I added some songs from my album to my Last.fm page a while ago, but because of technical problems, the uploads wouldn’t work, and the page where you edit the contents of your catalog was frozen so I couldn’t do anything about anything. The help forum was jammed with reports from users with similar problems, and it took them a couple of weeks to fix the issue it seems. Anyway, now it seems to be working, so you can listen to some of the tracks there if you like.
I’m a bit confused about the whole page, though. I can’t find any kind of promotional tool to use, I can’t add similar artists, tags or anything that would make it easier for people to find the album, so how exactly are people supposed to find it and listen to it? Even though there is an artist profile for Rainhat, as well as an album with songs you can listen to, if you do a search for “Rainhat” with the search function, it finds nothing at all. While you’re typing in the name, both the artist profile, the album and tracks pop up, but as soon as you actually click “Search” all that disappears and you get a message that says “Your search “Rainhat” did not match anything on Last.fm”. I’m starting to get the impression that the only ones who are actually going to get to listen to any of my stuff there are the ones that already know for sure it’s there, and are tenacious enough to turn the place upside down to find it.
I’m not impressed. Maybe I’m missing something, but if putting stuff up there makes it about as available to listeners as putting the album in a box and throwing it out in the middle of a big forest and hoping that someone will accidentally stumble across it, then what’s the point? I might as well spend the energy it would take to promote my Last.fm page and use it on promoting this page or my Bandcamp page instead.
Do you use Last.fm? Am I missing something?
My album is finally done! You can download the whole album right here for free:
Rainhat – The first dozen
The files come in a .zip file about 90 Mb in size. You can also download individual songs from my Music page. If you don’t have a program that you can unpack .zip files with, I suggest you google “7-zip”. It’s an open source program that works fine.
If you like it, you can share the music with anyone you like, online or otherwise, but you may not use the music for any kind of commercial purpose without permission from me.
Recording the album took a whole lot longer than I thought because of many things. Since I did everything myself, basically starting from nothing, I had to make sure I had the equipment and instruments I needed, the software to record and edit with, and I had to learn how to use all these things well enough. The whole process was also dependant on other things, like the house being quiet enough for me to record without getting a bunch of noise on the recording as well. This house is not soundproof. It’s just a regular house, so if the other people in the house were watching TV, doing laundry, taking a shower or anything like that, my microphones would pick it up straight through the walls. So progress was a bit slow, but piece by piece I managed to record all of it. I’m pretty happy with the result! Sure, it would probably sound better if the whole thing was done in a professional studio that had all the right equipment and with a bunch of experts behind the controls, but for being an album that I recorded in my basement all on my own, I think the quality is not bad at all. Whether the actual music is any good, I leave for you to decide. So download the album and let me know what you think! 
If you feel like supporting me, the album is also available on my Bandcamp page. There you can buy the album and download it in a range of different file formats. You can also use the Paypal button on the right if you want to help me out. You name the price, even if it’s only $2, it helps.
I’ve been struggling with an annoying cold for the last week, the kind that makes your head, muscles and joints ache, your nose run like the Niagara falls, and just knocks you flat on your back in general. And no, my dear worried friends, I don’t think it was the swine flu, unless I have an immune system of epic proportions, since I’m pretty much through it already and it has only been about a week. I feel pretty much fine, only my voice is still a bit funky.
On top of this cold I managed to find out the hard way that those red glowing things inside ovens, you know those metal bars at the top, are actually quite hot. Slapping the back of your hand into one of them is not a great idea. I’m now the not-so-proud owner of a rather nasty red gash on my hand. Yeah, that’s gonna leave a scar, methinks… All in all, it hasn’t been the greatest week.
But I did a bunch of recording today, and I can finally say that the countdown has started for real! Pretty much everything is done except for the vocals for the last song, so as soon as my voice gets back to normal, I’m going to record the vocals, and then my album will finally be done! Woohoo! 
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m studying part time right now, a course called “How to survive as a musician” at the Malmö Academy of Music. I’m learning about all kinds of useful stuff, like how and where to find gigs, marketing, what to keep in mind about contracts with concert venues, etc. Good stuff!
