The Schema

DIY music used to consist of a C30 cassette of tunes which you'd recorded on a 4-track in your shed. You scrawled on it with some biro, or a felt tip if you were posh, shoved it in a jiffy bag and sent it to John Peel. But now, it's different, isn't it. Yes, it is.

The Schema challenge is to record, distribute and promote a single from my bedroom in a 30-day timeframe. The resulting yacht-rock spectacular is called Those Rules You Made, and is released under the name The Schema on 20th August, via iTunes and a load of other online stores. My name is Rhodri, and this is the story...

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Sales Figures

So, over the weekend we watched the video viewing figures level off at the 250,000 mark. Throughout this project - and especially through the latter stages, our self-belief fuelled by a huge sense of achievement at reaching #1 on various YouTube charts - I was always wondering, in the back of my mind, how many mp3s I might have sold. Well, we got the sales figures through from the OCC (the British official charts company) yesterday, and the exciting news for all concerned is that we sold 58. Fifty Eight. Now, this may put you into the lower reaches of some kind of local chart in the Hungarian town of Medgyesegyhaza, but nationally, in the UK, it puts you some 4,000 places behind Kanye West.

So, what does this tell us? I had a text from Alex, the video director, who commiserated with me and said "Well, nobody buys music any more, do they..." Clearly some people buy music, but only 58 people buy a yacht-rock spectacular with a cute video. Obviously you can't use The Schema's tune as a benchmark as it's a barely contemporary sound made by a fat bloke in his mid 30s, but these unspectacular sales figures probably extrapolate pretty badly for the music business as a whole. I'm guessing. Actually, we don't need to guess, we know the business is in crisis.

Anyway, I wrote about this tale for The Independent, and the piece comes out today. You may draw a conclusion from this that all my expenses were somehow covered by a slush fund at the newspaper, but no - this was meant to be DIY, and when Westminster Council shafted me for £300, it was me who had to bite the bullet. Otherwise, what would have been the point? In fact, the council haven't invoiced yet, although I'm sure they will if they see the finished article, so my total costs: £867.65. Total receipts will be about £28, plus a few quid from sales of the track via the "buy from us" link you see above on the left. I don't have a calculator to hand, but you can probably estimate the net loss.

But what have I gained? Well, a 250,000 audience for a song I knocked up in my bedroom. I don't know what John Peel's listening figures were like in the late 80s and early 90s, but I'd say that this song probably got the largest number of listeners out of any song I've ever written or had a hand in producing. Which has to count for something. The interview in the Argentinian newspaper never materialised, but later today "Those Rules You Made" will be Alternative Pop track of the day at garageband.com. Which, again, is a crumb of comfort. As I'm on the front page of the bloody Independent today, my mouth hanging open like an imbecile, I guess the whole DIY thing is out of the window, and I can ring up MTV2 with my journalist hat on and beg them to play the video so I can claw some money back.

Or maybe I'll just keep it real.

posted by The Schema at Thursday, August 30, 2007

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Quarter Million

So we've nearly racked up a quarter of a million hits on YouTube, which is at once funny, and fantastic. When you have a YouTube viral success, other things start happening: garageband.com are making it their "Alternative Pop" track of the day on Wednesday. And then I had an email from an Argentinian newspaper asking for an interview. Can't see any paparrazzi hanging around outside my flat, but there's always time.

Tomorrow, we pay 20-odd quid to the OCC to see how many we've sold; if you asked me to make a prediction, I think that the ephemeral nature of YouTube means that that 1/4 million hits will convert into maybe 150 sales. And I know the music industry is dying on its arse, but that's still not many. Let's wait and see. Total cost: £567.65

posted by The Schema at Sunday, August 26, 2007

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Number One

At about 5pm British time yesterday afternoon, the video for "Those Rules You Made" became the most-watched music video on the whole of YouTube - and that's worldwide! I captured the moment for posterity:

This morning, we're up to 126,491 views. I'm still a bit flabbergasted. Remember, this video was made for less than £500, in less than 10 days from deciding to do it to getting it up online. Amazing. In the weekly chart, we're vying with Linkin Park and 50 Cent - a totally DIY music video, amid a sea of major labels. W00t, as they say on teh internets.

posted by The Schema at Friday, August 24, 2007

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YouTube insanity

So, the video was posted up on YouTube at about 1am yesterday. When I got up at 7am, it had had about 15 views; I was the 16th. I sent an email out to anyone I thought would be remotely interested - maybe about 400 people? - and posted it on my own blog. By lunchtime we were up to around 600 views, and by the end of lunchtime - clearly important YouTube viewing time for the UK's office workers - we were tipping the thousand mark, and, incredibly, had become the 64th most-watched video on YouTubeUK that day.

At which point the editors of YouTube must have noticed the number of hits it was getting. And they put it on the Front Page - at which point things went ballistic. As of this morning, it's had 25,000 views, although as the back-end of the site is down for maintenance, I suspect it might be a lot more. I also can't see where we're sitting in various charts, but someone informed me that it was the #1 viewed video yesterday on YouTube UK. Whether that means I'll sell any MP3s, who knows; but hey. We created something, put it on the internet, and people are looking at it. You can't ask for more than that.

By all means go and look at it on YouTube, but here's a higher quality version for your viewing and listening pleasure:

posted by The Schema at Thursday, August 23, 2007

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Internet Radio

Just a quick note: I've just submitted the mp3 to a handful of online radio stations, namely Kooba, SomaFM and Indiefeed...

posted by The Schema at Wednesday, August 22, 2007

+=+=+

Video Cost

We shot the video on Saturday; the results are on YouTube, but I'm going to post a lovely-quality Flash version here later tonight. Alex obviously wanted to do a professional job, but - as with any creative process - it was a question of balancing high quality with meagre resources. She was, very kindly, working for free, so we got the budget down to:

- Film stock: £117.50
- Digibeta cassette: £14.75
- Developing film: £105.75

Which is £208.50. Then I had to buy a couple of bottles of Perrier as props, making £211.50. Then we had to cover the costs of some of the actors, which added another £200, making £411.50. There's a couple more expenses still to come, one of them small, the other stupidly colossal; Westminster Council want £300 for letting us film On Their Land. But let's see if they bother invoicing us. For the moment, the Total cost: £540.04.

posted by The Schema at Wednesday, August 22, 2007

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It's Out

So the single has been out for a couple of days. Impossible at the moment to know whether it's sold anything, nothing or something, but Emubands can prise sales figures next Monday of some organisation or other for about £27.50, so I'll probably end up forking out that sum, because I'm impatient and vain. I'm also prepared for disappointment, obviously.

The number of stores that the single is on is extensive and colossal, but in fact iTunes accounts for around 80% of online music sales, so that's the biggie. And it's up there, and it's already got one review, but that is from my friend Karla, so does it count?

Of course, lots of those stores require certain operating systems to work, others need you to register as a member first – and, frankly, some people can't be arsed with that. But with our hosting plan from Dreamhost, we get a service called Files Forever, which lets you store files for eternity - and sell them to the public, be they mp3s, pdfs or whatever. So we did the sums...

There's a one-off charge of $0.03 to store the file for ever. Then another $0.03 per sale, along with a $0.50 transaction charge, along with 5% of the value of the file. So... if I sell both songs for $2.79, which is currently about £1.40 - less than iTunes! - then I get back $1.85. Which is 93p. Which is about 47p per track. Which is about what I'd get from iTunes anyway. Hey, it doesn't count towards the chart, but I'm not ripping anyone off, and I'm not losing out. So here you go. DRM free tracks. Should you wish to own them... Total cost: £128.54.

posted by The Schema at Wednesday, August 22, 2007

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	DIY music used to consist of a C30 cassette of tunes which you'd recorded on a 4-track in your shed. You scrawled on it with some biro, or a felt tip if you were posh, shoved it in a jiffy bag and sent it to John Peel. But now, it's different, isn't it. Yes, it is. The Schema challenge is to record, distribute and promote a single from my bedroom in a 30-day timeframe. The resulting yacht-rock spectacular is called Those Rules You Made, and is released under the name The Schema on 20th August, via iTunes and a load of other online stores. My name is Rhodri, and this is the story...
	Buy The Single! from iTunes from us Our Links the VIDEO! rhodri.biz email MySpace Garageband PureVolume TagWorld Bebo Facebook App Assisted By drinkmilk Emu Bands likemind Lot 49 Films Marysia K HitSongScience DreamHost Mailing List Type email! Previous Posts Sales Figures Quarter Million Number One YouTube insanity Internet Radio Video Cost It's Out Web ranking Online Press VHS, DVD, 320x240 MPG Archives July 2007 August 2007	Sales Figures So, over the weekend we watched the video viewing figures level off at the 250,000 mark. Throughout this project - and especially through the latter stages, our self-belief fuelled by a huge sense of achievement at reaching #1 on various YouTube charts - I was always wondering, in the back of my mind, how many mp3s I might have sold. Well, we got the sales figures through from the OCC (the British official charts company) yesterday, and the exciting news for all concerned is that we sold 58. Fifty Eight. Now, this may put you into the lower reaches of some kind of local chart in the Hungarian town of Medgyesegyhaza, but nationally, in the UK, it puts you some 4,000 places behind Kanye West. So, what does this tell us? I had a text from Alex, the video director, who commiserated with me and said "Well, nobody buys music any more, do they..." Clearly some people buy music, but only 58 people buy a yacht-rock spectacular with a cute video. Obviously you can't use The Schema's tune as a benchmark as it's a barely contemporary sound made by a fat bloke in his mid 30s, but these unspectacular sales figures probably extrapolate pretty badly for the music business as a whole. I'm guessing. Actually, we don't need to guess, we know the business is in crisis. Anyway, I wrote about this tale for The Independent, and the piece comes out today. You may draw a conclusion from this that all my expenses were somehow covered by a slush fund at the newspaper, but no - this was meant to be DIY, and when Westminster Council shafted me for £300, it was me who had to bite the bullet. Otherwise, what would have been the point? In fact, the council haven't invoiced yet, although I'm sure they will if they see the finished article, so my total costs: £867.65. Total receipts will be about £28, plus a few quid from sales of the track via the "buy from us" link you see above on the left. I don't have a calculator to hand, but you can probably estimate the net loss. But what have I gained? Well, a 250,000 audience for a song I knocked up in my bedroom. I don't know what John Peel's listening figures were like in the late 80s and early 90s, but I'd say that this song probably got the largest number of listeners out of any song I've ever written or had a hand in producing. Which has to count for something. The interview in the Argentinian newspaper never materialised, but later today "Those Rules You Made" will be Alternative Pop track of the day at garageband.com. Which, again, is a crumb of comfort. As I'm on the front page of the bloody Independent today, my mouth hanging open like an imbecile, I guess the whole DIY thing is out of the window, and I can ring up MTV2 with my journalist hat on and beg them to play the video so I can claw some money back. Or maybe I'll just keep it real. posted by The Schema at Thursday, August 30, 2007 +=+=+ Quarter Million So we've nearly racked up a quarter of a million hits on YouTube, which is at once funny, and fantastic. When you have a YouTube viral success, other things start happening: garageband.com are making it their "Alternative Pop" track of the day on Wednesday. And then I had an email from an Argentinian newspaper asking for an interview. Can't see any paparrazzi hanging around outside my flat, but there's always time. Tomorrow, we pay 20-odd quid to the OCC to see how many we've sold; if you asked me to make a prediction, I think that the ephemeral nature of YouTube means that that 1/4 million hits will convert into maybe 150 sales. And I know the music industry is dying on its arse, but that's still not many. Let's wait and see. Total cost: £567.65 posted by The Schema at Sunday, August 26, 2007 +=+=+ Number One At about 5pm British time yesterday afternoon, the video for "Those Rules You Made" became the most-watched music video on the whole of YouTube - and that's worldwide! I captured the moment for posterity: This morning, we're up to 126,491 views. I'm still a bit flabbergasted. Remember, this video was made for less than £500, in less than 10 days from deciding to do it to getting it up online. Amazing. In the weekly chart, we're vying with Linkin Park and 50 Cent - a totally DIY music video, amid a sea of major labels. W00t, as they say on teh internets. posted by The Schema at Friday, August 24, 2007 +=+=+ YouTube insanity So, the video was posted up on YouTube at about 1am yesterday. When I got up at 7am, it had had about 15 views; I was the 16th. I sent an email out to anyone I thought would be remotely interested - maybe about 400 people? - and posted it on my own blog. By lunchtime we were up to around 600 views, and by the end of lunchtime - clearly important YouTube viewing time for the UK's office workers - we were tipping the thousand mark, and, incredibly, had become the 64th most-watched video on YouTubeUK that day. At which point the editors of YouTube must have noticed the number of hits it was getting. And they put it on the Front Page - at which point things went ballistic. As of this morning, it's had 25,000 views, although as the back-end of the site is down for maintenance, I suspect it might be a lot more. I also can't see where we're sitting in various charts, but someone informed me that it was the #1 viewed video yesterday on YouTube UK. Whether that means I'll sell any MP3s, who knows; but hey. We created something, put it on the internet, and people are looking at it. You can't ask for more than that. By all means go and look at it on YouTube, but here's a higher quality version for your viewing and listening pleasure: posted by The Schema at Thursday, August 23, 2007 +=+=+ Internet Radio Just a quick note: I've just submitted the mp3 to a handful of online radio stations, namely Kooba, SomaFM and Indiefeed... posted by The Schema at Wednesday, August 22, 2007 +=+=+ Video Cost We shot the video on Saturday; the results are on YouTube, but I'm going to post a lovely-quality Flash version here later tonight. Alex obviously wanted to do a professional job, but - as with any creative process - it was a question of balancing high quality with meagre resources. She was, very kindly, working for free, so we got the budget down to: - Film stock: £117.50 - Digibeta cassette: £14.75 - Developing film: £105.75 Which is £208.50. Then I had to buy a couple of bottles of Perrier as props, making £211.50. Then we had to cover the costs of some of the actors, which added another £200, making £411.50. There's a couple more expenses still to come, one of them small, the other stupidly colossal; Westminster Council want £300 for letting us film On Their Land. But let's see if they bother invoicing us. For the moment, the Total cost: £540.04. posted by The Schema at Wednesday, August 22, 2007 +=+=+ It's Out So the single has been out for a couple of days. Impossible at the moment to know whether it's sold anything, nothing or something, but Emubands can prise sales figures next Monday of some organisation or other for about £27.50, so I'll probably end up forking out that sum, because I'm impatient and vain. I'm also prepared for disappointment, obviously. The number of stores that the single is on is extensive and colossal, but in fact iTunes accounts for around 80% of online music sales, so that's the biggie. And it's up there, and it's already got one review, but that is from my friend Karla, so does it count? Of course, lots of those stores require certain operating systems to work, others need you to register as a member first – and, frankly, some people can't be arsed with that. But with our hosting plan from Dreamhost, we get a service called Files Forever, which lets you store files for eternity - and sell them to the public, be they mp3s, pdfs or whatever. So we did the sums... There's a one-off charge of $0.03 to store the file for ever. Then another $0.03 per sale, along with a $0.50 transaction charge, along with 5% of the value of the file. So... if I sell both songs for $2.79, which is currently about £1.40 - less than iTunes! - then I get back $1.85. Which is 93p. Which is about 47p per track. Which is about what I'd get from iTunes anyway. Hey, it doesn't count towards the chart, but I'm not ripping anyone off, and I'm not losing out. So here you go. DRM free tracks. Should you wish to own them... Total cost: £128.54. posted by The Schema at Wednesday, August 22, 2007 +=+=+