Digital Distribution

I've been thinking recently about what to do regarding my next album's release online.

In the past I've always stated that releasing my albums on iTunes and Spotify were primarily for marketing purposes. I don't expect to make much money from it, not even enough to keep it up online really (it costs around £30 a year, which is ok for the first year, but after an initial burst the sales tend to fall away), but I've always said that as two of the biggest music services in the world, it looks good to have them up on there. It's free advertising.

Isn't it?

I've been toying with a few ideas to change it around. Should I release my album via Bandcamp, a service I have heard nothing but good reports about, and one that doesn't charge a fee? Or maybe I should just have them online on somewhere like SoundCloud, giving the downloads away for free or in exchange for an email address. Or should I even go whole hog and release them as a torrent? It wouldn't be illegal, after all, and I wouldn't be the first to do it.

Maybe it's time for a fresh start with iTunes instead. 'The List' has been available online now for almost 3 years. Should I take down my old albums and start again with the new one? Just stockpiling them on iTunes is not only expensive (it's £30 per album per year), but it could also leave potential new listeners with a 'don't even know where to start' mentality. Maybe I could implement one of the other strategies above for the previous two albums and have my next album up on the major platforms.

As always, comments are more than welcomed on this :)

See you soon,

Sam.

Ready for launch?!

Today is the day, in many respects. Firstly, my album 'Anthology' launched today on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc. You can listen to both of my albums now by using the Spotify widget on the right hand side of this blog page. Isn't that cool?! If you like what you hear (I wouldn't expect you to buy it without listening first!) you can download it from iTunes here. If you don't like downloads, you can always come and visit me tonight and buy a CD copy :)

And that leads me nicely onto the second launch of the day. After a really nice gig last night at one of my favourite venues, Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge, I kick off 'The 10 Mile Radius Tour' tonight at Common Folk in Pelsall. It's at Pelsall Cricket Club. I've never been to a folk club before and to be honest, whenever I've enquired in the past, the people who run them have been very stand-off-ish. But I thought I would take the plunge for this tour and so I emailed ahead and for the first time they didn't seem like elitist 'folkies'. I might be wrong, but I'm hopeful all the same :)

If you are from Pesall or know anyone that is, why not give them a nudge tonight and come down and say hi. Would be great to see you :)

See you on the road!

Sam.

Anthology Online!

To coincide with my '10 mile radius tour' that I blogged about before, I'm very happy to announce that I will be releasing my album 'Anthology' online to all good retailers! It will launch the same day as the tour's first gig, so you can get it just in time to come and see me in Pelsall!

Is iTunes your thing? Do you prefer Amazon? maybe you like streaming on Spotify? Or maybe you use a provider from your phone like Nokia OVI or Orange SFR? However you get your music, wherever you are, there will be a way for you to get hold of it from the 8th.

And of course, if downloading isn't your thing, you can still have a CD!

See you on the road!

Launch date and Competition update

I can officially announce that I will be launching my new album 'Anthology' on Sunday the 29th of July, where I will be playing at The Fox & Anchor, Coven with some great guests and friends. Below is the official launch poster.

I am also pleased to announce that, as the first track on the album is '7 Days a Week', I will be holding 7 days of competitions from the 14th to the 20th of July in order to get you excited about the album. Some of the competitions will be based online, some at the gigs I have booked over those days, and I won't announce them until that day. Make sure you keep up to date with my blog, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages as well as visiting some of my shows during that week to be in with a chance to win. I might even run more than one competition some days, so don't tune out just because a winner is announced!

I'm excited about this now. It won't be long before you will be able to get the album from my online store, direct from me at a show or online via download. Roll on the 29th!

Sam.