"How can I help?"

“How can I help?”

Whenever i release a new cd project, there will be people who write to me, asking this very question. The question, and the sentiment behind it, is VERY appreciated; I’ve been blessed with some wonderful “listeners of my music” over the years, and each new album I release verifies that. So I thought I’d write a note to answer that very question- because there are actually quite a few answers.

1) Buy my album. That’s probably what most musicians would say, including me. My album is available for pre-order on:
Amazon.com      iTunes      Bandcamp

However- I know that for a lot of us, funds are tight. So with Bandcamp, since I directly control the prices, I’ve set the pre-order price pretty low: $7 for the cd, $5 for the digital download. I’ve heard some musicians say that you should NEVER price your albums low- that, by doing so, one “de-values” their own work. I disagree, however- pricing my album low for a pre-order lets my listeners know that I value THEM, and value their support. Whether you pre-order from Bandcamp, Amazon, or iTunes- just know that doing so will put you in a club i call “Friends of ambient musician, yours truly”- or “FOAMY-T”. And now that i think about it, that’s not that great of a name, i need to work on something better.

.... note to self: FOAMY-T might be a good pseudonym for a rap project.

.... note to self #2: see if you can get sponsorship with a company that makes chai lattes- that’s definitely “foamy tea”.

2) Stream my music. This one is a little controversial with some musicians, and my opinion on the subject is certainly not “THE” opinion on the subject- but it IS “mine”. And my opinion is streaming is here to stay. So if you have a Spotify account, you can go you my page- which is right HERE- and listen to my music. And while you’re there, I’d appreciate it if you’d follow my page. Yes, what you’ve read online about streaming is true- I get about 6/10 of a penny when you listen to a song- which is a little less than 5 cents when you listen to an eight song album. Just stream that album 200 times, it comes out around the price of buying a cd....

.... no, DON’T stream my album 200 times.....

3) Make a station of my music on Pandora. For those of you who use Pandora, all you have to do is go HERE and click the little “start station” play button. And the Pandora algorithms are pretty good at finding appropriate music from other artists to fill out the station- no Slayer or Howling Wolf songs will show up (PERSONALLY, I’d be ok with one of those following one of my space-guitar pieces, but it WOULD break up a gentle listening mood....)

4) Watch my YouTube videos. My YouTube page is HERE, and you can find a lot of videos that others have created all over the site. There’s not a lot of videos on my YouTube page at the moment, but there will be more, soon (that wasn’t meant to sound ominous....)

5) Sign up for my website mailing list. You’ll find the “sign up for my mailing list!” section at the bottom of every page on this site. Don’t worry- i won’t exactly flood your inbox with spam; I’ve sent out a total of THREE mailing list messages in 2017.  And if you sign up,you'll get a free 20 minute version of my song "Downdrift"!

6) If you haven’t already, like my Facebook Musician Page. It’s the most reliable way for me to communicate my music related things on FB. Again- it won’t take up a lot of your time- I’m not exactly prolific with my social media posts.

As always, my thanks to you for your support, your well-wishes, and your help.

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