Lessons Learned

I'm amazed at what a difference a year makes. A year ago today, I was still grappling with the idea that my little "demo" was going to be a full-fledged album. I was deciding which songs to record in my next big weekend session. I was seeing free shows at The Blue Note with amazing musicians. I was thinking about what my image might be, what my message should be, what my success could be.

In some ways, I was thinking too small. I thought, "I know all these musicians, I have access to this amazing studio, I have experience singing background. It's time to make a demo so venues can book me." It wasn't until Chris Rob ("An Old Soul"'s producer) and all the other musicians told me that what I was doing felt bigger, felt more important than a demo, that I even considered it. "An Old Soul" wasn't planned. It wasn't even something I thought I wanted yet. I wanted to perform first, cultivate a following, hone my style, get comfortable.

But no, there was NO TIME TO GET COMFORTABLE. After TWO YEARS of not singing at all (even background singing, because my ex-boyfriend discouraged it), I came back and was immediately recording an ALBUM. It felt like a runaway train. It felt like I'd lost control. Slowly, I began to think of singing not so much as me UNLEASHING something from within me, and more as me RELEASING the constant control I had over myself to let the music come out as it should.

Before I knew it, I was recording, I was mixing, I was working with graphic designers, I was getting mechanical licenses, I was pressing CDs, I was seeking publicists, and I was booking gigs. Myself a year ago would NEVER have believed I would take a last minute gig performing at the Fourth Arts Block Festival, OUTDOORS, for anyone to see, with nothing behind me but instrumentals. She would never have believed I'd be able to handle going from thinking I was doing a 15min set, to doing a 30min set on the fly. Kat last year would be SO intimidated by Kat THIS year, and I'm so amazed by that.

In other ways, I was thinking too big. My producer encouraged me to come up with attainable goals of where my music might take me. I THOUGHT I was thinking small in thinking that, by a year later, I'd be living solely off my music, I'd have a serious following, and I'd be thinking of touring, even overseas.

Unfortunately, I am NOT able to live off my music yet. At the moment, I have to think of my music as any other small business owner thinks of their new startup, and understand this a time for spending money, and not yet making money. I even keep in-depth records so I can take my proper tax deductions for my new endeavor. It is, unfortunately, still very expensive for me to perform. Thankfully, because of my day job, I can still do it. Also, because of my day job, I can make another album. Of course, I'll also need support from friends, family and fans via my upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

I also was thinking this cover album would get me more notoriety than it has. Don't get me wrong, it blows my mind to be doing phone interviews with Houston-based radio stations, and being put into soul mixes by UK DJs. Even my recent gig at Church in Boston was inspiring to me, that my reach was expanding. But I thought I'd be travelling to Philly and LA, home to TX and even abroad--all these lovely places where jazz and soul are sought after. But it is just a debut album. Just an introduction. Just a "look what I can do!" event. I still haven't paid the dues necessary to be selling out venues in Paris or even here in NYC. Hence the upcoming sophomore album, with original music.

And after the year I had, I'm both nervous and excited about the year ahead. It is NOTHING but uncertainty. Will I be living off my music alone after NEXT year? Will I be selling out venues then? Will my shows become profitable? Will strangers come up to me and thank me for the difference my music has made to them? With the changes in the music industry, can a person in my position still rise up?

These are the things I think about. And perhaps the biggest change is that, despite the uncertainty, I'm not scared. I'm EAGER.

Integrity or Insanity?

This is more of a personal post brought on by some recent conversations.

One of my father's mantras that I've adopted as my own is "Play Your Own Game". It means be yourself. Follow YOUR rules and not society's. Don't chase after OTHER's ideas of success and happiness but instead, find your OWN and go about achieving your success and happiness in a way that works for YOU.

I fully stand by this. I think it's a really eloquent way to say you should have integrity in your values and ideals, and not let external pressures make you deviate from what makes you YOU.

But lately, I've come to realize that my values in a particular area are not the norm. They're REALLY not the norm. I've yet to run into anyone outside of my immediate family that shares them. When I'm home visiting, that's no problem. "United, We Stand", and all that. We laugh at our jokes, enjoy similar activities, prioritize the same thing, and it makes everyone feel validated.

But "Divided, We Fall", and when I'm up in new territory, on my own, and I look around and people tell me I'm outdated to have the values I have, that I'm naive, that I'm inflexible to the changing times, that I'm CRAZY, I start to wonder if it's true. Yes, I try to play my own game, but people who play a SIMILAR game are few and far between.

So I'll pose the question: If you're the only person who thinks the way you do, are you "playing your own game" and displaying an integrity to be admired, or are you being inflexible to your surroundings and coming off as crazy to the predominant status quo?

Questions? Comments?

**On a professional note: I've just submitted to SXSW, the multimedia festival that was started in my hometown of Austin, TX and has blossomed into an international phenomenon! I'll keep you posted on whether I'm chosen. I'd love to return home to entertain my Texas fans as an artist! :)

Homage, Inspiration & Imitation

If you don't know (and I don't see how you couldn't, as I've mentioned it about a BILLION times), Jill Scott is one of my musical idols. I won't say she's my ONLY musical idol, because I have many, but she's definitely WAY up there at the top with Ella and Aretha. Gosh, wouldn't it be great one day to just have people say, "Kat" and EVERYONE ON THE PLANET knows who I am? LOL. That's a ways off.

But I digress. I put that pic up because Hidden Beach Recordings is using it as her album cover for her previously unreleased work. What struck me as amazing was its similarity to MY OWN debut album.

Notice the black and white.

Notice the cat eye glasses (from the angle in mine, they're less obvious, but I assure you, they're awesome cat eye glasses)

Notice the close-up shot.

Notice the closed eyes in contentment with the music.

And this wasn't done by accident. No, I didn't find this picture and recreate it, but I did look at a lot of pictures for jazz albums that I love from back in the day and try to capture the similar feel with my own album cover.

I noticed many were close up, many were in black and white, and many were in retro clothing. None of that was difficult for me, as I am, as the album title implies, "An Old Soul", and it wasn't surprising that to create the same feel, it involved using the vintage styles as I do myself.

Very few people know that, for the longest time, this album was going to be called, "Homage". It's cover songs, and it's my way of paying homage to the greats. My producer felt it didn't give enough insight into ME, and why I, IN PARTICULAR, chose these artists and these songs. So "An Old Soul" was the choice, to let listeners know they'd be hearing vintage music, that I was a young person into that, and that, as I continue to create music, you're going to hear that in my voice.

But I don't want it to be lost on anyone that I HIGHLY revere the artists of the past that I chose to cover. I highly revered them, and they are a great INSPIRATION to me, but with cover songs, you don't want to have people go away thinking, "Wow, she sang Aretha Franklin's song pretty well." I want them to go away thinking, "Wow, that's one of the best versions of 'Until You Come Back to Me' I've heard!"

So it's a fine line between paying homage, and finding inspiration in your musical idols, and flat-out imitating them. For artists like myself, interested in preserving some of the genres of the past going into the music of the future, this is the fine line we must walk.

Agree? Disagree? Have a favorite song on the album or example for your argument? Chime in! I'm trying to get my fans more involved. This, like music, should always be a CONVERSATION. :)

Pandora.com!!!!

Oh my goodness, everyone! After an extended runaround having to do with UPC codes and ASIN numbers, etc., my music is FINALLY able to be submitted to Pandora.com for possible streaming!!

You see, in order to do this, you had to have your music being sold in MP3 form AND physical form on Amazon.com. Now, my CD is being sold in MP3 form on Amazon, courtesy of Reverb Nation's distribution package, but I found out later that CD Baby was putting the physical CD up for sale on Amazon as well. The only issue? CD Baby didn't have the UPC listed, and without the UPC, Pandora wouldn't believe I had it being sold both ways on Amazon. Then CD Baby didn't want to add my UPC so I could submit it unless I did both hardcopy AND digital distribution through them.

Now, since I haven't yet received payment from my digital sales, I didn't want to switch distributors midstream and risk delaying payment further (oh, the plight of the independent artist!). So I stuck it out and looked for loopholes in the system.

One loophole was Jango.

Jango is the new kid in the streaming market. It's very similar to Pandora, only their rating system is a bit different and I don't think their algorithms for music you might like are quite as sophisticated as those used by Pandora.

BUT, what was AWESOME about Jango is that they were completely open to new artists submitting their work to Jango for possible airtime. In fact, you didn't have to be selling your music ANYWHERE yet. You could just be putting it on Jango to see if you got fans, etc. Jango made it easy to put your music up so people could then find your profile and become a fan. By the way, feel free to search "Kat Webb" on Jango and become a fan, if you haven't already. ;)

Their system was the very simple, "pay for play" method. You pay a certain amount and get a certain amount of plays, which you can target to an audience who might like you.

And that was great...but, for now at least, PANDORA is the leader in streaming internet radio. And I needed to get on there.

So the next loophole was going to ARTISTCENTRAL.AMAZON.COM and creating an artist profile for my Amazon store. If you visit Amazon and search Kat Webb, you'll find it. :)

You go there, claim an artist (I claimed myself), and complete a profile. Then I contacted them to let them know that I, the artist, wanted to add my UPC code.

Strangely enough, THAT was complicated too! Even though I owned the artist profile, they first had to link the physical CD being sold with the MP3, and then I had to fill out a form to add the extra info.

But still no UPC code! The MANDATORY UPC code that Pandora required STILL wasn't there.

One more email to Artist Central and FINALLY it's all there. I FINALLY can submit my music to Pandora, and I have.

Three things, though.

First, the title for the hardcopy is incorrect. They have it as "Old Soul", and it's really "An Old Soul". Being that my producer and I spent about an HOUR discussing this differentiation, lol, it's now crucial that the title be correct as I intended. So I submitted the request to have that corrected and that should happen in 5-7 BUSINESS DAYS.

Second, there's another artist by the name of Kat Webb on Amazon, and unfortunately for me, her music is not the kind of music with which I'd like to be associated. I won't make a value statement on it, but I will say it's not the content material that I strive for. So if you go to Amazon, just know that the only music by ME is contained in the album, "An Old Soul".

Third, I'm selling it through Amazon Advantage as well (ADVANTAGE.AMAZON.COM). This way I can more easily make changes to any hardcopy info because I'm one of the vendors.

So yeah, wish me luck, and I'll DEFINITELY let everyone know when my stuff is streaming on Pandora.com!

P.S. Thanks for all your well wishes but I did NOT get selected as Jill Scott's opening act. :( It stinks, but I think it's just a sign that if I come to work with Jill Scott (when I work with her), it'll be as an established artist and collaborator. ;)

Kat.

P.S. Meow.