UTENZIL now available on iTunes

Utenzil on itunes.com!

So this is cool, way cool. iTunes.com ! yay.

Search on 'Utenzil', there she be! Samples sound good, this is very nice.


Thanks iTunes!.

my intelligent and logical conclusion...

It is very unlikely I will ever make any money at this, nonetheless I'm going to plan to perform this summer hopefully to raise some money for charity.

Some sad things, a brief recap and current situation

I read this and found it very sad about a brilliant 14 year old young man who committed suicide. He had an IQ of 178 and was apparently getting ready to release his own CD, New Age music-- this article has additional detail, but you need to register with WashingtonPost.com to read it.

So I consider-- IQ of 178. Koko the Gorilla is supposed to have an IQ between 70 and 90. "Normal" IQ is considered around 100. You can't help but wonder: did this poor kid came to the intelligent, logical conclusion that he'd be working for monkeys the rest of his life? This world to him must've been like Planet of the Apes.

The brief recap, in a nutshell: Utenzil's next release is coming out soon. I will do the whole thing by 'remote control' this time:

0) Record the music, do my master.
1) Register the disc with CD Baby like last time.
2) Set up the disc art and packaging through DiscMakers.
3) Send the master off to DiscMakers, with instructions to ship to CD Baby.

Also, register the copyright, get a form, send in a little more money. I omitted the description of this step in the chronicle.

Right now, I've got about 50 tracks done in various stages. Some will be abandoned, some will be chosen. It's like American Idol right there on my hard drive. *** oh, that makes me laugh.

Finding supporting data for being encouraged

On the Mp3tunes.com homepage, this information:

Artists: 22,528 | Albums: 28,954 | Songs: 331,029

That's a lot of artists and albums. The encouraging thing is that Utenzil's MP3Tunes Artist Ranking is at 301, and the Album is at 370. So, criminy: Utenzil is in the top 1.5%.

I don't know how the rankings are derived, and this is not so much the point: it's encouragement that I seek, OK? :) If I want technical details I'll peer into a spectrum analyzer.

intelligent words about electronic music

if Utenzil could swing it, I'd subscribe to this magazine. to cover the cost of one subscription, I would need to sell about 10 CDs. starting to think in terms of things in units of CDs sold... like bonus miles: 'to *reeeaaaallly* be able to afford to buy this new interface, Utenzil will need to sell 217 CDs'... yeh yeh, then the ol' day job ends up footing the bill :)

There is a Pavlovian response to new gear, and also a feeding frenzy aspect, coupled with a bit of dread: "if *only* I had this new controller/this software/this interface/these mics/this preamp/this sound system... I could rule the world, no-- really: I would be, like-- all the dead rockstars resurrected only, like, much more intellectual and more modern...and if I don't get it... oh my ...nohh.. i will be stuck where I am...Forever.. i will wither, drained, ruined, like a big floating piece of mushy produce, the shelf life of this myriad of micro-brillant meme-lights expired, obsolete before it is laid out as a CD burn project, dashed against the rocks".

anyway, spring is here, and the weather is nicer and nicer, my next thought is to play a free concert in a park nearby.

Some nice words in a completely independent review...

Was played on Accident Hash Podcast episode 8, and was fortunate to get a favorable mention in a review thereof which is really nice.

I'm trying to find some places to post mp3s for just giveaways. It's funny, because it's harder than one would think. I can post them on my GarageBand site but I want to make sure they don't get encoded at a lower bitrate, GB used to do that but they may not any more, but I need to make sure. There is also this kinda cool site (literally, even, it's in Canada) ZeD TV but they have this thing were they will basically use anything you stick up there royalty free for whatever they want if they feel like it, which is a little free-er than I want. So we'll see.

Ok, this is just hilarious

I am conflicted with respect to the whole gangsta thing... the glorification of violence and essentially self-destructive behavior is a negative, the expression of a seriously wrong social condition in a way that brings it into the mainstream consciousness is a positive, the creative outlet it provides to people who would otherwise have none is a positive, where the perpetuation of the negative is bad.

but this is just hilarious

MusicNow carrying Utenzil...

A new digital distribution outlet for Utenzil, they also offer subscription memberships. MusicNow.com.

I'm having a lot of fun with this, and working on new tracks for the next release. Many of these are much longer, this might mean fewer tracks on the album, but I want to balance that-- an hour of music on the disc at least.

This blog is not so exciting, huh? so Moby's site, he's just got new release out and there is more stuff to do. His new release is a lot more hand crafted, he made a conscious effort at this, which is very cool as far as I'm concerned. Hearing what he was able to do is part of what prompted me to check out new music technology, and his site is cool.

Now available on MusicNow.com

Another digital distributor has picked up the album,
MusicNow, this is cool.

They offer major label artists as well as independents, purchase albums $9.99 and "a'la carte" permanent downloads 99 cents (WMA 'plays for sure' compatible).

MusicNow subscription memberships include a streaming service for $4.95 a month, and a "listen on demand to anything" for $9.95 a month, and they are offering 14 day free trials. The company also provides music services for other retail companies.

So, to recap, starting writing, recording and mixing in June 2004. November, 2004 the Utenzil CD was released on CD Baby.

Since then, the CD has gone into digital distribution and is now available on two outlets, MusicNow and MP3Tunes, has been played on two separate and different podcasts. Have I "made any money" yet? Expenses have not nearly been covered, no.

Now, this is a primary difference between the DIY artist and those with promotional machinery and resources behind them. I'd have to say that a lot of DIY artists are just as listenable as many majors, but to get "a product out" and listened to is hard work, and the investment doesn't always pay off for the majors or the indie.

this blog is not so exciting is it? This Canadian TV site is kind of exciting and they have a beautiful spokesperson, something else the Utenzil organization lacks :)

MP3Tunes "Top Artist" Placement in Experimental Electronic

This is neat, Utenzil is among the Top Artists on MP3Tunes.com, which also yields a nice placement on the genre/subgenre index page.

Here are some things I've looked into: renting a local performance venue (theatre with seating) for doing a show. To give an idea: the rent is $150 an hour, then there is an LCD projector available that I'd want to use for $75 a day. It seems unlikely you'd be able to get away with less than 2-3 hours. Ok, so $450 hours plus $75 $525 minimum. The venue seats 230. Now, I am considering tickets at $10 a piece which would include a CD, that's a pretty good deal. What I'd *really* like is just to see how it all works, maybe I'll be able to work something out to give it a dry run.