Sitting here in a Holiday Inn in southeast Georgia… no, that’s not the first line of a country song, that’s where I am tonight. And they have wireless and everythang!
When I first logged in, I got the most pleasant e-mail from cdbaby, informing me of how many more sales I had, how much stock was left, and that they had cut my first check.
Whoa. Payment for my first record sale.
Sure, it’s not much, but it could have been 50 cents and it would still be payment for my first record sale. Unreal.
Crappity. Buck Owens died yesterday.
He was one of the mainstays of my father’s repertoire (Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Horton).
I was sure that trying to take an online brain speed test on Sunday morning pre-caffeine would be a bad idea. The test measures auditory processing speed by playing a series of sounds and having you push a button to indicate whether the sound went up or down in pitch. But I actually did very well, instead of getting a score like: “Braaaaaaains… yes, have some.”
I scored 36 milliseconds, which is way better than the average 40-yr-old score of 87. So, I lissen gud.
Give it a whirl, and see how fast your ears work.
[ via Slashdot ]
…he reminds me of a happy Leonard Cohen, and the guitarist from Blondie, and the Velvet Underground, and what Richard Thompson would sound like if he were American, as well as all the people he’s supposed to sound a bit like, like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash and Neil Young. – Somewhat
A happy Leonard Cohen. I don’t know why, but that struck me as the neatest thing I’ve heard all week.
On all the sites where I pimp this album, I am asked to shove it in a particular drawer. So, I wind up having to label it “country” or “blues” or “folk” or “rock” rather than “all of the above”. (At CD Baby, it is in the Folk Blues and Roots Rock categories.) But another thing they all do is ask me to name 3 or 4 artists that I sound like. So, I pull Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Neil Young out of a hat (or some other place) and go with it. I should have asked her instead.
You, too, can write a review and submit it to CD Baby. No cussing!
Granted, they told me only to send a few copies to start… something along the lines of “yeah, yeah, everybody else’s mother says they’re hot shit, too… trust us, kid, you won’t sell as many as you think.” Still, it’s kind of neat to be able to say the new album was sold out within a day of its release. Thank you.
And now for some gratuitous link whoring:
The “I Slept In Line For Three Days” award for buying the first copy (at least according to my sales report) goes to John of Thudfactor.
The “I Didn’t Mean To Press The Button Again” award for buying two copies goes to Karan of Flummel, Flummer, Flummo.
The “I Put Up Your Stinking Ad And I Can’t Even Buy A Copy??” award for putting the album in a prime advertising slot on her wildly popular blog goes to Busy Mom!
Thank you all. I lift my champagne glass to you, and I’ll have my people get in touch with your people. We’ll do lunch.
So, a couple of you fine folk have consented to post about my debut album. And, despite the glitches that cdbaby has been having lately, it looks like I’m getting a few hits. Thank you!
Unfortunately, I neglected to read the details of digital distribution where CD Baby clearly states:
How long does it take for you to send it to all the companies?
2-5 weeks, once you’ve given us ALL the info we need, and we’ve received your CD. We have to encode it into 17 different formats for 40 different companies, so that’s why it takes a while. Plus we have to verify all your songwriter and publisher info is correct before we send it out into the world. Read the next question, though…How long does it take to show up on the music services once you deliver it?
Each company is different, but in general it takes from 3 weeks minimum, to 4 months maximum. (Usually 2-3 months.) Once we send it to them, it’s out of our hands and they do what they can to get it imported and active in their service. We push them to get it added as soon as possible, and they always do it as soon as they can.
So, I’m not gonna be a big online star as quickly as I had hoped. Oh well, I almost drove my family nuts with my excitement over the regular sales link. I don’t think they could have taken my hyperventilation at seeing myself on iTunes at the same time.
It’s finally here! The sales link is live, and the new web site is live. I’m so excited that I can hardly contain myself!
One could (if one wished) visit CD Baby – LESTER NORTON: Like Sailors Do and order oneself a copy of this fine music album. Better still, one could listen to 2 minute previews of all the songs AND write an album review (they edit/approve reviews, so not all of them will get posted).
One could also visit the new site, lovingly constructed by brandelion at WWW.LESTERNORTON.COM and read song descriptions, lyrics or a bio and peruse photographic evidence of my existence. There’s even a plethora of link images, so one could spread the word on one’s own site (thank you very much, btw).
Now, if I can only get the limo driver to stop talking on his cell phone for a minute, I have to get to the doctor to have my ego checked. It’s feeling a bit puffy and bloated.
Our Australian friends, Xade and Jo are in crisis. The nightmare scenario for monkeys the world over has occurred. Cyclone Larry has devastated the banana crop, and it is illegal to import bananas. It could be four years before they see another banana.
This is serious, people. According to this list of medicinal uses of bananas, we can expect Aussies to become anemic, constipated, depressed, hungover, nervous, and suffering from hypertension, heartburn, morninng sickness, PMS, and lowered IQ’s!
We need to take steps to isolate the entire island (continent?, pfeh, whatever) before the waves of immigrants coming to America to escape the Great Australian Banana Famine of ’06 overwhelm us. Our cities will be filled with Aussie ghettos with their shrimp on the barbie and their didgeridoo music infecting our youth. (I’ve been to Outback Steakhouse, and I have seen Crocodile Dundee a couple of times. I know what I’m talking about!)
And before you liberals start up about how we should welcome the destitute from Downunder, it doesn’t say “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to eat bananas…” on the Statue of Liberty. Besides, they’ll be coming from the wrong direction, so they won’t even see it. If we pretend it’s not there, then they won’t even know about the invitation.
So, Xade, while I mourn for your offspring and their banana-less lunches, I’m sorry, but there is no room for your kind here in America.
Well, we do have a spare bedroom, but you totally can’t stay for more than a month.
E-mail from CDBABY just arrived:
We just got copies of LESTER NORTON: Like Sailors Do in the mail today. We keep the first one as the store copy to open, label, scan and digitize. From now on the exact amount you send is the amount we’ll sell. It’s only this very first time we have to keep that one aside as the opened/unsellable copy.
It’s in line now to be added to the CD Baby website and store. Please give us 5-10 days from now to get all the digitizing, editing, scanning, and page-making done. (This is also when we listen to it!)
We will email you the very minute it’s up on the website, OK?
Patience, grasshopper.
In the meantime, check out the Garageband and Last.FM pages for moi.
I just got back from the Post Office where I shipped off copies of the cd to CDBaby, the Copyright Office, WPRK and Brandelion. They look spectacular.
I sent the cd’s to cdbaby by Express Mail. So, they should get there on Monday. I might even have a sales link that day (more likely it will be later in the week).
Filling out the copyright form was a little surreal, actually. It all seems so official and grown up (characteristics not typically found around these parts).
Stay tuned for the official launch of the new web site, as well. We have all the lyrics and stories behind the songs, photos of your favorite rock star, a totally fabricated bio, and many other bits and pieces of marketing hype designed to induce you to crank open your iTunes and shell out cash for the soft, emo stylings of Lester “Don’t Call Me Solly” Norton.
