I was a longtime defender of physical media and BD over DVD but even I think the days are numbered for it. With so many streaming services and upload services, digital delivery is the future. There will always be the on or other diehard fan of physical media, but, eventually those will have their own equipment to make a physical media from a download version.

Really good feedback, I really appreciate it. To clarify, I'm talking about the media we would offer, and we're just probably not releasing CDs anymore; we'll still offer digital MP3 downloads through iTunes, Apple, Google, etc. Having said that, I'm thinking about simply using flash drives instead of disks to deliver physical copies of the product. MOST folks that want to SEE the full product in actual 4k will likely stream it on our website, and those that actually want their own 4k physical copy will probably have a device that can play it other than a 4k disk player; Windows will play 4k video just fine on your computer. And time limitations are not an issue with that approach. Since I don't have a deep background in disk media, what I'm learning here may eliminate it as a viable approach. I agree the vinyl thing is a quirk, but it's a quirk we're going to try to provide to the die-hard fans that really want it, and that's strictly a labor-of-love.

Thanks for all your input, and I think we need to do some more research before we make a final decision on what media to use for the full 4k physical copies.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'm going to play devil's advocate, but without mean intent. I would never discourage a sincere startup.

I can:

a) Open Chromecast and turn on KUVO HD1; or,

b) Grab a 4k ambience channel on Fire 4k.

I do this quite a lot during daily hearing/exercise rehab. For hours some days, so my presales question is, "How is your product different or attractive enough to make me want to buy it, and is your return growth enough to pay for the infrastructure needed to take you the next level? Are you a streaming or a physical media seller? If you say both, you won't be both for long. Do you know the grab box price and market share for wallpaper BluRays?

As one who learned business without any real talent, I will suggest that you concentrate your resources on one consumer portal and see how it works out before selling the farm to diversify. Seriously, the whole technology will roll over again in eight years (mark the date), and you will be faced with either expensive retooling or obsolesce, with no in between, as Gates, Kodak, and now GE have fallen to.

I suggest you get some 2 hour programs licensed on Fire 4k (there's still room); thats pprobably your cheapest test market, and then revisit your options, which will be more than they seem now.

Having great core values is one thing; having a self-sustaining business engine that runs on it's own cash is yet another.

When I was a kid, I found out that the only thing worse the putting all your eggs in one basket, is forgetting to bring a basket.

That said, all my best friends were driven dreamers. Welcome to the forums.

Thank you very much! You obviously put a significant amount of thought and invested your personal experience in that comment, and I value that and appreciate it. You, I believe, are pretty much right on in your assessments. And I will be the first to confess a lack of arts-industry business savvy. As I said, I'm primarily a musician as it relates to this conversation, and because of my nature I just want someone to see my stuff (and I can tell you from my deep background in music people that is FAR AND AWAY the typical case, few really good musicians are very good business people and the few that are go into POP and stay there and 95% of all money made by actual musicians is made by 5% of them, just like ANY arts field). SO I think your advice as it pertains to exposure is good, and I'll check into the Amazon Fire streaming thing. Having said that, shed no tears for me because I have a very lucrative day job as a licensed structural engineer and own a Structural Engineering firm; hence my fascination for Audio Engineering (which I LOVE to do). Don't get me wrong, I'd love to make money at music (and we've made money with a small 'm', but have spent a LOT more LOL) but that's just not the top priority. I actually feel sorry for folks that depend on the arts for a living on the 'money' side of the equation BUT TOTALLY ENVY THEM and their courage on the other side of that equation! I just love music and musicians.

I have a very small but intensely devoted following and need to get some of my current projects out to take care of them right; due to severe health issues in my family it's been some time since my last release, and everyone understands, but it's time to put out, and I'm literally in the middle of a couple of hours worth of new material. We have specific folks that will want 4k disks, not many but a few, so I'll have to figure that out, and I will definitely put together the web site and will have to figure that out (actually whomever I hire will have to figure it out); we're goin to offer our stuff, stuff from other local musical projects, and some specialized 'radio stations' streaming and we'll eat the royalties if they're not too high (another learning curve for me so FEEL FREE to comment back on that in particular; I am ALL EARS here). And we'll get some vinyl made if for no other reason than just so we can say we did it, LOL.

What do I know, but it looks like right now you really don't have to actually purchase music itself anymore. So as Todd Rundgren once obscurely sang: "A man would simply have to be as mad as a hatter to try to make a living form a plastic platter". If you want to eat from music alone you will HAVE to tour and sell the Tees.

Paragraph 1:

AFM starting 1972, since retired (see signature). Except ours were circuit gigs, so no room for open weekends.

Paragraph 2:

After listening to your music, which is amazing, I'm going to make a suggestion that sounds insulting to any musician, yet will keep you working to produce more each month --- that being stock royalty-free, and commercial music syndication. Yes, working musicians are still just whores in the marketplace.

My friend in Boulder, with his two sons, is making six figures just on residuals, and he's got time to play in the pit, record with other artists, and travel whenever he pleases. That said, keep your day job while that materializes.

My job in life since retiring from playing and teaching is to make people think. Usually that takes a challenge, so forgive the distraction, and have a wonderful holiday!

...because of my nature I just want someone to see my stuff...

Then why not just save yourself the hassle of optical disk delivery and custom streaming by putting it on YouTube at 4k? There's no more straightforward way to reach the most people and the videos can run as long as you like. And you can embed them in your website. Seek advice on this forum for the best upload format (and other tricks) to maximize YouTube quality.

If you want to monetize then vinyl is a great idea. You've probably considered most or all of these but here are some other options:

• Higher quality audio downloads on Bandcamp etc., where you can charge.
• Patreon for ongoing donations. If you reliably churn out new work then I highly recommend this, especially as you say you have "intensely devoted" followers. But it means you do need to deliver on a reasonably regular basis. You could have private or unlisted YouTube videos especially for Patrons. Here's a musician's Patreon that I started donating to a couple of days ago: https://www.patreon.com/kmacleod/posts
• Gofundme.com etc. for specific future projects such as new albums
• YouTube monetization (which I suspect you might want to avoid cuz of the ads)
• Other merchandize
• Live shows

A file on a USB stick is not a bad idea if you really want a digital hard copy to sell. You can get them branded and include a booklet to make them a bit special. Google "custom USB flash drive".

Would be interested to see any of your existing stuff it it's online.

David's got stuff on Amazon by Dreamamine (watch autospell), and it's quite good.

By the way, Nick's got a lot of experience with stock royalty-free video production, and more YouTube clicks with Bubblevision than anyone can believe.

https://m.youtube.com/user/bubblevision

FIRST: THANK YOU GUYS VERY MUCH! I really appreciate you taking the time to inform me! Sorry for the delay getting back to you on these posts, had some personal issues take me off of this for a little while. I will definitely follow you guy's advice on these items. I'm putting together a little (probably half hour or so) AV to upload to my Dreamamine Facebook page (here's a link: https://www.facebook.com/Dreamamine) AND I will sort out the YouTube channel thing (I may be back on here asking for some specific advice about exactly how to do that if I can't get the right advice from them, but don't want to 'wear out my welcome' on the forum either).

By the way, there are always three audio tracks to listen to on the Facebook page's 'My Music Page', so that's a quick way to hear some stuff. The three that are on there right now are a little long but that's OK it gives you an idea of some of what I do, but having said that, my focus this time around will be on picking my game WAY UP on the quality of the pieces, composition, and production; I have learned A LOT about audio engineering since most of this stuff was done and looking back on it is like looking back on what you were playing in grade school, LOL.

SO: I really like your advice about YouTube, Bandcamp (don't know anything about that but will Google it and learn), Amazon Fire 4k, and using Custom flash drives for those folks that really want a physical digital copy, and audio on vinyl for the audiophile folks (I'm actually a huge vinyl guy myself and still have close to 3000 old original albums from 'back in the day'). I probably won't worry about 4k DISKS right now unless someone really presses me for one; the flash drive really seems like a better idea to me right now.

As I said before I am ALL EARS here. Any advice about these approaches, contacts, or anything else that might facilitate this process would be very very welcome. I think I'll focus on the items you have suggested before I worry about a website; I can always put that together last and link everything else into it then.

I am VERY interested to hear more about this comment from Musicvid above "...that being stock royalty-free, and commercial music syndication... My friend in Boulder, with his two sons, is making six figures just on residuals, and he's got time to play in the pit, record with other artists, and travel whenever he pleases." I'd love to learn how to do this...tell me more.

BY THE WAY there are some videos on there [Dreamamine Facebook Page] to watch as well. They were just experiments and are NOT 4k, basically just fancy slide shows, but it's something to watch for a little bit and I'm proud of the photography (another of my avocations, I have a photography web site but it is down right now and is going to be rebuilt).

I am VERY interested to hear more about this comment from Musicvid above "...that being stock royalty-free, and commercial music syndication... My friend in Boulder, with his two sons, is making six figures just on residuals, and he's got time to play in the pit, record with other artists, and travel whenever he pleases." I'd love to learn how to do this...tell me more.

There are dozens of sites where you could license tracks that others may want to use. https://audiojungle.net/ is well organized, has high quality music, and the prices are fair. I've licensed a few tracks from there. https://www.jamendo.com may be another option, although their business model and pricing always seems to be changing. Also https://www.pond5.com/royalty-free-music/ etc. etc..

However I think the real winners at the RF music game are those with very commercial tunes (think cheery ukelele tracks or epic inspirational stuff), and with lots of it. Without that offering, you'll probably be more in "useful pocket money" territory rather than a living income. Same as the RF photo & footage market really.

Nick, I really appreciate your information! I'll look into those sites and keep in mind the type of audio stock they might be most interested in. I'll keep this thread posted with progress, and will give you links to my stuff in case you're interested as this progresses. I like this forum.

Thanks again!