There are three numbers making me happy right now: 26, 76 and 150. I’m going to explain why they make me happy, but I’m sharing them because I think they hold important lessons for anyone trying to make a living making music.

26 dollars is the average sales price my band, Too Much Joy, has been seeing for our most recent album, Mistakes Were Made, on Bandcamp since it came out in March. Note that anyone who wants the tracks can play them for free right there on Bandcamp, or in any of the online music services, and — if they want to own them as downloads — can buy them for just $10. But, since Bandcamp also let’s us sell physical vinyl and CDs in addition to downloads, and treats the retail price we set for any of those as a floor, rather than a ceiling, anybody who buys the album there has the option of paying more if they so choose. And, amazingly, most of them DO opt to do just that.

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I’ve got a long read over at NPR about the strange case of Bob Seger, who has let over half of his catalog fall out of print physically, while simultaneously releasing just a couple compilations for sale online, and almost nothing at all for on demand streaming. A few folks pointed out that my editor and I missed an obvious headline: “Why Has Bob Serger Taken His Old Records Off The Shelf?”

The piece below was originally published in 2010 on the Rhapsody blog, but I guess some time after I left they changed blogging platforms and didn’t think keeping several years’ worth of entries worth the hassle of shifting them over. As you’ll see if you keep reading, my trip to NOLA as a guest of Air Traffic Control felt pretty profound at the time, and that feeling has only grown since then — to the point where I wound up on ATC’s board, and am now its Treasurer (ATC has since re-branded itself Revolutions Per Minute). I attended another retreat in 2012, and brought along a film crew from Google to document the shenanigans. All pics were taken by retreat attendees, but I’ve lost the original photo credits, so if one is yours, just let me know.

I just spent three of the best days of my life. At a band camp.

Well, technically it was an Artist Activism Retreat, which sounds a lot more lofty, but still doesn’t hint at the transcendent joy of the experience. And it took place in New Orleans, which explains some but not all of that joy.

Explaining the rest of the joy might not be possible. But I am going to try. Continue reading →