For The Willow Wept… (Sunrise Edition)

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Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know I’ve released the Sunrise Edition of my album “For the Willow wept…”.

This edition of my album For The Willow Wept…, holds a special place in my heart. The original version of the album was released in 2012, however it took me 4 years to get to that point.

During those 4 years before its release, I was living on an emotional roller coaster and I found it extremely difficult to try to sit and compose new music. When I did, I would play a few notes; jot down an idea; replace a couple of voices in a song and then walk away after only about 10-15 minutes. It would then be weeks or months before I had enough courage to try it once again. There were way too many things going on in my life at the time, and I found it extremely difficult to concentrate on music. When I finally did return to it, I would fall into a deep depression. Suffice it to say, that’s probably why the album floats between highs and lows throughout.

In late 2011 and early 2012, I began to take back control of my life and myself. I reminded myself what my true passions were and found encouragement from others. I managed to assemble the songs I had worked on, and place them in a proper order for an album.

I had only 6 tracks together so I was looking at releasing an EP, but knew that I wanted to release a whole album since it had been 4 years since I released my last. I had enough feedback from fans about Sea Dragon, that I decided to write a Reprise version of it to end the album with, but that only got me to 7 tracks, and quite honestly, the reprise was just the same song twice, with a different intro and outro.

And then I found my inspiration again. I had a song I was working on, but it just was NOT making any sense, until one day things just clicked. I liked the song and the name that I gave it so much, that I decided to name the album with a similar name. The song was “For the Willow Weeps underneath the Stormy Skies”, and through someone very close to my heart, I found my inspiration once again.

I released the original version of For the Willow Wept.. around June of 2012, but knew I would eventually return to it to expand upon the idea, and extend the number of songs into a proper album.

After a few years or renewed vigor for my music, and honing my craft, I finally decided to dive back in to what I consider one of my more moving albums. I re-mastered the original tracks, removing the two versions of Sea Dragon and leaving only the “Reprise” version on this release. I also composed 3 more songs that are included to flesh it out as a full-length album.

This album for me represents overcoming your burdens, and emotional strife, and reaching for your dreams. Only you can control your own destiny, and it’s up to you to stand tall just move forward.

Life is full of highs and lows, you must remember that the lows will eventually go away. It’s important to stay strong and persevere.

You yourself may be experiencing dark times, but just remember the sun will rise.

I dedicate Sunrise Edition of For the Willow Wept… to Kayla, who has shown me what true happiness is all about. She is my sunrise, my Willow.

http://bandcamp.krichie.com/album/for-the-willow-wept-sunrise-edition

Be sure to take a listen when you can!
It will also be available on all the major digital distributors within the next few days.

 

– Keith richie

My biggest musical influence. My dad. An early Fathers’ day Thanks!

Published on by Keith RichieLeave a comment

People often ask me who my largest influences are, and I generally reply with the names of John Williams, John Carpenter, Vangelis and Tangerine Dream.   However, as I was driving this morning and reflecting on these things I came to realize it was truly none of these.

The first time I heard the music of John Williams was through the wonderful soundtrack music he has created, and in which I was initially introduced to in the mid to late 70’s.  You can read about that in my History of Musical influences here.  My dad took us to see Star Wars, and he had the soundtrack, along with other Williams soundtracks such as Close Encounters, Jaws, and others.

The first time I heard the music by The Cars, was while riding during a road trip with my father.  And as for Vangelis? Once again it was by listening to the soundtrack for Chariots of Fire, and the soundtrack for the Cosmos T.V. series which my dad also owned.

As for Tangerine Dream, once again it was because I was introduced to the movie Firestarter by my father, and immediately being hooked on the haunting opening (Crystal Voice) and the end credits track Charly the Kid.

And for John Carpenter.  In the early 80’s one Halloween we watched both Halloween I and II together, and I was hooked.

So I guess I would really have to say, my largest influence on my musical tastes and influence on the music I create would have to be my Father.

My father had a very wide range of musical tastes, and introduced me to music I’m not sure I would have heard if it were not for his vast collection of albums, soundtrack scores etc.

So thanks Dad!  Thank you for sewing a seed in me that has grown over time.  Thank you for encouraging me all these years.  Thanks for being the best dad ever.  You truly deserve it!  I’m fortunate to still have you with me.  Someone I know I can always count on.

Thanks Dad, for being the type of Father everyone hopes for.  Someone amazingly supportive and loving.  YOU sir are my inspiration.  You are everything I aspire to be!

Happy Fathers Day!

Your son, Keith.

 

 

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The facts about my streaming income and why I have a lot of respect for Lady Gaga.

Published on by Keith RichieLeave a comment

I had a friend ask me the following question on Facebook and I think they were a bit shocked by my response.

The question was “If I played your music 24×7 for a month, how much would you actually get?”

And my answer was, “maybe $40 dollars“.

Well, that’s the direct answer to the question.  The full answer was this: “At an average of 0.004 cent(s) a stream, maybe $40 dollars. That is if you were to stream it on Spotify or Apple Music. For satellite radio, it would depend on the station and how often“

If I figure an average of 4 minutes per song , that’s 15 songs an hour, which equates to 360 songs a day, for a total of 10,800 during a 30 day period. At 4/10 of a cent on average that’s about $43. Then of course the distributor gets its portion. So… about $40.

Now, the average that I came up with is the pooled average of the major streaming providers, such as Spotify and Apple Music.  Some pay more, some pay less, and it all depends on the duration of the play itself, along with if the consumer was a paid service consumer or using the free platform.  Overall it varies, but on average, from all the streaming sales I receive from all of the platforms, it comes out to be about 0.004 cents per stream.

If you take that average and apply it to my top song on Spotify as shown below:

delme

 

You can see that through Spotify, my song V Feeling from Ambient Highways has a total of 1,768 plays for an approximate net income of $7.00 US dollars. For what it’s worth, as of April of this year, Ambient Highways, which is one of my best received album, has only netted me a total of about $250 US Dollars via Streaming, Digital Downloads, etc. across all platforms since it’s release in July of 2015.   I’m basing that value on actual sales data from Streaming and Digital downloads as of April 2017 from my sales analysis chart, and adding perhaps $40 to it that comes from people who have subscribed to me on Bandcamp, and a couple of other donations from folks.

I’m not detailing this to whine or complain, I’m just detailing some facts in case your curious. We are entering a world where the majority of music consumption is going to be wholly based on streaming services.  In fact, I’d say we are technically already there.

That isn’t to say though, that there isn’t money to be made from streaming revenue.  For instance, let’s take someone like Lady Gaga.  Use the following snapshot from Spotify as a reference:

delme.png

So the title track from her album “The Cure” released on Spotify only a month and a half ago has brought in 79,160,215 streams.  At $0.004 cents per stream on average (Of course her average may be completely different depending on her labels deal with Spotify, etc), that comes to a total of about $316,640 US Dollars.  That’s almost 1/3 of a million dollars on ONE SONG ALONE after ONLY a month and a half.  I’m sure that’s not the total net that Lady Gaga is getting from that.  There is certainly a large portion that goes to the label, and surely she has to pay for her staff, etc.  But let’s say just pretend that on a pretty solid guess, she’s netting about 1/3rd of that herself or $100K US.  Not bad for only a month and a half, right?   It’s details like this that make me question the reasoning behind some other major players not wanting their music on the streaming services (such as ehem, Taylor Swift).  I mean c’mon… In a streaming world, there is definitely some income to be made from it.

So now let’s take the top 5 songs and sum up their stream counts as of today for Lady Gaga.  Again using the image above as reference, that’s 552,374,224 streams (552 million folks!) at an estimated average of $0.004 cents per stream equates to $2,209,496.90 in streaming revenue from Spotify.  Let’s apply the 1/3 factor to take care of her label and other expenses, which comes to $736,498.  Nearly 1 million US dollars on just the top 5 from Spotify.

Spotify was officially launched in 2008, and I’m unsure when Lady Gaga first showed up on the platform, but let’s assume at the same time. That’s also about the time that her album “The Fame” was released, in which included Poker Face which is one of the top 5 albums.    Let’s take that total of $2,209,496.90 from the top 5 songs, divided by the number of years Spotify has been officially launched and you come up with an average of $245,499 per year of streaming income. (Note, I’m positive that in the early years there wasn’t that much generated, and it has only increased over time, it’s just an average.).  Apply the safe guestimate of 1/3 that goes direct to her and you have $81,833 on average per year of estimated personal income.  Remember that’s ONLY for the top 5 songs, and ONLY from Spotify.

Ok, so I’m not a real fan of Lady Gaga.  Sure she has some catchy tunes here and there, but I’m generally not a big fan of pop music, but you have to have some respect for the fact that she’s certainly getting some solid income from streaming services.

Ok, so now with all of that said, at this stage in my music career I know I’m not going to make a living just by getting my music on the streaming platforms TODAY.  And I may never amass the number of streams that Lady Gaga receives, but I certainly won’t discount an opportunity to be heard on any streaming platform such as Spotify.  You never know WHERE you’ll find your audience.

In the mean time, I’m working on getting my music licensed for TV and Film, and if you are a follower of mine, you know my ultimate goal is to compose music for film for a living.  I’m just working on it one day at a time, and one thing at a time.  Always saying “Yes” until I can’t anymore.  You never know where that sudden spike in listeners may come from.  I have to think of creative ways that allow folks to help support these endeavors.  For instance, check out some of the ways you can help support me via my support page here!

As an artist, you are just going to have to accept the fact that this is the world these days, and there is certainly an income to be made from streaming music.  Would you rather make a fraction of a cent off of a stream of your music, rather than nothing at all from your music being pirated and given away free without your permission?

Take a step back, and look at the big picture.  Don’t give up hope.

I’ll take that fraction of a cent any day.

– Keith