This morning, I was riding in the car with my 22 year old son. I was asking him if he could help me set up an Ebay store for my music. He advised against that, said he guaranteed I'd lose money.
"Okay," I said. "What do you suggest?"
"Well, Etsy would be a good match for you," he said. "And Soundcloud."
"Soundcloud?" I said.
"Yea," he said. "You know, for exposure. If you're not using Soundcloud, you're missing the boat."
"Really???, " I said. No surprise there, I usually DO miss the boat, I thought.
"Yea, that's how So and So became a star," he said. (And I'm sorry, but I can't remember So and So's name right now.)
My son continued as we passed Weigels and came to a stop at the red light. "So and So put a couple of tracks up on Soundcloud and everybody wanted to hear more, so he made an album. You should put two or three tracks on Soundcloud. "
"Ohhhhh…." I said, and our conversation trailed off as we turned up Montana Ave. I did set up a Soundcloud account about three years ago, but never did anything with it.
I guess I should have followed through and gotten on board back then, but as usual, I missed the boat.
* * *
Now it's afternoon and I am sitting on my bed with my laptop. I've just come from exploring Soundcloud where I posted a track from my new Christmas album.
Yes, I FINALLY recorded a Christmas album. It's another one of those projects I've thought about for years but somehow never got around to until this summer.
The album is called "Appalachian Christmas." It's a 15 track album of Christmas standards and folk carols from the southern mountains, all with new arrangements by me, Dogwood Daughter. And, since Randall Merryman of Nashville did such a fabulous job mastering my Lily Cat Music for Kids CD, I had Randall master this new Christmas album as well.
I really love this album and I hope you will too. It will be available on iTunes and Amazon the first week of November (if not before.) Also, I'm making a very few, limited edition physical CDs. (CDs will have a bonus track too!) They'll be available from CDbaby in November or you can always contact me directly and I'll get one to you. Just shoot me at an e-mail at:
dogwooddaughter@dogwooddaughter.com
And here, for your listening pleasure, is the one sample track I just loaded on Soundcloud. Do you know anyone else who actually listens to Soundcloud? If you do, I ask you to please share this Soundcloud link with them. In fact, please do me the favor of sharing the link anywhere and everywhere on social media.
You know my refrain: I'm an independent artist with no advertising other than the good will and word of mouth from kind people like you. I'm sincerely asking you spread the word and help me make my Christmas album a success. Thank you!