Reply To: Strange Business Model
Thanks guys for all that thoughtful commentary. I just reread my original post at the top of this thread and it reminded my how discouraged I felt early on – especially right after the Slashdotting failed to fill my coffers with millions of easy dollars. The update is that the numbers continued to trend up, and I'm continually amazed each month at what the donations and sales add up to. I have to do some more serious accounting to figure out what kind of profits I'm actually making, but the baseline seems pretty healthy these days. We'll see what happens when Thing a Week ends.
Also, as Spiff says, I'm convinced that the freeness of the music has really helped to contribute to the upward trend – when you're growing an audience, the important thing is the exposure, not the money. First we get the exposure, then we get the money, then we get the women. If someone gets a song for free, it's paid for the moment someone who hears about me through them buys it. And if ten people hear about me through them, that's even better.