Well, not so much. But I did just the other day, almost two months after the album release, get my first payment from CDBaby. These are the first dollars I’ve ever earned as a musician, so despite the low amount—it represents my cut of the initial two albums sold—I’m actually quite thrilled to have successfully monetized something I love to do. I’m also very grateful to those who’ve made the purchase.

Worth noting for aspiring artists: The gap between sale and payment is a relatively large one. iTunes and Amazon still haven’t reported sales or made payments for July, so if my experience is any guide you shouldn’t put out an album and expect to feed your family off the proceeds the next week.

It didn’t dawn on me until the emails arrived, but apparently it’s not obvious how to listen to samples from One Man Garage Band. I’m very sorry about that, and I’ve taken steps to make it more clear. The website’s right sidebar now offers links where you can listen to samples and/or purchase songs.

If you like CDBaby’s 256-bit MP3s–and I do since that’s how I get the most revenue–click the CDBaby link. You’ll be able to listen to 30 second samples from each song, buy individual songs or (my favorite) buy the whole album. Because it’s in MP3 format it will load and play on any MP3 player be it iPod, Zune or what have you.

If you prefer using Apple’s iTunes Store for your music purchases–and I’ve got to admit the experience is fairly compelling–there’s a link for my iTunes page on the sidebar as well. Note that this link will open iTunes on your computer and take you directly to my iTunes page. You to listen to samples, purchase individual songs or the whole album at iTunes as well. Apple 256-bit AAC files are technically superior to MP3s but the difference is unlikely to be sufficient that anyone would notice. (I don’t.) The AAC files will run in iTunes, on an iPod or on any device that supports AAC. These are not copy protected files.

CDBaby is overhauling their website. Going forward that’s going to be mean lots of cool things like the ability to buy individual songs. Right now it means that all kinds of crazy things are broken. For example, my “official website” link points to some Hispanic guy’s hip-hop album. Pretty funny on Day One. Less funny on Day Four. I also can’t log into my account to see if anybody’s been buying my album.

I know the CDBaby crew is working feverishly to get things fixed, and God bless their support of the indie musician. For those of you who may have been trying to use CDBaby and having problems, I’m sure they’ll have it fixed soon and I, for one, appreciate your understanding.

It happens tomorrow, June 17, my friends. We’ve got one final snafu to straighten out with CDBaby—my artist/album page is up but you can’t actually, you know, buy anything—and I expect it will be fixed first thing in the morning. I will post all appropriate links here once things are ready, as well as begin my email notifications.

A word about that. I’m planning to notify all family and friends of my album’s availability but only once. The last thing you need is me spamming you repeatedly about my musical endeavors. Really, one spam really should be enough. If you sign up for my online Mailing List, though, well, all bets are off (though I will try very hard to make the occasional email I send worth your time).

I have set 10,000 albums in two years as my sales goal, since that’s about what it will take for me to consider creating music on a mostly full-time basis. To say this is ambitious is an understatement. I mean there are goals, stretch goals and ludicrous goals, and this would be the last one.

I don’t know 10,000 people, which means I can’t do this without considerable assistance. If you like the album, I need you to not only buy it but to evangelize it to your family, friends, and co-workers. I have nifty t-shirts that can help. Seriously, though….

The album is a test, the results of which determine how long it will take me to get the next album out. Even if OMGB sells only a couple hundred copies, I’m making another album. It’ll just take longer to get out the door.

T-shirts are available! Featuring the iconic One Man Garage Band cover by Marsha Minten! Hit the Merchandise link and hop on out to our CafePress store. Don’t see the exact apparel you want? Email me and I’ll set it up.

Within the next two weeks I should have the One Man Garage Band CD for sale as well. For environmental reason, I encourage everyone who can to buy the digital download of the album, but if CD is still your thing, rest assured it’s on the way.

Audio files were sent to the distributor today. Cover art has been finalized and will be sent shortly. I expect One Man Garage Band to be available for digital download (256 bit MP3, no DRM) by the first of next week at the latest.

UPDATE of 6/15/09: There was one addition approval step I didn’t realize existed. I had to “finalize” the album and listen to all the 30 second song clips to make sure that everything got digitized correctly. Obviously one wouldn’t want CD Baby to digitize a song and give it the wrong title or something, especially since once submitted to iTunes or Amazon it’s virtually impossible to change without deleting the album and resubmitting. Anyway, the upshot is that I’ve now completed that step and expect One Man Garage Band to be available in the next 24 to 72 hours.

I’ve joined BMI, aka Broadcast Music Incorporated, in the off-chance that any of my songs pick up a wider audience. BMI is a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) who collects and pays royalties on behalf of songwriters and publishers.

I’ll also be joining SoundExchange, a PRO that handles Internet and satellite radio.

Turns out that I’ve neglected two important steps in the process: Mastering and copyright. Unfortunately, this may mean a delay of a couple weeks in getting One Man Garage Band out the door.

Mastering is an interesting process whereby the album’s sound frequencies are manipulated to—for lack of a better phrase—sound better. This has to do with compression and equalization of the audio. It’s not the same as mixing the tracks, but it can be used to bring out certain sounds in the mix and “punch up” the overall recording. I’ve listened to some before and after samples and consulted with my friend and professional musician Garr, and it’s obvious to me now that I need to have One Man Garage Band mastered.

Having the album mastered will cost several hundred dollars, and depending on how many copies are sold may end up eroding significantly or erasing entirely any profit. Nonetheless, I’d rather turn out the best work I can than make a fortune. Hopefully I and everyone else will be able to hear the difference.

The copyright process is not terribly difficult now that everything’s been moved online. It appears that once I have the final versions (post-mastering, in other words) I simply need to fill out a form, upload them, and pay $35 fee. This is, of course, copyright registration I’m talking about. The actual copyright itself already exists.