Stained Glass - Noisetrade

April 5, 2010

I’ve had a big struggle in my career with this idea of “free music”. Questions like, “How do I make money to live?” or “How do I recoup the money spent on my record?” spread through my mind like wildfire. Money, especially in my line of work, is hard to come by so why would I make it harder on myself and give out my work for free?

Well I still don’t have a definite answer to this question but despite my loss for an explanation I decided to jump on Noisetrade anyway and post my record for free. That’s right, free. For 48 hours I will allow anyone to access my page, enter their e-mail address, and instantly have my record downloaded onto their computer. As scary as it was to make this decision, my fear has since subsided. In the last 12 hours I’ve had 154 downloads. 154 people that couldn’t purchase my record now have it and have at least listened to it one time through. This gets me excited.

Let’s do the math though (just for kicks). If I were to sell 154 records at $12 a pop I would have brought in $1,848. That’s a lot of money. So all that to say… “You’re welcome”.

My goal with this is to reach as many people as possible. Being completely independent, like I am, makes it extremely difficult to reach large numbers of folks. With Noisetrade I’ve been able to tap into a new group of people that might’ve taken me a year (no exaggeration) to reach.

On top of that, I want to give back in any way that I can. Many of you have come out numerous times to my shows and have purchased all my records. You’ve even gone a step further and dragged your friends along who have also purchased my records. I know earlier I said “you’re welcome” but you can also consider this decision a “thank you”.

Now if you would like to go one more step further, here is what you can do for me.

If you have downloaded the album for free, or even purchased the album, and if you enjoy the work and believe in what I do, spread the word. Tell any and everyone you can about what I do and send them my way. I’m hoping by the end of the 48 hours (which ends at 5pm on Tuesday April 6th) I have had at least 500 of my records downloaded from Noisetrade. Now what would be even more amazing than that is if after the 48 hours are up I get 500 SELLS from my website.

It is possible with your help.

I love what I do and I don’t ever want it to end. With or without money I will always write, I will always sing, and I will always try and find someone to listen. Thank you for listening to me for as long as you have. Please don’t ever stop. Tell your friends about my work and let’s all go together.