News

So after a brief flurry at the beginning, sales of my CD have pretty much dropped off. Instead, lots of free downloads are happening. I like this very much, and I'd like to see it continue. And you can help.

If you're reading this and haven't yet downloaded Acrophobe, by all means head to music.paulroub.com, click "Download", and enter "0" as the amount you'd like to pay. Then download away.

If you like what you hear, tell your friends. That's what this blog post is about - how to share. Sharing is good. Sharing is nice. Sharing gets the music heard, which is ultimately the point of the whole thing.

If you want to let your Facebook friends, your Twitter followers, etc. know about the whole CD, head over to the CD page and click "Share":

Follow the instructions from there. Thanks!

Have a favorite song you'd like to point them to instead? Here's how.

Let's use "Mind of its Own" as an example - I'm kind of smitten with that one at the moment. Click on "Mind of its Own" in the tracklist:

Then click the "Share" button on the song page. Thanks again. You rock.

If you, or your friends, want to know when gigs are happening, or other (occasional) updates, please either "Like" my Facebook fan page, or head to my front page and join the Mailing List. Or both.

Thanks again for helping me give stuff away.

The "Acrophobe" CDs are here!

If you pre-ordered, you should have your CD by now. If not, please let me know.

If you'd like to order a CD, you can order them directly from me at music.paulroub.com - they're $6 plus shipping. You can pay more if you like, but that's up to you. $6 is fine by me.

You can also order the CD at amazon.com if you like — although that'll cost you more, and Amazon keeps most of it. Hint, hint.

I wanted to say "my new CD has been released", but I don't have the CDs yet. In a week or two, yes - but the songs? The music? Those are available right now, right here.

It's solo, it's acoustic, it's essentially a live set without the audience. No overdubs, no edits. If you like what I do live, you're in luck. If not, you'll really, really hate it.

There's a tip jar; pay what you want, or pay nothing. Seriously. Please. Free for the taking.

How can I do that? First, it's a selfish move - "free" means easy, means shareable; which means more people hear the music. The whole point, no?

But more practically, I can do it because these people? They rock. They're awesome. "Hey guys, would you pledge some money so I can make a thing? And later, you'll get the thing, even though it will also be free?" Apparently, yes. I can't say "thanks" often enough.

It would be an understatement to say I'm overwhelmed by the response to my call for CD funding (in case you missed it, I'm recording a CD, and decided to fund the recording process through pre-orders and donations).

$1050 in one month seemed like a stretch, which is why I chose that timeframe. Deadlines work for me. I assumed that come the last week of March, I'd be begging people to donate just a bit more, handing flyers to strangers... Instead, the whole thing was funded 10 days in. Friends are wonderful things, especially when they're glad you've finally gotten off your ass and done the thing they've been telling you to do for years.

I'd love to see more people just pre-order the CD (you can still do that), just because the ultimate point of this is to make music and have it heard.

But I highly recommend Kickstarter's tiered rewards setup, especially the fact that you choose your own rewards. You know your audience (if you don't, figure that out first). Gordon knew that music geeks (like me) would want the limited-edition vinyl. JigGsaw knew their fans (like me) would want T-shirts and their back catalog.

I knew my friends would want to make me sing songs that I hate.

I can't take credit for the original idea. In December, at a charity live-band karaoke, Mike Ingram promised to sing any song on the band's extensive list for a donation to the cause. Making my fellow indie-acoustic-singer-songwriter sing "9 to 5"? Worth it, and many others agreed.

I knew that people who had been in bands — or high school, or the workplace — with me were well aware of my pointed musical opinions and dislikes. If you've been around me even once when Journey came on the radio, I imagine forcing "Open Arms" on me must be enticing.

Know your audience.

Which brings me to the second interesting facet of this project, vs. any I'd done in the past: I haven't touched my mailing list yet. Like most artists, I have a good-sized email list I've built up over the years. More years than most, dating back to when I had to explain what email was.

And I know some, but by no means all, of those people. And many of those emails are out-of-date, or silently bouncing, never checked...

Instead, I talked about the project on Facebook (both my personal profile and my fan page) and Twitter. Where I know who I'm talking to — the exact same people most likely to show up at an eventual release party. The exact same people most likely to take me up on the "tell your friends" request. And they don't just sign up for a CD, they chime in and taunt me with song requests, rubbing hands and discussing the possibilities. These are the people who will listen as work-in-progress mixes are shared (a backers-only bonus). Feedback rocks. Feedback inspires.

It's not news: conversations are better than announcements, for both sides. I'll have the CD soon enough, and it will be available from CD Baby, and for download on iTunes and elsewhere, and I will hit the mailing list, and that will be fantastic. I'm not sure it will be as fun as this part has been.

Now back to concentrating on the CD itself. I find myself practicing and thinking about guitar parts I've played for years. I'm more excited about my music than I've been in years.

I'm recording a CD. Almost said "a new CD", but where's the old one?

Somehow, over the years, recording a CD of just-me-n-a-guitar has always been the next thing I was thinking about. Despite being the first thing, or the only thing, everyone asks for at gigs and in-between.

Stars are aligning, though, since I'm actually excited to do just that. Studio? Chosen and booked. Mastering and duplication? Priced. Artwork? Who knows; haven't come to that bridge yet. Funding?

Funding. That's where you come in, I hope.

In short: $1 or more is a helpful and appreciated boost. $10 pre-orders a CD, shipped to you and signed, as soon as one exists. $25 gets the same plus early peeks at the tunes. $50 lets you make me squirm, cringe, and bite my tongue as I cover the song of your choice. (you could also pick something I'd enjoy singing, but how's that fun?)

If you're unfamiliar with Kickstarter, where the project is living, it's kinda awesome: you pledge what you want towards my goal. If the goal is hit in time ($1050 by March 31st), you get charged. I don't hit the goal? No charge. All or nothing.

Take a look. Hop over to music.paulroub.com and take a listen. Tell your friends via those nice little Share buttons on the Kickstarter page.

Every little bit helps; and anything you can post on your Walls and your Timelines and your Twitter Streams is hugely appreciated.

I've set a short schedule because I'm stoked; this is going to be good. I'm proud of it in advance.