Sequel to big scary thoughts

Well I've been doing a lot of thinking about big scary thoughts in the last couple of weeks - what started in reality as "how can I do press-packs without getting CDs duplicated" has triggered off a huge chain of thoughts, ideas, investigations and finally with some (I hope) reasonable decisions.

There are lots of things I could do if I wanted to start making money out of the music. Lots of boring, stressful things, and although I reserve the right to change my mind I seem to have made the following decisions:

1. I will not try and sell my music, I will still continue to give it away for free

2. Although I would like to increase my listenership, I will attempt to do so in ways that are a) free (or very cheap) and b) viral media-like

3. I will not, for the sake of commerciality separate out sections of the music and treat them like "singles". It was always intended to be album-based

4. I will focus on having direct download and streaming to continue as the main delivery method of the music. I may still make some CDs by hand

5. I will do what seems to be the minimum to set myself up as a "record label" (with neither records or in fact many labels) In my mind this label is called "patchwork sounds" and is part of "The Patchwork Umbrella" - a name for my creative output, which may also include other people in the future.

6. I will start to use ISRC - because I can. I will look into barcodes but I don't think they are essential.

7. I am unlikely to turn BMS into a multimedia experience, but I may still create an image for each sub-section to use in a companion booklet (probably a PDF)

8. I will master BMS to a better quality than previous masters - in terms of file format. I am trying to resist the temptation to remaster the previous two albums, at the moment I feel like they are alive and on their own. I may see if I can get ISRCs in them at Last.Fm

9. I will have a marketing push at the "release" of BMS

10. I will create a virtual press-pack on the purple website, designed so that instead of sending press-packs I can send a URL

11. I will create "trailer tracks" - super-condensed versions of all three albums to give the essence of them in 3 minutes. These will be available on the virtual press-pack

I think that's all. Like I say I reserve the right to change my mind, and to do something different in the future. I have said many times I don't think that music publishing has a future - so now I am attempting to not get involved in that process.