PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Songtrader....subscription only

From a recent email.....




They've never placed anything for me so I reckon I'm done with them.

Typical internet bait-and-switch.

1) Start out free until you build up a user base
2) Offer and upgraded (pro) subscription for a price
3) Eliminate the free version
4) Raise the price of the paid subscription

I guess it's a good business model, because so many companies do it.

We have 26 songs licensed through them. But I’m wondering what might become of the album I distributed via their service if we were to downgrade from our current pro subscription.

Bud

I can only justify a subscription like this if I make more from the royalties and licensing than the cost of the subscription. That is definitely not the case with songtradr

Well we've earned a whole $279.13 since joining at the pro level in 2017. So at $49 a year we are losing!

Bud

Sadly, what's that line again?
"How to end up with one million dollars? Start with two million dollars"

Well at least for us it's how to lose $63.87 in seven years. I reckon we can survive that!

Bud

I have actually made a lot of money with SongTradr.

Define "a lot" 😉

The gatekeepers always make more money than almost all of the artists. It's how they stay in business.

But we all hope to be that tiny percentage that puts us in the Taylor Swift exception-to-the-rule category.

Wishing all good luck at that.

Of course, if you are doing it for fun, that's OK too.

I do music for a living, so everything I spend money on has to be balanced on a profit/loss basis, both long term and short term. Sometimes that's difficult to do. Will that subscription cost a little, but give me a good chance at making a killing?

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Well that is my personal business but it has been pretty good for me as I have had some really nice ongoing placements and everyone knows me by name now.

I am composing every day and things are moving right along.

Wishing everyone well. I am in a really good place and happy about it all.

Head down and working.

I’ve been fortunate to have never needed to earn a penny from music. For 30 years I played in bluegrass bands that often did three night club gigs and played festivals on the weekend. But all through those years I was employed by the State of Georgia in the mental health field (from which the two of us retired many years ago). So yeah it’s been for fun … until it wasn’t. So came the point where riding/racing mountain bikes, hiking and a bit of traveling was more fun than band schedules. Then 12 years ago came a game changer for us — PG Music. So now our music enjoyment is simply having more than family and friends listening to our music. BiaB, Songtradr and Spotify have enabled that. Pardon the old guy ramble … off to hike. 😀

Bud

Good for you, Bud.

I've been fortunate enough for most of my life to not have a 'day job' and make a living doing music, and nothing but music.

No Monday through Friday routine, no waking up with an alarm clock, no boss telling me what to do, no 5 days per week repeating the routine again and again, no blue Monday and no TGIF.

I had 2 real jobs in my life while investigating what it is to be normal. One was a telephone installer, back when phones were wired to the grid, and another was a Cable TV Field Engineer (I studied electronics in college). I found that for me, normal is terribly overrated, so neither of these day jobs lasted very long.

Instead of saying, “I have to go to work today” with a sad heart, I say, “I GET to go to work today” with joyful anticipation.

I've been on stage and treated as an equal by the biggest stars in the industry since I was 19 years old. At 19 that was mind-blowing, today it's just normal. Growing up, I've met and courted more than my fair share of pretty women (I hope this is rated G enough). I've gigged all over the USA and as far away as the People's Republic of China. Cruise ships, auditoriums, show clubs, dive bars, singles bars, restaurants, dance halls, convention centers, etc., I've seen them all from the perspective of being on stage. There's a party going on, and I'm part of the life of the party. And when I'm on the job, every 5 minutes or so I get applause.

Down sides or trade-offs?

I never had corporate health insurance, or company social security contributions. I pay the full 15% self-employment tax myself. No company sponsored retirement plan, sick leave, or paid vacations. This is not for everyone.

If I could go back, I'd do it again, with the exception, I wouldn't have wasted a few years doing day jobs to see what normal is.

I'm living a happy, fulfilling life. So far — so good.

Back on topic.

Since my business is making music, everything gets evaluated with profit, loss, and pleasure involved. Unless the subscription had the potential to increase my profits, or increase my enjoyment in life, the fee would be considered a loss and I wouldn't subscribe.

I profit from my good decisions, and hopefully learn from the bad ones. When I'm on the job, I'm having the most fun that I can have with my clothes on.

There is more than one right way to go through life - this is my way - YMMV


Notes ♫

Fortunately for me l, I've never had to make a dime from music a day in my life either, although I have had in all modesty the pleasure of being an internationally renowned Performance Management consultant and business author for most of my professional life, have had an office on Park avenue, lived on Central Park West next to John Lennon, but was also able to play out in all of the main clubs in New York in Manhattan on Saturday nights in the prime slots for years.

So it was with great grace and humility that I found that I could learn how to play guitar at the virtuoso level and go on to become a songwriter and actually make a good deal of money on the side as icing on the cake on top of all of the other money that I was making as a world famous consultant that I wasn't even able to count, while also traveling the world, climbing large rock faces and mountains, going into European cathedrals, visiting half of the countries on the globe, spending weeks alone on private islands with some of the most famous writers on the planet, and meeting more than my fair share of gorgeous and beautiful people all over the place, until I ended up marrying the most beautiful woman on the face of the Earth who is, of course, my wife.

Then after having received daily calls from CEOs around the nation asking me to help them improve their quarterly profits, I was able to spend some time with band in a box (when I wasn't practicing some of the most difficult classical compositions that you can play on the classical guitar) in order to compose songs that would later get me a major sync licensing deal, as I tried to read and understand some of the comments on the band in the box forum, 99% of which I simply don't understand but I'm sure they mean something to someone.

But when I am not doing that you can usually find me riding my mountain bike, lifting weights, or swimming in the Olympic pool that I go to several times a week so I can maintain peak physical condition.

It's difficult to walk into a restaurant and still be hit on by gorgeous woman of all types but because I'm also one of the most highly developed spiritual men on the face of the Earth I'm able to ward off temptation by telling them that I'm married to a beautiful woman and then I introduce my wife and say have a nice day before I go back home to compose another masterpiece.

So all in all I feel that I've really been blessed by God and that maybe in many ways I'm God's favorite child because it looks like everything I touch turns to gold. So I'm very happy but humble, humble and modest, and embrace each day not only with the magnificence of my own outrageous talents but a sense of humility and duty to being the best human being that I can be and helping others all that I can because that is just the kind of great guy that I am and always have been.

And it is a reason why I love being a part of this very humble and modest forum.

Nice to dream, eh?


PS: I didn't see any mention of great story telling skills. What's going on there?

Hey Audio! Happy Fourth!!

A few points:

1. My story telling skills are far below anything else I have seen here so I decided not to mention them. I can't compete.

2. Mine is not a story.

3. It is hard to be this wonderful but everyone has their cross to bear.

4. Have a nice day! Good luck with your songwriting this year! Let me know if you need any help!!

Good for you. I can only dream about being so marvelous....

(Anyway, I've enjoyed the conversation. Fun times, indeed. Overall, yes, the world needs to lighten up a little.)

Audio,

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get Happy Everybody!!!!!!!!!

Have a nice fourth!!

Also, a favorite quote from my grandmother:

"It's a sorry dog that can't wag its own tail."

In the words of the great, departed Lewis Grizzard, "There's no story so good it can't be improved on". Congratulations and belated happy 4th!

Spoken like a great songwriter.

And never forget DC:

"Good writers borrow. Great writers steal."

T.S. Eliot.

Gosh, I ADORE Eliot, and appreciate the allusion. But while that's a famous quote, like a lot of "quotes", it isn't. It is a pithy and memorable paraphrase of a more nuanced passage from an Eliot essay...

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest."

On the other hand, I can remember the "Good writers borrow..." line much easier, no matter how it's attributed. So there's THAT....