New album, on a book tour and the numbers game
My brand new album "For Such A Time As This" is out now. It dropped on the 8th of September. I was away from London in Brighton the day it came out. This is in my opinion the best body of work I have dropped. I am so proud of it and happy with it.
All my last couple of projects since 2013 have been produced by me and this album represents the growth and development that has happened in me artistically and otherwise since my last release "Delayed But Not Denied" which was such a troubling time for me, I was going to totally quit music. You can read all about that here
I am currently in the middle of my "Rhythm And Poetry" book tour. It has been amazing so far. I never thought I would be travelling all over the UK because of a book I wrote. I have so far done dates in Plymouth, Yeovil, Croydon and Hereford. I have been clocking up the miles and sleeping in lots of hotels. The fact that this is just the beginning is really making me anticipate what is gonna happen in the future. I have a whole bunch of other places I am hitting before the end of the year. I am looking forward to Manchester, Cheshire, Amersham, Croydon (again), Stoke Newington and other places.
In my latest podcast episode I touched on something that is always on my mind. I have been thinking a lot about how the whole music industry is just a big numbers game. This is just how business is. Business is about the bottom line. Business is about measuring specific results and aiming for profit. It is all about who has got the highest numbers. That's how things are measured. That's how the score is kept.
The thing is when it comes to music, it gets weird. People sometimes (most times?) allow numbers influence what music they listen to or HOW they listen. I have always believed that people don't just listen to music in a vacuum people's personal perception of what the artist is about affects the reception of the music from that artist. Also their personal preference affects what they choose to listen to. That personal preference can be influenced, that is what marketing, branding and promotion is all about, influencing consumers so they will make a decision to buy into an artist and buy what they produce. The people who say "I just like what I like" don't always stop to think how they ended up liking what they liked (who has time for that?)
The thing is ultimately numbers aren't the most important thing. Now for someone like me who isn't way up there on top in this numbers game, it might seem like an easy thing for me to say. Would I say this if I was pushing high numbers? Maybe I wouldn't because the stakes would be higher to keep my numbers up and I would have a lot to lose.
I am still living out my dreams without pushing high numbers (well not yet! lol) This talk of numbers reminds me of an old story about a man called Gideon who after a process of elimination went from having a huge army to having only 300 men to go into battle. With his low numbers he defeated a huge army.
I appreciate everyone who has supported me up until this point I am at. I might not have a huge numbers and a high ranking in the numbers game, but I am still here doing what I love and loving what I do. If I ever start pushing huge numbers please remind me of this post. Thanks! lol
You can check out the latest podcast episodes I have released below:
You can check out the latest podcast episodes I have released below:
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