Countermelody

The second post

Today marks the first anniversary of the launch of Countermelody.

And this is its second post.

I made myself prepare two other posts for the next two weeks before adding this one. They are already scheduled, so at least I am guaranteed to do 3 times as well as before. How often can you see 200% improvement in performance?

It has been a phenomenally chaotic year, including my wife’s and my eighth move since 2000, two substantial temporary assignments, a long period of unemployment and mild depression, and the time-consuming retrieval of some things from storage that needed to be transported from Rochester, New York to England.

I haven’t written much music lately, I find it difficult to focus on composing when I sit down to it, and I have an awful time fighting off countless distractions, not least including the necessity of bringing in a reasonable income. A brief on-topic observation here would be: if you want to be a self-published composer, you will need to fund this vocation externally. And your non-musical pursuits will show an insatiable appetite for your time. This is a battle that must be fought, which I’ve been losing a lot lately. (I’ve indulged in ranting about it today on my dark-side “mean reds” blog, if you’re interested.)

But despite everything, I still feel drawn most strongly to music; I am determined to find my way back. And I still believe in this project.

You can see that mine is not exactly an archetypal success story. I am not beaming down directives from an enlightened height; all I can do is spur others on and hope for encouragement in return.

If you want to see a genuine rags-to-riches music self-publishing saga, try Stephen Melillo’s STORMWORKS®. But brace yourself. As popular as he has become, I somehow find the whole STORMWORKS® deal ever so slightly sinister… dare I say “fascist”? And, well, not a lot of it is targeted to composers.

Anyway, Mr. Melillo’s efforts ought to be able to shed some light on effective strategies for the rest of us, and I am certain that one of his pivotal infrastructure choices has been the use of PDFs for distribution. So next week, I will explore some of the things that make this format so great.

Promise.