So not the glamour

I think I've found myself to be an anomaly. Someone that *possibly*, *genuinely* stands out from the crowd and does something completely different. And for the right intentions. Really, how many people have come up to you and said I don't want to be famous?

I'm in the mastering part of my 4th CD (putting the finishing touches on it EQ and effects wise), I'm listening to my music, and so are other people and they're saying that I have talent. Not just like as a compliment; people are wanting to put me on iTunes. They're wanting to pay for my CD, instead of me asking them. This is really weird for me. I'm actually good. I mean I didn't think I sucked, I know that I can play music well. But, there's a difference between playing music, and playing music you wrote, even writing good music! And I'm slightly uncomfortable about that.

This is my music, to me: my own story, with a soundtrack and creatively crafted words, in a hope to tell you my passions, my struggles, and the things that inspire me with hope, joy, love, strength, perseverance, and faith in what I believe in. Each song, and each album, is a picture of my heart, a summary of my life at that moment in time. To have you listen to a song or the whole thing means more than I probably could hope for. Writing these songs into a comprehensive format, and then going through the steps to recording them, is enough for me. I kind of feel like it's turning into this drug now, I've planned out in my head that I'll release a CD every year, as a sort of balance to my life. My main reason why I will demand to make a recording studio in my house when I get one.

I also consider these CDs I make to be my own personal ministry. This CD I'm making has the first real songs that I've written to/about God before. Not that all my songs have been secular, but on some of these tracks I am very clear about what I'm singing about. So on my music, I've done my best to keep it accessible as possible.

If you take all that into account, you may be able to see why I give this music out for free. The purpose of my music is to share and inspire, not to make a career out of what I create or to market this. That comes into conflict with people, because the response I get from that is, "Well if you spend so much time and effort on it then why don't you get some money for it too?"

Questions like that have found relevancy in my brain. So I am adopting a 'donation' price on this CD: if you want to give $5, awesome. If you want to give $15, even better. If you wanna give a quarter, that's cool too! Basically anybody that wants the CD pays whatever they want for it. My goal for this idea is to get it to people who really want it, as accessible as possible. I won't be giving it away for free, but I'm pretty certain that this pricing system comes off honest. If not, let me know, seriously, I don't know how much more lower I can go :).

So, these are my general thoughts on what's going on with my music. Like my music, my process of recording and distributing and such is constantly evolving.