Keeping Up

When I entered the music business in the very late 1970s, how was I to know the music industry of the 20th century was at a peak and on the verge of a cataclysmic shift? This shift would occur gradually, and then seemingly suddenly, over some 25 years time, resulting in a business landscape with little resemblance to the world that preceded it. I’ve written several times in this blog space about the power of change, and how we musicians have had to deal with it. The advances of digital technology have had such a huge impact on musicians that I think it’s much like Charles Dickens once wrote: It is the best of times, and it is the worst of times.

It is the best of times because an individual composer/artist like me can create and record at a remarkably high level without ever leaving my house. By and large, I can curate my own catalogue of music, and write what I want to write when I want to write it. It is the worst of times because this approach not only isolates me from the many creative people I once worked with, but it also burdens me with the weight of being my own publisher, publicist, and administrator (jobs I am poorly qualified to handle), as well as my own editor and typesetter (jobs I can do, but which wear me out).

But – as the tired trope goes – it is what it is. We must either deal with the new realities of the music business, or find another line of work. The latest reality I’ve been dealing with is that of the music streaming services. Were it not for an innocuous email I received this past spring about the MLC, I would have zero idea that I, as an independent publisher, cannot collect any streaming income for my copyrights unless I register them with the MLC. Entering the world of the MLC led me to the world of the streaming services, ISCW numbers versus ISRC numbers, and why it’s so very important to get all one’s songs properly registered, not only with one’s PRO, but also with the MLC. And so – for the past several months I’ve been doing just that, registering all my new material and trying to straighten out some older songs that were registered incorrectly by a former publisher. All the while, I was also working my “day job” of writing music for whatever client was hiring me at the time.

All that to say – it can be quite tiring to “keep up” with all the changes. And there are times I wanted to just say, “Forget it. It ain’t worth the effort.” And to be perfectly honest – it may well not be worth the expense. (More on that in a moment.) But I’m just OCD enough that I had to see this through. And in doing so, I came to learn that all the new music I had created and recorded for my website would never be shared on any streaming service unless I jumped through the necessary hoops (and expense) to get that music uploaded to those services. Now – you may be thinking, “Robert, it seems fairly obvious that your music isn’t going to magically appear on Spotify or Pandora all by itself.” And you’d be right. But I had simply never thought about that – not until that email about the MLC showed up in my inbox.

But now – some months later, I’ve not only thought about it, I’ve acted on it. From the music at my website, I created seven “CD projects” (for lack of a better term – since nobody buys CDs any more). Each project has its own personality. Three of them have already begun to appear on the streaming services along with my 2019 recording, “Sounds Crazy.” By the first week of next month, all seven should be available to stream or download. So what are these projects?

Four of them are choral music projects. One is an instrumental orchestral project. The remaining two are “artist” projects, containing many of the songs I’ve posted on YouTube, featuring not just me – but some of my favorite singers to have ever worked with. Here are project the titles to look for:

• PRAISE WITHOUT END – Cool songs for contemporary choral music
• THIS IS MY FATHER’S WORLD – Hymns of faith for traditional choral music
• THE POWER OF YOUR GRACE – Sacred choral anthems
• DECEMBER THROUGH MY WINDOW – A wintry mix of modern choral music
• TESTIMONY – Orchestral praise
• WE’RE THE SAME – A sort of follow-up to “Sounds Crazy” but with guest vocalists
• DINOSAUR – Old-school pop and Americana Country, featuring awesome guest vocalists

So – keep an eye out on your favorite streaming service for any and all of these to show up. And please, play them. Over, and over, and over again. These services pay so very little that I’ll need a couple million plays just to pay for the upfront expenses of getting them on the streaming services. Like I mentioned before – it may well not be worth the expense. But no musician I know got into this business just for the money. For most of us, it was about meeting girls… (I met mine and married her, so it worked out really well for me!)

I’ll try to say more about these projects individually in the coming weeks. in the meantime – Merry Christmas!