On November 1st, I released my new album 'What I Wanna Be When I Grow Up.' In the day of its release on iTunes, we charted at the #1 spot on the "Singer/songwriter" market as well as the #55 spot on the overall chart. After nine months of working on an album, I felt so proud to be able to stand back and watch other's enjoy what I had worked so hard on. After a day and a half, though, I got home to several emails informing me that the album had been removed from iTunes. In a frantic state, I called CDBaby to figure out what was happening. They informed me that there seemed to have been a coding issue with the song 'Warm' and iTunes needed the error to be fixed by CDBaby prior to be able to put the album back up. Within an hour, they had made the fixes necessary and sent it back to iTunes to get re-posted. A week and a day later - after calling CDBaby four times a day - it seemed this morning that everything was actually starting to take place. I woke up this morning to find the album was, indeed, back on iTunes. Yet, I soon learned, looks can be deceiving. Since 9am this morning, the album has been sitting in a 'The items you've requested are not available' state on iTunes. For those whom may think - it's cool. Deal with it. It will happen. Let me explain. iTunes sales make up for about 90% of sales of an album. But, truthfully, this is no even about money. For nine months, every single day, I worked on this album. I produced this album, along with Jesse Vargas, and watched over every single detail that went into creating this album, from the song selections to the album artwork to the contacting the performers to taking care of all the payments of the musicians, studios, engineers, producers, artists, etc.
All I wanted was to rest. After working tirelessly on a product, putting it out there in the world is not only nerve wracking but it's also a huge weight off of your shoulders. There is nothing more to do.
Sadly, my shoulders still have heavy weights on them. I don't have a label to make these calls for me or deal with the issue at hand. No. On all three albums, I have been the label. I don't have a PR agent, I do my own PR. Every article, every interview, every personal appearance, every upcoming concert - I have planned myself. That's not to say that I think of myself as special for this reason. Not at all. So many artists have to be their own business. I am the sole employee and the sole product of my business. For one second, though, I'd like to rest.
I am rambling. All I should have said is - iTunes -HURRY UP !!! I want to sleep !!!
