OK, so how can I incentivize you to buy an album before December 24th, 2012? 😀

On December 24th I will be switching the ‘processor’ that connects my music to the various e-commerce sites. This is not the same as a ‘credit card processor’. Rather, this is yet another machination of the music biz. To keep out the riff-raff (get it?) every artist not linked to a major label must go through one of these ‘brokers’ in order to be available on sites like iTunes or linked into Pandora. They charge fees to do this of course, so like car insurance, it pays to periodically compare rates. Unlike car insurance, they all do exactly the same thing so there’s no fear-factor in switching. OK, the only fear factor is during switch-over time. Sometimes you ‘go dark’ for a day or two. Which is why I try to do these things during the least sales-prone times of the year. Christmas week.

Starting now and until December 31, 2012

In the immortal words of Hedley Lamarr, ‘Why am I telling you this?’

If you’ve even been thinking about getting the latest album, here’s the offer:

• Purchase Songs From Detroit and receive a second (different) album from the catalog for just five bucks.
• Purchase any single from Songs From Detroit and receive a second digital single for free.

If that’s not incentivization? I don’t know what is? 😀

(With a bit more vocabulary like that? Heck, I coulda been the deciderer in chief.)

Post-Rantus

It’s been almost four years now since I wrote about the almost 100 to 1 ratio between pirated downloads of my songs and legitimate purchases. Obviously the situation hasn’t improved. I mention it only because the bloom seems now to be off the rose for many big-time performers and writers. Here’s one example. So in one sentence: over 3,000,000 plays on Pandora gets you less than $40 in royalties.

I used to get laughed at by friends about this. Part of it is that, like we’ve seen in the recent elections, empathy can be hard to come by unless when it’s not your disease or your job on the line.
And part of it is that human beings can have a tough time processing certain realities that seem so utterly unfair. Jews In Ovens, Global Warming, Hurricane Sandy, the cop about to arrest you. We tend to take a while to literally accept situations that just should not be. I call this the ‘that kinda thing happens to other people’ syndrome.

But as we’ve seen recently, help comes from people banding together to fix things. There are no ‘rugged individualists’ in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. And the situation for all musicians will not improve until we do.

But lest you think I’m some kinda Commie. Let me end today by saying I’m happy to discount my work to get you to listen to try some new things. Frankly? If I never sold another ‘digital download’ off-site, I wouldn’t shed a tear. I much prefer selling dribs and drabs quantities here and keeping what I earn, than selling a lot more but giving the lion’s share of my money to Big Brother. Quite the Tea Partyer me. Més no? 😀