VPO: Purchase Music

Why?

The music files which you find on this web site here (most of them created with the new MAESTRO-2 system, using GPO-4 samples) are "free" and provided at no cost for personal, non-commercial use. So why would I add a "purchase" section?

The reason why I give away my music renditions for free is because I want that as many people as possible can listen to them. I do not want that the price is an obstacle for anyone to access my music. I share this music here, because I believe that I am doing something that many people can enjoy. And I am of course also keen on feedback, on people telling me what could be made better, or different.

Me giving away this music for free hides the fact that these music renditions are deeply subsidised: It costs a lot of time to create these renditions, and hardware and software needs to be bought from money earned. This all comes from the fact that I do have a wage-earning job, which subsidises this my music creation activity. Musicians who would do this activity full-time, could not make a living on giving their music away for free.

I will continue to give away all my music for free (until I change my mind), but I also want to provide a way of starting a little revenue which can offset the cost of making this music, so that at least it becomes a non-loss-making activity. So if someone has enjoyed the free music tracks here, it would be very nice to receive a "thank you" trough the purchas of one or more online tracks, to show the appreciation. I am experimenting with various online music distributors to see which would work best for classical music. Already since summer 2009 I have a few of my pre-2003 renditions online, and they can be accessed from iTunes, Amazon, and other online music sites. In February 2011 I have published my first online album on CD-Baby. It contains the latest versions of all the music I made in 2010. My plan is to create such an album every year from now on.

Most Recent Recordings

Since 10. February 2011, my site on CD Baby is online, which provides access to the recordings I publish through there.

Currently only one music album is available on that site: "My Music in 2010". This album contains all the latest recordings which I completed in the year 2010. In 2011, more albums are scheduled to follow, as I am planning to release more music renditions.

Pre-2010 Recordings

My music renditions which I had created between 1995 and 2009 are available at several other sites. In some cases I have compiled albums from thematically grouped music recordings. Also those sites also contain some of my own music compositions, which are not listed here on this web site (yet, as they may undergo a revision process).

A few years ago my musical friend Frans Cronje did set up an online music distribution site: TOPTEMPO.COM. I uploaded many of my renditions to his site, where they can be downloaded, most of them for free, a few of them for a small charge. TopTempo has several other artists who also have created classical music renditions on their computers and synthesizers.

In summer 2009 I began to compile a few of my recordings into "albums", which I made available online for purchase. This was done through online music distributors TuneCore and WaTunes, which offered the opportunity to have the music available through Amazon, iTunes, and many other global online music distribution sites. There were quite a few problems: in the case of Tunecore it was difficult to classify the classical music properly with tags, which resulted in my music often being listed as "inspirational" or "Christian/Gospel", the closest thing to classical-orchestral. Also, everything is listed as an "album", even single files. I was not relly ready to commit to large album collections, and then I discovered WaTunes which had a better deal. However, WaTunes had many problems in getting their upload and "ingestion" process working properly, and they recently have stopped offering this service alltogether. Still, working with these distributors resulted in my some of my music now being available worldwide, for download onto mobile phones, streaming, or for purchasing as CD. Since September 2009 I have not taken care much of this business side, but I anticipate that I would pursue these dissemination streams further, once I have created new renditions with MAESTRO-2 and the GPO-4 samples.

Purchase My Music

Why?

Most Recent Recordings

Pre-2010 Recordings