Yes.

Mum (talking to my Dad, but I'm right there): Did you tell Dave you put that stuff in there? (pointing to a drawer)

Dad: Yes.

...

Dad: Well... No.

Re-evaluation

As I write this I have the one hundredth most subscribed youtube channel in the UK. By the time you're reading this there's a good chance I won't anymore! I've been slipping down the list for several months now and as I'm on the way out it's got me thinking about the last two years and what I've accomplished on the site. I always say that I'm doing better than I thought I would be when I joined up, but now that I think about it, I'm not so sure that's true.

I doubt I would have thought 20,000 subscribers was achievable in my first two years. Though I was confident my channel could do well, back then even Mr Coollike didn't have those kind of numbers. So in terms of subscribers I am doing better than I thought I would be. But that's no measure of success. My life goal right now is to be able to afford to live by selling music. Of course music is much more than that, but I'm only looking at the business side of things right now.* I've always had the idea in my head, and I believe it's a well known theory in the industry, that if I were to have 1000 hardcore fans - by which I mean people who buy every album or EP I offer them - then I could live off that, and so my life goal could be translated into 'finding 1000 hardcore fans.'

My subscriber count may have exceeded expectations, but I definitely overestimated the percentage of subscribers that would turn into the 'hardcore fans'. Right now I think I'm at about 100. That's 10% of the aim, after two years. So it'll be another 18 years if I continue at that rate, and realistically I'm not picking up speed right now, I'm slowing down. Six months ago I'd be getting 40 - 50 new subscribers to my channel every day, now it's half of that on a good day.

This isn't me being depressed and moaning about life, I'm fairly optimistic about the future. I think I will accomplish that goal, and a long time before 2027 as well! I'm just re-evaluating. The internet is a powerful tool for a musician, but maybe not as much as I've given it credit for. Right now I just want to move to London, turn some friends into some band members and start gigging, a lot. You may not reach as many people that way, but I think it's a better way to find those 1000 (and it's fun!) Of course the real answer is to do both. But there's a balance there and I think I've let the internet side take up too much time so far.

Overall I wouldn't say that was a mistake, if I'd gone the traditional route from the beginning I don't think I'd have made it this far. I'd have given up on the dream and gotten a real job, letting music remain a hobby. I owe so much of my confidence to the people who have supported me online, and even if Blue Skies didn't exist, I'd still be obsessed with being a part of this community - so many ridiculously important people in my life right now were introduced to me thanks to one website or another.


I'm sorry for talking business (ish) I don't usually talk about this side of things, it's just been on my mind lately. I don't even like calling people 'fans' it sounds ridiculous. I'll wrap up with some thoughts on the future...

It's gonna be pretty great. I'm gonna move to London. I'm gonna gig more. I've been speaking to Paul a lot lately and we have so many ideas and plans that at least one of them is going to make us rich and then none of this business stuff will matter. I'm going to stay at his in December with Ian and we're gonna be very productive, both in terms of actually making some kind of EP or album and in terms of making plans for the new year.


This has been pretty long and probably vague or missing some massively important points. You probably don't care, but if you do have any questions about what I've said or about anything really, just ask.

Goodnight, and thanks for reading this... I appreciate all of the support you guys have given more than I can express.

xxx

p.s. Fairytale of New York just came on itunes shuffle, but not the version I have on The Pogues album... It's a one off and I don't know where I got it, but the album name it's listed under is 'Irish Punk Drinking Songs Compilation'. That sounds like the greatest album in the world, I might have to track it down.



*If I were to ignore business for a moment, and compare my musical output to what two years ago I had thought I'd be creating, I believe I have exceeded my expectations, though they were not particularly high! I still consider myself a beginner and am looking forward to the coming year as I think it will be very exciting musically. That fact alone is more important that the whole of this blog, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't be thinking about these things.

Rarities 07-09

I have uploaded the rarities album that I've been talking about, so it's all available and stuff! You can buy it HERE.

It's 8 tracks, five full songs and three instrumentals, and I'm trying something new with the way I'm selling it - you can choose the price. I have set a minimum of £1 so I don't lose money on it! But other than that it's totally up to you. I'm gonna give £5 as a suggested price but if people can't afford that they are welcome to buy for whatever they can, and if you can afford more, well that would be very helpful!

All the money will be going on my music, but that's fairly obvious because pretty much all of my money does.

This is the first time I've put an album exclusively on bandcamp, so I'd be very interested to hear what your experience is with it... Especially if anybody wants to buy it but doesn't have access to paypal or any of the other payment options. If that is the case, please let me know what online payment options you can use and I'll see if I can set something up with them.

Thanks!

xxx

Website

I've just started a little discussion on facebook asking people to give input on my website plans. I'm just looking at what content should be on there. The tabs I have down right now are...

Home - Music - Pictures - Lyrics/Tabs - Free Stuff - Store - Links

So Home will include news, latest release info, possibly my most recent video, upcoming gigs...

Music will be a discography with links to buy.

Pictures include artwork, live pics and fan pics (with either an email address to send them in to or an uploader if that's not difficult!)

Lyrics/Tabs is obvious.

Free Stuff will be downloads of songs, ringtones, wallpapers... Any other suggestions are welcome.

'Store' links to the big cartel.

And 'Links' contains contact info and links to my other sites.


Some things that have come up are a bio and a blog. I'm not sure about writing a bio because it wouldn't be all that interesting, but let me know if you think a band site needs one. And I originally kept a blog out because, well I have this obviously, but thought it was a bit more personal than the sort of thing you'd put on a band website. So what do you think? Should I put this blog on there, put a separate blog on there - less personal, more about music and the band, or not put a blog on there? I will have the news section on the home page either way.

So let me know,
Bio or no bio.
This blog, new blog or no blog.
Free Stuff - anything I can give away for free that won't cost me anything!
Any other ideas.

THANKS! =)

Hurray!

My rant earlier obviously worked... I'm writing this from my new 24" iMac!

It's so big I can't even look at the whole screen. just areas of it! And they just brought out 27 inchers as well, imagine that! Pretty much ridiculous. I can't decide whether or not I'm gutted that I didn't wait and get a new one. They are cheaper than I thought they'd be, but still to get what I did including the extras would have set me back an extra few hundred quid, and there's not much difference. Not compared to the difference between this and my old one. Definitely not bothered about missing out on a 27 inch screen... Wouldn't fit on my desk! The new mouse looks very cool though.

Right now I'm just downloading and installing programs. I still have a few things that need sorting, for example the firewire on this is too modern for my old junk! So I need to get an adapter for that, and I've ordered a hard drive dock so hopefully I can get at all my old files.

Ahhh my old iMac didn't have an isight! I might start being on dailybooth more! And making videos will be easier.

EXCITED.

An explanation for the increase in blogging

You may have noticed I've been blogging fairly regularly lately. That's because I have NOTHING TO DO!

Well actually I have a shit load of things to do, I just can't do them until my iMac gets here. It's really frustrating. Usually I don't think of myself as a particularly productive person, but I'm starting to see how much stuff I do now that I can't do it!

I'm so excited about it now though. I've been needing a new machine for ages. Jack was at least five years old and it was beginning to show. Especially video editing, using layers basically meant final cut wouldn't play back, so I had to work blind. And as for my pc (Tim) well he's a similar age and curls up into a ball on the floor if placed under the slightest bit of pressure. By which I mean he crashes if you play a flash game, or open two programs at once. When Tim crashes I move on to my parents laptop, which runs vista. Enough said.

I CAN'T WAIT!

In other news, I want to get that rarities album up during the postal strike because The Royal Mail can't fuck up downloads. But of course I need the iMac before I can do that. Oh God! What if my iMac gets caught up in the postal strike?! I would actually just start going around killing people.

iMacs

So I got the hard drive, installed it and... It didn't work. Well, the same thing happened as did before. I'm pretty sure I fit it properly and all that, I just think that it wasn't what was causing the problem. The guy said it might also be one of the wires attached to it, so that's still a possibility.

But either way, my parents talked me into buying a new one. Since I was planning to get one anyway as soon as I could afford it, they said they'd lend me the money as it'd be a waste of time putting it off for a couple of months and trying to push my old iMac even further. They're right really, and especially as I'm just starting a studio album - it would be annoying to switch machines halfway through a project like that.

So I found a great deal tonight on a refurbished 24" iMac. I checked with Dale (I run anything that's both technical and expensive by the gadget dude before buying it!) and he had nothing against buying refurbished machines, plus it has Apple Care until 2012, so it's all good... And yeah, I bought it.

Now I have to wait for it to get here and I'm gonna be like a kid in the run up to Christmas! It - he - is gonna be called Mark Morrison, and if anyone gets that reference I pretty much love you. As for Jack (which wasn't a reference, it just rhymes) I'll probably still get him fixed and sell him, if I can bring myself to part with him! The spare hard drive I could sell, or I might just turn it into an external.

In other news, the post today included a box full of CD's and t-shirts from my friends, 'Rook and The Ravens' because when I was up in Manchester the other day I offered to sell them through Scratch That Records. They are one of the main bands I was thinking of when I said I could use it to sell friend's music as well as my own, and I'm so excited about the album, it's actually amazing. As in, objectively one of the best albums of the year, not just from people I know!

So that's one job for tomorrow - adding their stuff to the store. I hope people buy it because it's so fucking good!

Alright, off to bed.

xxx