The Legendary Actor - Chapter 34

The melodies and lyrics in the depths of his mind were never forgotten, and after reawakening, they poured out freely, but then Renly froze, because the recording software on his computer didn’t record at all, and he had to stop playing for a while and began studying the recording software seriously.

Maybe he should’ve avoided all that hassle and just recorded a video and uploaded it on YouTube instead. Why even bother recording a digital sound source here, in his apartment?

However, this should be a gift, not a debut, so right here, Renly honestly cleaned up his lazy thoughts, while fumbling with the recording software. He looked at the recording techniques and started fumbling again. When the blue sky revealed itself, a little over three minutes of “The Ballad of Cleopatra” was finally recorded.

As it turned out, recording music was an incredibly difficult task, and Renly’s back ached like never before. He needed a break.

He left the computer and went to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, the strong aroma of which finally saved Renly from drowsiness. However, since it was already halfway done, it was not wise to give up, because Renly knew that once he gave up, it would probably be over and he wouldn’t bother to do it again. So, this gift still needs to be given a full dedication.

Pouring a second cup of coffee, he thought about something, and he came to a decision to not add sugar or milk. He went back to the computer with the coffee, recalling the website that Neil had introduced to him before, SongCast.

A few years ago, it would have been very difficult for a musician to release his or her own single or album because the distribution channels were in the hands of the major record labels and distribution companies, not to mention the publicity and promotion resources that were hard to come by.

To give you a simple example, the U.S. is a country on wheels, and car radios are the most efficient way to promote music, but the music played every day on major radio stations has all been arranged beforehand, even down to the details of the twenty-five song playlist for the week and the frequency requirements, all of which are specified in detail, and over ninety percent of the radio playlists are in the hands of major corporations.

This is a major reason why it has been so difficult for independent musicians to get ahead.

But now, thanks to the new paradigm of online music, YouTube and Facebook are one way, and iTunes and Spotify are another, but both are in the same ballpark, primarily providing a platform for independent musicians to showcase themselves. Although the limitations of publicity and promotional resources still hinder their development, they have at least an open a window for them to do so, and icons like Justin Bieber, who has made a comeback, are a notable result of this new era of changing music formats.

Renly had very limited information about music, but after reading the SongCast’s website agreement, it became clear.

Although independent musicians can now post their music directly on online sites such as iTunes and Spotify without having to go through the distribution company, the process is very cumbersome and requires not only details such as format, duration, and recording quality, but also the number of songs – Apple, for example, requires that an artist must have at least fifty registered songs under his or her name in order to upload them to iTunes, a restriction that has scared off many independent musicians.

Not to mention the fact that iTunes is a truly massive company, and the legalese is enough to cause a headache. Even if Renly wasn’t a law student, he knows that there is little room for an independent to survive against a large corporation, and that their interests will be reduced to a minimum, and that there are many hidden clauses in their contracts that further exploit them. The advantage, of course, is that they are large companies, so there is no fuss, everything is open and honest!

In this case.

SongCast offers another platform, or more accurately, a possibility, for independent musicians.

For most independent musicians, they may simply want to test the waters and see if their music can be successful, or they may simply be looking for a platform to sell their music and find more attention from music companies.

In the internet age, the traditional self-promotion methods of the past are no longer applicable. The traditional ways of self-promotion, such as sending tapes to record labels, playing warm-up gigs for big-name artists, or participating in “American Idol” auditions, are no longer available. Instead, it’s all about Web-based methods, such as YouTube videos and iTunes digital store.

Of course, online music sales are more appealing than free YouTube videos, as they can earn some revenue.

This is the kind of website that SongCast was born from.

It’s actually an online music seller, somewhat similar to a traditional distribution company, where independent artists upload their music to the site, publish it, and then the site will create a system of file format conversion, illustration formatting, and other finishing work, and then complete the work of distributing it to various online music sales sites, including all the major sites such as Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, etc., with a one-time upload.

In addition, songwriting is an important platform to showcase new artists, and many major producers and record labels use this platform to find new artists with potential. Although the decline of the music industry has been obvious since the beginning of the 21st century, the industry’s demand for new talent has never been lower.

SongCast is not the only company offering music distribution, but it is one of the most mature and successful companies in the business.

This has certainly saved Renly a lot of hassle, and it’s no wonder that Neil was saying that everything is now easier.

After creating an account, uploading music, writing down the song title and description on …, Renly discovered that he still had to upload the single’s cover art – which meant he had to make his own cover art on the fly, which he found incredibly cumbersome.

The soft blanket was incredibly comfortable, and Renly was so sleepy that he almost wanted to give up, but it turned out he was better off sleeping in his bed. He’d rather spend five hours watching an Off-Broadway rehearsal than sitting in front of a computer tossing around the audio recording.

Letting out a long breath, Renly told himself: this was just a one-time thing, this was just a special gift, so he’d better bite the bullet and get it done.

Even if Renly is not born again, he clearly understands that the modern music industry is in recession, and it is the same all over the world, not to mention the golden age of the seventies and eighties, in the most commercially perfect nineties, the music market is still blossoming. But now, not only have album sales plummeted, and the current year-end sales champions may not even be in the top ten of the year-end charts of a decade ago, but the market has transitioned from album kings to the era of the single – everyone is selling singles; and the quality of music has declined dramatically.

There was a time when jazz, blues, soul, pop, rock, rap, country, and folk music … everything was dazzlingly diverse, and in each particular era there was a particular genre that emerged strongly, such as folk in the sixties, rock in the seventies, and disco in the eighties, but outside of them, there were other genres that delighted the listener, and almost everyone could find music with their own identity.

Nowadays, however, the music industry is becoming narrower and narrower, completely dominated by pop and rap, with no room for other genres to survive, as the quality of music has declined significantly. This is the case with folk music.

In the 1960s, folk music was popular enough to change politics and culture, and folk singers like Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Joan Baez started the civil rights movement and changed the course of history, truly changing the world with their music.

In 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature, awakening curiosity and interest in folk music. But the fact is, in the past twenty to thirty years, the survival space of folk music has been compressed to the extreme, although not as obsolete as disco, but not too far away. In Billboard’s singles and albums charts, it’s hard to see folk music even in the top 50, let alone the top 10.

Renly is a man of rebirth, and he knows that the future is the world of electro-dance music, and that folk music is not only not improving, but is slipping further into the abyss.

So the recording of “The Ballad of Cleopatra” was purely a gift to Stanley – it was Stanley’s sincerity and persistence that enabled Pioneer Village to survive in Manhattan, that even Woody Allen and The New Yorker held it in such a high esteem, and where genres like jazz, rock, folk and bluegrass could seek shelter and barely survive.

Renly doesn’t think there will be a next time. This is the current state of independent music, cruel and indifferent, but it is a fact.

At this point, Renly sat up straight again, thought about it, and searched through the computer’s photo album, finally finding a particular photo – the gate of Pioneer Village, a rustic and somewhat dilapidated gate, low-key and quiet, with the afternoon sunlight shining down cleanly and sparsely, with a kind of washed-out purity and clarity, but with the traces of history.

In the window, there was a banner with the name “Cleopatra” on the right side and a signature “Renly Hall” on the left side, without any intention of highlighting it, as if it were part of the window.

This way, the single cover was complete.

After going back to the song, completing all the information, clicking upload, and watching the progress bar reach 100%, Renly turned off the computer, and rolled directly onto the bed, finally able to rest.