Sunday, October 23, 2005
Snail Mail
Thanks to all of you who have ordered the new CD via the website. It's been a busy few weeks, filling orders and getting out the promos to radio and press, and the CD's to distributors for in-store sales.
There's a new snail mail address for those of you who are still wary about internet payments, or who don't have credit cards, or who want to send us stuff. If you send paper checks, pls make them payable to Mark Edwards, not to MDID or the label.. thanks
PMB# 232
3604 Witherspoon Blvd Suite 111
Durham, NC 27707
I've gotten email from a few folks who have just discovered the website, and the fact that MDID didn't disappear after the Homestead days. It always surprises me the number of people that thought the band broke up after Taller You Are... Just goes to show what a coordinated promotional effort by a well known label can do for a band's public "presence".
I was commenting to my wife this weekend, as we sat at the kitchen table stuffing envelopes, MDID has come full circle, back to being a truly DIY thing. Sometimes I think it's a good thing, other times I mourn the lack of "access" to a wider audience for the songs. I think that the whole concept of "indie rock" has also come full circle, and many of the same barriers to audience access exist now that existed before the indie explosion in the 80's. The internet has made things more accessible to the individual, but the vast amount of music now available on the web is intimidating to most to sort through (it certainly is to me, and I have an above average interest in seeking out new bands and sounds), and the ready availability of free music on the web has made many people less willing to pay for music at all. What rises to the top, just like in pre-internet days, is those bands that have a promotional budget in the thousands of dollars, thousands more dollars to spend on video production, and dedicated employees to push the product out to the blogs, e-zines, internet distributors, and cable outlets that matter. Nothing has really changed for the truly independent D.I.Y. artist trying to sell their own music. It's always an uphill struggle. I am thankful, that for now at least, it's not an economic life and death situation for me like it was in the early years.
At some point I will have to decide if selling a few hundred copies of a CD is "worth it" in terms of the time and energy that goes into making a saleable "product". Thanks to all of you who have written with encouragement in this regard. In a large fashion, you can share in the credit for motivating me to get "A Divided House" out on my own when many of the larger indies out there took a pass on it.
There's a new snail mail address for those of you who are still wary about internet payments, or who don't have credit cards, or who want to send us stuff. If you send paper checks, pls make them payable to Mark Edwards, not to MDID or the label.. thanks
PMB# 232
3604 Witherspoon Blvd Suite 111
Durham, NC 27707
I've gotten email from a few folks who have just discovered the website, and the fact that MDID didn't disappear after the Homestead days. It always surprises me the number of people that thought the band broke up after Taller You Are... Just goes to show what a coordinated promotional effort by a well known label can do for a band's public "presence".
I was commenting to my wife this weekend, as we sat at the kitchen table stuffing envelopes, MDID has come full circle, back to being a truly DIY thing. Sometimes I think it's a good thing, other times I mourn the lack of "access" to a wider audience for the songs. I think that the whole concept of "indie rock" has also come full circle, and many of the same barriers to audience access exist now that existed before the indie explosion in the 80's. The internet has made things more accessible to the individual, but the vast amount of music now available on the web is intimidating to most to sort through (it certainly is to me, and I have an above average interest in seeking out new bands and sounds), and the ready availability of free music on the web has made many people less willing to pay for music at all. What rises to the top, just like in pre-internet days, is those bands that have a promotional budget in the thousands of dollars, thousands more dollars to spend on video production, and dedicated employees to push the product out to the blogs, e-zines, internet distributors, and cable outlets that matter. Nothing has really changed for the truly independent D.I.Y. artist trying to sell their own music. It's always an uphill struggle. I am thankful, that for now at least, it's not an economic life and death situation for me like it was in the early years.
At some point I will have to decide if selling a few hundred copies of a CD is "worth it" in terms of the time and energy that goes into making a saleable "product". Thanks to all of you who have written with encouragement in this regard. In a large fashion, you can share in the credit for motivating me to get "A Divided House" out on my own when many of the larger indies out there took a pass on it.
