Local or otherwise smaller apps don't make much money unless they sell CDs and the only place people buy those pretty much izzat live performances.

This business has changed.

WSS

You can reproduce sound that say 128 (orsubstantially less) bit perfectly.

Vinyl is a fad.

WSS

We've been working on this cd for over a yr and a half. The three Canadians and I.. I moved in a group conference call a couple days ago that we change the cd title to "The Canadian Democracy"...

Axl Rose joke

I started young. My Mom of all people was a professional guitarist in the 60s..and I got to sit in now and then and play simple chord arrangements.. I've been in, and out of the biz ever since.. And it never seems to change in so much that "legalized slavery" is a very good description.. The correspondence lately between us, our distributor and Sony music has been surreal..

Played a little bit in the 8th grade and High School but non-stop since 70.

( couple short-term day jobs, nothing I cared above when I got fired or quit )

How old are you?

WSS

@westside-steve said:

I wish You can't be that old..

@westside-steve said:

Anyway the business is probably change a shit load since I was on the road axe. I'm guessing you're about 10 years younger than me? Through the late seventies and the eighties the band used to do the hotel circuit in Canada 3 or 6 months of the year. Also played on the road through the Southeast Texas and as far west as Colorado. In those days you could play a place for 3 days or six days of the week. I don't see anything like that today. I play multiple days at Put-In-Bay and when I played Key West but those are tourist spots with a different crowd everyday.

There were also gigs at the lounge circuits, and the Holiday Inns et cetera where 5 piece show bands could make a living all year long.

Different style of music then the hotel circuit but there was work. Now? I don't see it.

WSS

Two of the other members of our project had a regional Ottawa based circuit band until a couple weeks ago. What seems to happen now is way different than how we operated. We sometimes did 2 nites, sometimes 3 in a club and we did 4 hrs. 45 on, 15 off. If the club closed at 1:00am we went on at 9:00 PM.. If it closed at 2:00 we started at 10:00 except the New Orleans area. If we were the headliners of the 2 band ticket, we went on LATE and didn't walk out till after sunrise

Now, what they seem to do for shows in clubs is have a 4-5 band lineup so you do one set only.. I'm sure the load ins and load outs are pure anarchy And of course you are then splitting the door 4 -5 ways.. Not necessarily equal but split a pre negotiated 4-5 ways none the less. To me, that's not worth the time and effort..

It seems like everyone is trying to catch lightning in a bottle, I mean a youtube video We even have a couple in process.. Our strategy is getting our name and brand out there in the areas we think we'll do well out ahead of the cd dropping..

There were also gigs at the lounge circuits, and the Holiday Inns et cetera where 5 piece show bands could make a living all year long.

Different style of music then the hotel circuit but there was work. Now? I don't see it.

WSS

@browns149 said:

Hey Steve. Are you playing playing at the ix center this weekend? I thought I saw your name next to Alex Bevan?

I was there last night but not the rest of the weekend. Sorry bud.

WSS

@westside-steve said:

Let's be honest... IMPOSSIBLE

You see us as prog?

Interesting

@westside-steve said:

We did a lot of cover material, the band was our day job.

Back when,, we called it Out on the Circuit.. Touring, as everyone calls it today is way too glamorous of a word for what it was.. I survived it once.. I don't care to push my luck

@westside-steve said:

As a solo performer my paycheck is a hell of a lot better than having to pay 4 or 5 guys and a crew.

Still just about the only place to sell hard copies of the CD is that a live gig. Since my solo CDs are different from the live show people are often surprised. Most of them, at least the ones that tell me, pleasantly.

And we're an international act so it gets even more complicated.. The crowd that wants the physical cd, the artwork and to read the liner notes is dying off..

But you're right, selling cds at gigs is better than cdBaby,Amazon and all the others..

We're focused on radio play in certain regions of the blue marble where we think our material will be better received.. The US and Canada aren't top 3

@baconhound said:

Music is tough. File sharing has made selling music impossible. The other difficult thing is trying to make music people enjoy that doesn't remind them of another act.

We ALL borrow from someone.. We've been accused of sounding like everyone from RUSH to Savatage to Nightwish to Judas Priest to Metallica.. I'm honored to be compared to any of the 5

Back to the central theme.. 37,112 streams thru 13 days.. $250 MOL Yeah, we're rock stars

It's a labor of love..

We did a lot of cover material, the band was our day job.

Still in the latter years without the 18 and 19 and 20 year olds drinking the money got worse and it wasn't really profitable or fun anymore.

As a solo performer my paycheck is a hell of a lot better than having to pay 4 or 5 guys and a crew.

Still just about the only place to sell hard copies of the CD is that a live gig. Since my solo CDs are different from the live show people are often surprised. Most of them, at least the ones that tell me, pleasantly.

WSS .

@axe said:

Did that for what seems like several lifetimes back in the day

We will never take the "Ariel's Attic" project live because I am in Florida and the other 3 are in Canada.. That, and the fact we'd have to hire two keyboard players and a Drummer.. AND,, there's the voice,, Stefano, the gentleman that does voice overs for radio and television in Montreal who is even older than we are. He's not traveling.

@one-post said:

Did that for what seems like several lifetimes back in the day

We will never take the "Ariel's Attic" project live because I am in Florida and the other 3 are in Canada.. That, and the fact we'd have to hire two keyboard players and a Drummer.. AND,, there's the voice,, Stefano, the gentleman that does voice overs for radio and television in Montreal who is even older than we are. He's not traveling.

@one-post said:

He does in the Lake Erie Bahama's in the summer.

Whatever happened to playing the gigs on a Fri or Sat night at the bar? Sure you might have to do some covers but money is money.

WSS

@westside-steve said:

http://www.gerryhemingway.com/piracy.html

And again, on one track we've had 28,461 streams from Spotify alone in the last 9 days thru Jan 2. The book keeping is 2 days behind..

Our amount for those 28,461 streams? $189.80 And I still have to pay the distributor and the Cohen estate.....

It makes you wonder in this day and age if a label is even necessary. I get letters of interest from them for older stuff I've done from time to time that I don't even open. But for Ariel's Attic, we are going to shop for a European label for a distributorship deal only..

@axe said:

"Touring, even on a regional basis is over for me.. It's all studio from here on out.. And I realize my response wasn't exactly where ya had this thing pointed... I just wanted to point out the plight of the artists to those that might not know.. I've heard the music industry described as "Legalized Slavery" many times and can't say I'd argue... So when thinking about streaming services, they're great for the consumer and provider... Not so much for the artists or producers of the consumable product.." -Axe

We do the same thing for a living so I sort of feel your pain. Still it's not much different than it's been for decades. Fifties and sixties the artist regularly got fucked out of every nickel their are records made.

And if you wanted a song you bought it single or an album or listen to the radio.

Radio stations held the power of life and death. Cassette tapes changed that to a great extent as far as sales of physical copies.

Of course MTV was even more powerful than any single radio station. No video no favor from them no success.

Now the radio stations are talk shows on a.m. and FM stations are less fun than streaming because you can't pick the type of music you want to hear and you still have to listen to commercials.

At least one change is that the estate of Leonard Cohen got paid your licensing fee. If I do a cover song I always pay.

And are we too old to tour? Sure we are.

WSS