The Schema: Sales Figures

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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	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 Quarter Million Number One YouTube insanity Internet Radio Video Cost It's Out Web ranking Online Press VHS, DVD, 320x240 MPG Endless profiles 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 +=+=+