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Looper's Delight
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Rainer wrote: "So basically, if you do not value your own spare time at all (or even give it a negative value), then that can be ok, if, on the other hand, you value your spare time a great deal (like Krispen), then by all means don't make your CDs yourself! It does not pay off." There are a lot of ways that things can pay us off as you say. Not all involve money. Some are economic, some are time saving, some involve spiritual or personal satisfaction, etc. It's hard to quantize in this case for me so I can't agree with your assessment of the way I do it. Let me explain why your approach doesn't appeal to me: What you say WOULD be true if I were in the economic bracket that you and Krispen are in, but I'm not. What I mean by this is that I don't make very much money (because I live mostly off of my artistry or things related to it, peripherally like teaching, giving seminars, studio work, touring , et. al.) at all so I have a lot more time than either of you to work on my music. What I happen to do as an artist in a sense means that I'm not on the clock. Not that time isn't valuable to me, but the fact of the matter is that I lay out less actual cash doing it my way than with the Kunaki solution (which, by the way, I think is a wonderful solution for lots of people: especially people with really high paying and time demanding jobs outside of the music, like you and Krispen). Because my resources are vastly smaller than yours, it's actually a better alternative for me to do it the way that I do it, merely because I lack the financial resources. In my own world, I rationalize this decision by thinking that I would have to go out and do work that is time consuming and not meaningful to me to make more money to put it out in ways that are more expensive. I think if I were starting over again, however, that I might very well take the route that you are taking (having a good job that derives income not directly related to music) because it's gotten to be so vastly more difficult to make a living as a professional musician than when I was starting out. I've just done it for 30 years and I just feel stubbornly (and egotistically) attached to doing it the way I do it. Additionally, I get a lot of artistic satisfaction out of doing everything myself. I really like being in control of every aspect of my final 'product'. In order to do this, I have to spend very little money to retain the aesthetic control that pleases me and gives me satisfaction, artistically. I'm down with that compromise. I actually love doing way more, with very, very little (it's one of the salient reasons that draws me both to found sound and to lo fi toy videography)............I can spend a lot less money on all of it and it spurns me on to be a lot more creative. Spiritually (and this is just for me: please understand that I"m not putting down anyone who chooses a different path), I like that I'm involved with every step of the process. Doing so forces me to learn a lot about all kinds of things that have helped my skill set in music and visual arts, from designing to production to mastering, etc. I get to grow a lot as an artist, consequently. Sure, I'd love to do a killer vinyl release of Dayglo Orange Plastic (in fact, can't you imagine a cool limited run of 200 using Translucent Orange Vinyl?) but I literally don't have enough money to do that. It's all good...................I just wanted to pipe in and let people know that there are a lot of ways to do things in the music industry without going down the typical paths. And all that said and done, I have great respect for both yours and Krispen's artistry and all the things you guys chose to do to put your own artistry out to the world. Happy New Year to you and may 2009 be a really fruitful artistic year for you. yours, respectfully, Rick