever become so popular that I can make a decent amount off of it, I might begin to consider it as a business.

Also, I'm not saying either that I'm better than you or anything for doing so. Or that you do passionless music because you treat it as a business. I'm pretty sure that Ed Sheeran, for lack of a better example, is truly passionate about his music, and it occurs that people like to listen to what he likes to create! Good for him. But that's not really the case for me, I have quite... peculiar tastes in music, and they're not what I can call popular. I know there are people out there liking what I make, but they're certainly not enough to make a living. If you have more popular tastes (maybe in the likes of Meshuggah or Gojira or whatever), then these two variables concord and work together for the benefit of all parts involved, and that's great! But for me, I'll stick to my dark and weird music that I do only for me and that is a siphon for money!

 

[Rev2010]

I completely disagree with never expecting to get your money back. I just made this album for free (other than time)

I think it depends on how you released an album. You said you made this one for free, did your old band release the exact same way? - ie. costless. Because if you release to CD's it costs money. If you release to independent digital distribution like CDBaby or Tunecore it will also cost money, not a lot but it still costs some money. If you only release through Bandcamp you are waaay selling yourself short since you're missing a tremendously large audience (iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, Google Play, Rdio, etc). If you do decide to go through one of them I personally greatly prefer CDBaby. If you'd like more info PM me.

But I think when people talk about making money back they also mean the cost of what went into making the album, and that includes gear. You're totally right though, almost all of us would've bought the gear anyhow so it's kinda hard to factor that in as cost. But it's real and it's there. Maybe you would've bought your amp or axefx or whatever, but what about all the plugins (compressor/EQ/reverb)? I doubt you have all free one's, and yeah way too many people just use cracks so it's "costless" to them but I bought mine and the cost does add up.

Anyhow, definitely consider releasing your stuff through a major digital distribution service. You'll reach far more people than just using Bandcamp and will make more money as a result.


Rev.

 

[Humidfume]

Perhaps your goal in life is to become a self-sustaining musician, and I can respect that. However, my goal is not to become the next Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Pantera, etc. I have a degree in sciences and will probably make a career out of it, hopefully. Right now I see my music passion the same as a passion for collectibles, for art, for stamps, miniature trains, etc.: people will spend money on it and never see it again, but they do it because they love what it brings them. I love what making music brings me, and I don't expect to make money off of it. If I do, well, all the better! And if I ever become so popular that I can make a decent amount off of it, I might begin to consider it as a business.

Also, I'm not saying either that I'm better than you or anything for doing so. Or that you do passionless music because you treat it as a business. I'm pretty sure that Ed Sheeran, for lack of a better example, is truly passionate about his music, and it occurs that people like to listen to what he likes to create! Good for him. But that's not really the case for me, I have quite... peculiar tastes in music, and they're not what I can call popular. I know there are people out there liking what I make, but they're certainly not enough to make a living. If you have more popular tastes (maybe in the likes of Meshuggah or Gojira or whatever), then these two variables concord and work together for the benefit of all parts involved, and that's great! But for me, I'll stick to my dark and weird music that I do only for me and that is a siphon for money!

A great, respectful response, thanks man, I respect that! Really good to see peoplecan still comunicate without arguing these days. I understand what you're saying for sure. My goals are to be able to make a living off of whatever "talent" I may or may not have.

Photography and Music / Sound Engineering.

I think it depends on how you released an album. You said you made this one for free, did your old band release the exact same way? - ie. costless. Because if you release to CD's it costs money. If you release to independent digital distribution like CDBaby or Tunecore it will also cost money, not a lot but it still costs some money. If you only release through Bandcamp you are waaay selling yourself short since you're missing a tremendously large audience (iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, Google Play, Rdio, etc). If you do decide to go through one of them I personally greatly prefer CDBaby. If you'd like more info PM me.

But I think when people talk about making money back they also mean the cost of what went into making the album, and that includes gear. You're totally right though, almost all of us would've bought the gear anyhow so it's kinda hard to factor that in as cost. But it's real and it's there. Maybe you would've bought your amp or axefx or whatever, but what about all the plugins (compressor/EQ/reverb)? I doubt you have all free one's, and yeah way too many people just use cracks so it's "costless" to them but I bought mine and the cost does add up.

Anyhow, definitely consider releasing your stuff through a major digital distribution service. You'll reach far more people than just using Bandcamp and will make more money as a result.


Rev.

Yeah I love CDBaby!!!! I'm nt sure I've ever gained any more sales through it though. I shoudl try again for this release!

Karhu was on CDBaby etc! I noticed we got a LOT of Spotify plays! Thanks for the response buddy!!! I'll let you know when it's up!

 

[Rev2010]

Yeah I love CDBaby!!!! I'm nt sure I've ever gained any more sales through it though. I shoudl try again for this release!

Here's the thing... it's easiest for people to simply buy your stuff if they use a specific service. Their credit card info, email, address, etc is already on file... it's just a simple click to buy. PLUS, you're missing out on the fact that many people get Amazon, iTunes, or Google Play gift cards for holidays or birthdays etc. They can then use that card to buy your album. You wouldn't believe just how many people couldn't be bothered to buy an album through BandCamp. I've bought through BandCamp, so I'm not one of them, but many people just won't bother. But if your album is on whatever service they typically use you just might get that sale.

Karhu was on CDBaby etc! I noticed we got a LOT of Spotify plays!

Spotify is the WORST for payouts!!! You get like a tenth of a cent per stream
or less! Unfortunately it's just so damn popular. I keep my stuff up on there just for exposure.


Rev.

 

[Humidfume]

Here's the thing... it's easiest for people to simply buy your stuff if they use a specific service. Their credit card info, email, address, etc is already on file... it's just a simple click to buy. PLUS, you're missing out on the fact that many people get Amazon, iTunes, or Google Play gift cards for holidays or birthdays etc. They can then use that card to buy your album. You wouldn't believe just how many people couldn't be bothered to buy an album through BandCamp. I've bought through BandCamp, so I'm not one of them, but many people just won't bother. But if your album is on whatever service they typically use you just might get that sale.



Spotify is the WORST for payouts!!! You get like a tenth of a cent per stream
or less! Unfortunately it's just so damn popular. I keep my stuff up on there just for exposure.


Rev.

Yeah Spotify is like argh

 

[Humidfume]

I had my bass away for a new neck job, just got it back and starting recording some new material. Tweaking mix etc, what do you think?

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/josephparry/beaten-by-the-punch[/SC]

 

[Humidfume]

Decided to release this album under my band (Karhu) instead with a full stream too:

https://karhu.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpXMbOtqnHg

 

[kylendm]

This just came on earlier today in my car. Some of the riffs rule. People should definitely take another listen.