“When We Were Romans” was released 3 weeks ago and has gotten enthusiastic support from friends and fans. This song, perhaps more than any other of my songs, serves as a travelogue. Specifically, it is a series of images, events, and memories from my trip to Italy in the fall of 2024.
But it was hard to tell that story in one place. Sure, I could blog about it, and I probably will, after all I did the same thing for the song Muse, which isn't even available for streaming. And also for Longest Night of the Year. but then it would just sit here on the page, and people could stumble across it during their time on the computer. However, there are limitless distractions on the internet, and my song stories are just one of them.
I was also contemplating a different problem: how will I make money as an artist?
My music is shared almost entirely on streaming services. While a couple thousand listens is extremely satisfying, it does not pay the bills. In fact, my streaming royalties don’t even cover the cost of my subscription to the streaming services I use. So streaming isn’t the answer.
For each of my albums, I purchased CDs to sell. However, increasingly, people don’t listen to CDs, a trend that started in 2001. Carmakers quit installing CD players as standard features and people just aren’t installing replacements.
There is a trend toward vinyl, but vinyl remains very expensive to produce, as much as $10 per record. Shipping a vinyl record to a fan can double that cost. This means that vinyl becomes an expensive souvenir, where the first $20 is sunk cost.
So what is a person to do if they want to make money?
I don’t know.
So I’m trying a thing.
The ‘Zine.
Like a chocolate bar falling into the peanut butter
You can take a deeper dive on this if you choose. But ‘zine is short for magazine. The word is used to describe a wide range of self published newsletters, comics, photobooks, and drawings for many purposes. Some are lavish, with magazine-quality images and paper. Others, like mine, are shorter and simpler.
Mine is made from a single piece of paper, in a technique I learned about from Austin Kleon. (Austin is the author of Steal Like an Artist and other amazing books that are intended to spur your creativity.)
As I found myself retelling the stories behind each line of When We Were Romans, I ran across another ‘Zine. And like the chocolate bar falling into the peanut butter, the When We Were Romans ‘zine idea was born.
Two great things in one place!
So if you are interested in learning more about the song, or you love to collect and share ‘zines, or you are interested in getting a little somthing while supporting a musician, stop over to the merch store and pick up the When We Were Romans ’zine.
