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Greetings! How’s everyone doing in the Canman Universe? I’m fine, thanks for asking. So I guess you’ve all seen the little widget thingy with the preview and link to my new release at Amazon Mp3, titled ‘In Decay’? Pretty cool, huh? It happened much faster than I had anticipated. If you’ve been listening to the show (and I just know that you and all of your friends have), you’ve heard us mention my music and rumblings about making it available online for purchase. Well, there were several options available to me, but I eventually settled on a service called Tunecore.
What Tunecore provides is a distribution service for artists, so they can get their music out to all of the major online digital retailers. I uploaded the cover art, all of the tracks, some liner notes, and they’re taking care of the rest. Amazon Mp3 was the first to pick up the record for release, which was no surprise. They average just a few days before posting new content and in this case it only took about 24 hours. The rest of the retailers will slowly start putting up the record over the next several weeks. The actual date when it should be live in all stores is February 13th. I suspect that iTunes will be the final store to actually post the material, but they can take their time. I’m just happy that it’s making its way on there. And just so there is no confusion, these sales are for digital downloads of the album, not actual physical copies. I am making a limited number of physical CDs for selling at shows and for promotional use, but the internet seems to be the wave of the future. Yeah, I know cassette tapes are Rad, but this digital stuff seems like it ain’t going away. You might as well adapt. And since you’re adapting, you might as well go ahead and start that adaptation by downloading ‘In Decay’. I could really use the support and I’m not too proud to beg. I’m actually on my knees right now, though you can’t see me. I’m pleading with you, and the people around me at work are starting to look at me funny, which makes me uncomfortable. The last time that happened, I ended up in a straightjacket until I was able to use my superhuman strength to rip it to shreds and jump from the back of a moving ambulance, right over a bridge railing, plunging 78 feet into the frigid river below. They were really surprised to see me at work the next day. So, please consider buying the record, OK? I really don’t like ambulances.
So how are sales, you might ask? It’s difficult to gage, but I’m pretending that I’m going to be famous. Depending on when I take a look at sales rankings, I’m either the next Beyonce (without the booty) or the next Jefferson Jessup. What? You’ve never heard of Jefferson Jessup? Exactly. It really is all about timing. I know for a fact that Rolling Stone won’t be contacting me anytime soon about my debut album and how it has completely blown up the charts. I know that with the exception of a few curious music geeks who constantly are on the lookout for new music that no one else knows about, the majority of people who are buying my record on Amazon have either met me, know someone who has, or are related to me. But that still can’t take away the utter joy I felt when looking at Amazon this morning. I don’t know if sales are just normally slow, and my sales rank jumped way up because 2 people bought the record, but first thing this morning, I was ranked #366 for all mp3 downloads. #366!!! That number has since risen, but the visual snapshot I got when I visited the page will stay with me forever. I just chose the right time to look at it, I guess.
That should have been enough to make my day, but then it got better. When I set up my music for digital distribution, I had to choose to categories that best fit. I chose Folk and Rock, since there are elements of both. Consequently, my album is not only ranked within the context of all downloadable albums on Amazon, but also ranked by its primary genre. In this case, Amazon says I’m a Folk artist. So, looking at the sales rankings for all Folk albums, I was ranked #60 this morning! Not only that, but Bob Dylan’s ‘Blonde on Blonde’ was ranked #63. My record is selling better than Bob Dylan’s. So what if his was released a long time ago and everyone already owns it? And so what if by the end of the day mine will be ranked #13,000? It won’t bother me at all because of what I saw this morning. Like I said, it’s all a matter of timing.
- Timmy
Canman and Kevin were joined by Chuck and Damien! 
Sorry I haven’t updated the site in a few days. Life’s been hectic. On a positive note my wife is back from her trip safe and sound! She visited the 
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