Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,
As many of you already know, I finished the Emperor’s New Tea album several months ago, but I have not been able to acquire the funds to print hard copies. My priority has been simply for people to hear it! It has given me enormous satisfaction being able to send out download links. I’m afraid I’m too sentimental to be a smart business man about it all and consquently, I’ve only sold a mere 3 copies! However I been measuring the success of Emperor’s New Tea so far by the fact that I’ve given out links for free downloads and it’s already been downloaded over 100 times! Which is an incredible feeling. And the feedback has been amazing.
Recently, I received a quote from a friend of mine in who teaches at an international school in Thailand — but moonlights as a DJ — and this what he said:
“The warm fuzzy effects, the dopamine-releasing harmonies, the word play, the cohesiveness of the whole album. Thanks for helping me relive the experience of putting an album on and listening the whole way through, which I haven’t done in a long time…”
I love that people are getting exactly what I was going for. Indeed, I wanted to make a record that could be listened to completely– from beginning to end — in a car on a road trip, at a house party, or with headphones on, lying on your back on lazy afternoon. Trigger some serotonin in the brain, evoke the nostalgia of music meaning so much more… like it did when you were younger — when you might have had less cares then than you do now.
Vinnie Zummo, lead guitarist for Joe Jackson’s tour band, offered this comment: “Emperor’s New Tea is some of the best new music I’ve heard recently. Bradley has succeeded in creating new musical vistas in shimmering clusters of sound. Each song surprises and delights. Products of an amazingly creative mind. I also love the cover. It get’s the album cover of the year award in my apartment!”
And Kurt Reil of The Gripweeds said, “Really a very cool creative album. I dig it!”
Now, I have spent an tremendous amount of time trying to figure out how to duplicate the CDs, what service to use, what kind of package to order and how many units to make.
See, ordering discs is a little like ordering popcorn at the cinema. The small size is totally too expensive for what you get right? And it’s no where near enough. It’s like a dixie-cup of popcorn for 8 bucks. And then you’re thinking, “well I should get a medium” but the medium is, like, $9.50 and it’s only a little more popcorn. So you look at the large, which may seem like way, way too much popcorn, and totally expensive. But, see, it’s only fifty cents more than the medium. So what do you do? You get the large and then you’re kind of glad that you have all that popcorn. And you’re able to share it with your movie-going friends and everyone’s happy.
Disc Duplcation services are similer. You can get a 100 for about 400 bucks or you can get a thousand for … about 1,200 bucks. Clearly the best bang for the buck is getting a thousand units.
I know that most people download digital music but hard-copies are a must for someone in my position. Hard copies sell better at gigs, and I need make promotional packages for radio stations. I also, I really, really, really want to mail copies to all of my influences in the music world. It’s important that Paul McCartney gets one, David Bowie too, all the Monkees, They Might Be Giants, and Beck Hanson…. the list goes on… but it’s important they get a copy. It just is.
How ever much I raise, whatever it will buy me, that’s what I will order. So it’s up to all you! I need at least 400 bucks. But if I raise more, I’ll order more CDs. Thanks so much for considering. Your donations, no matter how big or small will be helpful. Since this is not a Kickstarter campaign or something hosted by a middle-man site, all donations are absolutely going to go towards getting this project completed. No matter how much I raise! I am determined.
Thank You For Supporting Independent Music, (You can sample mine here.)
Bradley
