Slowing Down and other things

A while back someone commented that I haven't put out as much material as previous years. On the surface this seems to be true. Ignoring individual tracks on compilations and collaborations up to this date I've released four albums on my main Bandcamp page compared to thirteen last year. If I include material on collaborations and compilations last year I released twenty-nine pieces up to the end of September.

So far this year I have released twenty-eight pieces including collaborations and tracks on compilations and subscriber only releases. Also there are nineteen albums on my Private Releases Bandcamp page. But because the private releases are on a separate Bandcamp page and are subscriber only no one sees them and it's not a page I push (as explained in a blog from June 17.)

I also have enough material ready for release to see me through the rest of this year and probably most of next year, some of which was finished in 2016. So I have been a busy boy but around two-thirds of it hasn't been seen by anyone. Yet.

There have been discussions on Twitter and Facebook in previous months about whether releasing a lot or a little is a good thing. Valid arguments on both sides. I know several people who release an inordinate amount of albums every year and it doesn't seem to hurt their popularity or sales. Conversely I know many who only release one album every year (sometimes not even that) and it doesn't do them any harm either. What works for one won't necessarily work for another.

In April I released 3.33 and it did okay (by my standards and overall sales). At the end of August I released A Poignant Void on Black Box Recordings. It didn't perform as well. I don't know why this is but it's just the way it goes. There was plenty of advance publicity for it. There seemed to be plenty of interest in it pre-release which of course evaporated when it was released (but isn't that always the way and I'm pretty certain everyone finds that). I even approached various review sites but up to today none of them have reviewed it but I imagine they get inundated with requests.

I remember posting about how disappointing the reaction to the release was. Normally I don't bother. I release and I move on to the next one. Yes, I am often disappointed (as we all probably are no doubt from time to time) but there was a difference with A Poignant Void. All my other releases are solo efforts so there's only myself involved. A Poignant Void involved other people; the people who run the netlabel it was released on and the people who donated their time to doing remixes of the songs on it.

There were various reasons why I was disappointed most of them will remain unsaid. Well there it is

So nearly four months passed between two releases and that's the longest so far. I'll probably go back to releasing one a month or so. I did wonder if that long gap played a part in the reception to A Poignant Void but who knows? 'Tis a fickle thing.

My next release will come out next Friday, probably, and is a Berlin School style album called the Seventh Sky. The last two Berlin School albums (Sequences and Sequences II) are my best selling albums to date and it seems this genre sells better for me than the others.

Does this mean the Berlin School genre is the winning formula (relatively) for me? Maybe it is. But to release only in one style is an anathema to me. It would bore me. I like dabbling around with different styles. Perhaps that's what's stopping me building a fan base? Maybe. Although it has to be said that that approach hasn't harmed some artists (Vangelis springs to mind).

It's an approach to music I enjoy both as a listener and a musician. I like being continually surprised by other people's music and the different twists and turns they take. I may not always like the results but I respect them for following their muse rather than the dictates of fans.

Oh well enough Sunday morning rambling. Things to do, people to see.