Categories
Updates

Update: April 28, 2019

Starting today, I decided not to do an update for each upcoming week. The reason is that, musically, I don’t know what’s coming in the coming week. From now on, then, I’ll just call these posts “updates.” That is, until I change my mind. So here’s what’s going on right now.

For those who have actually read my posts or paid attention to my Twitter feed, all of my attention right now is on “Triangles.” That is my podcast documenting the history of the Dayton Triangles football team. You can get information about that project at its website, DaytonTrianglesPodcast.com. I’ve got a lot of interesting things going on there, so please check it out. The podcast includes some underscore music by yours truly, including the theme, which I unofficially call the “Dayton Triangle Rag.”

Because I’m so focused on the podcast at the moment, I have nothing going on musically. That’s probably just as well, since stock music appears to be dead in the usual stock marketplaces at the moment, (My sales have been fairly decent the last three days, though.) As of last week I removed all of my releases that were on DistroKid, and I’ll be closing out that account by the first of June. I’m not doing anything new on Soundcloud either, although I’m not getting rid of that account because it doesn’t cost me anything.

The long and short of it is I’m still on something of a break from the music while I’m working on producing the podcast. Once that’s done (I’m thinking sometime this summer), I’ll have another look to see what’s going on, and what if anything I want to do next. In the meantime, I’ll probably still post some thoughts here, mainly because I can. Thanks.

Categories
Independent Releases Updates

Announcement About My Catalog

Last night, I deleted my catalog from DistroKid. If you want to download or stream tracks from the Excelsior series, Aquarian Eyes or “Snow Globe” you need to do it before they disappear. I intend to close my DistroKid account before it renews in June.

Categories
Updates

Dayton Triangles Podcast Site Now Open For Business

As of the end of the day today, my new website for the podcast series “Triangles: The Life and Times of an NFL Original Team” is up and running. Over the next several days, I’ll be removing Triangles-related content from here and returning this site to its original purpose: mainly music.

For news and other updates about the podcast, please visit daytontrianglespodcast.com.

Categories
Updates

Update: Week of April 22, 2019

Happy Easter, and Happy Earth Day 2019!

My Dayton Triangles podcast is coming along. I now have basically four episodes in the can. I’ve secured the domain DaytonTrianglesPodcast.com and will prepare to roll it out beginning this week. Once that site is up and running, all my podcast updates will appear there. I’ll link to that site from here, and this site will resume its focus on music.

AS for the music, there’s nothing much new to tell. If what I hear on the Pond5 forums is accurate, stock music sales are slumping not just for me, but also for a lot of stock music producers. I’m still mulling different ideas on how to respond to that. One idea I have in mind is to start selling digital downloads on this site at a deep discount from the licensing fees on the major marketplaces.

I’ll also discontinue my association with DistroKid over the next several weeks. Nothing personal against them; I just haven’t released enough material to justify US$19.95 per year. Also if I want to have delayed releases (to give my time to promote them in advance), it’s an extra US$19.95, which at this point strikes me as throwing good money after bad.

Who knows, maybe I’ll just find something else to write, or write about. In any case, thanks for stopping by.

Categories
Dayton Triangles Updates

Update: Week of April 15, 2019

Starting this week, I’m shifting my focus away from stock music and toward the Dayton Triangles podcast that I’m working on. “Triangles” will be, for the foreseeable future, my number one priority.

I’ve reached the conclusion, after working on stock music exclusively for almost three years, that it has become commoditized. There are simply too many low-cost alternatives to marketplaces like Pond5 and AudioJungle. Pricing pressure will soon squeeze out a lot of the people trying to rely on stock music as a significant income source, and I’m no exception. I’m going to stop having “featured items of the week,” and other such things. I’ll still put out information about items I sell, collections and my Pond5 portfolio. However, I’m not going to emphasize those. Instead, I’ll focus more on the podcast project, and then we’ll see.

As for the podcast, I now have four episodes worth of narration tracks finished. This week, I plan to complete production on those, and once that’s done I’ll get hooked up with a podcast host. I also released the first preview or trailer for the podcast.

First preview for “Triangles: The Life and Times of an NFL Original Team”

Stay tuned for more information as production develops.

Categories
Dayton Triangles Updates

Update: Week of April 8, 2019

It feels like the week just past was a “lost” week. I announced in my last update that I was starting production on the Dayton Triangles podcast. I was preparing to do that Monday when my wife Danita left work with nausea and severe abdominal pain. soon after, she went to the ER, where the doctors diagnosed a bowel obstruction and admitted her to the hospital.

The doctors at the hospital concluded that scar tissue from her recent gall bladder operation was the culprit, so we wanted to avoid more surgery if we could. We spent the rest of the week trying to get the bowel to calm down on its own. It was a slow process. It was Wednesday before they would let her have clear liquids, and Friday before she could try regular food. We avoided surgery, and she’s back home resting comfortably.

But the damage was done. No production. No nothing.

So, I’m hoping to try again this week on production for the podcast. I also found out early this week that I have an unexpected opportunity to do some freelance writing. I don’t think I’ll have time to work on new stock music with these new projects in the wings, but I will continue to promote my catalog. This leads us to . . .

https://twitter.com/thisbrucesmith/status/1114968859495292929

R-O-C-K in your P-O-D (cast)! This intro was inspired by John Mellencamp’s 1980’s rock-n-roll groove, which in turn was inspired by a whole bunch of 1960’s rock. It’s also available in :15, stinger and loop edits. Please check it out.

So, this coming week is a do-over for me. Let’s hope it turns out better than last week. Take care.