Owning Music vs. Renting Music & Why Subversion Is Cool

Starving Artistry and Bandcamp Without The Corporate Overlords

Here I am on a Friday night in my home office / recording studio, typing from my computer as I unwind from the day job work week while looking forward to a 3-day weekend that will be labor-free.  Can’t think of any ideas for songs, so I’m blogging (and listening to The Zombies on YouTube Music - my streaming service of choice).  Forgot how good they were.

I’ve been hoping more new songs would materialize, but checking back as I scroll the recorder phone app I use for first takes, I wrote two songs in July, and two in August, so 4 new songs since the last release is where I’m at.  One is not a keeper, and it’s a revision to an older song scrap, so that’s what usually happens with those.  The other three are not bad, with future release potential, depending on how they turn out when I decide to record them properly.

Things could be worse.  I’m realizing I haven’t posted since early July, when I posted a “retrospective” of my latest album release.  So, one could say I’ve taken a couple months off from anything music-related other than recording first takes of four new songs.  I’ve checked in with the streaming counts, play stats, etc., for that latest release, and there are no surprises, so that could’ve been worse as well I suppose.

I put that album on Subvert – a new music site – and it went largely unnoticed, which also isn’t surprising.  When you google what Subvert is, you’ll see it’s neatly summarized as similar to Bandcamp – another music place on which I can see there are streams, but no purchased downloads.  It was easy enough to use, and looks pretty cool.

https://www.subvert.fm/scott-cooley

Often, when you read about Bandcamp, the article will boast a few well-known artists who offer music on the platform.  Then you have the “started on” lists of artists who got their starts there, not unlike MySpace, Soundcloud, YouTube or TikTok over the years.  Maybe this new music app called Subvert will be another added to this list.  To me, it’s yet another place I actually upload my music to myself, after going through a distributor for all the major music streaming places like Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, etc.

It could be that Subvert is to Bandcamp as Bluesky is to Twitter in some ways.  Both are similar apps that promise to be better at what they do than those older apps they are similar to.  I imagine there will always be new “indie-friendly” music service startups.  I’ve seen a lot of them come and go over the last couple of decades.  Subvert is one of the latest.

I think this new music service called Subvert has great potential, and I hope the future proves I’m right.  Maybe I’ll actually sell some music on there, but I doubt it.  Unfortunately, I’ve been completely unsuccessful on Bandcamp, which is similar in that you can actually buy music (and stream it for free).  That right there is part of the issue, I suspect.

Generally, I’ve come to understand that most people subscribe to a music streaming service these days as the only way they listen to music.  The extreme convenience vastly outweighs the lower quality fidelity for most.  Few care about owning the higher quality version.  When already locked in to that, they would only stray from that comfort for music they can only get somewhere else.

It seems like the biggest challenge for Subvert will be getting music fans to actually use it.  I’m not sure what they’re doing for advertising and marketing, but it doesn’t seem like much yet.  Like a lot of music-related companies in recent years, it’s all about the tech.  I imagine their staff is mostly software developers focused on fixing bugs and slowly adding features, not adding music consumers.

I’m not the smartest knife in the drawer, but the self-releasing uploader artists on Bandcamp who are now uploading their music to Subvert too are not taking their music down on Bandcamp, where you can buy hi-res downloads, merch and CDs.  It’s also got a large user base, and there’s no compelling reason to switch as a music fan…unless…you can only get the music you want exclusively at Subvert.  That’s the only thing that will help it gain (and steal) some traction.

Bandcamp has both a lot of ultra-obscure DIY artists and some big-name popular artists and bands camping out there already, and an arguably cooler name already.  The drawback (for artists) is that they keep getting bought out by corporations who lay off workers, which is happening to practically any and all music services these days, but I’m guessing few music consumers care.

The niche for both, however, is that they allow you to find music you wouldn’t be able to find in an actual record store (if those even exist anymore), and probably wouldn’t be able to find on Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc.  If you’re already paying for a monthly subscription to one of those, like a lot of people are, you’re sticking with it, and if a band or artist’s music isn’t available in that service, you likely won’t discover or listen to it.

For the price of a restaurant meal, those bands and artists can easily self-distribute to all of those streaming services, but I guess some can’t afford it.  That’s the way I see it.  How it plays out is anybody’s guess.  I have been able to afford to get my music in all of the above, so I’ve been lucky.  How long those services choose to keep it available is another question.  Popularity matters to them a lot.

All you have to do is look at me to be able to tell that I'm not a starving artist.  It’s no secret I like to eat, and I've always had a primary source of income outside the music business.  This choice has been shrewd.  It's also not uncommon, unfortunately.

That said, I have managed to lose a few pounds this summer.  Here's me with my accordion player (and lovely wife) at a recent party:

Gone are the days when you could be poor, quit school, get a band together, play in some bars for gas money, drive your van to a music hub like New York or LA from your flyover state, find a record company building, park, walk in, play a song or two for an A&R guy, get signed, get a recording advance, have a series of failed albums as they continue to support and develop you, then eventually get fame and fortune.

Now it seems to be mostly rich kids with industry connections who unsurprisingly get signed to major labels.  Gone are the days when you had people who just decided they were going to be musicians whether they got rich and famous or not.  I’m no expert, but it’s got to be increasingly rare for people to make a living from music alone these days.

Even if my music was ultra-popular, I might still not be able to quit the day job.  Such is the current reality.  Particularly since the Napster days of music piracy, people don't like to have to pay much (if anything) for music.  I understand this pretty well.

I don't know what it would take to get me to actually buy music anymore.  I'm talking about actually buying it (whether a digital download, CD, vinyl, cassette, whatever) versus simply streaming it (via the monthly streaming subscription I already pay for).

For approximately $150 per year, I get all songs ever by all artists ever that are always available on any device (computer, phone, car, home smart speaker, smart TV, etc.).  Everything's always connected to the internet now.  Unlike radio, it's ad-free.

Someone bought me an iPod for a Christmas present back when they were fairly new, so I decided to try it out.  iTunes was annoying software back then, but I went for it anyway.  I was someone who grew up with a vinyl album collection of maybe 25 records, several cassettes, and I was starting in on a decent CD collection at the time.  

I decided if I was going to buy songs and download them, they should be really good songs.  So, I now own about 50 of my favorite songs by my favorite artists.  That was my line of thinking at the time, and actually, it still is.

The convenience of streaming far outweighs the high-fidelity audiophile quality thing for me.  I also love the ability to create my own playlists and choose the songs I want in the order I want.  The portability is also an important factor.

I think the music streaming services will continue to improve.  The argument of the tangible physical copy with liner notes, etc. is one thing, but now you can easily find the liner notes, lyrics, etc. within the service you subscribe to, plus be able to play the music videos, etc.

I would love to have a fresh vinyl copy of The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and listen to it on an ultra-high-end home stereo with surround sound and all that, don't get me wrong.  My ears are able to notice the difference between that experience and MP3s on a cheap set of headphones.

I know that the investment in the equipment, setting up of the equipment, and restocking of the music library with hi-res/hi-fi quality would take money and time that sound like they're not worth the effort, despite the fact that my ears would be happier.

Like a lot of people my age, my discovery of new artists has dwindled as I've gotten older.  You like what you like and don't make the time for it anymore like you did in your teens and twenties.  That said, the search, recommendation, and discovery opportunities are easier than ever with the music streaming services.

I guess if one of my favorite artists of all time had an album that was exclusively available for purchase only and it would never otherwise be available for streaming, that might sway me to buy it.

That's really the only factor that would convince me:  exclusivity.  If the only way I can hear a "new" previously-unreleased, previously-lost but now newly-found record by The Beatles or Led Zeppelin is to buy a high-resolution digital download or vinyl album from their respective websites or a specific music store, then I would seriously consider it.

Another factor I haven't brought up yet, that doesn't always occur to people, is that a ton of music artists could use some financial support.  The common music consumer may not have awareness of this reality and just assume their favorite musicians are all wealthy.  Streaming royalties alone don't pay the bills.

The music business is not unlike certain pro sports like tennis wherein only the top 10% are well off.  For those ranked outside the top 100 players, they have a tough time making a living. The average fan has no idea.  Paul McCartney and Robert Plant are not struggling to make ends meet, sure, but there are so many outside that elite upper echelon who are.

So, there's this feel-good, altruistic aspect of being a supporter of independent music.  Being a patron of the arts is something to be proud of.  Some givers want public credit, some don't require it.  At people's memorial services, or in people's obituaries, they rarely cover how the deceased gave to charities during their lives, but it's nonetheless a noble thing.

They also rarely talk about how great of a tipper a person was.  You’re not legally required to tip a server in a restaurant.  Some people don’t, despite receiving excellent service.  I’ve worked for tips in various jobs before, and this is unfortunately a fact.  

Seems like increasingly, you have the option to leave a tip when you purchase various goods and services nowadays.  The etiquette can be confusing.  You can also buy things now and choose to pay more than the asking price if you want to.  Some people think that’s insane.  

There’s this obvious line of thinking that if you can already stream some music for free, why pay for it?  And then if you’re dumb enough to pay for it, why would you pay more than the listed price?

What kind of person pays more?  Maybe the same kind of person who buys music to own it instead of renting it via streaming subscription.  Maybe those who want to reward those who are barely scraping by while creating music.

Throughout history, and throughout the world, artists have rarely been among the wealthy elite in society.  There's this concept of the Bohemian, in which people intentionally choose a life of poverty and devote their time to music, writing, painting, etc.  This is also a noble thing.

Art brings beauty and entertainment into the world, enriching people’s lives, and thus making it a better place.  Those that make it have gone through major sacrifices to do so.  Sometimes it seems that some professions deserve higher pay than others, and often it feels like there’s unnecessary inequality.  Life isn’t fair.  Most think teachers deserve more, for example.

Hmmm…if streaming is like renting, what if there was a rent-to-own situation wherein if you stream a song enough, you get a free download of it, then you own the WAV or FLAC file or whatever.  Just a thought.

Don’t know where I was going with that.  Back to my point.  Which is that given the prevalence of people’s current music consumption habits (streaming), what could swing things back to the way they once were?

You can paint the record labels and streaming service providers as evil because they don’t pay artists well, if at all.  There’d be a lot of truth in that painting.  Then you could offer a way to get the music you want via some other means that would bypass that evil system.  Stick it to the man and pay the artists you love more.

It’s not a new idea.  There have been unsuccessful attempts before.  There’s this idea of being subversive.  The word makes you think of underground, anti-authoritarian, counterculture rebels in the 60s who were put on lists of suspected communists by the government.

If you’ve heard of Subvert.fm, you know where I’m going with this.  Yes, I’m a “co-owner” and “founding artist member” of a new music marketplace called Subvert.  Sounds like a bigger deal than it might turn out to be.  I was among the first 20,000 artists to sign up.  A bunch of people are optimistic that fans will leave behind the way they currently get their music in favor of this new way.

How will they get people to leave the familiar, comfortable, and ultra-convenient music streaming services they currently subscribe to without being resistant to change?  That’s the big question.  Is it even possible?  Lots of people hope it is.

What is it?  A members-owned co-op music platform like Bandcamp.

How will it succeed?  From what I can tell, only two things so far:

• Exclusive music

• The anti-corporate thing

Artists I’m aware of who are making their music available on Subvert are also making the same music available everywhere else (YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.), so that negates the first thing right off the bat.

I remember when Prince tried to release albums you could only get from his website for a while there, and later scrapped the exclusivity idea.  Back in his subversive symbol/slave era.

I imagine it’s not unlike a major label artist who garners some measure of fame and fandom, then goes “independent” and does well because they brought that existing fanbase with them.

If you’re famous enough already, you can get people to pay.  Like the bloggers/writers who switched to Substack subscriptions, the ones who had huge followings already did well there, while the others perished.

How can newer or emerging artists without much of a following magically get popular on a single platform only?  I don’t know.  Not sure anyone knows.  Might be possible, but probably unlikely.

That leaves the anti-corporate thing, which is no doubt appealing.  If I could be assured all my favorite artists’ full catalogs were all available on Subvert, I might consider cancelling my monthly YouTube Music subscription.  They’d also need to offer ad-free music videos on there as well.

So, yep, it’s a big ask to get a music consumer like me to change, but the beauty of Subvert is that it’s free, or you can pay a hundred bucks and be a lifetime voter.  Stream for free, pay what you want, purchase “exclusive” music.  They also offer “zines” which have zero appeal to me.  I’ve always thought of them as amateur comic books for punk rock fans or something, but Subvert seems to think they’re a big deal for some reason.

I’ve previously blogged about how the whole crowdfunding (GoFundMe, Patreon, etc.) concept feels weird to me as an artist.  It’s always surprising to learn that very well-known artists with established music careers who are signed to well-known record labels actually have to ask the public to donate money to them for their upcoming recording projects.

I will be planning an “exclusive” release on Subvert sometime in the future.  It just so happens that they went live right before I was getting ready to release an album elsewhere, so I released it on Subvert as well.  

When I do, I’ll let you know.  Until then, you can stream “Hues of Blue” on there in its entirety for free, just like you can on Bandcamp.  Or, you can pay me the asking price (or more) to actually buy and download it.  Have fun exploring and getting subversive.  

Hues of Blue Retrospective

It's terrible when my boring day job work life ever spills into my fun personal free time life, but in the IT consulting world, there is this concept of a "retrospective" at the end of a sprint to reflect on your recent work.  It's an agile methodology thing in software development.

I just thought of some of that being comparable to the phase after announcing your new record is out.  "Hues of Blue" has been out for two weeks now.  For artists like me, it's not unusual to think back on it, get past it, let it do what it's gonna do, and shift your thoughts to other things.

You're supposed to think back on what worked well, what didn't, and identify what you could possibly do differently next time to improve.  Capture the lessons learned, and all that.  Never a bad idea.

It's like a lot of things, releasing an album.  There's an arc to how you feel along the way.

You give a speech, a performance, take an exam, meet a work deadline, etc.  There's the preparation, the work, a little nervousness beforehand, then you deliver on the big day.  

After the initial positive feedback dies down, there's a feeling of emptiness somehow, a hangover of sorts.  It leaves you thinking to yourself, "well, that's over, now what?"

The obvious cure is to move on to the next project of course, but sometimes you have to let yourself live with this inevitable blues for a while first.

Some of it is blues because your blues album didn't immediately achieve more initial "success" than it did.  You never expected virality, but the excitement wears off.

Time to get real about it.  You always think your music is great right when you finish it, and history proves there's a "creative myopia" aspect wherin later on, you realize it wasn't as great as you thought.  It's a real thing that happens to everyone.

History also proves that your taste changes, your tolerance changes, your favorites change over time.  Other people's opinions have an influence.  I've been continually surprised by which songs of mine people seem to like most.  The opposite can happen too.

The scenario:  I liked it enough to record/release, then quickly didn't think it was among my best, then time went by and compliments, stream counts, etc. show I might've been wrong.  Revisiting with subsequent listens years later makes me change my mind and begin to think of it as being among my best after all.  

Gotta give it time.  Some faves stay on the mental list, some fall off and get replaced.

The inevitable letdown time is when "they" say you should keep hyping that new album, long after the release day.  You had the slow build up of anticipation, and that's just the beginning.  Hype, hype, hype.  Never stop hyping.

Thinking of this, it makes me want to remind people that my album called "Sunrise" was among my best.  That's what I think about it two years later.  Never too late, right?

My quality has dipped since, I can and do admit it.  But I think it's important to release your mediocre stuff, and not just wait around until you have nothing but absolute keepers.  You'd go a lot longer between releases, for sure, if you took that approach.  A real record label wouldn't agree, but here at Scott Cooley Records, I do what I want, dammit.

Ups and downs, peaks and valleys, strikes and gutters.  Such is the catalog of most.

In retrospect, if I were reviewing this album, in the context of my catalog, I wouldn't say it's among my best.  Honestly, I might rank it near the bottom of a list of my albums.  I would say it has:

•     More of a limited number of genres than usual (less variety)

•     More of a consistent theme than usual (subject matter wise)

•     Less commonly-used instrumentation (harmonica, horns, mandolin)

•     Fewer songs than usual (11)

•     A strange track order (with every other song being sort of "blue", with a couple of the best at the end)

•     One non-original standard (Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out)

•     Three arguably substandard songs on it (Because Of You, Fox Hunt, You Had To Let Me Go)

•     One that could've been recorded better (Hot Plate Situation)

•     One that could've been sung better (More Than Meets The Eye, arguably all the rest too)

•     Three outstanding songs (Scoop, Treasure Trove, Rock Bottom Blues)

Overall, it's like a lot of albums by any artist:  you have three songs you love, three that could've been left off, one interesting cover, a couple that could've been performed and/or recorded better, and the rest being fairly enjoyable.

These days, assuming you don't purchase streams, the play count stats are right there in most of the streaming platforms, so however you define success, you can't hide from the reality of how the new release is doing, it's there for all to see.

I could review the data with you herein, but I don't need to.  It's public information.  Popularity is what it is.  I'm not chasing anything.  I'm also not hyping anything.  I'm done now.

My lesson learned is simply that I like writing & recording.  The releasing part isn't too much trouble.  I don't mind a couple blog posts and social media posts to build anticipation and make the world aware of it.  Beyond that, I don't have it in me to seek publicity, or do anything else marketing-related at all.  It's just the way I am.  Can't help it.

When you do everything yourself, it can be a little exhausting.  Time to take a long break now, then possibly repeat the same process again someday.  I don't think I'll change much of anything.  

If I win the lottery or something, I could enlist professionals to help me with a lot of it, which would be very appealing, but my current budget remains unchanged, and only allows for my own labor.  I've proudly never spent any money on getting the assistance of others in making my music.  I never thought I was good enough to get that serious and sink any money into it.

I like doing it all myself, but I've always been an individual sports type of guy.  Take tennis for example.  I love singles and despise doubles.  I love the thrill of being the only one to take credit for my wins, and don't like relying on others.  If I were on the ATP tour, I'd prefer to be one of the rare players without a coach even.

I have to be a team player in my day job, but in my free time, love to go it alone.  Sure it would help if I wrote better songs, learned to sing better, took instrument lessons, practiced more, etc., but I'm not willing to do any of that.  

You can't just set out to write better songs.  They just happen.  You have to write some, then take the bad with the good.  This project feels like continued mediocrity, but I may change my mind about it someday.

I gravitate toward being a songwriter, first and foremost.  If I was a young man, I'd go to Nashville and try to do that I guess for other artists.  In this day and age of 20+ songwriters writing a single song, I suppose I'd have to be willing to change my DIY loner approach.  

As you know, I also recently announced a fun cowriting experience that resulted in a great outcome.  It helps I'm not opposed to collaboration or cowriting.  Maybe that's something I'll open myself up to more.  Stop being so selfish and be more willing to share, that kind of thing.

Maybe that's the takeaway from my retrospective: gotta start getting others involved more often in my future music endeavors.  It may cost some money, but the older I get, the more it would be worth it.

On the other hand, since I already have a few unreleased songs in the vault earmarked for consideration of future release, I can't quite release another album where half the songs are my obviously home recorded quality, and the other half that enlisted pros, which would be odd.  I'll think about it some more, see what happens.  Starving artist stereotypes aside, I'm not completely poor.

Despite Hues of Blue not setting the world on fire, I feel like I've still got some music in me, so that's the good part.  I won't say room for improvement, but I will say room for more.  I probably do need to be a little more selective with my standards.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot - Happy Independence Day!  Here's to the self-funded indie artists out there owning their creative freedom.  I virtually toast you all and wish you the best!

"Bon Voyage" is the new crazy good single from URJ featuring John Serrano

I need to herein temporarily interrupt the incessant hype of my own new album, "Hues of Blue," to let you know about a single by another artist that I had a hand in writing that just dropped.  Will it steal some of my thunder?  I hope so!  It deservedly should.

I'm the type of songwriter that if you only hear my own versions of my own songs, you might not really be able to tell if they're good songs or not.  When you hear a great singer and band record a version of one of my songs with great production, it's only then that you can tell the song is pretty good.  

A couple years back, solo artist Ultimate Rick Jones (URJ) did just that.  He recorded and released a cover of my song "Used To Be Good Looking" that was a fine example of this.  I blogged about it excruciatingly here: https://blog.scottcooley.com/2024/07/ultimate-rick-jones-used-to-be-good.html.  I just noticed the auto-URL thing for that post reads ultimate rick jones used to be good.  He's still good, I assure you.  Better than ever.

He's a songwriter, a producer, a vocalist, a multi-instrumentalist, and a serial collaborator with a great rotating cast of musicians who consistently churn out high-quality, highly entertaining music.  There are probably other artists named Rick Jones, but there's a reason this one is known as "Ultimate" Rick Jones.

Now he's done something similar with a song he and I wrote together.  My friend Ultimate Rick and his crazy-good international band just released a crazy-good song called "Bon Voyage" that I co-wrote with Rick.  It features the crazy-good lead vocal (and guitar) of rising star John Serrano, who hails from the cultural powerhouse Andalusian region of southern Spain.

Just as he turned my old blues song UTBGL into a thing of beauty, URJ has now done the same with a song draft I was sort of stuck with.  I brought a somewhat wholesome song to him and he took it in a devious direction.  It was just what the song needed.  Then he and his band worked up a sweet set of tracks for it, and the icing on this cake was getting John to do the lead vocal.  Along the way, magic happened.

Being the ultimate professional that he is, he also whipped up some impressive marketing collateral, such as this cool alternate single cover art:

I'm proud to say this is my first successful co-write!  Rick deserves most of the credit on this one, but he graciously gave me credit in the liner notes.  You can listen to it, download it, own it, and read all about it here:

Bon Voyage is out now on Bandcamp: https://ultimaterickjones.bandcamp.com/album/bon-voyage-featuring-john-serrano

And also out now on Subvert: https://www.subvert.fm/ultimate-rick-jones/tracks/bon-voyage

Sometimes I notice these songwriting contests like those sponsored by American Songwriter magazine that offer a "dream co-write" session with some famous songwriter or artist that I've thought about entering, but I'm not going to give them another thought now, because mine has come true!  Hope you enjoy the song!

Music Videos, New

My official artist channel on YouTube now has 6 new music videos that feature songs from my new studio album.

Promotional or artistic.  Those are the reasons for music videos.  Traditionally, they would boost sales of the music.  

In the streaming age, I'm not sure the promotion aspect matters much.  Since I make mine myself with free video footage I find, using free tools to put them together with studio recordings of my songs, they're not so much works of art I create from scratch either.  

I'm unaware of how hitting play on one of them would make people later want to hit play on the song without the video part in the music streaming service they use, but I suppose that does happen.

I guess some would, and will, because watching/listening to the video peaked their interest enough to want to listen to the entire album.  So, I guess posting several music videos featuring songs from my album is a form of album marketing.

I enjoyed MTV back when it launched in the early 80s because it was cool and new and seemed aimed at people like me.  I was a popular music fan, and I was around 14 years old.  I probably didn't check it out until I was about 15 though.  It made me a fan.  

I grew up watching reruns of The Monkees TV show in the 70s, so I was already aware of how the marriage of music and video could be fun.

When I became aware of YouTube in the late 2000s, I initially thought it was great because I could watch live footage of bands I liked.  Later, I noticed a lot of self-releasing musical acts like me were setting up their own channels.  Eventually, I created one for myself.  It took me a while to think of how I could use it though.

Since I was not a live performer, I thought I could at least create a video for one of my recorded songs.  I think I joined in 2013, and eventually posted my first video in about 2016.  That was a slide show video of my state folk song Smitten With The Mitten that showed the official symbols of the state of Michigan.

A couple years later, I thought I should attempt a lyric video.  Whoa, that was a challenge, but I pulled it off for my song "Coney".  Very time consuming.  Later on, I used public domain video footage I found on the Internet Archive for several more.  Then I tried some that leveraged free stock footage.

Fast forward to last year, and I was realizing artificial intelligence could be used to quickly put together video content that would be appropriate for the song subject matter.  

Now I'm close to having 100 videos on there, and hardly any of them show footage of me, nor do they feature much content I actually filmed myself.  So, not a lot of creativity for the visual portion of it.  I was just proud to teach myself how to put the song title text in there, you know?

I'm not good at any of it.  It's also really annoying that despite my efforts to tweak the settings in YouTube, the automatic subtitles keep showing up.  If any of you uploaders can tell me how to permanently disable those, I would appreciate knowing.  It's particularly annoying when they get the lyrics wrong, and even more so when it's a lyric video.  So confusing.

All free software tools.  Tried a bunch of different combinations.  It was interesting, tedious, and now with AI, it's a lot faster to whip these up in a jiffy.  I would never use AI for my actual music, but for videos, it comes in handy.  

They're not too much trouble now, but in the beginning, there was a learning curve for sure.  Mine are obviously very much the work of a novice, amateur for sure.  The art is in the music.

It just seems like something you should have if you're a solo artist.  I figured out how to set up my own website, figured I should also have a blog, some social media profiles, and it was a final missing piece - to have a YouTube channel with music videos.  Another box to check for my online presence.

Has it helped?  Probably a little.  Was it worth the effort?  Yeah, I guess so.  It's just a normal part of my process now.  I write songs, record them, create an album cover graphic, and then make a few music videos for each album release.  Part of my process, along with blogging announcements of the release, and creating a web page for each album.

For each album, I also set up a video playlist now too.  Playlist:  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8nm8Sw4SS9plF0EoVVczunzgAc5vZt5&si=typte5erBdbFiUcW.  

My videos range from 1.5 thousand views to 12 views.  I guess I've been an active music video artist for over 10 years now.  I myself think it's fun to watch some of my own music videos when I'm done making them.  I figure if I like some of them, others might too.

Some are interesting enough to enhance the listening experience.  They can make you like a song more than you would have from just hearing the audio alone, in my opinion.  It's another way to experience music.  Some purists think they are distracting and not how music should be consumed.  

My focus is on the joy of the challenge of figuring out how to do it myself, and keeping the cost extremely low by using only my own labor.  Some are funny, some are lame and low-quality, and some are actually (arguably) impressive.

For the album I just released, "Hues of Blue," I've created 6 new music videos featuring the audio from the studio album recordings.  They are not necessarily the best songs on the album, but they are ones for which I was able to easily and quickly find appropriate video material to go with the song subject matter.

Here those are:

Scoop: https://youtu.be/GqPeqOFEAcw?si=o4ISKucnSW_suUh5

Rock Bottom Blues:  https://youtu.be/KLBCDdG8wP8?si=-pkQHgxNcrrB2CBW

Treasure Trove:  https://youtu.be/THGkrqbj82s?si=juVK3Scgq2TbwqjY

Waiting At The Window:  https://youtu.be/_TcZuo7MuYc?si=GOesaM7EABjH60jm

More Than Meets The Eye:  https://youtu.be/T9b7kS6xX74?si=OoCBRnbFtaj4TOYR

One Fly In The House:  https://youtu.be/7fjWdrA8320?si=1G9zRFc4JkVsb18p

If you want to go through the huge hassle of signing in to YouTube with a Google account, then clicking your mouse a couple times, you could like them, share them, save them, comment on them, or even better, become a Subscriber to my channel, which gets you in to the "community" you can post to.  If already signed in, click the following, and you're good to go:

https://www.youtube.com/scottcooley?sub_confirmation=1

Direct Streaming Links for "Hues of Blue"

 Today you can stream my new studio album everywhere, including:

• YouTube Music:  https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n-TdC5rTCBxdggBR5Ztazwj2NyMeYH7w8&si=HWDeSzOEXkV4vzAa

• Apple Music:  https://music.apple.com/us/album/hues-of-blue/1895533249

• Amazon Music:  https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0GYCH8YTB

• Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/album/2G2xZ3HUT3xS2swjGHLD2l

• Pandora:  https://www.pandora.com/artist/scott-cooley/hues-of-blue/AL69p3gVdg3gr26

• Tidal:  https://tidal.com/album/518752620

• Deezer:  https://www.deezer.com/us/album/968477931

• iHeart:  https://www.iheart.com/artist/scott-cooley-369077/albums/hues-of-blue-396954033

• Bandcamp:  https://scottcooley.bandcamp.com/album/hues-of-blue

• Subvert:  https://www.subvert.fm/scott-cooley/hues-of-blue

For more information, see: https://www.scottcooley.com/albums/hues-of-blue

10 Days Until My Next Album, Woo Hoo!

I already announced it: https://blog.scottcooley.com/2026/06/the-big-reveal-hues-of-blue-will-drop.html I told you the title, showed you the cover art, listed the songs.  My last post revealed almost everything about my new studio album.  That was over a week ago.  The countdown continues.

Now, in only 10 more days, it will be released worldwide to a music streaming service near you.  Whichever one you use, it will be on there.  Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc.  June 21st is the big day, which is Sunday this year.

Some more background would seem to be in order.  I probably started getting into blues after watching the Blues Brothers movie when I was a teenager.  A while after that, Stevie Ray Vaughn was on the radio.  Around the same time I got into Jimi Hendrix.  In college, I hung out with guitar players who were into playing blues and listening to Sunday night blues radio shows.

By the time I was Senior, I took Intro To Guitar for fun, and all I wanted to learn was blues.  Turns out you only need to know three chords.  When jamming with a rhythm player, the pentatonic soloing is a blast, and I've done it ever since.  I've written and released several blues songs on past albums, but this is the closest I've come to an album that sticks close to that genre throughout.

Now I have to keep building excitement with another post leading up to the release.  I felt compelled, even though there's not much else to cover.  One thing I could tell is when they were recorded.

Looking back at the files on my computer here in the home studio, I see that I wrapped everything up on 05/29 of this year.  Nine of the songs were recorded since my last album, so from mid-2025 'till recently, but a couple I had lying around in a folder from earlier, waiting for the right album to be included on.  One of them, "Treasure Trove" was done way back in 2021, and another, "Hot Plate Situation" was recorded in 2023.  At least that's when I finished them.

Looking at the Date Modified dates for the lyric files (which are Word docs that also include the chords in them), those two songs were finished in 2019 and 2023, respectively, and all the rest were completed in 2025.  So, I guess I had all the songs written by the end of last year.  

You should know I usually finish recording a song in about an hour, so I've done this sporadically of course, as my free time has allowed this year, usually on a Saturday.  Sometimes I write a song, record it, then repeat;  while other times I'll wait until I have a bunch written, then go into recording mode for a while.  This album used both approaches.

This year I've mostly decided which songs to include, what order to put them in, what the album title should be, created the cover art, and sent them to the distributor.

Another thing I could let you know about is the duration.  The total playing time should come in at around 44 minutes.  Definitely my shortest.  Only 11 song tracks. There's one over 6-minute song, and one over 5-minute song;  but those are offset by 3 that come in within the over 2-minute/under 3-minute range;  and the rest are either 3-somethings or 4-somethings.  

I guess you could call that short enough to listen to in its entirety in one listening session, so that can be a positive, as well as the fact that there's length variety to mix it up and hold your attention.

A weird thing about the sequence I can make you aware of is that I had some songs that were more bluesy than others, so I decided to make the order alternate so that every other song was one of the bluesy ones, separated by those that were less bluesy.  

It must have made sense to me for some reason at the time.  Maybe I thought if the title is advertising it as potentially being a blues album, I didn't want people to bail on it after hearing two in a row that were not very bluesy.

I wrote all the songs, decided how to arrange them, sang all the vocals, played all the instruments, did the engineering, mixing & mastering, I was the producer, etc.  Did it all myself, as usual.  Here are the "official" liner notes:

The 14th, shortest, and most blue studio album by solo artist Scott Cooley.  Copyright © 2026 by Scott Cooley.  Used by permission.  Sound recording copyright ℗ 2026 by Scott Cooley, released on the Scott Cooley Records label (catalog # SCR14).  All songs (music and lyrics) composed (written) by Scott Cooley, except “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” which is a traditional, arranged by Scott Cooley;  published by Scott Cooley and Scott Richard Cooley Music Publishing, ASCAP;  recorded by Scott Cooley in 2025-2026 at Scott Cooley Music Productions studio in Grand Blanc, Michigan;  produced, arranged, engineered, mixed & mastered by Scott Cooley;  and performed by Scott Cooley, which included:  lead & backing vocals;  rhythm, lead & slide acoustic guitar;  bass;  piano, organ, trombone & trumpet;  ukulele;  mandolin;  blues harp;  drums & percussion.  For even more information, see https://www.scottcooley.com/albums/hues-of-blue.  As always, thanks for your support, in whatever form that may take.

So, there you have even more information about my new studio record.  Lyrically, it covers many relatable human-condition scenarios that can cause blues to happen:  waiting, cheating, lying, ghosting, firing, poverty, breakups, addiction, frustration, worry, boredom, loss, luck, love, and lust.  Musically, if not some type of actual blues, the subject matter and/or instrumentation are bluesy, even with those that would fall into a non-blues category like folk or rock.  

Mostly folk.  And the blues ones are acoustic style blues, not really "country" blues, and maybe closer to Delta than Piedmont, if at all.  It's my own style of blues I guess, so call it what you want.  If you need an umbrella term for categorization, maybe Folk Blues would be most appropriate, but I'm no expert.

I am somewhat of an expert in having the blues, however.  I recently looked up why listening to blues music can actually make you feel better, happy even:

• Triggers dopamine in your brain
• Helps you process difficult emotions safely
• Activates the reward center with pleasure, joy & satisfaction
• Validates your own feelings of heartbreak, poverty & loss
• Gives you a powerful sense of community
• Makes you realize you're not alone in your struggles
• View your sadness from a safe distance
• Hearing about someone else's pain provides catharsis
• Lets you purge heavy feelings to clear mental space for joy
• Hearing the transformation of pain into art inspires resilience
• Sends you a message that you can overcome hardships
• Blue notes in the music create a yearning tension that resolves to satisfaction

So, you have all these benefits to look forward to!  My new album will do all of this for you...and so much more.  I guarantee it.  😉

The Big Reveal: "Hues of Blue" will drop soon!

There you have it:  the title of this post reveals the title of my next album.  "Hues of Blue" will be released to music streaming services on June 21st this year.  A digital-only record, you will be able to download it and/or stream it on Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Bandcamp, and nearly all of the major audio streaming providers.  

Like all of my albums, this one is being released on the Scott Cooley Records label.  It will be the 14th "full-length" or "long playing" studio album I've self-released as a solo artist, although it won't be as long as usual.  Unlike my last album, "When You Need To Fly," which could be considered a double album with 19 songs on it, this one is a lot shorter.  It will have 10 new previously-unreleased original songs, and one traditional song, for a total track count of 11.  

As you may have guessed from the album title, several of the songs could be categorized as falling within the genre of blues, with some elements of folk and rock in there as well.  On it you can hear me singing sad lyrics and playing in a bluesy style using instruments such as acoustic guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, mandolin, ukulele, piano, organ, and even some horn sounds played on a keyboard.

It seems that within the last year or so, I was maybe feeling a little more blue than usual.  I won't get into politics, but I know I'm not alone feeling this way lately.  There have been a lot of changes in the world and in our country that haven't been positive, and they've been hard to ignore.  This is probably what motivated me to write and record new music with bluish hues.

I wrote and recorded them in a spare bedroom in my house, as usual.  I could take photos or record videos to show you my behind-the-scenes journey and document the making of this album, but then I'd have to clean up my little recording studio/office area, also known as Scott Cooley Music Productions, and I don't feel like dusting it all off to make it camera-ready.  If you saw it in its current state, I'd be a little ashamed/embarrassed, and you would be unimpressed and potentially grossed out, so I'll spare us all that.

Another thing I can reveal is the album cover.  It is a photo of a cone of blue moon ice cream that has been dropped, with my name and the album title overlaid near the top.  I made it myself using some simple software.  Note that the text colors coordinate.  If this were a physical album with real liner notes, I suppose I would take credit for the cover art direction and design.  

It made sense to have the ice cream be blue due to the blues music, and the dropped cone represents having the blues, and there's also a song about ice cream on the album called "Scoop," so these things made my choices all make sense, tying several aspects together, as it were.

The first song, "Because of You," is a really old, previously unreleased one.  Its lyric includes the word "hues," which made sense as the opener to me and helped to tie things together into a cohesive whole in the decision making process of the album title, album cover, and what songs to include.  

It was probably the first blues song I ever attempted back in about 1990 in my earliest days of trying to write my own songs.  I slightly edited it and re-recorded it recently.  It is basically an exercise in rhyming with the word "blues," and although obviously the work of a novice, I've always liked something about it, hence the inclusion.

Speaking of song titles, here's the rest of them in the album position order (sequential track listing) with song durations (lengths):

1   Because Of You  3:28

2   Scoop (v)  5:06

3   Waiting At The Window (v)  2:55

4   More Than Meets The Eye (v)  6:08

5   One Fly In The House (v)  2:41

6   Fox Hunt  4:21

7   Hot Plate Situation  2:53

8   You Had To Let Me Go  3:54

9   Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out  4:37

10  Treasure Trove (v)  3:39

11  Rock Bottom Blues (v)  4:34

Note that the ones with a "v" after the title indicate that for these songs, I've made associated music videos that will also be available on release day via my official artist channel on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/scottcooley.  

Speaking of "dropping" an ice cream cone and getting the blues, instead of dropping (releasing) a video or single well in advance of the album release, I'm going to drop the videos on the same day as the full album.  The video for the song "Scoop" indeed depicts a dropped ice cream cone.

I'm not planning any playlist pitching, pre-save campaigns, release events, listening parties, or any of that kind of thing.  On release day, I will just officially announce it again on this blog, set up pages for it on my website, and maybe do a few social media announcement posts about it.

The song files and cover image have been uploaded to the distributor, and the release date is set, so there's no turning back now.  It's set in stone.  If all goes well and according to plan, it's going to happen, like it or not.  I got it as good as I could.  It's close enough to what I envisioned.  I had fun writing and recording these, despite them being a little depressing, although "Treasure Trove" is a positive uplifting outlier song, which oddly enough has a bluegrass vibe, so it's not all doom and gloom.

The cool thing about blues though is that it can cheer you up.  I made the album alone, but I wasn't lonely, because sharing stories of struggle brings about resilience.  Also, I had my dogs by my side, and in fact, the song "More Than Meets The Eye" is written from the perspective of a dog.  Negative emotions signal the need for restoration, and can ironically, lower depression.  Listening to (or making) blues music is medicine for the soul.

I'm not planning to tour or sell t-shirts or anything like that either.  No live performances, no merchandise.  Just a new studio album release.  The countdown can now officially begin.  I've teased this project with some not-so-cryptic posts already, but now the cat is officially out of the bag.  I'm not planning to necessarily do anything else to build anticipation, but if you want to engage by dropping me a line by emailing me at scottcooley@scottcooley.com, I will happily answer any questions you may have.

Now you know practically everything there is to know about my new album.  All that's left is to wait a few weeks, then find it and listen to it.  I will create a page on my website for it with more detailed descriptions and the full lyrics.  Maybe a social media announcement or two, maybe not.  Otherwise, there's not much left to do but announce it and get through the hardest part - the waiting.  I'm excited for people to be able to hear it.

I just wanted you to tell you about it, so that you will know about it.  Hopefully, you'll look forward to it.  I think it's good, and I hope you will make time to listen to it and see if you agree.  Some of you are loyal core fans who always check it out when I release new music.  Thanks in advance for sticking with me.  I'm hoping that if you like it, you will decide to recommend it to other people who you think might also like it.  I will sincerely appreciate that.

Secret Stashes, Fake Fans, Purchased Popularity, and Perceived Promises

There is a quirky, out-of-place restaurant near where I live that I discovered.  It's a small place with unusual-but-good food and a hodgepodge atmosphere.  It is quite far off the road, and doesn't even have a sign out front.  When I've asked the people who work there about the place, they always point out that they have never done any advertising as if it's a point of pride.  It feels like a well-kept secret, and I'm in the know about it.  I've told people about it, and they've thanked me later.  People say they didn't know it existed, and that they can't believe it had been there so long.  Strictly word-of-mouth, and always worth it.

I'd like to think I'm like that as a solo artist.  I am so thankful for my audience.  I am one of those artists who has built a fanbase without racking up a lot of streams or press coverage.  I've never gone viral, and have never done anything to get publicity.  No advertising or marketing whatsoever.  I don't engage much with my audience, nor do they reach out to engage with me.  They just like listening to my music.  That's enough for them (you).  Like that restaurant - which, by the way, is called The Grafted Root Eatery in Grand Blanc, Michigan - I'm a small artist, with some unusual-but-good songs, a hodgepodge variety to my music, and you only hear about me from other fans.  A homegrown, farm-to-table vibe in a way.

I'm not a full-time artist.  My talent isn't the best, and my drive isn't the strongest.  I do what I can, and I probably do more than most.  I do absolutely everything myself.  I don't do a lot of pre-release campaigning on social media.  My releases are all basically "surprise" releases, unless you read this blog.  I make art for the sake of art, not caring about being commercial, but I've released 13 albums, and I have a small but slowly-growing fanbase.  

I do not suffer from second guessing or pursuing perfection.  If I were compulsive about putting out perfectly written and perfectly recorded songs, I wouldn't have the catalog I have.  The volume of artists, albums, and songs hitting the streaming services every day is staggering.  There are not a lot of completely DIY artists who have stuck with it as long as me.  The data reveals that although the fanbase isn't huge, it is a loyal, lasting one with a ton of repeat listeners.  It isn't for everyone, but if it is, they keep coming back for more.

We need the small businesses, the individually-owned establishments, the favorite quirky restaurants of the world, the guilty pleasure places, those that dare to be different, the ones you've frequented for a long time, the places with more character, the ones you only recommend to certain types of people whom you know will appreciate them.  Supporting the local independents instead of the corporate chains feels better.

When I was a "local" ski bum in Vail, CO for several years, we had "secret stashes" of powder that the tourists didn't know about.  We knew where to find fresh tracks days after the last snowfall.  You were careful about who you shared these places with, and thankful for those who told you about them.  It's the same kind of thing with Scott Cooley fans, I suspect.  Maybe my website and blog give you enough about my identity and the narrative behind the music to satiate your curiosity, but somehow, there seems to be a strong connection.

Artists like me think the system stinks, and the system thinks we stink.  They're doing what they can to eliminate us, but then the only music you'll be able to find and listen to is what they sunk money into to make it appear popular.  

If you look at my "reach," the tools that measure traction show that I am indeed a secret that has been kept well.  😉  That doesn't mean I don't have true fans.  Increasingly, however, the streaming stats alone are what are used to measure music success.  There is a pro-rata pool, and the incentive to inflate it with fraud is a real problem I've come to understand a bit more lately.

For a while there, in the last couple of decades, there was the appearance of democracy in the music business, with the idea that relaxed gatekeeping and affordability allowed anyone to release music, and seemingly the best would rise organically.

There was an illusion that DIY musicians could theoretically compete against any artist if the music was good enough.  As with any business venture, the mom & pop stores could compete with the WalMarts, so to speak, if good enough.  The reality is that WalMart has put a lot of mom & pop stores out of business, and the same kind of thing has happened with the music business.

Record labels were forced to get into bed with the music streaming services, and they have worked together to consolidate the power lost to combat the "threat" of unsigned artists.  Understandably, they reward popularity, and are doing whatever they can to increase the gatekeeping to make it more difficult for DIY artists to succeed.

Music streaming platforms do not currently distribute each user's subscription fee only to the artists they actually listen to.  Seems wrong, but that's not the only thing.  There are a lot of other types of fraud happening.  Things that may be legal but still feel wrong.  

There is engineered success by people with the money to manipulate the system for artificial growth.  This type of thing has been in the news more often recently, and casual music fans without much knowledge of the music business are feeling cheated.

There is evidence that the illusion of popularity can cause actual popularity.  Perception becomes reality.  Fake success attracts real attention, which reinforces the illusion.  Fake streams divert the value of real streams.  Casual music fans are increasingly becoming aware of the various types of music business fraud and feeling duped by it.  Like fake news, some are able to recognize it more easily than others.  

They have a lot of names for this type of thing:

• algorithmic targeting
• trend simulation
• simulated listeners
• purchased streams
• purchased playlist placement
• simulated playlist engagement
• fake fans
• fake plays
• algorithm manipulation
• fake sentiment
• synthetic listeners
• playlist promotion
• paid influencer recommendation
• streaming farms
• bot networks
• artificial plays
• algorithmic recommendation
• manufactured popularity

...to name a few.  All of this helps to partially explain why today's popular music doesn't always seem to be very good.  The deep pockets of major record labels allow for paying for all of the above while redirecting or diverting money away from independent artists like me who rely on authentic listeners.  It is systematically unfair.

Anyone who points these things out and explains them always end up stating that this type of cheating has always happened in the music business, and then they always bring up payola, which was paying radio station disc jockeys to play certain songs.

No one wants to do well at anything if they had to cheat.  When the cheating and exploitation is rampant, those gaming the system justify it as a necessary strategy.  Many see it as one of those "If everyone's doing it, and you can't beat them, join them" types of situations.

I refuse.  I'm proud to have what I believe is "organic traction."  I've never paid for any of the above, and I don't plan to ever pay for any of it.  I've never even paid for conventional advertising.  I wouldn't feel good about popularity that isn't real.  

No amount of marketing, ethical or otherwise, can make up for music not being very good in the first place, and in the long term, the popularity won't last.  It's nice when other people like my music, but if I like it, and that's what matters most.  I write/record/release because I have fun doing it.

I haven’t evolved to the point of playing the game of buying fans, streams, playlist adds, radio airplay, influencer recommendations, or resorting to publicity stunts.  We know that people tend to believe what they read online, and if an artist appears to be popular, that can make them even more popular.  

Recently I’ve read that music marketing companies set up thousands of fake social media accounts to stream and praise their clients’ new music and make it go viral.  Manufactured popularity is something that can be purchased.  They are calling it trend simulation.  They use technology to game the system.  

Maybe this is a big reason why it’s so hard to believe that the music in the top-10 lists is so popular.  Makes you wonder if there is a general decline in both song quality and people’s tastes, but then I’ve also read that the older music from the 1960s to 1980s remains extremely popular, which makes sense because it seems so much better in comparison.

I don't claim to know how labels think, or what they do.  I'm sure they chase trends.  I'm sure they purchase popularity in one way or another.  It seems that what works now is perfect production above all else.  Major labels find a young, good-looking person to come in and record vocals for the album and music videos.  They don't have to sound good, just look good.  

They hire producers, pro songwriters, pro engineers, pro session players, etc. to make the tracks perfect first, then they record some vocals, tune them to perfection, then shoot some videos.  Then they pay for all of the aforementioned things on the list above to market/promote the heck out of it.  Next thing you know, they are the featured musical act on Saturday Night Live.

Why would I care?  If I buck the system by intentionally not engaging in any of these tactics, I guess it means I either can't afford it (true) or don't feel right about it (also true).  Can amateurish music with imperfections and low production quality be a style that trends upward?  I think so, particularly if the songs are good.  That's the value I offer.

No amount of system gaming can ensure success for bad music.  Few artists will claim they don't mind getting ahead via unethical means.  That said, no matter how much money you sink into "breaking" an artist can make up for a lack of good songs.  I think our radars for detecting anything made with AI will improve and get more fine-tuned within the general population, just as we're now able to spot spam emails better than twenty years ago.

Now when I hear that almost half of all new music being uploaded to streaming platforms is made with or by AI, I wonder if people’s tastes will shift to appreciating music like mine that is obviously the opposite.  As a backlash to the artificially-perfected pop stuff, basic recordings of real acoustic instruments into real microphones without digital trickery could become the cool new thing.  

And when you know an artist hasn't resorted to any of the shady marketing on the list above, or any marketing at all for that matter, you can feel even better about it as a fan.  There was an implied promise when independent digital music distribution became possible. Real music made by a real person with zero marketing can resonate and gain real popularity.  I'm not banking on it, but it would be cool if it really was possible.

When it became fairly easy and inexpensive to record your own music at home, it made sense that you would want a way to try to sell it online.  There was this idea of an "anti-label" that would give creators control in the early 2000s, and the independent digital music distribution aggregator services that sent music to music download and streaming services (also known as digital service providers) seemed to offer artists the ability to maintain ownership while reaching a global audience.  Upload your music, then the world decides if they like it or not.  There was a perceived promise that the music would stay available.

Policies are being put into place to not pay artists if they don't meet popularity thresholds, and further, to outright remove their music if it's not popular enough.  Just having it available doesn't mean anyone will know about it, and even if they do, it doesn't mean they will want to listen to it, so some marketing spending could help.  You could sink a lot of money into breaking a new artist in an unpopular genre, and it would be a big risk, even if you purchased fake fans, etc.

Take Blues music for example.  It's not popular right now, yet so many types of popular music sprang from it.  There are still fans, and there should be room for new blues artists.  If the trends and algorithms say there's no market for it, it shouldn't matter.  We need room for the non-popular types of music to remain available.  The fringe styles, the micro-genres, the outsider art, the secret stashes.  

Music is such a joy in people's lives, and it's too bad that it's all starting to sound more like McDonald's instead of Grafted Root.  On the other hand, McDonald's has a lot going for it, as I pointed out in my song One More Mile To McDonald's.  There's nothing wrong with liking what you like, popular or otherwise.  It may be bad for you, but you don't care.  Back when I was a drinker, my preferred adult beverage of choice was regular Budweiser, the king of the macro-brews, which I chose over microbrews to the chagrin of my friends during the early 90s boom of microbreweries in Colorado.

Speaking of blues, I've had them lately, and I've been writing and recording some lately too, which I'm now getting ready to release some of.  So don't worry, I'll be further contributing to the deluge of unpopular music in an unpopular genre yet again soon.  More niche mom & pop music in the age of mainstream fakery.  Check back within the next month or so to learn more!