Mean-Minded, or a Practical Way Forward?

With several concurrent music projects under way, I’ve been thinking about the best way to present each of them to the world. There is almost nothing we create these days that isn’t available to the entire world at the touch of a button, so we have to try and find innovative ways to give each release its best chance. Everything we try has probably been done before, and new strategies are ever more difficult to devise. 

CURRENT ALBUM CATALOGUE PRE-2025:

For years now, my solo Bandcamp page has presented music on the basis of “Name Your Price” or “Pay What You Can Afford”, and it’s worked reasonably well. There’s always going to be a risk of a minority of cheapskates buying every album for a nominal amount (some re-sell them for a profit), but that’s part of the territory. Therefore, releases more than two years old will continue to sell on those terms.

In October 2023, I released the “Elevation” album exclusively from my website. It was an experiment that worked surprisingly well, outstripping any of my previous solo releases within the first month. While it’s tempting to repeat the exercise, I’ve been around long enough to know that a good thing rarely happens twice. Predictably, sales for “Elevation” dropped off a cliff by the end of 2023, so I’m adding it to my Bandcamp portfolio when it’s two years old in the hope of a new spike in sales.

NEW ALBUMS FOR 2025

All new albums, solo or collaborative, will be sold at £10.00 GBP. I’ve scheduled the release date for “A Proliferation Of Pointlessness” for Friday 29th August at 6pm (UK), when there will be a Listening Party on JohnReed-Music. Subscribers to my Bandcamp and anyone who buys the new album from 7pm on that day until 7pm on 30th August will receive additional digital songs. The Listening Party will be a one-off, and it will be taken down at 7pm on 30th. Put the dates in your diaries.

Other than one or two songs I’ve played live and one single release, I will not be releasing any more singles or playing any of the new solo material before its day of release. Radio play will be synchronised, with no airplay for the songs until they’re in the public domain. Some of the radio guys may not be too happy about that, but I hope they too will understand the good reasons for doing things this way.

ALL MUSIC HAS A VALUE:

Just as technology enables independent musicians to create and distribute music, it is also a huge threat to our ability to earn. Eight years ago, I had two works stream-ripped from major streaming platforms. That’s when someone steals (rips) an album, then passes it off as their own creation, undercutting any price you might have set. I immediately removed all my solo work from those platforms, which may itself have cost me. Who knows?

All music has a value. These days, the threat to that value is enhanced by AI, so I’m trying a new approach. AI is more than just copying, it’s predictive, assumptive, manipulative, and makes ‘passing off’ significantly easier. Its only weak link is that it relies on data to fuel it. So my amateurish theory is that if something isn’t yet in the public domain, none of the above can happen. There’s always the possibility that recording software might also be hacked, and those days are probably not too far away because nothing, literally nothing, is safe online any more.

Some of you might think this strategy is somewhat mean-minded, possibly slightly unhinged, but I’d argue back that it’s an existential imperative for musicians to do whatever they can to protect their works. If I’m going to continue to make music then it has to be affordable. I expect always to make a loss, but I don’t spend every evening in the boozer, we are not sports obsessives or serial restaurant patrons, and we go to gigs just occasionally. So any losses I do make are part of the territory – just like any hobby. Occasional profits have been welcome, but thundering losses are no longer part of the equation.

Following the enforced delays of earlier in the year, these next few months will be populated by new releases of different kinds. I’ve done the creating bit. I just need to find ways of  paying for some of it!

Peace.

John