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/