I decided to release my new album, Sounds Like Jazz, on Bandcamp two days before it goes live on Amazon, Spotify, Apple iTunes, Deezer, Youtube and other streaming platforms. If you’re not familiar with Bandcamp, it’s a great community for finding new artists and has become an important source for independent musicians to release their music.
Most importantly, Bandcamp is a place to support new and independent artists. Why download your own music when you can stream it on websites like Spotify? Well, for one reason, artists receive very little revenue for a song being streamed. Presently, each time a song is streamed it generates about 2.3 cents. Those coins might slowly add up to a whole dollar, but it takes 229 plays. I hope you can see this is poor compensation in comparison to what artists receive when a person shows support by downloading the album at Bandcamp. Plus, when you download a copy of the song, it becomes an actual part of your music collection, unlike a playlist. That means you can listen unrestricted any time you want.
You can preview whole songs for free on Bandcamp, up to 3 times. For the kind of listener experience that I intended, I encourage you to play Sounds Like Jazz straight through from “Change” through “I Want to Be Free” and finally to “Leaving Home.” You’re sure to be able to relate to the lyrics, which are available to read on Bandcamp while you play a song. If you like smooth jazz, as I do, this music is for you. But even if you tell yourself you’re not really interested in jazz, these are “sounds like jazz” in more of a pop format designed for a wider audience to enjoy. You might just be surprised. So, check it out!
And for those of you who understand where I’m coming from and buy the album, thank you for your support! Got a comment or question about the songs? Give me a shout through my contact page.
Peter Flaire 