Zoe Keating

Image by: Jerry Dodrill

This talented woman is a cellist creating music of the classical genre. She lives in the redwood forest about an hour and half out of San Francisco, California (Castro, 2011). Her music is hauntingly beautiful and full of emotion. She creates her music digitally via her computer using only one instrument, her cello. Layers and layers of musical phrases played from her cello create her songs. She loves what she does, and loves that she can share her art with the world.

Her music is available to purchase and/or listen to on a number of websites and programs such as iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Spotify, etc. She is very famous for publicly announcing her income from each of these sources. Keating made a total earning of $75,341 from her music sales in 2013 (Dredge, 2014). In addition, the article also states that she made an additional $6,380 from music streaming services. The article further goes on to break down her earned income from the different sources. I won’t mention all the details, but her biggest source of income came from iTunes, bringing in $38,195, which is made up from 3,862 albums, and 32,170 single tracks (Dredge, 2014).

On her website (Click Here) she has her album for sale along with some merchandise. To purchase her album digitally her price is $6. She has a deluxe edition CD digipak for $12, which includes the CD, a photo booklet, liner notes, 4 bonus tracks, and finally the digital download of all 15-tracks. She also has the regular CD digipak for $9. This one includes the CD, along with the digital download of all 11-tracks. Lastly, she has the Zoe Tee for $18. This shirt is available for men and women in all sizes.

Concluding my thoughts here, I think this independent artist is very successful. She is proving to me that an artist can make an honest living on their music without the aid of a big record label. Just as Kelly (2008) states, it only takes 1,000 true fans to build a successful career in entertainment. She obviously has a dedicated fan base. Her bundles are great, and I was pleasantly surprised that they were offered. I do wonder if she will create more merchandise, and how much she is currently making from her t-shirts alone. All in all, I’m happy I now know of Zoe Keating. I hope her career grows as she continues to do what she does best.

References

Castro, M. (2011, September 6). Zoe Keating: A Symphony Unto Herself. NPR. Retrieved January 20, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/2011/09/06/140069246/zoe-keating-a-symphony-unto-herself

Dredge, S. (2014, February 24). Musician Zoe Keating reveals iTunes, Spotify and YouTube payouts for 2013. The Guardian. Retrieved January 20, 2016, fromhttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/24/zoe-keating-itunes-spotify-youtube-payouts

Into The Trees, by Zoe Keating. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2016, from http://music.zoekeating.com/

Kelly, K. (2008, March 4). The Technium: 1,000 True Fans. Retrieved January 20, 2016, fromhttp://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

A Great Big World: "Is There Anybody Out There?"

I loved this album cover the minute I saw it on iTunes. The cover is very mysterious and a beautiful midnight shade of blue. It’s a picture of a starry night sky. The moon is glowing and is enormous. You can see a tree centered on the ground below with a little girl sitting on the very top branch gazing into the stars. The band’s name is written in giant letters in the sky. The “O” in the word “world” is perfectly displayed by the yellow moon. The album title is written in smaller writing and placed in the bottom right-hand corner. Not to forget, the rocket ship headed to space that is placed in the “A” representing the negative space of the letter. Together it all forms a stunning piece of musical art.

This artwork effectively represents the band, as the music in this album is very mysterious and lyrical. A lot of the songs are piano based, and have strong messages conveyed in their lyrics. Their hit single “Say Something” featuring Christina Aguilera sounds very haunting and alluring. The cover art shows a vast world of interest and meaning. It also shows wonder and excitement. This is the bands very first album release, so not only is the picture a perfect beginning to their career, but also so is the album title. Asking consumers is there anybody out there is pretty cleaver. They are asking the world to listen up. This duo is made up of two guys named Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino. After the success of their single with Christina Aguilera, the two decided to release the full album. Their name A Great Big World fits them very well as Axel stated, “…everything’s kind of bigger than us” – referring to their newly found fame and success - (Knopper, 2013, Para. 6).  

The album had mixed reviews. The New York Times seemed to have nothing good to say about it. However, Newsday’s Glenn Gamboa called the album “eclectic both musically and lyrically” (Jaeger, 2014, Para. 7). He also stated how heartfelt and jubilant the songs were. Fans of singer/songwriters, which is A Great Big World’s target market in my opinion, are intrigued by beauty and music/art with deep meaning. So the cover art for this album appealed perfectly to their target audience.

References

Jaeger, K. (2014, January 21). A Great Big World's 'Is There Anybody Out

There?': What the critics are saying. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/a-great-big-worlds-is-672857

Knopper, S. (2013, December 18). Meet A Great Big World, the New

York duo behind 'Say Something'. RollingStone. Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/meet-a-great-big-world-the-new-york-duo-behind-say-something-20131218