what are people doing with all their masterpieces? Ambition?

[peteralston]

well, in repsonse to another fine Donkey Tugger recording, and also listening to Garret's latest masterpiece, I posted the following :-

another good song, BUT, what are you doing with all these songs? (I know about your website and cd on there)

And this sort of goes out to everybody - is anybody sending their stuff off to record companies etc? And has anyone been signed and is that what they want?

Soooooooooo .... what are people doing with all their gems, and what are sort of ambition is there? I suppose I'm mainly interested in whether people from the UK have had any feedback from record companies, publishing companies etc, but would also love to hear if others from faraway lands have had any 'professional' feedback etc

Cos surely everyone would love to get paid for their music, and also thinks that what they do can't be as bad as most of the 'commercial' stuff they hear ... or maybe not.

Peter

[garret]

Yikes, too kind calling that track a masterpiece.

Right now, I'm just happy writing good music. I try to finish at least one tune a month... (I work a lot slower than many people here. Vurt! Wopelka Donkey T . Working full time and having a new baby doesn't help... but actually I've always written stuff slowly).

Some day, when I've built up enough tracks, I might book some studio time at a friend's recording studio (pogo studios) and get his help with overdubs and mixing.

Then, the plan is to shop them around to indie labels. I know the owner of one label (polyvinyl records) so I'm pretty sure he'll at least listen. If I got some cash, it'd be great.. but I'd be happy enough just getting my stuff released.

We'll see if any of that happens. I have to write a bunch more good tunes first.

-Garret

[plunge]

I had hopes of sending stuff to labels and trying to get a deal at one point. I really wouldn't want to do the artist thing, though. I'd miss the home life too much. Writing songs for a few years for others to sing would be a dream gig, though.

Right now, I'd love to compile a few songs and make a CD to sell from my web site. I wonder how other folks do at that? I also have some stuff that I'd love to do at church, worship songs and what not.

[vurt]

ive actually had interest from 3 labels
but im too lazy to follow through on it


actually its not that im lazy i personally just dont think im ready


altho a project i am involved with has a new release pending on a label

[Beardedone]

I sure as heck ain't ready yet but I'll play guitar anytime.

[Wopelka]

i'm just happy making music and sharing it with others.

i'd like to produce an album, one day, but i'm certainly not ready yet.

besides, i think, to have a minimum impact with your music, you have to play live, make gigs, etc.

and i don't have a clue how i could do it (even tho i'd like to)... i'm a wannabe producer, hardly a singer, but i can't see me with my mouse and my midi keyboard facing the audience...

[Markleford]

Oddly, while I first started writing music software to help compose music, I'm now writing music as proof of concept for my software experiments.

I have no aspirations for 'getting signed' or selling my music, but I would like to quit my day job to work on my music software full time.

- m

[lykwydchykyn]

I spent about 7 years of my life trying to make it in music. I had a record deal, I did music library, produced demos, etc etc. I have a pretty good handle on what it takes to make it, and I don't have it. In my experience, being a recording artist is about 10% making music and about 90% crap I can't stand, not to mention the near impossibility of actually making a livable income as an artist.

What I do have is a love of making music. So really I don't know what to do with my stuff. In an ideal world we could all make a nice middle-class living exploring our creativity and honing our craft. Maybe we can dream that somehow it will happen that way. For now, I make music without a plan or purpose; I just can't seem to stop.

[neunen]

i dont think i could leave home life either.
or be a "performer" for a living
....since the invention of the personal CD burner, ive made 3 albums. each time i would burn about 50 copies, print off the covers at a kinkos and then give them away to anyone who wanted one (mostly friends). i wrote an hour of music for an art show once and played ONE live show with my cpu. but none of my stuff is up to the par i would like it to be so ive never tried making money from it.
but if someday i start writing the par of music id like to, just writing it would enough to satisfy me

i wish there were 72 hours in a day so i get get done with all those silly "real world" responsibilities and then spend the last 48 or so just writing music.

ps. good thread. it was good to hear about other people with the same lust for writing tunes

[Steven West]

I would like to have some interest from record labels that actually understand my concepts and delivery methods (I know, I know - dream on! )

But after slugging it out for 25 years piecing together elaborate songs with less than elaborate gear, and making them even worse with cheap cassettes and bad stereos - I have to say in the last 5 years I've finally fully realised my potential. I can record and press 75% of the ideas I come up with to my satisfaction. Design and package CD's and internet links as I see fit. Rework/remix/remaster songs at a later date to make them even better (hopefully?). And all from a itty-bitty laptop! So really, all I'd like to find is some label to mass replicate and distribute my stuff. Hopefully invest in future projects where I wouldn't argue about percentage yields and shares. And leave me the hell alone about 'image, touring, press junkets, tabloid spins' and all that shit.

I mean it worked for Stanley Kubrick? And I ain't making Fear And Desire music anymore. Sure, I've made a few Killers Kiss in my time - but I'm ready for Paths Of Glory now atleast.

[PugFace]

I am earning too much money by other means to be bothered to sell any stuff directly. Composing music to sell to big artists is the easiest way to make a living and your hidden from the media.

Just get yourself a non-disclosure agreement.

[Sleek Month]

Eh.

I'd love to sell out, but really, who's buying?

Labels want 22 year-olds who have already put out indie albums and are touring.

...that or well conected workaholics.

I am neither.

I write as a compulsion, anyway, so whether I can sell it or not is immaterial.

The downside is that I have to work for a living, the upside is that I can make whatever I like, trends be damned, and the music I make is very unfashionable.

...but the internet is nice. It gives me a place I can "publish" my little songs, and after all, I just want the stuff to be heard.

-S.

[Alive In Chernobyl]

I sell music for commercials This is how I make my living with chess on the side for grocery money

[CypherOne]

ambition is for the non stoned.

ambition to me would suggest not being happy where I am right now.

ooh that was deep for me, sorry about that. Erm, i'm just a hobbyist, which is just as well as I have so much to learn.

and also what Sleek said

[jeffn1]

I finish about 1 piece every 6-8 months. I just put five pieces on an EP, which I am selling on cdbaby.com. Its cool because people can actually listen to the music (2 minutes each piece) before buying it. I have sold a big 10 cd's, but 9 of them are to people I do not know and one was in Denmark!

I think I will keep on creating more music (slow and steady) and then release a second EP, as well as an LP with all the pieces on it.

Once I get about 12 pieces done and complete a full CD, I will probably blow money joining Taxi, the Film Music network and/or maybe some other avenues and see if I can get my music into TV, commercials, etc.

As you can see, I am not quitting my day job any time soon.

JeffN