Could I suggest a slight attitude adjustment please? Don't sell yourself short on your "home" recordings! They are more valuable than I think you give yourself credit for!

I'm with Nilson on this, You might be one of the artists who don't know how great their music really are, i haven't listened to all your songs yet, but i liked what i've heared so far and i assume that your music sounds very radio ready and better than lots of pro **** recordings! You're really gifted never forget that, no matter the way you record your stuff; pro or home studios are just an insignificant detail.

Well yes, I agree (and was perhaps being modest)... but unfortunately Odyssey didn't really sell well and I feel I may get more sales if I let people pay what they want. And if people agree with you on the quality then they may be willing to pay more for the music anyway - so I feel this way is a little more efficient. Ultimately I want to reach more people with my music, a wider audience would be very beneficial. I have also been considering lowering the price of Odyssey when I release the new one as it might encourage a few more people to buy it.

That's the wrong approach! [quote="TessCrazy"] I feel I may get more sales if I let people pay what they want. [/quote] Are you making music because you want to be an artist or do you just want to sell it? Being an cashier at Tesco's wouldn't be any different then. If your music is great then people will buy it. If they feel that your music is honest then they will buy it. Otherwise you can go the mainstream line and just try to please the audience and you end up with an audience you don't really want or can't connect to. That wouldn't be my kettle of fish... really not! One of the problems I see that nobody is able to find your album. Just google Tess Crazy (or Beighton) and Odyssey... really very few results to find. Are you on Last.fm? Or on Jango? Google for my non released album "Chris Krohm The grandeur that was rome" and you will find plenty of results. With Last.fm you don't pay anything but it will help you to get noticed in google after a little while...

In answer to your question... neither. The aim is not to make money (though god knows I need it), or to "be an artist" (whatever the hell that is) but to spread the music around to as many people as I can. You can't deny that people are put off by a big price tag, I've been wanting to buy Ingrid Michaelson's album for ages, but I can't get hold of it cheaply so I didn't buy it (though I still might). And there are still a lot of people out there who won't pay for their music. As for 'pleasing the audience'... I like to think that my music is reaching out to an audience, I try not to alienate too many people and I think it's relatable. Doesn't mean my music has any less credibility. Everyone gets all up in arms about 'being a sellout' and all that crap! I love making music, and I want people to enjoy it, so of course I'm going to try to please my audience. Now don't make me angry! Thank you for bringing this googling thing to my attention, I hadn't considered that there might not be enough links to the album - I guess people probably do search "tesscrazy". Ok, back on topic! The name of my album. I just wrote a little blog over at www.tessbmusic.co.uk about my brainstorming on the title. So I'll copy and paste some of that: I composed a little list of adjectives that I think describes the general feel (with a few exceptions): The album is: optimistic, growing, afraid, exploratory.... So with that in mind, here are some phrases from lyrics in my songs that I quite liked. Let me know what you think!: Room for error: 'Shaky Tales', 'Reining It In' Brick by Brick: 'Swimming In My Mind' Change your mind: 'The Way I'm Feeling', 'Expanding Minds', 'Play Pretend', 'Dare' Take me home: 'The Storm Inside', 'These Stories', 'Out In The Wild', 'Searching For Clarity' Treading Water: 'Flew The Nest', 'Sink Or Swim', 'Some Kind Soul', 'Swallow Me' Turning Key:. 'Fighting For Answers', 'Fought For The Truth', 'Listen and Focus' Earthquake: 'When You Need Me', 'Everything You Need To Know', 'At Your Mercy' Glass Half Full: 'My Dark Mind', 'Running Free', 'Sugar Free', 'Fighting For Air', 'Bloodstream' Also! What do people think of this for an album cover?http://www.tessbmusic.co.uk/images/albumcover.jpg