David Keeble - SongLog

So what is a SongLog?

It's a monthly online delivery with:

two newly recorded original songs articles (text) about those songs articles about other songs, and songwriting my songwriting log - struggles, successes, conversations with listeners etc. bonus songs from time to time

It's available by subscription - a year will cost about $20 CDN, I think. I haven't started that up yet. In the meantime there are some free trial episodes (see episode links at left).

Why a SongLog?

I got the idea for SongLog in the fall of 2012. I had been thinking about creative distribution models for songwriting and music for years: none of the existing models worked for me. None of them work for most of us, creators or listeners. They work for Apple, but ...

By which I mean, I'm not young and gorgeous (see picture at left) so I wasn't going to be discovered by Justin Bieber. The idea of hitting the clubs again as an unknown appealed not at all (did that in my 20s - once was plenty). Even my first CD, while I like it, was not a great way to distribute music. A basement full of plastic is the result, unless you are on the road constantly. And - the dealbreaker for me - once a song was on CD, it couldn't change.

Audiences had told me for a while that they weren;t using CDs so much and would rather get my new songs online - but all the digital download sites (except bandcamp, see left for link) seemed like they took a lot for what they did.

So, suck it up, you say, it's the same for everybody. Well, maybe. Do I have to? Maybe not. After all, I'm not trying to get rich or famous. I just want to get the songs out where they are heard, and receive some compensation so I can keep doing that. Modest ambitions.

Finally I thought, "Well, what do I like to do? Maybe I should just do that, and other people might like it too."

What I like to do

Write songs Record them in decent versions. Have people hear them. Hear what they think about the songs. Think and talk about songs and writing - my songs, and other people's too..

So that's what I'm doing.

And I'm offering it on a subscription basis - 12 episodes (one year subscription, and 24 songs) for the cost of one CD.

I settled on two songs a month because it seemed to me that in a world of singles, people would like about that much. A year equals two albums. I'll send two songs in each episode, in case one of them is not to a subscriber's taste. And I have a long catalogue of unrecorded songs, so 2 a month will show those to the world while also allowing me to try out new ones.

I won't assemble them into albums because really, the songs on a CD rarely relate to each other all that much, as such, but if people want to make a playlist, or burn their own CD, they can.

And then, because I have opinions about this stuff and I'm not too reluctant to share them, I'm also writing articles. Like, what is Cohen's "Hallelujah" really about? Why do we say a song is three chords and the truth? What's the best song I know, and why?

And finally, again, just because I like to do this, there's a record of what I've been doing in songwriting. I think it's a good habit to keep a journal, so this - well, like everything else - is as much for me as the listener. (I could try to make something just to please listeners, but who the hell knows what that is? Speaking of which, there's a great story about Berry Gordy - founder of Motown records ... but I'll get to that later.)

So here we go. Just click on the episode links at the left to go to the episode you want - it will take you to a page where you can become a subscriber, though the first episodes will be free - just supply an email and a pdf will come to your inbox, with links to let you download the songs. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and if it works out and other artists want to do this, we'll make this service work for them and their listeners too. All the best, and get in touch with me if you want to.