Soundtrack Blues: Careful about quality translates to "excellent musicianship," "high production values"

Ever listened to the actual songs that are used in movies or tv shows?  I'm not talking about the background music necessarily, and definitely not the instrumental-only stuff or sound effects that fill out the soundtrack.  I mean full 4 minute songs, or parts of them anyway.  Like the Scorcese movies that always have a memorably-placed Stones song during a scene with no dialog, or the two songs that play at the end of the movie when you look to see the actors names and wonder if there will be bloopers or not.

A lot of states, like Michigan, offer discounts or subsidized costs to people who make movies, for example, in order to get them to shoot their movies here.  Instead of incentives to hire Michigan people though, they usually bring their own crews from California according to things I've read.  It would be awesome if the Michigan Film Office would offer credits for them using original songs from Michigan-based songwriters, recorded by Michigan-based recording artists like me.  I'm both. 

So the reason they'd pick me over Jack White would be that my self-penned and self-recorded songs would theoretically have a much more modest cost associated with them.  Movies made in Michigan don't even bother to get famous Michiganders like Jack though, let alone non-famous amateurs like me.  A big difference is my overall sound quality, or lack thereof.  Even if I got submitted to the supervisor/decision makers for movie music, I'm guessing they wouldn't want the amateurish sound along with the unknown artist factor in their movie they're taking a big risk with.

The common thing you may not have noticed with those songs is they are always either ultra-popular songs you'v e heard before, or new songs by ultra-popular artists, or if neither of those, they are very professional sounding and perfectly recorded with outstanding sound quality.  Whether the song itself is any good or not does not seem to matter, nor does having the "living room jam" feel and the realness of acoustic instruments played by amateurs.  To me, that's a cool vibe that is missing from most films or tv shows.  If I were a director, I'd seriously consider recordings like mine, because it would be refreshingly different than what seems to be normal.

If your movie is about a chef you can check databases for songs about food so it will fit. You can hire services that offer such databases of songs.  Such services reach out to songwriters to stock those databases.  The one thing they all want above all else, however, is that polished perfection of delivery - including the instrumental and vocal tracks.  Gotta be slick and as commercial as possible. 

Have you heard much amateurish acoustic music in the background or as credits roll when you watch movies and shows? What about imperfect garage rock played on acoustic instruments?  How about tunes by non-famous, non-performing artists?  How about bedroom-recorded DIY indie songs by songwriters who have no business singing or even playing instruments for that matter? 

There are these companies out there like Audiosocket or TAXI who say they have connections in the film and television industries, presumably in California, to connect songwriter's demos of new songs to music supervisors willing to pay for reasonably priced music to be used in the background of movies and shows.  The only "catch" is my style of recorded music would never have a chance, so knowing this I don't waste my time on their "feedback" from the "pros" on their staff.  I already know what they'd say:  "Thanks for the money to join, but your recordings are not professional enough for us to submit to our contacts.  Pay for real studio time, pro vocalists and musicians, and try harder!"

These services also say things along the lines of "We have to be consistently professional, so even if your songs have great originality, they must be as perfect-sounding as possible."  So, the translation here is:  "you need to go out and shell out a ton of money on real studio time, get real musicians, or better yet, fake programmed music, and American Idol finalist-quality singers for your songs, then when you're done, submit what you've got and oh yeah, the songs must sound like the mainstream major label pop of current radio play."

Stifling to creativity or not, I wouldn't want to even try for that type of thing, even if I had the budget!  Why?  I write for me.  Not for other artists, not in the style of other artists, not to fit a movie or tv show, not to sound all expensively perfect from the best software and microphones money can buy.  I write to please myself.  As stated previously in past posts in this blog, I have my own weeding out process, and when songs I write fire on more cylinders than others, check more of my own boxes of what I like than others, that's when I record them.  And when I record them, I do my best with what I've got and that has to be good enough.

If you've read this blog or elsewhere in the website scottcooley.com, you know I'm no stranger to self-deprecation.  You've read the preemptive disclaimers:  no natural talent, no formal training whatsoever, amateurish sound quality, amateur playing.  Terrible singing voice; bad guitar player, weak at all other instruments played as well:  drums, percussion, bass, marimba, harmonica, piano, etc.; poor usage of effects like reverb, bad mixing, bad mastering, etc., ...the list goes on and on.  A total amateur who has no business in the music business, yet he keeps on with the fake it 'till you make it thing anyway, ad infinitum!

It's not what we're looking for at this time means it's not electronic, ultra-slick, professionally produced, manufactured with perfect drum loops and virtual instruments, auto-tuned vocals, and fitting in with the polished pop mainstream of the day like Ed Sheeran or whomever that equivalent flavor-of-the-moment person is by the time you're reading this post, and we don't care if there's a good melody or lyrics if it's delivered in the typical all-acoustic Scott Cooley rough home demo style.  No master use or synchronization license for you.  Sorry, good luck, etc.

So, I hear what they're not saying.  I can read between the lines, just as they can't see the forest for the trees.  I'm cool with that.  I'll do me, they'll do them, and our paths won't ever cross, since my style of mistake-laden unplugged garage rock with bad vocals is in no danger of becoming en vogue anytime soon.  Like it or not, warts and all, I'll keeping doing my thing.  "An acquired taste few have discovered" is how my music has always been, its current state, its foreseeable destiny, and I have no allusions of grandeur beyond that.

Album Track Sequencing Like Baseball Batting Order

Well, here it is mid-May and we're well past spring training and into the second full month of the 6-month regular season.  On June 21st of this year, after the draft but before the all star game in July, you can expect another full-length album of new music from me, I'm proud to announce once again (for the 8th time).  Baseball doesn't have coaches, they have managers.  It's maybe the equivalent of being a producer of a record.  When you're not a major leaguer (or major labeler) like me, you produce your own.

In the great American sport of baseball, one of the most important things the manager does is choose the lineup.  Also called the batting order, there are some important positions with interesting informal names like leadoff, contact, three hole, cleanup, heart, bottom and last. 

According to the great American movie High Fidelity, the subtle art of making a great compilation tape is a delicate thing:  You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention, then you've got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you've got to cool it off a notch.

So, when you think of the purpose of those batting order roles and those mixtape rules as they might apply to the order in which songs appear on an album, some interesting notes may form, such as:

1.     Leadoff:  get on base, get off to a good start, grab the fans attention, a killer, 4th best?

2.     Contact:  keep momentum, take it up a notch (faster, louder), hold attention, 3rd best?

3.     Three Hole:  the most commercial appeal, yet cool it off a notch, #1 best overall

4.     Cleanup:  power, solidify success, a power ballad, 2nd best

5.     Heart:  driving others home, mid-to-up-tempo, five should actually be the 5th best

6.     Heart:  driving others home

7.     Bottom:  slower, less pressure

8.     Bottom:  slower, less pressure, shorter than #7 to hold attention

9.     Last:  similar to leadoff, resume speed, should be 6th best

Most albums have more than 9 songs, but you get the idea.

Other factors may include alternating tempo, key, length & style to hold listener attention:

·       Length:  You never want two really long songs back-to-back.

·       Tempo:  You never want two really slow songs back-to-back, unless the second one is much shorter (see #8 above).

·       Tempo+Length:  You generally want to insert shorter, faster songs right after slower, longer ones.

·       Key:  You never want two or more songs in a row that are in the same key, if possible to avoid.

·       Genre:  You never want to put stylistically similar songs together in the rotation, if you can help it.

·       Instrumentation:  When you only have two songs featuring an atypical instrument, separate those as well.

This is not to say that you can't know the rules, intentionally break them, and still be successful.  I've heard it said that fans of the band AC/DC enjoyed the fact that their songs reflected a signature sound, and that their albums delivered that consistently.  In other words, they liked the fact that the songs all kind of sounded the same.  That said, they added a little variety here and there, for example, by unexpectedly adding bagpipes to their otherwise heavy metal sound.

So, when you've got an album's worth of new material recorded and available for release, you're about to play ball.  Before you can, however, you get to put on the manager's cap and think of who you want where in the order to give your team its best chance to score and win the game.  Just like the all-American pastime, the record business is about the same thing:  getting hits.  It's fun because you get to be creative with it, figure out how to strategically keep the listener from hitting the fast forward or skip to next track button. 

The order is always important, despite what recording artists may say to the contrary, and always carefully chosen.  My records are no different.  13 new songs in the best order I could muster up.  Probably too much thought goes into it, but thanks to the power of electronic word processing documents and tools, the cutting/pasting and rearranging is quick and fairly painless.  This next one is no different.  Hope you enjoy the songs, and the track sequence!!!  As a reminder, my "opening day" is June 21st. 

Is being "verified" for improved notability a bad thing?

I've been verified again.  I'm increasingly verifiable.  I'll explain what that means, and why it might be a stepping stone to increased notability by some measures.  Then, finally, I'll explore the bigger deeper question of whether that's something to be desired in the first place or not!

It's a weird age we live in when a guy like me who likes to make up songs can inexpensively record himself and then sell those recordings online to people who buy music all over the world.  Just because you can do it doesn't mean people are going to buy it (or like it, or even find out it exists in the first place for that matter)!  Supposedly, there are "apps" to help with that now.

Shazam!
This app called Shazam sent me an email I first thought was spam but then realized could be legitimate.  Before I continue much, I'll admit I have no idea what this Shazam app does or is good for, except that I know my friends who have iPhones use it for something music-related.  That really all I know still, even though they've now made me a "verified" artist.  What that means is they put a check mark next to my profile picture on their website.  Somehow they have a picture of me and pictures of my album covers and my music is apparently on there too.  I've got no idea how it got there.  The only other thing I learned about Shazam is when I clicked a few things they prompted me to click on to become verified, I noticed that I had already been Shazamed by people 57 times, mostly for my song American Dream.

A confused kid gets clarification on a few things related to the word
I think when I was a kid I remember this word because it was the name of a super hero on a tv show by the same name played by the guy who was later the 6-million dollar man if I'm not mistaken, and it might've been based on a comic book, and was also somehow associated with a companion or sister show called Almighty Isis that I always confused with the Wonder Woman show starring Linda Carter.  Back then you either asked friends or adults about these things and they either knew the truth, didn't know, or lied, but you that's all you had to go on unless you wanted to try a library, which was a dewey hassle.

Nowadays, however, we've got the almighty and always-reliable internet, so here, let me google that for myself to get clarification I've wanted for so long....back in a second here....OK, apparently, Shazam was the name of the show, but Captain Marvel was the superhero's name, and it wasn't played by any well-known actors, however, both Danny Bonaduce and Jackie Earle Haley were in that show - didn't remember that, but those guys have always been cool.  Further, what I thought was called Almighty Isis was really called The Secrets of ISIS, and she was a goddess who fought evil with powers she summoned by chanting "OH, mighty Isis" not all.  This one had no well-known people in it at all, and neither had Lee Majors or Linda Carter in it.  Now I know, whew, thanks internet, I can rest easy now.

That's literally all I know, except, oh yeah almost forgot, the fact that when I was a kid there was a tv show with a character named Gomer Pyle who had a distictive southern accent I used to be able to imitate and one of his catch phrases was "shazam."  Interestingly enough, Jim Nabors who played that character just happened to be a great singer and recording artist himself, sounding nothing like the voice he used for the character.  Even though I repeated it in that voice along with the drawn-out "golly" and got a few laughs, I didn't know what it meant except I figured it was a synonym for declaring "ureka" or something like that.  Here, I'll look it up real quick...ok, I'm back now and the incredibly annoying and lame user interface of the free Merriam-Webster dictionary site tells me it means "used to indicate an instantaneous transformation or appearance."  Well, I was a little off there, but yeah, that reminds me it's a phrase I've heard magicians use in place of "abracadabra" or "presto" or something similar.

While I'm blogging about it, let's learn what it does, shall we?
Back to the app again, I bothered to scour the interwebs again to learn more.  Apparently, if you're listening to music already on a device like an iPhone through headphones or a speaker that also has a microphone (this is where older tech-unsavvy folks will surely begin to glaze over if not long before now) the microphone will listen to the song being played and then send you the name of the song, the artist name, the name of the album it's on and other stuff.

Scenario:  So, presumably through your Apple Music streaming subscription (that never pays Scott a dime), you hear a Scott Cooley song playing randomly you didn't pay for (why would you?), then you fire up this app to tell you what iTunes should already be displaying for you anyway-that it's Mackinac Island from the Lakeside Landing album or American Dream from the Used To Be Good Looking Album or Coney from the Rest Assured album, etc..So that's all I can gather for now, and thus still don't get why you'd get any use out of it, but now when it tells you Scott Cooley song-related info, it's on a "verified" profile where I can supposedly have some minor amount of control to make sure you get the correct info that is already there somehow anyway (that I never get even a fraction of a cent for anyway).

Not your cup of tea?
Like it or not, people like me release music they make in their homes on computers.  They're going to keep doing it.  It's something you have to get used to - like when people lock their cars now, they beep, parking lots full of beeps that never used to be there...or people's cell phones ringing and people talking on the phone while you are trying to enjoy a quiet meal in a restaurant, or a million other scenarios for that matter.  These things are societal changes that took some getting used to and they're here to stay.  Same for DIY bedroom songwriter/musicians who can't sing or play very well but release music anyway.  There are a lot of us out there, trying not to be discovered like hopeful musicians of the past, but rather to just be "discoverable."

Be careful what you wish for 
In a past post, (From Nobility To Notability), I wrote about what sites like Wikipedia think qualifies you to be "notable" enough to have a page.  It's a catch-22 of sorts, being a songwriter/recording artist, because you want an audience, you want other people to hear your music, with the hope that they'll like it and even buy it.  It would be nice to make some money for the art you make - the songs you write and record - something you love to do for fun anyway.  However, you're old enough and wise enough to know that you would hate the "being famous" part, so at the same time you want popularity, you know it would kind of suck to actually be a celebrity and all the hassles that apparently go along with that.  I don't know about that.

If you're like me and a lot of other people in the world, you hate hearing famous people complain about being famous.  They asked for it, you think to yourselves, and they seem to have amazing lifestyles, and it's really hard to feel sorry for them when they whine about not knowing what they were getting themselves into, am I right?  So, although a part of being an independent musician involves the necessary evils of the seeking of publicity and self-promotion and DIY marketing, it's a part older, wiser creative artists typically dread.

Notta Madonna WannaBe
Not everyone wants to "rule the world" as a young artist like material girl Madonna once told Dick Clark.  She was seemingly unabashedly out for the money and fame more than other aspects of it, and she was no doubt a master marketer.  I've heard of people authoring/submitting their own draft of their own wikipedia page and submitting all these supporting articles and links to demonstrate their notability.

I suppose I could do the same, but then I might think, oh no, I'm hereby losing a big part of my anonymity and although I'd be doing it to have my music reach a larger audience, a part of me would feel unworthy, embarrassed, and uncomfortable about it all.  Putting your music out into the world for judgement is difficult enough.  So, becoming verified as an artist is another such step, small as it may seem, and I'm finding should be approached with caution.

Other verifications 
That said, I was slightly annoyed that Twitter wouldn't verify me as the official Scott Cooley musical artist and put that "coveted check mark" by my name because I wasn't able to provide enough "notability" evidence to meet their criteria I guess.

So far, I'm now "verified" already in these other online places:

• Google Plus (www.google.com/+scottcooley)
• YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/scottcooleyofficial)
• Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vHKrgpa0sJLI7feJTakSZ)
• and now I can add Shazam to this growing list (https://shz.am/a43956063#scott-cooley)

Moving forward slowly and unsurely...
As they become available (only for free of course), I'll continue the "vanity" of clicking a few things to say yeah, that's me, I'm that guy.  Some, like Soundcloud, only give you the check (they use a star actually) unless you actually pay them and have a paid account.  I'll never do that!  What a waste.

I like slow, steady organic growth in people finding out about my music, thank you.  I'll never buy likes, follows, shares, friends, etc. either, even though I know that's possible and effective - appearance of popularity is proven to breed actual popularity.

On my social media profiles, you'll see I always follow way more people than the number who follow me.  I've heard it said it should always be the opposite for a true artist, but they can think what they want.  I'm sure if you've got major label backing, they set aside money to make sure you appear as popular as possible!

Proceeding with caution, yet if free opportunities to improve my notability status continue to present themselves, I'll probably continue to go for it, since the end goal is to have my music reach a larger audience.

It's a bit egotistical and vain and thus uncomfortable but I have to remind myself it's for a good cause - me being able to actually make a couple bucks by selling music once in a while.

Ramping up to release time, kind of a big deal

Someone accused me of resembling fictional anchorman Ron Burgundy played by Will Ferrell recently when they saw my 70's style haircut parted on the side and wearing a jacket and tie in a photograph - an unusual look for me, but a bit of a stretch comparison-wise since I wasn't even sporting a moustache .  In that movie, among many memorable lines by the lead character, he said something like "I'm kind of a big deal," which was certainly memorable for me because it was funny.  Although I don't have the same ego, I do need to toot my own horn from time to time, particularly when I want my music to reach a larger audience.  You have to tell the world something is available for sale in the first place if you're going to have any chance of making a sale.  The ego I do have makes me selfishly want to sell my creative musical works, rather than just being satisfied with creating art for art's sake, without anyone needing to know it exists.

For the songwriter/recording artist who doesn't play concerts or shows, the event of most importance to both the artist and their fans alike is the almighty new album release.  I'm Scott Cooley, and although I'm not a big deal (yet!), releasing an album is kind of a big deal to me.  When you don't perform live much let alone book regular gigs or tour, your life as a singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist revolves around one major thing only:  Releasing albums of new songs you wrote and recorded.  It makes me both excited and anxious, so much so that I worry I'll die before I get a chance to get the music out there.  That's when you know you care about it a lot.  When the songs are written and recorded already, and the cover art is ready to go, it's a matter of waiting until that date, which like Tom Petty said, is the hardest part.  Don't get the wrong idea - I don't mean to hint that I might die at all.  Despite not being in the best of health, if you hear of my demise, you can be sure it was unintentional!

Everyone likes to hear that a musician they like has new material available, and they need some type of information to let them know what it's like - how it's different from their past records, a description that summarizes what it's all about, and maybe a sample or teaser video to further wet the appetite.  Maybe a trusted review found online will help sway you to want to buy/download/stream or whatever.  Let's face it though - nowadays when your favorite artist comes out with something new, you get a notification from a subscription service, and that same service that resulted from you previously buying or following that artist will also allow you to stream the new songs from the cloud on your home assistant speaker, mobile phone, or computer.  Yes, it's in the low-quality MP3 format, and yes, the streaming from the cloud to your device further degrades the sound quality, and yes, the speaker(s) and/or headphones you're listening on are substandard. 

For this experience, you pay roughly a hundred and twenty bucks a year, or $9.99/month.  Gone are the "audiophile" days of the giant home stereo systems with vinyl record players, an array of surround sound speakers, AM/FM receiver, CD player, etc.  In the modern digital era in which brick & mortar record stores cease to exist, we sacrifice sound quality for the lack of clutter, the portability and convenience of our streaming subscription, phone and earbuds or smart speaker.  You've even recently embraced the whole bluetooth thing, despite its frustrations.  Sadly, the typical Scott Cooley fans are probably Generation X'ers who have finally made this transition.  So, discovery starts with a little information in your feed, and the internet then offers convenient way to get more, and your service allows you to start consuming quickly.  This is likely your reality, even though you may still have that milk crate of albums in the basement and rotate a few CDs in and out of the mix on your car stereo.

I imagine when most artists do anything creative like recording an album of new music, they are proud to share it, and the do-it-all-yourself songwriter / performer / home recording hobbyist who self-produces and self-releases independently like myself is arguably even more so.  This is because everything you hear on the upcoming album, like many of my albums, was made by me.  So, it's my creative vision alone, which is something I would imagine a painter would experience, since you don't often hear of collaborative paintings.  Well-received or otherwise, you're ready for the credit/blame.

The Flint, Michigan area has plenty of rappers and punk rockers, but it's downright rare to find a solo artist who specializes in Acoustic Garage Rock with both Americana and Caribbean flavors.  How often do you hear of someone saying they blend the sound of the Violent Femmes with Jimmy Buffett?  The Police unplugged jamming with James Taylor?  Bob Seger sitting in with Gordon Lightfoot at a Margaritaville Cafe?  Jack Johnson collaborating with Jack White?

It's always hard to describe your music, and likewise, it's always hard to know whether it's any good or not.  A side of me thinks this is my best-ever album.  I know that right when I write a new song, I'm excited about it because it is so fresh, and I have a tendency to overestimate how good it is.  Only after a long cooling-off period of time has passed do I find that I can revisit a song and assess whether I still feel the same way about it.  When I take a break from listening to it and even sort of pretend I don't remember it, I can go back and listen to it again and make a more honest judgment about how it compares to others in the batch of new songs that are candidates to make it onto the released album.

That same "distancing before judging" thing also applies to the entire album as it compares with your other albums you've released.  Your catalog may have some standouts, but the latest, newest one is always the one you're focused on when you've just completed it, and because of that, you have a tendency to maybe think it's better than you will think it is six months later.  It's just the way it goes, for me anyway.  This next new album, however, that I'm planning to release in a couple months, really does feel like it is a strong collection of songs.  A part of the reason may be that is more of a concept album, and has some common threads running through each of the 13 songs.

Describing your sound is always a challenge for any recording artist, but it's easier if the album groups together similar types of song styles.  Therefore, my next album, Missing The Boat, is one that combines various tropical flavors with acoustic rock with a heavy dose of escapism - including that which involves boating.  It's very simple stuff, fairly low art, in the grand scheme of things.  The lyrics aren't going to pass for poetry like Bob Dylan's, and the music isn't going to be respected by classical composers, and if you like ultra-serious folk music it won't be for you, nor will you like it if you're a fan of loud, distorted electric guitar-based music.  'Nuff said for now.  Now you have pretty good idea of what to expect and when.  Stay tuned in to this blog for subsequent posts leading up to the actual album release that will reveal even more!

Creative Writing about One's Own Creative Writing Habit (Lying about Lying in Songs)

I'd be willing to bet that some famous writers out there in the world have said and been quoted for saying something along the lines of "creative writing is lying."  Although I'm too lazy to google it and tell you which ones and how they actually phrased something similar, it's my blog, and I can do - or not do - whatever the hell I want, because there's this thing called freedom of speech and I'm being creative.  I'm engaging in a form of creative writing with my blog here, which itself is loosely based on my experiences with another type of creative writing - that being songwriting.  There's no doubt I'm a lazy dude, and in the time I've taken to type this, I could've produced the exact quote and attribution, but you get the point. 

Songwriting might not always be lying, but a lot of the time, I'm guessing it is.  Even when writing about your own personal experiences, you change a few facts for the sake of the song.  To make it more appealing, to work in a necessary rhyme, to protect the identity of the true characters, etc., you lie.  You change names, dates, places, and plots as you let your imagination run wild.  There's a reason real life stories are not as good as those you read in books, see in movies, or hear in songs.  Their writers haven't let the truth get in the way of a good story.  I'm pretty sure Samuel Clemens said that, but don't quote me on it.

I wish I could make a living at it - be a pro liar.  Obviously, I'm not that smart.  I've also heard it said you have to be pretty smart to get away with lying a lot.  That's not to say the as-yet-undiscovered smart and skilled liars out there won't turn pro eventually.  There's no imminent danger of that for me, but one never knows for sure what the future may bring.  Entertainment is pretending for the sake of lifting the listener above the ordinary, charming them, enchanting them, delighting them, giving them hope, engaging their hearts and minds, inspiring them, getting them excited, etc.  To achieve these things, it helps when you take reality as a starting point, then embellish to taste.

We're taught as children to tell the truth.  As we get older we realize white lies are sometimes necessary, often learning this from our elders, then applying it to our advantage.   Some take it further, which I admit I've done more than I wish I would've.  Especially as a young adult, I used to lie about myself to impress people mostly.  I guess I didn't want them to know the real story, so I embellished to make myself out to be more interesting than I really was.  I still feel compelled from time to time to do this when in conversation, but try hard to refrain from it.  I'm embarrassed I got so carried away with lying to people when I was younger.  The urge is still there, for some inner reason that's hard for me to grasp entirely, but I am able to curb it pretty well, and save it for my songs I suppose.

You'll notice my web site has a page for every song I've released, and on each I type anywhere from a few sentences to a few paragraphs about the "behind the music" stuff - the real story of how the song came into existence, how it started, how it evolved.  Some are based on real events, some on dreams, some on overheard conversations, and when I remember, I put those songwriter's notes there in case anyone might be interested.  The inspiration, the motivation, the original idea, these are the important parts, then the craft part takes over to fill in a few blanks here and there, and steer the song toward completion.  If you're interested in learning more about songwriting by learning about how someone else like me approaches it and how I've arrived at songs, then this blog might interest you in the first place.   Then if that is the case, you're probably the type of person who would want to stream my songs, and possibly even while listening, read more about how it became a song, and what I was thinking about at the time. 

This blog is brutally honest, but even within these posts, I probably make myself out to be better at songwriting than I really am, making it seem easier than it really is, and slight lies along those lines, but if you find any of it interesting, you'll be even more interested in the songwriter notes for each song.  To me, it's fascinating how others write songs, and quite often my interpretation and perceived meaning is far from what the songwriter was thinking when I learn about their story behind the song.  So, if you don't mind the risk of disappointment, go for it.  The starting point would be the songs page (www.scottcooley.com/songs), on which you can click a link to any song info page to read my anecdotes.

Again, with those, I try to be brutally honest as well, but who knows, even my story behind the song stories might contain lies, but I assure you that like the posts in this blog, I'm doing my best to tell it like it is, in all its ugliness and boringness.  Subject to truth-stretching is the nature of made-up stuff like song lyrics, just as song meanings are made up by each listener to some extent.  Shared interpretations of art might contain real feelings or what you want others to think you feel.

All that being said and set aside for a moment, my songs are genuine, authentic, real, from the heart, and written with the best of intentions based on whatever was motivating me to write it at the time.  For the sake of each song, in the event of personal experiences, real names and places are sometimes changed to protect the innocent and all that. 

So, I do assume responsibility for the content of my songs, and the opinions may reflect my own, or those of the characters in the songs.  Since I made up the characters, even if based on real people I've run across, they might be my views, but might not.  My stories may reflect real events, may not, etc., but you know - any standard disclaimer might or might not apply, depending on things and stuff.

Keep doing something you like and you'll keep craving more time spent doing it.  Take a break from it and the heart grows fonder of it.  Habits become tough to break and when they do you nothing but good, how can you even argue it's a waste of time?  If you get a kick out of it, a little jolt of satisfaction when you complete a good one, why not keep chasing that feeling?  If writing songs for you is form of habitual lying that makes you feel good, then pathological songwriting is a healthy pursuit.  The icing on this cake?  Little white lies aside, when other people report back to you that they liked your song.  How sweet it is.

Keeper Ratios for Rewrites vs. Newwrites - Glass Half-Full Outlook Can Lead to Stockpile Mode!

Dear Diary, um, I mean imaginary readers of this blog,

I am hereby posting more information about the writing and recording of songs I've done lately which you may feel free to comment on after reading or discuss freely with anyone afterwards.

Unlike a lot of famous recording artist blogs, I write 100% of everything you read here myself, and it's typically not filled with a bunch of photos I took on my phone while traveling, etc.  Nor does it have a lot of wild stories from the road while doing gigs and tours.

Instead, it gives you honest insight into what is going on with me, and what I think about things, as it relates to my passion of writing and recording songs.

To remind everyone, this is a single-author blog that is not a non-profit think tank per se, but it is free and it covers topics related to and advocating for the culture of songwriting, do-it-yourself music recording, acoustic garage rock music and Scott Cooley album and song appreciation.

I'm not really out to advertise myself as an individual or artist with this blog, but rather, a way to communicate with those who like my music.  Did you know you can comment on any of these posts as well as contact me via email, phone, text, or social media messaging?

Yep, I can be contacted and am usually willing to interact with those who like my music and want to reach out to ask me stuff.  I can usually find something to socially relate to with most people, particularly if I already know they like my music and just are interested to know more about it or me.

I don't moderate the comments, and they are public, but there are private ways to contact me as well which are listed on the Contact page of scottcooley.com.  So, you can comment on other people's comments, and interact with other appreciators, etc.  If there is hateful or offensive stuff, I do have the ability to delete it, so if you see anything like that on here, let me know and I'll remove it ASAP.

I also occasionally use Twitter as a microblogging platform, and this blog's posts get fed there, so if you like that @scottcooley is the handle.

I'm on facebook too, but log into it even more rarely than this blog, which as you can see, is an average of maybe once every two months.You might get the idea that I don't have much to say if you only look at my post frequency numbers, but you'll see each post is fairly long, and dives fairly deeply and thoroughly, so once you read some posts, you'll see the opposite is true and I do have a lot to say, it's just that I don't post often.

So, I like to wait until I have something of a fair amount of quality and quantity before posting, which means I have to be compelled enough to start a post, then have enough to say that I continue until I have some sort of conclusion or point, and a way to relate it to my love of writing songs.

On to my recent ventures, which have been 1) more rewriting of old songs with mixed conversion ratios, and 2) new song writing spurred on by the rewriting.  Let me elaborate on #1 first:  Usually a song doesn't make the cut for a good reason and no amount of rewriting will boost it to a keeper level to make it "release-worthy," but it is possible for such a thing to happen.

I typically have to attempt rewriting about five borderline keepers before one will become better enough that it is vaulted above that threshold.  That's the approximate ratio.  Interestingly enough, it's about 1/2 of the keeper ratio of writing brand new songs, which is approximately 2/5 or 4/10...something close to that usually.  The other four become "don't waste time on again" songs.

You can look at that as discouraging and effort-wasting, or if you're like me, you can view it as a glass half-full scenario and be psyched you got that 1 K out of 5 tries because the 5 tries were good practice and you got another K you wouldn't have otherwise had, so it's always productive time spent the way I see it.

Then, the beauty of it all is that there's this boost of a bonus that K brings on - it gets you back into the creative flow again, and next thing you know, you're working on new ones again, which brings into play the 2/5 ratio.

Write 5 more, and you're going to end up with 3 keepers and 7 non-K's, but that's OK.  It's more than OK, it's great, because that's what you're trying to do.

When you get on a little creative roll like that, and let's say you write 5 new ones and get your two K's, that's just one spurt, and just an average ratio.  No matter how much you get writer's block droughts, and no matter how much you get afraid you'll never get a spurt again, you know that all you have to do is one thing:  go back through your non-K's a rewrite!

Sometimes you only need three or four short bursts of creative output like that and you're close to an album's worth of material.  Then you know you're close, and writing more to get to that 12 song count is not so daunting.

Once you're over it, you've surpassed the baker's dozen and get into stockpile K mode, you then have the luxury of getting more discriminating and replace a weaker K with a stronger one, improve the lineup if you will.

These are good situations to be in when you're a recording artist with a fan base whose expectations of more releases are based on your past output, and you know you can be consistent and deliver again.  This is precisely the situation I currently find myself in.  A good place to be, for sure.

So, if you're one of the surprisingly many now anonymous readers of this blog for whatever reasons, and one happens to be you're wanting to know if more music is on the way, I'm happy to report the answer is yes.  So, the only thing that could prevent me from releasing on my birthday in even-numbered years again, as has been my practice since the turn of the century, would be if I die between now and then, but the stockpile means potential for contingency plans just in case.

As I just told my friend Rich, it's good to have a couple albums "in the can" because you never know how long you'll live, and just like Yoko Ono and Courtney Love, my wife Lenore will be able to do posthumous releases ... to keep up the lifestyle!  😉

Why There's Not A Lot To Write About When Writing About Writing Songs

It's been over 6 months since I last posted a log (or would that be logged a post?) to this website, and I realize part of the reason is there's only so much to cover for the topic focus I've advertised on this Blog's  about page.  I am interested in writing songs, but I have never sought out other blogs where people who also like to write songs write about writing songs.  I don't really care how they do it or why they do it.  I know I like it, and I know how I do it, and I know why I like it, but I'm not sure others would be interested in any of this information. 

Occasionally, I like to write about my experiences with the craft.  I've expanded the subject matter to include recording music and trying to sell music.  I've also occasionally thrown in a review of recorded music I've purchased as a consumer or live music concerts I've attended and enjoyed.  Why anyone at all would care about what I think about any of these kinds of topics is beyond me.

Even so, I blog on without an audience.

For Starters, There's Not Much To Talk About Even When Asked in Conversation

If you can't think of much to say when asked about your experiences with the hobby/craft of songwriting and/or recording in person with people, then it's highly likely you won't be able to think of much to write about either.  Figuring out what people like to hear about is important, and that's what I'm hoping to get closer to by the end of this post.  What kind of music do you like?  That's always a fun conversation-starter, but as for songwriting, it's more of a chore.  That said, people do ask, and I do reply.

The Inevitable Questions

People who know I write and record songs ask about it from time to time.  They like to almost half-jokingly ask when the next release will be available.  They also ask if I still write and record, and whether or not I have any plans to perform live anywhere in front of an audience.  I had one relative ask for an additional copy of my Christmas covers CD recently. 

The Standard Replies

I always say yes, I still write songs, still record them, still release an album every two years on my birthday, still don't play live anywhere, still haven't sent a song to a famous artist for them to record yet...but that it remains a part of the fantasy.  Sometimes they leave it alone after my brief reply, but sometimes ask why I don't try to get one recorded, and then my reply to that is always that I haven't written one that is good enough yet.  Sometimes I go on to explain that even if I had a worthy song, I'd have to pay a lot of money to have pros record a proper demo of it in a real recording studio first before submitting it to artists, and I don't have the money.  Sometimes they say you should keep trying, sometimes they leave it alone and the conversation moves on to something totally unrelated.  When it does, I'm usually relieved.

Waning Interest

If my friends and family who do not write songs are satisfied with the above exchange, one might think fellow songwriters would want to talk about it longer, but that's not really the case either.  The few I've spoken with over the years are typically like me in that they've learned all they care to about the craft, and have settled in to a way they enjoy it, and don't particularly want to learn from hearing someone else's approach.  The interest wanes.  People who like boats, for example, can hang out and talk about boats for a long period of time and thoroughly enjoy it, as if they can't get enough of it.  Not so with songwriters, I've found.  Maybe it's common to any creative pursuit, or maybe it's the fact that it's typically a solitary pursuit.

Blog Awareness

So, I guess I'm typing my thoughts on the way to a conclusion here that even if I were to read up on and follow ways to increase the readership of a blog by targeting an audience of other songwriters, there may simply not be much interest.  As a musician and solo artist who releases albums, maybe the fans out there would want to read this.  I've read the autobiographies of Bob Dylan and Neil Young for example, because I was interested in their lives and how they came to be songwriters.  I suppose I would've been interested in knowing more about their approaches to writing songs if it had been in those books.  If they had blogs about their experiences with writing songs on their websites, I would read them.  It could be that there's simply not much information to share.  Neil says "wait for the muse to show up" and Bob remains mysterious about it as if he's been blessed from a higher power with the songs and as a result needs to tour a lot as a form of payback or gratitude.  Not much to go on there.  How one writes a great song is treated as somewhat of a trade secret or accident by most it would seem. 

Shifting Focus

So, my focus therefore should be more varied about me as a recording artist to appease those interested in me because they are fans and consumers who have bought my music and want to know more about the person who wrote and recorded the songs they liked and bought.  Rather than just talking about the songwriting part, that is.  Truth is, if you look back at the last few years of blog posts, I've already shifted the focus accordingly.  I exhausted all I knew about writing songs in just a few posts.

The Motivation

What gave me the idea is the story behind the song part that might wreck your interpretation, but might be really interesting, and if you want to know those, I provide them on the site.  So, one can't blog about what is essentially the same process for each song, and a paragraph or two explaining what motivated each song idea. 

You'll notice that from my albums page (www.scottcooley.com/albums), you can then click on an album to view links to subpages for each song.  From that starting point, select a song page and you'll see a paragraph or so explaining the "story behind the song" that I wrote about what I remembered happening when I wrote the song.  These may be interesting, or they may disappoint in the case that you'd already formed your own opinion of what the song meant to you when listening to it.  Fans derive their own meaning and envision what the writer's thought process might've been, and when learning what that writer was actually thinking about, may think less of the song as a result.

The Summary

If there are songs of mine you like, chances are the way I wrote them was not that exciting.  Likely I had a moment of inspiration for the main song idea, which brought about a chorus and title, and then I wrote verses that supported it by telling a bit of a story, and as I did this I made the number of lines in each verse match, and if there was a bridge it took a different perspective, and I probably looked up in an online rhyming dictionary a few of the rhymes.  Then I probably looked at the typed up song and read the lyrics back to myself in my head and a meter and dummy melody formed in my mind, and then from that I instinctively knew where the chord changes would be, then I picked a key good for my vocal range, and then possibly looked up on a chord family chart what chords were available in that key, then strummed a bit, and then sang while strumming, and then I had a song.  Usually if the idea was good, and the lyrics turned out well, and the singing of the melody was catchy, then there's a good song.  That's the songwriting process summary for me, and although there've been many an exception, there's not much else to say.  That's why this is a general solo artist blog, expanded to be about anything music-related, for anyone who likes me as an artist. 

The Mystery

The reason is that how a good song comes into existence has an indescribable element of magic to it.  Stars align, all cylinders simultaneously fire, and there's more pure accidental luck to it than craft.  There's only so much you can say about the happily automatic.  It's hit or miss, and if a few cylinders didn't fire, some sweat equity crafting might make up for it, but it's rare.  It's a mystery why and how good songs happen, but we music lovers are glad they do, and we know them when we hear them.  It's a matter of taste, and taste curation is what artists should be writing songs about, and what they should be blogging about too, I suppose.  Narrow focus is what the experts recommend to nail down what's appealing, but I'm too varied in what I write about and the style of songs I write to have a good shot at this type of thing.  I don't want to only write post-industrial shoe gaze alt-surf songs that are only about the things that type of music fan are into, let alone blog about the things that crowd are into, whatever those things may be.

Tales From The Road, Tales From The Studio, Causes

Famous major label artists and bands blog about their experiences on tour and recording albums in real recording studios that their fans apparently read.  I'm a fan of a lot of solo artists and bands, but I never seek out their blogs.  I don't really want to know about their adventures travelling from show to show or how their album is coming along, but that's just me.  I guess I don't care if they support certain causes either.  If they recommend music they like, however, I might be interested to know that.  Maybe I'll do more of that.  This blog post has allowed me to think harder about what might be interesting for people to read about, should I ever gain an audience for this blog.  If you're reading it, chances are my future blogs peaked your interest to read older posts, which means this blog post helped me focus on what you'd like and I gave it to you.  Hopefully, I've continued to do that with the music as well along the way.  Peace out, y'all.

Rest Assured, There's A New Scott Cooley Album This Year To Put Under Your Tree

Dear Everyone,

Just in time for the holiday season, I've got a great gift idea for you!

Six months ago I released a new album of original songs on CD and digital you can buy from Amazon, Google Play, Apple Music, etc., and forgot to blog about it!  So, here it is Christmas present shopping season and I thought I should do that now while I think of it.  Might as well blog about it, just in case you want to consider it for a stocking stuffer for a music fan in your life.  It's called "Rest Assured" and it's the 7th full-length record I've self-released on the independent Scott Cooley Records label, and it contains 13 songs.

It was made available in stores on the usual release date - my birthday, which is June 21st.  Also as usual, I produced it, arranged it, wrote all the songs, sang all the vocals, played all the instruments, recorded it, mixed it, mastered it, took the cover photo, designed the artwork, wrote the liner notes, etc., except...my lovely wife Lenore was once again a guest studio musician appearing courtesy of herself on two songs as an accordion player.

So, you can get it now in time for Christmas, and here are some handy links:

• Buy the Rest Assured CD from Amazon right now & get it shipped to you in time!
• Buy the Rest Assured MP3 album from Google Play Music rightnow & have it immediately!
• Buy the Rest Assured MP3 album from Apple Music / iTunes right now & have it immediately!
• Buy the Rest Assured album in any digital format (FLAC,OggVorbis, etc.) from Bandcamp immediately!
• Buy the Rest Assured MP3 album from Spotify right now &have it immediately!

Here's what it looks like:

Here's a link to the press release:

• http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=c2NvdHRjb29sZXkuY29tfHNjb3R0LWNvb2xleS13ZWItc2l0ZXxneDo3OThiNTllMmE5Njc1NmMy

Here's a link to the album page of scottcooley.com that has the full artwork, track listing, liner notes and details:

• http://www.scottcooley.com/albums/rest-assured/

The person you buy it for will probably love it, and love you even more for giving it to them!

Merry Christmas,

Scott

Human Art and Technology Will Always Need Each Other

You make some art, then you try to sell it, then you realize you need people to find out about it.  It's when you want to grow your audience that artists run into the unnatural-feeling reality that the internet and tech companies are necessary.  They are the system, and the people who are potential consumers of your art are deeply connected to that system.

You don't want to alienate anyone, and your art suffers as a result.  You don't want to piss off the corporations out there, even when the say they aren't evil, because a vast portion of society share the same fear.  You can't put down technology in a song, because your potential fanbase relies on it.  They are married to it.  Try to make fun of technoconsumerism or social media, and you're being anti-audience.

When an independent recording artist/songwriter gets a small audience, there is recognition, and when you are pretending to be someone else when writing songs, you are sympathetic to your small audience that has given you that small amount of recognition, and you don't want to satirize any of them from an angry point of view.

So, if you're angry at the system, you try not to let it come out in your songs.  The system today means fitting a mold that is like a needle in a haystack, or being a do-it-all-yourselfer outside the mainstream the gatekeepers control.  Getting reviews and recommendation seems vital to growing an audience for the indepedent artist, but goes against their inherent grain to a certain extent.  Doing my own promotion and advertising doesn't feel right.

Paying someone to blog about my songs or put them on the radio is something I do not feel comfortable doing, but it seems like an inevitable path when self-promotion for an independent artist who wants to gain a larger audience is the only option.

Physical record stores have been replaced with on-demand music streaming subscription services, and potential fans depend on the music bloggers and internet reviews as their tastemaking recommendation engines to choose which music to listen to and buy.  Social media can't be ignored by songwriters and musicians like me who work hard for little pay because our potential audience want entertainment that is immediate and cheap if not free since they also work hard for little pay.

Word-of-mouth doesn't happen otherwise for people who spend their free time with their heads buried in their smartphones.  It feels like the big record companies/internet companies have the power of music advertising and influence over the reviewers and promoters of music, but people will not want to support those big corporations and all they stand for.

It feels like my potential audience out there are instead the types who prefer to support local mom & pop businesses, if it's not too expensive.  Herein lies the problem:  the local songwriter/musician can't compete with the low cost of music produced by the music/internet corporations, just like the local producers of other consumer products can't compete with the low cost of Walmart products.

The difference is those large record/internet companies contribute to large problems in the world and I don't.  Do they make long-term investments in songwriter/musical artists like me these days?  No, but they provide a low-cost storefront and platform for self-promotion. The only world I know to try to find my place in as a songwriter and solo artist is to distribute my albums to online music stores and find free or low-cost ways to self-promote online.

It's the self-promotion part that doesn't feel right for the artist, and one the record companies of old took care of on our behalf.  The same is likely true for most types of written or visual art - a novelist who self-publishes is dependent on Amazon, a maker of any video medium is probably dependent on Google and YouTube.  They control the platform of delivery, the storefront, the distribution, the advertising, the recommendation engine.

No one can recommend your music to someone else without their smartphones anymore really.  I wrote a song called Show Up that satirizes this to some degree, and I didn't realize it until after releasing it that I was biting the hand that feeds me.  Technology has changed the playing field for those of us who hope to sell music.  It's not an apocalypse as the old-school tech haters in Nashville would have you believe.

Rapid change is constant.  Online newspapers, magazines, e-books, and Netflix are here to stay.  Those that control the delivery mechanisms for art are worthy of our financial support just like independent artists are, because they play a part in discovery.

We're far from the artifical intelligence of computers producing our art for us and rendering human artists obsolete.  I suppose I'm blogging this semi-frustration with the hope that someone might read and agree and be entertained by my perspective.  Writers write about the human experience to entertain, don't they?  That will never go out of style.

Revenge Of The Real

Maybe the biggest alternative to today's popular music is my style of music.  That is, the kind of music that I make, not necessarily the music I listen to that is made by others.  My music I write and record is a blend of the many types that have influenced me, like everyone else.  I tend to think I don't come anywhere close to the greatness of music I've chosen to have in my collection.  We've all got our tastes and opinions, and regarding my own music, my only claim is that I think I can write and record an interesting and pleasing song from time to time.  I consider many of them to be good songs, anyway.  All musicians have influences, even if the music they produce doesn't necessarily sound like those influences.

If that's true, then what in the world are today's mainstream artists listening to?  It's got to be other mainstream artists of this most recent era.  The styles all sound so similar to me, as if they're all copying each other.  I don't seek it out, but it's unavoidable.  When I'm stuck in a traffic jam, or can't find anything to watch on TV, I sometimes out of curiosity tune in to the popular music of the day.  You know - to hear what the kids are listening to.  It's far from what was popular in my day, and by "my day" I'm referring to those peak getting-into-music years from age 10 to age 30. 

So, since 1996, the past 20 years seem to be a big decline and somewhat drastic departure from what was cool in my range from 1977-1997.  I'm almost 49, by the way.  Aside from the obvious:   the auto-tuned vocals, the all-electronic instrumentation, the perfection that technology allows, I hear a lack of daring to be different.  Seems these major label artists are using algorithms to make cookie-cutter music.

It could be this happens in every generation.  I'm at the age where people are complaining about the new NBA not holding a candle to the 20 years that featured Dr. J, Bird, Magic, and Michael.  The quality of play and the passion for the game are waning, they say.  I find myself in partial agreement.  Comparisons to basketball aside, maybe the big-band swing and classical fans never warmed up to rock and roll, and maybe the folk revivalists still don't like the bluegrassy Americana of today.  We know they all hated disco and new wave and hair metal, right?

The pop music is definitely cookie-cutter, and so is country, which wasn't cool back in my day at all, but now despite its popularity and it sounding way different than country used to, is even more cookie-cutter than pop.  The songwriting might be better in modern country than pop, but that ain't sayin' much these days.  Thank god for classic rock, one like me may think, but how about some deep track album cuts once in a while instead of playing the same fifty songs over and over again?  I'm sick of that now, too. 

Maybe each generation experiences the same, that's there's been a steady decline in the overall craft of songwriting since their time.  So, luckily the internet is my only salvation, and discovery of old music that was popular before my golden 20 years is my passion now as a music fan.  Hate to admit it, but YouTube is great for this type of discovery.  No videos per say, but people will snap a photo of the 45 label and throw it in there.  The old standards, the old blues, the old folk, dixieland jazz, the early R&B, that's what I love now, and it's a far cry from today's pop.

It's manufactured, it's formulaic, it's even robotic, this pop and country.  It all sounds the same to me.  Even when you discover these little pocket trends of acoustic music, you know the ones where young people in bands try hard to make mandolins and banjos sound hip, they take it way too seriously.  Most of it seems to lack daring, and despite being different enough, stays within the confines of what radio and TV will allow.  No drawing outside the lines for the crayola-wielders of the current popular music scene.

Again, maybe it's always been like this, and I just didn't really take enough notice along the way.  Record companies and songwriters have always followed trends, and now they have computers to do a lot of the heavy lifting for them.  More than ever, businesses are data-driven, and it seems now more than ever, they're afraid to take risks and dare to be different.  They're polluting the air waves with what they think will sell, but to me, it's mostly garbage.

Maybe that's why not using synthesizers, virtual instruments, hit-song prediction software, click tracks, drum loops, auto-tuned vocals, etc. is truly rebellious in the this music climate.  Maybe by not having a bunch of virtuoso instrumentalists who technically play great but don't have good songs is brave.  Maybe having good songs but not playing them all that well is bold.  Maybe using standard acoustic instruments instead of the trendy ones is being different now.  Maybe releasing music with a few imperfections here and there is gutsy.  Maybe having a poor singing voice and using it anyway is daring.  Maybe by not having dance moves and good looks in the music business is wild and crazy today.  Maybe not ever creating a music video is bucking the system.

So, yeah, guess maybe I'm blatantly referring to myself in this previous paragraph, in case you hadn't already noticed.  I'm the "alternative" to today's popular music.  Anti-mainstream.  Real and honest in a time of fake and insincere.  In a world of polluted music, mine might just be a breath of fresh air.

$12.49 for an Album? In 2016? Are You Kidding Me? For Past Releases as Well? What Gives?

In short, you do.  My fans do, that is.  They give in the form of payment of this album price for a reason.  They give in support of music they really appreciate for a variety of good reasons actually.  They feel good about contributing to the sustainability of an artist putting great music out into the world consistently, in a time when such a thing is a challenge.  Read on, and you'll hear about what those good reasons are.

I can't tell you how good it feels to be in the process of getting another album out into the world of music I made.  Releasing songs you wrote and recorded gives you the feeling of release, as if you didn't want to die with the music unreleased.  Although there's more competition than ever in the music business, there's simultaneously different levels of opportunity nowadays. 

The ability of the average joe musician like me to do this didn't exist a decade ago, and thanks to the evolution of technology, it does.  Inexpensive home recording equipment, plus digital distribution to online web stores has made this possible.  You hear a lot these days about songwriters and music artists not making as much money any more since CDs, MP3s, Napster, and the iPod changed everything, which is absolutely true.  The only advantages are that it is convenient and cheaper for both consumers and home recording hobbyist / independent DIY people like me.  The word "cheaper" being the most important word.

So, when you see I have albums for sale online for $12.49 and single songs for .99 cents, it's arguably shocking and inexplicable at first glance, I'm aware.  Why does an average joe musician like Scott Cooley charge so much, you might wonder, when you can get the new Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift album for $7.00?  That's the big question, and one I fortunately have an answer for!

I see a three-level pricing stucture in place here - Free (Amateurs, DIY'ers),  Mid (Independent labels) and Pro (celebrity musicians), admittedly with some crossover between levels.  When you scour the internet for places where average joe musicians post their music online - at places like YouTube, SoundCloud, or MySpace, etc., you obviously are prone to finding a lower production quality, lower average talent levels, and a more amateur overall experience. 

When you get beyond the free places, you have music that is being offered for sale, and all said factors are higher on average, as you would expect.  I am in the middle here, and although this may be arguable to you, hear me out first.  Then, at the top tier, you have the aforementioned mega-popular major label artists and bands.

Now, I'll quickly explain why I'm firmly in the mid-tier, with some crossover.  I am an amateur do-it-yourselfer, and my sound quality is not bad, particuarly when you consider I don't use virtual instruments or auto-tune trickery.  Although the all-acoustic instruments and recording of them being played live can sound amateur in comparison to fake drums, bass, horns, etc. made with software loops or midi keyboards, it arguably shows more talent that I play all the instruments myself. 

While I don't give much away for free, you're paying for real music recorded live by a person.  I'd like to think fans of my kind of music are willing to pay a little in support of the real thing.  The mid-tier artists signed to established independent labels actually have recording budgets fronted by the record companies, and said money is often spent in real recording studios with session musicians and professional producers and engineers. 

Again, I'd like to think the kind of people my music appeals to would tend to have a higher appreciation for an artist who did not need to hire pro session musicians and engineers to achieve a desired sound because what I do is way more authentic.  Willing to pay a little extra to support that aspect of it as well, I would imagine.  I can arguably come up with fairly well-produced and arranged songs with a fairly good level of sound quality as compared to what the pro facilities and session musicians can deliver.  To toot my horn a bit further, the quality of the songwriting I would argue is up there quite high, and at times, crosses over into the pro realm.  Fans are willing to pay a little for that aspect as well.

Crowdfunding.  You've heard of it, mostly for software startups, or gadget-makers.  The mid-tier musicians who have that top-tier sound these days get it from crowdfunding.  There are a lot of them - PledgeMusic, IndieGoGo, etc.  There's something that doesn't feel right about it...has an Amway multi-level marketing uneasiness to it, and I have no idea if investors get paid back when the goals aren't met or the projects are delayed, or promises not delivered at all. 

Let's face it, we know that if you heard a robot-tuned version of my vocals, with pro Nashville musicians playing the instruments, my albums wouldn't sound like me, and they wouldn't sound like what you like about me as an artist.  I'm not a puppet, not a karaoke guy who will do a dance routine and lip-sync to fake, perfect-sounding backing tracks with my vocals made perfect via technology.  I'm old, and far from being that kind of artist.  Not a looks-first marketing whiz with a lot of videos.  You'll never see that kind of thing from me. 

So, if I emailed all my friends and relatives and asked them to email all their friends and relatives, and social networked my butt off, and basically begged people to donate money to me to pay for my next recording project, you wouldn't want the end result, even if it was possible.  You already like my style and what I produce, so I charge after I've got a product ready to go.  I ask a little more than average, yes, but I don't ask you to ask your parents to fund me first to pay for fake studio stuff.  For 12.49, you get the best I could do - real music from a real person with a real voice playing real instruments.

It could very well be that as technology has contributed to a declining music business, it has at the same time contributed to a decline in music quality.  I'm not talking about the sonic perfection that is achievable with technology, but rather, the fact that it may be a dying art to play the instruments yourself, and write the songs yourself, and record it yourself.  It could also be that the styles and genres my music encompasses is fading from public awareness and appreciation. 

Maybe the type of sound I get and the types of songs I write won't be as prevalent in the future, you never know.  Maybe younger generations won't understand it as compared with the popular music of their day.  Preservation is a part of what you're investing in with that 12.49, from a known quantity who's proven he can continue to deliver.

If you're the type who is willing to pay a little more for something made in Michigan, pay a little more at the local mom & pop business instead of WalMart, buy art from local artists, support your local farmer's market, write a check to NPR, help the homeless, pay a little more for organic, whatever your thing is, you're the type who is prone to support your local songwriter / recording artist. 

If you like the product, why not contribute a little more than what is typical.  Sustainability.  It need not happen via being hounded to fund a recording project before songs are even written.  Better to have that product that exceeds your expectations, be able to try (stream) it for free first, then buy it at 12.49.  It's not for everyone, but that's my rationale behind the price.  By the way, if so desired, almost like a tip for a job well done, at Bandcamp you can actually pay more than 12.49 for my latest album, Rest Assured, if you feel so compelled.