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Ok, so maybe I ought to think more seriously about releasing the car-based tracks.  Friends and colleagues really seem to like it!  To this end, I am in the process of setting up a webpage, organising an appropriate stage name and looking into branding, trademarking, promotion, legal, social, video, etc.  Such a load of non-rock-and-roll malarkey, yet, for the DIY muso, all totally essential.  Time was, all of this stuff would have been handled by the record company, but no one in their right mind is ever going to sign this nonsense, so its down to me.

It’s a minefield.

I’m currently looking at digital aggregators.  These are firms which, for a small fee and / or a share of the sale, will upload your music to iTunes, AmazonMP3, Spotify, Deezer, etc.  Now that everything is, potentially, all digital, this method of distribution is ubiquitous amongst folk who are not all that bothered about not having CDs and vinyl.  The problem is, who do you go with? Some firms charge more each time you want to upload a new single or album; some are able to collect from YouTube syncs, some are not; some will collect your YouTube revenue and keep it ALL for themselves, the greedy bastards.  Did you know that?  If your music gets used by some cat-on-a-skateboard clip, the algorithm flags up a potential copyright infringement – all good – but because the aggregator has the agreement with YouTube,  they claim the copyright, depriving the unsuspecting artist of much-needed beer-vouchers!

I’m told that Zimbalam is pretty good,though, so once I’m happy with the mixes, and once I’ve got some video, perhaps I’ll give them a whirl.