Hi, John, good to see you here.

I signed up with John at Celtic Ways to be my mp3.com promoter back around the time I started this thread. He is modest in not telling you more about his extensive music background and involvement with bands in Scotland and Britain, and now in the US (and worldwide, through mp3.com). John works very hard to keep the artists in Celtic Ways updated with information about all the Celtic Ways groups, their performances, new music, reviews, and strategies in getting the music we love listened to. He is a very positive force in forming connections among the Celtic Ways groups in different regions of the country, encouraging bands to get together for performances, keeping everyone informed on new developments on almost a daily basis with his email newsletter.

John has a very positive and hardworking approach to helping the world music artists that he promotes. Two of the most successful in world music at mp3.com are Celtic Ways artists, The Brobdingnadian Bards and Brendan O'Loughlin. Here is just a bit of what John has had to say about their path to being successful at reaching a very wide listening audience at mp3.com:

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"The formula is still the same as it always has been in music. You must put more effort into building a fan base than into selling music products. Right through history musicians have been beggars because nobody ever owes them anything. There is not a market out there that is going to snatch your music products the moment they are released. Nobody really cares about what you do or that you even exist - until you build your own fan base.

Music touches the soul so you have to find the souls your music touches, heals, excites and is a friend to. When you network these souls together you'll have an extended network of soul mates that will naturally look out for all new music you provide."
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In spite of all its flaws, at this time I still find mp3.com to be the best way to reach people with my music. For me, being isolated in Montana, it is even more an important vehicle for sharing the music I love, since there are no large local populations to perform to. I recall a time back in about '97 when I posted a message here at Mudcat wishing that we could actually hear each other's voices singing. The response was that there was no way - audio files being too big (at least at that time).

Now the internet is losing many sites because they cannot be profitable enough to stay online. I'm not sure about the outcome of every tactic that mp3.com has chosen to try to remain solvent, but I have found that of all the places I've listed my music, it is still the best vehicle to get it to people whom it "touches, heals, excites and is a friend to".

Alice