Lulu.com dropped Compact Disc sales, and I’ve decided to embrace the future and drop them as well. I can understand that some folks would much rather have physical media, but I’m afraid the future is one without. You can always download song files and burn your own CD if you wish. There’s no copy protection on my song files from iTunes or CD Baby.

Hot the heels of Lulu forgoing CD replication services, CafePress is now bumping up all its fees relating to inactivity and account termination. In other words, the people who’ve created cool t-shirts and logos and stuff better keep selling them or CafePress will shut them down. So much for the long-tail of the Internet.

Also not so cool: CafePress’s email that begins “Thanks for helping make CafePress the world’s destination for customized products.” They then proceed to hose the very people who helped make CafePress popular. Upshot: No t-shirts or other personalized items until I can find a new vendor. If you’re a musician, I’m going to advise you stay away from CafePress.

Lulu, the company I’ve used since 2009 for my on-demand Compact Disc sales, is dropping CDs entirely so they can focus on eBooks. I’m going to look at transitioning the CD on demand to Digital River (per Lulu’s recommendation) but it is possible that CD sales will be dropped altogether.

Therefore: If you’re intent on owning a physical copy of One Man Garage Band, best to order via Lulu before September 19, 2011. After that, OMGB will not be available at Lulu.

I’ve added a CD Baby widget to the One Man Garage Band page so that you can purchase directly from this site. It is, unfortunately, an Adobe Flash thing, so iPhone and iPad purchasing will have to happen through CD Baby directly or via iTunes or Amazon. Still, it’s a great way to get a preview of a song and learn about its history all on one page.

CD Baby continues to offer OMGB for only $4.99 and while individual tracks at CD Baby should see a price reduction to 89 cents within the next 24 hours, the complete 16 song album for $4.99 is clearly the best deal. Bear in mind that this pricing only applies to CD Baby—I don’t control pricing at iTunes or Amazon—but the tracks are 256-bit DRM-free MP3s, which means high quality and copy protection-free.

One Man Garage Band is now on sale at CDBaby for only $4.99. Individual tracks remain 99 cents, but if you’ve been at all tempted to see what in the world I’ve been up to musically and price has been a barrier, well, the cost has now been chopped in half. (Unfortunately, artists don’t control iTunes or Amazon.com pricing, so the album price remains higher there.)

Scarlet Fever was the first of two albums my friend Garr did with Portland, Oregon-based loligo, and it remains a dreadful shame the band never achieved wider acclaim. Although the individual tracks here are superb, Scarlet Fever is best enjoyed as a full album. Even now, years after its original release, it remains one of my favorites, and I dare say that should you give it a chance, it will be one of yours as well. Check it out. [Opens iTunes link]

My artist profile is now up on Ping, Apple’s music-related social network. There not much to it yet, but I’ll try to build it out a bit as we go. My primary creative content information hub will continue to be right here at TyDavison.com.

For other artists who are interested, I was able to get an artist page through CDBaby who has an agreement with Apple. In other words, sign up with CDBaby first and ask them about getting onto Ping.

One of the most frustrating aspects of creative endeavors for me is that I can’t just turn it on. Sometimes you have the juice and sometimes you don’t, and boy howdy these last few months have been a lot of don’t. I’ve been stuck for months now waiting for a couple of more songs to add to Garden of Memories.

What I’ve always found, though, is that the creative spark flames up eventually. Musically, they arrived this week. No names and no lyrics yet, but I think both will make the album. That should kick things close to the 60 minute mark that I’m aiming for, and more importantly, really round out the album. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but I think this will be something special.

I’ve completed the first wave of demos for Garden of Memories. The good news is that they’re sounding really good. I’m quite pleased with what I’ve written for the album so far. The bad news is that the demos collectively clock in at just under 47 minutes, which is less than the hour of music I’m hoping to deliver for the second album. Ever since pitching overboard 1938—a suite of about 20 minutes that I’ll probably put out as an EP—I’ve suspected that I need to do more writing. Now I’ve proof.

The song list at present: Everything, Elisha, Jillian, Open Low, Sad, Steady, A Little Bit Zen, Lovers’ Lament, Life is But a Dream, Swept, Halo (Measure of Love), and Remember.

I bought an Aria 714 DLX on Thursday ($459 at Weathers Music in Salem), brought it home and played for about an hour and a half. For those interested, it looks like this except that it’s see-through blue rather than red:

Here’s the sales info:

Unbelievably versatile H/S/H pickup set has more possibility when it on the 714–DLX Electric Guitar.

The Duncan Designed humbuckers at the neck and bridge provide chunky rhythm and dense lead tone while the Duncan Designed single coil in the middle provides brighter, edgier highlights, plus the bridge humbucker, directly mounted on the body one side, on the pickguard the other makes its tone more identical.

The Wilkinson VS-50K tremolo, a solid alder body, a rosewood fingerboard on comfortable maple neck serve for your ultimate usage.

Out jack is recessed in exquisite angle for your easier plug in and your active, stress-free performance.

3 pickup (H-S-H)

Aria 714–DLX Specifications:

• Body : Alder Quilted maple film top
• Neck : Maple, Bolt-on Joint
• Fingerboard : Rosewood
• Frets : 22F
• Scale : 648mm(25-1/2″)
• Pickups : Duncan Designed SC-102 Single coil x 1, HB-103 Humbucking x 2
• Controls : Volume, Tone, 5-position PU Selector SW x 1, Coiltap SW x 1
• Tailpiece : Wilkinson VS-50K Tremolo
• Hardware: Chrome

Non-guitar players will be forgiven if, like me, the above effectively comes at you like a bunch of nonsense words. The essential take-away, from my perspective, is that the Aria 714-DLX is a versatile, well-made instrument, capable of producing a variety of sounds. I’ve been playing it through my old Roland KC-500 amp; I can’t wait to hear what sounds I can generate with it once I plug it into the MOTU Traveler and feed the signal through Apple’s GarageBand or Logic, both of which have a variety of amp effects.

It’s unlikely that the Aria will appear on Garden of Memories except to provide background color. I’m not enough of a player (yet) to do much more than chunk out some chords. Nonetheless, I spent 90 minutes playing on Thursday—until my fingers were too sore to continue. Having never even touched, let alone played, an electric guitar before then, I have two observations: First, playing electric guitar feels amazingly powerful. Second, it’s amazingly fun. If some of that joie de vivre found its way onto Garden of Memories, I’d hardly be one to complain.