I've given up the idea of making any money with my music. I finished my last album in July of 2021 and decided it was a waste of money for cd's because they were too hard to distribute, and who listens to cd's anymore unless they have a car stereo that takes them? Does anyone sit at home and listen to an album CD on their stereo system anymore? Not many, I guess. Instead, I distributed it online through Bandcamp and none of the other services like Spotify, iTunes, etc. As sort of a marketing test, I sent emails to everyone I could think of in my area to invite them to the Bandcamp page for my album, and said don't pay for the album--- just click the play button next to a song. I also pleaded with them to not listen through their laptop speakers, but connect a pair of headphones to get the best stereo experience. At Bandcamp, there is a tab at the webpage with a bar graph for statistics, showing partial plays and complete plays for all the songs in the album. There was only one complete play through all the songs. I confirmed with the friend who did this. He bothered to go and find a pair on headphones stored in a drawer, connect them to his laptop, and listen to the complete album. He even told me which song he liked the best.
I'm guessing that the ones that only made it through part of a song before giving up listened through their laptop or smartphone speakers, or those little earbuds. Hearing a partial mix with no bass frequencies sounds terrible, so why would they appreciate all the work I put into producing, mixing and mastering the songs. All of this begs the question: Is there a much smaller percentage of people listening to music than 50 years ago because they expect it to sound good through their laptop speakers or smartphones with earbuds? Also, there is no concept of what an album is anymore.
I don't want to start on another song writing project unless I can find someone to collaborate with; maybe some musician with some marketing experience. Instead, I am enjoying live guitar and piano playing to hundreds of songs in Band in a Box 2022 that sounds incredible through my home system. Thank you for listening to my rant.