In The Pipeline May 8, 2018: "Big Idea"

I've finished one of the tracks I was working on and submitted it to Pond5. I call it "Big Idea." It's a heavily-sequenced electronic track that's intended to bubble underneath how-to or explainer videos. Check out the sample below.



Assuming all goes well, I'll be tweeting soon that "Big Idea" is live and online, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed. If not, you'll hear about it in my next weekly update.

Cheers!

What's Happening: Week of May 7, 2018

As I write, clouds are gathering here in southwestern Ohio. Thunderstorms are coming later this afternoon and evening. I'm sitting on a quiet Sunday afternoon and contemplating the moment.

The photo at left was taken on a more sunny day earlier this week while I was out and about. I had just gotten a haircut (in fact, I got them all cut) and was enjoying the change of pace and scenery.

That's kind of where I'm at right now, changing pace (but not so much scenery). I've been spending the last couple of weeks working on different ideas and trying out new things. On the production music side, I'm thinking about creating some music to augment my podcast intro music collection. I'm thinking of maybe doing some minimalist, atmospheric things with electronics and percussion to use as backgrounds for dramatic audio and visual content. I don't have anything to share just yet, but hope to do so soon.

My featured stock music item this week is Dramatic Moments (60 Second). It's a sort of tension-building orchestral piece that resolves at the end. It's also available in a looped version that doesn't have the resolution. I hope you'll check them both out.

On the "music for your lifestyle" front, my thoughts are not so positive. I'm not depressed about it or anything, but the plain reality is that this doesn't seem to be a good time to pursue that side of things. For one thing, I'd like to be able to release stuff in different styles and genres. But since I lack an audience of any size for any of it, to an outsider it probably looks like I'm throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks.

The long and short of it is, for now I'm putting new releases on hold. I may decide to throw a single out there from time to time, but it seems to make no sense to do albums or EPs. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do about DistroKid going forward. Certainly I'll renew it for another year (it's coming up soon) but the prospects of it paying for itself frankly seem remote. I might be better off to put that money on the lottery once a year instead. If I do continue with releases, I'll probably stick to quieter material along the lines of Circadia.

I can hear thunder in the distance now, so I think I'll stop here and do something else for a while. I do appreciate everyone who stops by to read, as well as those of you who license my work or check out my releases on Spotify or Apple Music. If you're interested in more frequent updates and other infor, please follow my Twitter feed, since I'm more active there in short form.

Until next time, take care.

What's Happening: Week of April 30, 2018

Taking a break from heavy production . . .

After uploading my last group of items, I decided to step back from cranking out stock music and do sort of a strategic review. I analyzed my sales from the beginning of the year. I found out some interesting things:

1. Podcast intros and loops now make up almost 3 out of 4 sales from my portfolio. The last time I looked at several months worth of data, it was about 50-50.
2. Of the remainder, the next largest groups of sales were in the ambient and drone categories, plus a lot of specialty items that don't fall neatly into a specific category. The dramatic and corporate/motivational categories didn't really have a lot of sales at all.

Part of the reason for some of the categories lagging might be that I haven't promoted them as heavily on my social media compared with the podcast intros. So I think I'm going to try and give them some more exposure over the next few weeks to see if that helps. If it doesn't, I'm going to seriously consider going "all in" on the podcast intros.

Meanwhile, I haven't completely stopped working on stock music. I did sketch an outline for a trailer music item earlier this week. It starts with a soft introduction, builds to a climax, then a short, even bigger climactic coda, before resolving to an outro. I'm projecting it to be about two minutes. I plan to revisit it early this week, and may share all or part of a rough mix in my next weekly update.

My featured stock music item this week is "Epic Dramatic Orchestra - 60 Second." It's got a nice big, cinematic feel for news/events, politics and similar content. In addition to the featured 60 second version, there are also 30 second, 15 second, loop and bumper/stinger versions. I do hope you'll check it out.

That's pretty much it for this week. Thanks for stopping by and supporting my work. Please look me up on Spotify and iTunes/Apple Music, too.

In The Pipeline, April 24, 2018: "Critical Seconds"

"Critical Seconds" is a fast-paced, urgent 60-second piece with strings and lots of cinematic-style percussion. It's designed for scenes where seconds count. Here's a sample:



Stay tuned to my Twitter feed for updates on the availability of "Critical Seconds."

What's Happening: Week of April 23, 2018

Here in Ohio, we're another week deeper into spring, and amazingly it's actually starting to feel like it! It's also Earth Day, and I hope you've had the opportunity to take time and appreciate the biosphere. I also hope that you're doing well (or at least better than my poor Cincinnati Reds baseball team, who are on course to win 23 games out of 162. Yikes!).

I'm dong well, having released some new items this week. I intended to create a "pipeline" post for a couple of them, but Miklios at Pond5 has been so fast of late, he's getting them online faster than I can create the post. I am NOT complaining!

But speaking of . . .

I do have a new item awaiting curation (just uploaded it Friday). It's called "Cause For Optimism" and it's yet another take on the basic bright and positive corporate track. There are three versions: a full (2:22) track, along with 60- and 30-second edits. Here's a preview of the 30-second version:



As always, keep an eye on my Twitter feed for status updates.

Meanwhile, my featured stock music item this week is "Restless." It's got some electronic noodling and some nice tension-building moments for your tech, business, or dramatic narratives. Here's a quick sample:



If you like this track and want to use it in your project, it's available to license royalty-free from Pond5!

HEAR THE FULL TRACK

If you'd like to check out some of my non-production music, please head to my web site and click "CONNECT" to find links to my stuff at iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play and Spotify.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a tuneful week!