Client Work and Where It Goes
Roads Lead to Other Roads
About a year and a half ago, when we were moving and everything was crazy, I got invited to Amazon Merch on Demand - likely because I am part of Amazon Music for Artists. I signed up for the profile but didn’t complete everything - and then I kinda forgot about it.
Fast forward to this week and Amazon Merch on Demand entered my radar again, and so I logged in, completed the profile, and uploaded my first design - a Byzantium shirt, based on work I did for a client. I have this t-shirt design at the Mark Rushton Gallery, but I thought I’d experiment a bit with Amazon Merch on Demand and see how it goes.
From what I’ve read, most people start off at Amazon Merch on Demand at “Tier 10”, which is kind of a starter account. The number of designs available maxes out at ten until you actually sell ten items, and then you graduate to “Tier 25” - and so on.
Maybe it’s the affiliation with Amazon Music, but I started at Tier 10,000. That’s a lot of room to experiment, but for now I think I’ll play around with my client work because that tends to be more “commercial” than “artistic” images.
While I can adjust the price, I’m keeping everything at default. I know what my likely royalties are, and I’m fine with that if anything ever sells. Again, it’s an experiment. Upload was super easy. All I had to do was change my file over to PNG 8-bit. Interface learning wasn’t difficult. Of course, they encourage you to “Advertise on Amazon’. Wink wink... I’m curious to see how good the “natural discovery” really is by providing appropriate product titles and descriptions.
This week I got out the bass clarinet I bought in 2021, and ran it through my effects boxes. I played bass clarinet in junior and senior high band. At the time I bought the bass clarinet, I also got a Piezobarrel pickup from Australia because I knew I wouldn’t be playing the instrument conventionally.
The above video is pure experimentation, but most of my music videos are anyway. I overdrive everything a few times, but it’s all good fun.
The April 20th “holiday” is next Saturday. I’m old, straight, and don’t partake in anything, but it’s a very good day for my ambient music and other sounds if playlisted and marketed certain ways. My “nondenominational Christmas” music does pretty good throughout December, and I also promote certain sounds for particular holidays around the world, but it all pales in comparison to 4/20. It’s a spike like you cannot believe. Not every streaming platform goes bonkers, but most do.
Just a short note for this week.
My web sites are markrushton.com and markrushtongallery.com