Presenting: JimJams

Where it began...

During my pre-teens, it was discovered that I have an attraction to drums. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for my pillows and bed to involuntarily become my drum set. However, it wasn't until my high school years when I started taking drums (and music in general) much more seriously.

After a while, bashing the "skins"... or cowbells... or other percussion-related instruments in high school band practice during the week and church services on weekends eventually became dull. Enter my full commitment to guitar practice. I've tried learning guitar before adolescence, but it wasn't until grade 10 when I took those painful-at-first six strings seriously. However, even then, I could go months without playing those Christian rock anthems I adored oh so much.

Once I started at my local community college, I got involved in a band. We never got anywhere (let alone an actual gig), but I'll never forget the hard rock/heavy metal jam sessions that involved actual instruments... or... sometimes RockBand (What? We liked video games too...).

After a couple of years with a full-time IT job that I got from my General Business degree (I'm telling you, I'm a Musician and Techie to the bone), I started on SoundCloud:

Jump, Pay, Jump Again

Starting on SoundCloud, I had a "cloud nine" mentality as I thought more completed and/or works-in-progress track uploads would lead to a sustainable secondary (or passive) income. I had and still have a goal of not becoming famous, but rather being able to become self-employed with various secondary/passive incomes (music being one of them). It wasn't until around 2018 when I learned that SoundCloud was offering a new streamshare payment model to those fortunate enough to be enrolled in the Premier Monetization Program.

For those of you who don't know, streamshare payment models are similar to how YouTubers are paid (more or less, with ad and/or subscription revenue minus cuts... I'm not an expert in this specific field):

I had and still have a goal of not becoming famous, but rather being able to become self-employed with various secondary/passive incomes (music being one of them).

Going Pro at first on SoundCloud at first was a great decision; knowing that, with enough plays, I could be "rolling in the dough" (kind of). However, I didn't achieve enough plays, unfortunately. This ended up with evidential cancellation of said subscription.

Why? Because BandLab:

This online platform "love child" of social media and a built-in cloud DAW (plus other musical tools) was the answer to my creative prayers. I was able to upload tracks, from complete songs to mere ideas, freely plus links, videos and other types of posts; such posts you would normally see at other popular social/content sharing sites. To this day, I'm still gaining new connections plus I've discovered other opportunities.

One amazing opportunity is joining the jaw-dropping level of customer service that is found within DistroKid. This music distribution service is truly a "bang for your buck"; the only free solution that comes close to this is Amuse. Both of these are highly recommended for you who are looking into a new music distribution service.

What's Next?

As a personal goal, I always try to look toward the future with bright/high/positive aspirations even though I'm a fully-fledged adult who "adults" habitually. When I look at music, I see not only an art form and a strong method of communication/expression but also a lifelong skill and source of revenue.

Wherever the music takes me, I will most definitely boldly go where I haven't necessarily gone before (to indirectly quote a certain Sci-Fi of which the captain I share a first name). If I'm successful at becoming self-employed through music, I'll also look into other ways to make money with my techie interests... one crazy idea I have is live-streaming myself within a Fully Self-Driving Tesla whilst jamming on my acoustic... let's see what happens.