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First of all, Happy New Year to everyone who reads this.

So what can we expect in the music scene in 2025 and how does this affect my music? According to music pro and author, Bobby Owsinski, successful songs in 2024 were slower than before and contained a high rhyming density with multiple rhymes including internal rhyming, i.e. rhymes within single lines of lyric. AI is taking a foothold in music, as well as in everything else, but is expected to become more regulated in the coming year.

Having read Bobby’s book “The Musician’s Ai Handbook”, I developed my own strategy on the use of AI in music. Firstly, I feel that it’s best to totally avoid AI in areas which involve, or in time will involve, copyright. Examples of this include melody, lyrics and some aspects of performance such as vocals. This is both from a legal and moral viewpoint as you are ripping off the work of other people who may well seek litigation. I also firmly believe that you should stay in total control of your own work using AI only to offer you suggestions. I use a software tool called Scaler 2 to help me create chord sequences, which are not subject to copyright issues, and the Mastering Assistant in Ozone 11 to help me produce a final master of my recording. When I feel that these AI tools produce something I like, I try to investigate why it appears to be working with a view to learning from it. Some song pitches now state that they will not accept tracks involving any use of AI, although I think that in 2025 this is becoming increasingly hard to achieve. Even a singer/songwriter with only an acoustic guitar for accompaniment is probably using a microphone with AI noise reduction.

Of the other trends that Bobby raises, I feel that the song which will probably be my next release, “Jukebox in My Head”, scores highly on rhyming density but, at 120 bpm, cannot be reasonably described as slow – or fast for that matter. Personally, I don’t bother too much with trends, although I believe it’s good to be aware of them. I am more concerned with the fact that Roberta wrote the lyric for this song and, since she has not written any other lyrics, has not joined PRS. I am not sure how that affects any royalty payments but will endeavour to find out.

Lastly, I believe that I have purchased the software upgrades I need to progress, Cubase 14 Pro and Kontakt 8, and look forward to producing much more music in the coming year.

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It is always interesting when you see something which makes you think about going in a different direction. I recently attended a couple of classes on cinematic composing and professional music production. Although they were interesting, I didn’t really want to commit to a subscription model for either, although I may purchase a book recommended by one of them. Which brings me onto a new direction which has come out of the blue.

A friend of mine, Jon Oates, who has purchased both my “Aestas” CD and the download of my Christmas single “Rainbow’s End”, has approached me about having my music performed on draairogel, which is a Dutch barrel organ, and is even having one built. Examples of how this sounds can be found on the YouTube channel of one of Jon’s friends.

https://www.youtube.com/@matssijnesael9987/videos

I am always open to interesting suggestions and this is certainly one of them. I have sent Jon some MIDI files to see how he gets on.

The above mentioned Christmas single, which was released on 29th November, is quite an old track and was featured in an AV sequence produced by Roberta and me. The sequence was awarded a “Highly Commended” at the nationwide “New Horizons” competition in 2018 and can be viewed on the AV page of our website. Another of our old AV sequences, “The Iconoclast”, featuring the song “Titanium” by David Guetta and Sia, went down very well when shown by Roberta at Stirling and District Camera Club, so maybe there is still some future for us in AV.

Currently I am working very hard on a new version of “Tempora Mutantur” which may be my next single for release in 2025.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

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Well, that’s the visuals done. I’ve just completed the promotional short videos or reels for each of the tracks on the “Aestas” album. While they are called reels on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, they are called shorts on YouTube and canvases on Spotify. I’m not doing much on Twitter/X these days as I am not so keen on it as a promotional tool and all I seem to be getting are tweets from Elon Musk that annoy me. Anyway, the visuals on the other social media platforms took a long time and I feel that the main promotional drive for the album is finished and it is time to move on.

My single release in time for Christmas will be “Rainbow’s End”, a children’s song in complete contrast to the album which was predominantly EDM. It should be on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and the other music platforms by the end of November. Our AV sequence “Rainbow’s End”, which featured the song, won an award in 2018, so we already have a video for the song and creating reels from the video should be relatively easy.

I also need to get back to playing the piano and my MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) keyboard (ROLI Seaboard RISE 2). Playing the MPE keyboard is quite a learning curve but it is great for composing using the associated software (Equator 2). That’s the fun part of all of this and something that I haven’t had time to do while creating and promoting the album. I am really looking forward to getting back to it.

So what does 2025 hold for me. I have three songs which I hope to release: “Jukebox in My Head” (written with Roberta), “Through the Darkness” and “Tempora Mutantur”. I just need to work a bit more to improve the production on these. Also, composing is an unpredictable skill, so who knows what can be achieved when I get back to it.

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Well, it’s two months since the release of my “Aestas” album and the time has flown. I’ve had a two-page spread in the Alloa Advertiser, had a track, “Rebirth of Venus”, played on Forth Valley Radio and been a guest on one of their shows.

One thing that I have discovered in promoting the album is the need for visuals to accompany the music if you want to promote it properly. Spotify want what they call canvases, which are short looping videos (3-8 seconds), to accompany the tracks; Meta (Facebook/Instagram) likes reels, which can be up to 90 seconds; while YouTube is best served with full videos or AVs (audio-visual sequences).

In order to supply the needs of social media, I have gone back to my AV days with PTE (Pictures-To-Exe) and am currently relearning animation with CTA (Crazy Talk Animator). In addition, Roberta’s camera club, Stirling and District Camera Club, for which we once chaired the AV group, have redeveloped an interest in AV and our sequence, “The Iconoclast”, went down very well when shown there last week. This AV uses “Titanium” by David Guetta featuring Sia as the musical background rather than one of my own compositions. For those who are interested, the copyright for using such music in a non-profit making AV is covered by joining and purchasing the appropriate licences from the IAC (Institute of Amateur Cinematographers). We are both members of Leeds AV group which, since it now operates purely using Zoom, has extended its membership well outside Leeds.

I already have several videos to accompany my music on YouTube and a couple of reels on Facebook. Look out in the near future for more of the same plus a few canvases on Spotify.

On the music front, I am slowly getting back into composing and looking at improving and releasing a couple of older songs. “Through the Darkness” and “Rainbow’s End” are already on YouTube and SoundCloud and the latter, being primarily a children’s song, might be suitable for a release just before Christmas. I’m also working on a song called “Jukebox in My Head” for which Roberta wrote the lyrics. Watch this space!

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What a time it has been since the release of the “Aestas” album exactly one month ago. A two-page write-up in the Alloa Advertiser was followed by my first UK radio play on Forth Valley Radio and a guest appearance on a show on that station. Not to mention the streams on the various platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music and the sales of the CDs on the website and on Bandcamp.

Thanks are due to Rajmund Bakonyi at the Alloa Advertiser for a very accurate report based on a phone interview that lasted for almost half-an-hour. The article appeared on pages 12-13 of the newspaper on Wednesday 21st August. This was followed by a text from Bovs (Brian Ovens) at Forth Valley Radio who wanted to play one of the album tracks on his “Millennium Music Show” which can be heard every second Friday from 4pm until 6pm. “Rebirth of Venus” was duly played on Friday 6th September. My first radio play had been “The Alchemist” on the Japanese station, Sound Street Radio, in 2023, but this was the first time that I actually heard my track being played on the radio.

Bovs followed this up by inviting me to be a guest on his other show “”Old Records Never Die with Bovs” from 8pm until 10 pm on Wednesday 11th September. I had to choose five songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s which I liked or had influenced me. I chose: “So Sad” – Everly Brothers; “Waterloo Sunset” – Kinks; “Reflections of My Life” – Marmalade; “The Hungry Years” – Neil Sedaka; “West End Girls” – Pet Shop Boys. I had to explain why I chose these particular records and we also chatted about the other records that he played. It was a brilliant experience which I won’t forget.

The sales of the CD are moving along nicely and are now well into double figures. With a limited edition of 100, I am pleased with the progress. Thank you to Roberta for handling the dispatch of the CDs. Streams on the various platforms are well into three figures and, on Spotify alone, are over 300 and on their way to the 1000 plays you need to get paid these days. It fascinates me that I am getting streams in places like Fukuoka and Tokyo in Japan and Stone Mountain and Grand Rapids in the USA.

I now feel that it’s time to move away from promotion, publicity and social media and get back to performing and creating music and audio-visuals. You can find out more about that in my next blog.

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Well, after all the problems, headaches and delays, the day when the “Aestas” album is released on digital download and CD has finally arrived.

In the end, we were very pleased with the quality of the CD and cover (Roberta did the artwork) provided by CD Unity in Glasgow, so thanks to Tom at CD Unity. There were a few problems at my distributor, Songtradr, concerning maintenance and other issues, which meant that the release of the digital version, originally scheduled for 2nd August, had to be taken down and re-scheduled for today (16th August). The artwork of the original version showed a faulty version and the ISRC codes, which are necessary to receive royalties, were not as requested. All of those issues have now thankfully been resolved with the help of Songtradr support and we are happy with the result.

The issue of licensing at MCPS is unfortunately still active. Since all the tracks on the album were written by me, obtaining an MCPS licence is not strictly necessary; however, I am a member of MCPS and they recommend that members license their own music. Establishing the correct route for someone in my position has been the problem.

Enough of my problems, it’s now time to celebrate the release and I am meeting up with some family members in Glasgow today for a get together and, although they might not know it, a release launch party. I am greatly looking forward to it.

On the promotion side, I have been active on social media, mainly Facebook and Instagram, as well as on music sites like Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Locally, the Alloa Advertiser is keen to do an article. We shall see how these things help.

In conclusion, it has been a great deal of work and there have been trials and tribulations but, at last, it’s time to celebrate.

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I have been fortunate enough to have a few singles on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, TikTok, Deezer and Tidal, have had relative success in the UK Songwriting Contest and have even had a track played on radio. I have never previously considered releasing an album; but with a number of tracks already out there and one or two ready to go, I thought it was about time.

Since my latest track is called “Aestas” (Latin for summer) and since we are in the middle of our so-called summer, I thought that “Aestas” should be the album title. Provided you have a distributor for releasing your music, putting together an album for digital release seems fairly simple on paper. Also, you might feel the need to release a physical product such as a CD. This is what I decided to do and it turned into a major commitment.

If you ever need to follow in my footsteps, I highly recommend that you first read “The Guidebook to Self-Releasing Your Music” by Matthew Whiteside. At first I thought that it might be more relevant to the USA than the UK; however, Matthew lives in Glasgow and the book was highly relevant to everything I wanted to do. Since I wanted to release a CD, I found the website of CD Unity, also based in Glasgow, and this has loads of advice on getting your music out there especially in a physical format.

The story is not a simple one. As I was visiting Glasgow with my wife, Roberta, I tried to contact CD Unity saying that we would come to their office. As they were not answering the phone, I had to send an email. Despite not receiving a reply in time, we went to their address to find a labyrinth of floors, pathways and offices belonging to different companies. Eventually, I tracked down their office, only to find it closed. At around the same time, I received a reply from CD Unity saying that its staff were working remotely that day and to get in touch again. Eventually, I spoke with the company boss on the phone and he answered my questions. I decided to proceed and, apart from a problem with Roberta’s cover artwork, which was our fault, things seem to be progressing.

The next problem was with licensing. Apparently, making a physical product like a CD is more problematic than releasing a digital download. You have to get it licensed even if you own the composition and master rights for the entire album. It should not cost anything but there is a certain amount of administration involved and this has now commenced.

The third problem was with my distributor, Songtradr, where maintenance of some of their facilities is currently in progress. This made it difficult to alter the afore-mentioned artwork and may even delay the release date of the digital download.

Maybe I have just been unlucky but the release of an album does not appear to be a straightforward process. I will let you know how I get on.