I guess everyone is busy...

[Mark M]

Including me. I've been really busy so far this spring and summer so I've not been here at all but I don't want the site to die so I will try to pay more attention. Amongst other things I've still been recording original music and I plan to have my second EP released by late summer/early fall. More to come later.

[Bob]

I can relate man and as you can see I've not been here in a while and playing a bit of catch up. It's definitely late summer so when can we expect to see/hear this new EP you speak of? I did very much enjoy the last one so I am curious as to what you have in store for the next.

[Walter E]

Late Summer... early Fall?  

[Mark M]

Thanks for calling me out Walter!!!

OK, the new EP dropped Friday, 11/10/23 and will be available on all streaming sites by next week. You will also be able to listen and download from my artist page on Bandcamp starting Monday at:

https://markmansueto.bandcamp.com/

[Walter E]

Wow man, I just checked out the EP and it sounds great. I love all of the songs and the first one sort of reminds me a bit of Pink Floyd once it gets going but then changes into more coolness. The slide solo is cool. All 5 songs are solid.

[Seymouro]

Your best yet.

Love it all and esp Racing Against Time. Great composition.

Gave the ultimate compliment. I bought it immediately.

[Mark M]

Well thank you very much... you blob. That means a lot coming from a bloke as yourself!  The best thing is that the proceeds go to Forgotten Harvest which I think is an excellent charity.

[Seymouro]

All the better.

[Bob]

NICE!!! I love the whole thing. Your playing is quite extraordinary on all of the songs. The slide playing is especially delicious. Great job

[Jingles]

It's great that your proceeds go to charity. Just curious, where do the proceeds come from? Royalties? Album sales? This can't be your full time gig if you're donating all the money, right?

[Mark M]

Jingles wrote

It's great that your proceeds go to charity. Just curious, where do the proceeds come from? Royalties? Album sales? This can't be your full time gig if you're donating all the money, right?

That's a really good question and I'll explain why but first the short answer: The proceeds currently come partly from streaming but mostly digital downloads. No, my main source of income has never been from music.

It was a good question because the music industry is a very jacked-up business and always has been. Before streaming took over it was the record labels and producers that mainly corrupted the business but it went much deeper than that and it was always the poor un-business savvy musician that got screwed... every time. Yeah, there were a bunch of big bands that made gobs of money but there are a LOT of big name bands that got completely screwed over and way, way more bands that you never heard of that got screwed even worse. Record deals were horrible. Fast forward to today... streaming services rule and they, along with digital recording, have replaced the labels and producers. IMO services like Spotify are basically stealing music and should not even be legal but they are and streaming is how people expect to get their music now... basically free and that's jacked up. That's why most of my proceeds come from Bandcamp where you go to download songs for a price, in my case a buck a song. That's my rant for the day. Thanks for reading

[Seymouro]

Didn't know all that but surmised most of it.

[Mark M]

Seymouro wrote

Didn't know all that but surmised most of it.

Same with me but I learnt a bunch more when I decided to actually release music. There's a lot to it and in my case I decided to NOT pursue signing with a label for several reasons, one of which is that the entire process gets way more complicated and I would need a lawyer to sort the contracts. No thanks.

[Jingles]

Mark M wrote

Jingles wrote

It's great that your proceeds go to charity. Just curious, where do the proceeds come from? Royalties? Album sales? This can't be your full time gig if you're donating all the money, right?

That's a really good question and I'll explain why but first the short answer: The proceeds currently come partly from streaming but mostly digital downloads. No, my main source of income has never been from music.
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Thanks for that detailed response. I know that many people have subscriptions to music services whether it's XM or or spotify or whatever, but I don't have one so I listen to songs for free but with adverts. I also know people that pirate high quality music from youtube and other sites and think nothing of it. I assume that not much of the subscription money goes to the musicians?