Re: [linux-audio-user] Linux-Music and making a living...

How about specifics? There's a system out there, that says, get signed by a major record label, and you get rich. How about an Open Source plan, one with clear steps to follow? Sell 20,000 CDs and get 50% of the USD$10 price/CD, and we're earning USD$100,000 a year, just from CD sales. But, how do we do that? Specifically!? First step: Our mindset has to be just right. Think of all the singer/songwriter/musician types in the world that have no idea how to turn on a computer, let alone record their own stuff on their own recording studio that cost them peanuts, even free, if they're broke, like me. I have one. Realize that we list members are miles ahead of the game, and get going. Next step: We can't sell those 20,000 CDs, if we don't offer them to listeners. Get our online store running now. If we have no money, then use an online store that will front all the costs up front. They'll package our CD song file(s), print our CD covers, inserts, and put it in a case, send it out, provide the merchant account so people can pay with credit card online, and we spend nothing out-of-pocket. www.cafepress.com is a good starting point. Look around, and get your music packaged for purchase. Who buys one song on a CD, and a work in progress at that? Our mothers, for one. She'll also be buying a shirt, hat, mug, and all the other standard gear. Oh, and she'll buy a lot of the personalized postage stamps. . . did you know you can sell your personal postage stamps? Next step: Follow the licensing that Tim and Russell and Cesare talk about. It sits on top of your copyright, specifically to open up extra protection on the Internet, and make our dreams come true. Once all that's done, it's done. From then on, just a matter of updating, improving, and marketing/communicating. Twenty years from now, we're doing whatever we're doing, and the steps taken are still brand new and interesting to future listeners. In other words, our music CDs are for purchase by listeners, just as they were twenty years ago. Ten Mile Tide band put some of their songs on the P2P circuit, and six months later, all members of the band were able to quit their day jobs. It didn't happen, until they acted. They didn't wait for the perfect song, they just did it. It works. If you need a cheerleader, help getting your store, internet strategy up and running, let us know. All our services are free. Tom