Darcy Nelson | Music is Medicine

The past few weeks have been action and learning packed for me! Some of the recent highlights have included:  

• Technical foundations: joining ASCAP as the Performing Rights Organization to help collect my performance royalties, painstakingly researching and sifting through pros and cons of various music distributing platforms to get my tunes on the major streaming platforms.  
• Reality check: learning how little streaming platforms give back to artists (averages are around 1/1000 of a penny per stream!) Streaming music is not a viable source of income for the vast majority of independent artists... According to Bopper, a sync music company,

“For the artists getting 10,000 streams, which would seem like a noble amount, the payout is between $60 to $84, before any shareholders are paid (i.e DSP’s, labels, pubs).”  

• Moral of the story? Streaming is a discovery tool to build awareness and have new listeners discover work. Money to sustain recording and publishing needs to be earned elsewhere. (When was the last time you purchased an album? Went to a show? Bought band merch?). Dig details? Read more from CB Baby to learn how royalty collection on Pandora works with their support. 

Okay, study notes aside -- back to my highlights... 

• Performing my heartfelt original, “Birth of A New Dream,” for a group of women focusing on self development at a retreat in Denver. This song has evolved with me in depth and perspective the few months leading up to my jump from secure living in Washington, to a wild adventure of risk and promise in the unknown in Colorado. This original is on my “should-be-recorded-and-shared” list. Check out a few photos from this fun and inspiring event. 
• Collaborating for the joy: I’ve begun building out a live duet set with a local pianist and fellow budding songwriter, Brooke Delegado. Our harmonies are sweet and the richness I’m finding while accompanied by piano makes my heart sing.  Have a listen to our early practice run through on Hallelujah and find her Instagram handle on this Instagram post. 
• Merch in the making: I began working with a graphic illustrator from my stomping grounds in rural Washington to create a delightfully joyous and sweet sticker and postcard set as merchandise to help support my recording fund. Prints are in the cue now and I’m excited to have the final product in hand soon!  Here's a preview of the sticker design. Shout out to Jaycee Day Designs for this! 
• Schedule matrixing: I’m beginning to book live performances this spring and summer as I continue my healing journey overcoming tendinitis. I missed a couple of festival submission deadlines, but applied to participate in Denver’s UMS - the Under Ground Music Showcase and am waiting to hear back.
• Songwriting and revision: the concept of a new song encouraging conversation around a tough topic is being born, and I am polishing off chords for a very silly song inspired by my friends at the Metro Denver Farmers market during my first summer of busking and performing at their weekend markets in Littleton and Highlands Ranch. (think amazing melons, puffing lizards, dancing babies and all the bizarre and joy filled sights I soaked in over the summers of being a regular at these neighborhood markets). 

In all, it has been a busy season educating myself about self publishing, motivating myself to take massive action, and organizing myself with to-do lists and strategic focus on my next best steps as I prepare to release my first singles to generate new awareness for my work creating music as medicine. 

Thank you for caring about what I’m doing, and taking time to learn with me about the life and realities for professional and aspiring songwriters and musicians! 

All the love and light, 

Darcy