7th of June Blog update

What a week I’ve had! I really got into using Periscope, and I must say I am impressed! We did few takes from our rehearsals, and I even did a late night one from my home 🙂 Then I got the chance to visit the Melosity offices and had a long chat with the CEO Rory O’Farrell (thanks for the lunch Rory!). I read about Melosity first time back in April, before they went live. I became one of the beta testers and got a chance to check it out briefly, but this week I decided to really put it to the test with the help of you guys. But more on that in Thursdays blog. Let me just say, this might change the way I work, and I don’t say that lightly.

Also on one of my Twitter conversations we somehow ended up talking about money and Kickstarter. I haven’t really talked about this much, but we are getting close to it 😉 I have been thinking of using Patreon, but I have few hesitations. First of all, I don’t want to turn this into some kind of exclusive club where you can only be part of it if you pay… That is not why I make music and that is not why I write these blog posts. If you are not familiar with Pateron, check out THIS VIDEO. You see, at the moment the money I make from the album sales is nowhere near the money I spend to keep all of this going. If I did not play regular shows with Sliotar and sessions in the Porterhouse, I would not be able to do this. I am not complaining, I love what I do. But… And its a big but 😉 It would be nice to be able to dedicate little bit more time to all of this, and maybe even have a budget to work with. As you know all of my videos I’ve done my self, on a non-existent budget. All of the recordings I have done on my own limited recording equipment, on my own apart from few exceptions where some good friends stepped into help. I outsource the mastering. And I am hoping to really get touring soon as well, but to get started on it, will require the help of many friends, but also some… Money…

So before we get into this weeks blog posts, I’d like to ask you your opinions of me using Patreon, do you think it would work? And what would you like to see as the incentives? I mean even before we get started, I am already committed to record several albums every year, and writing hell of a lot of blog posts 😉 But I have some pretty crazy ideas brewing in the back of my head, which would require a budget. So let me know here in the comments, or on Twitter or Facebook what you think, or even just email me at [email protected] and let me know your thoughts. And now let’s get in to the blog posts 🙂

This weeks song “I Believe” was as happy as my songs get 😀 Check it out here

I Believe

On Monday I was trying to tackle a subject that can get on the way of so may things in our life:

Toxic thinking

We get so wrapped up in finding new fans, trying to monetize our music, get heard by as many people as possible that sometimes we forget the truly important stuff:

Quick tip 106 Let people fall in love

The Irish Times got me bit fired up by posting an unnecessary negative article. Read all about it here:

Long live the festivals

To be up on the latest promotion trends in the music business is not enough, you need to be innovative:

Quick tip 107 Innovate

I got thinking about art and how it needs to be more accessible, rather than an exclusive club:

Everyday art

And us artists should immerse ourselves in the arts, let other artists inspire us:

Quick tip 108 Immerse yourself in arts

So here’s the big news of the week. I am putting Melosity to the test the best possible way I could think. And that is by inviting all my followers to collaborate with me 🙂 Read all about it here:

Make music with me

Today, I believe it is more important than ever for artist to have their own voice:

Quick tip 109 Have a voice

And here’s my thoughts on Periscope:

Quick tip 110 Periscope

Last but not least, I was in a mood to talk about songwriting once again 🙂

On Songwriting part 10

So there you go my fine companions of the world-wide web. I believe we have carved a nice corner for our selves here 😉 So let’s do it all again next week, you bring the food and wine, I’ll bring the coffee. And in the mean time, feel free to share anything you find here, it really makes a big difference for me 🙂

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE