The CD Baby system told me the other day that since 2010, my online albums Ten Thousand Days and New Dog, Old Tricks have earned me 81 cents from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and others. They will share this bounty with me when the sum reaches $25. At this pace, I figure I can count on my estate picking up the check in about 30 years.
w.p. bluhm, my singer-songwriter alter ego, has been going through a little creative surge of late. Since about Dec. 28 I have composed enough material (including new songs, arranging a medley and learning a vintage Rick Nelson tune) for a new 10-song album, but since most are two to three minutes long, I have set a target of writing at least four more songs before I declare a full album. If 14 songs was the standard length of an album for the Beatles and other U.K. bands of the sixties, I guess it’ll do for me.
I have completed two recordings so far. “You Just Say When” might be the breakthrough hit that gets me to my 25 bucks, based on Mary’s enthusiastic response, but she is a tad biased. “I’m Gonna Love You” is a rocker with mucho cowbell and an ominous “guitar” solo, but I don’t know if it’s a hit song.
“Guitar” is in quotes because the solo was generated using GarageBand’s “Musical Typing” feature. GarageBand, the music-creation software application that comes with Apple computers, can make my guitars sound like completely different instruments, or I can type a tune with many amazing sounds. It’s amazingly versatile for a freebie app.
My friend the pastor said on Sunday that studying the Bible is fun, adding, “You might say that I HAVE to say that because I’m a pastor, but maybe I’m a pastor because the Bible is fun.”
I have fun writing and recording my songs and designing album covers — does that mean I was born to be a singer-songwriter or designer? The 81 cents suggests the market is telling me no, but it’s fun anyway.
When we’re having fun, are we close to discovering our life’s purpose, the work we were born to do? Let’s see what happens with this new music and take it from there.
P.S. After writing the above, I checked CD Baby again and discovered that my balance jumped to 90 cents over the weekend. Nashville, here I come!
