We hope that everyone is safe out there. As John Lennon sang: "strange days indeed, most peculiar mama." Luckily Barry is no longer on the road but spare a thought for all the musicians who do need to play live to keep a roof over their heads. If there is any way you can support them; by tuning into webcasts, buying CDs or T-shirts or even playing their music on Spotify, YouTube, etc. please consider doing so. We're all in this together and together we'll get through it. One of these days!
News
Stay Safe
Barry's music available at TikTok soon
CD Baby is distributing Barry's music to TikTok, the popular video platform.
What is TikTok? It’s a place where fans can create fun viral videos using music, in this case Barry's music. Imagine a social video app that combines Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and the now-defunct Vine. TikTok has 500+ million active users and it’s growing fast all over the world, especially in huge markets like the US and India. Almost half of those active users are between 16-24, so TikTok has become the go-to app for Gen Z; it’s a place where younger creators are breaking ground and shaping trends in music, comedy, and culture.
Videos that go viral on TikTok tend to emphasise: Community collaboration through #duets and other hashtag challenges. Humor, pranks, or stunts. Dancing. An authentic vibe instead of something polished or perfect. Imitating other popular videos, films, or TV shows. Short how-to videos. Travel, lifestyle and pets. Going behind-the-scenes with musicians, sports figures, and other celebrities. A whole lot of lip-syncing.
That last part is really important to TikTok culture, which makes sense since TikTok grew out of the lip-sync app Musical.ly.
Because TikTok videos are short, unpolished, and have the potential to inspire viral collaboration, it’s not about the SONG so much as a MOMENT in the song — a musical hook that suggests something visual.
That’s exciting for a few reasons:
Content can be produced quicker (no need to create professional, long-form music videos).
The perfect moment for a TikTok video might be found in a song that was released years ago.
There might be a number of ways to pair video concepts with a song hook; in the age of short-form video, there’s no such thing as too much content.
TikTok is a place where songs, videos, and personality collide in really strange and interesting ways. That's why CD Baby is excited to deliver Barry's songs to TikTok, a platform connecting his music to people around the world.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Christmas is a great time to unwind and take it easy for a few days and the New Year is a great opportunity to hit the reset button. Here's hoping you'll manage to do both.
Barry was back in the studio recently, together with Ralph, and they recorded a new acoustic song but we'll tell you more about that in the new year.
Stay With Me
We came across this on YouTube recently and thought it worth mentioning. It seems the owner of the clip thinks Barry & the boys did a better version of the song than the original. As Barry is a big Rod fan I'm sure he's tickled pink about this news.
Barry's music now available in China
Barry's music is now available in China via his distribution deal with CD Baby. This allows his songs to be placed on streaming platforms in China, the world’s largest music marketplace. This means his music can now be heard by hundreds of millions of streaming subscribers in China.
CD Baby has partnered with the Tencent Group to bring Barry's songs to 3 major music platforms in Mainland China. As part of their policy of always looking for new opportunities to distribute, CD Baby is very excited to announce they’re now delivering their catalogue of streaming-eligible tracks to the following three music streaming services, all powered by Tencent:
QQMusic — a music streaming and download service that currently has over 400m monthly active users in China.
KuGou — currently the largest streaming service in China.
Kuwo — the fourth largest music streaming service in China.
The modern music industry is global. Not only has the internet accelerated the exchange of artistic ideas, leading to all kinds of international collaborations and interesting genre crossovers, it’s also intensified consumer demand for music beyond their own borders.
“Making our members’ music available in the world’s largest market for streaming subscribers offers tremendous potential for independent and emerging artists to be heard and to connect with fans,” says CD Baby CEO Tracy Maddux.
This would seem unbelievable to musicians even a decade ago, that with a little bit of effort you’re as likely today to find listeners on the other side of the world as you are to find fans streaming your music down the street. No matter how you reaching out to the world — through playlist strategies, social media, audio ads on streaming platforms, banner ads on major music websites, creative music videos, or something else — it’s crucial that the music be available in all the places potential fans prefer. That’s why CD Baby's partnership with Tencent is so exciting; the three services listed above account for an estimated 84% of the domestic music streaming market in Mainland China.
“China and other markets with lots of potential listeners, high mobile phone usage, low cost bandwidth, and leading streaming platforms present our members with opportunities to connect with literally hundreds of millions of potential new fans,” says Maddux. “Tencent is a leader in China and throughout Asia.”
Most albums available on YouTube
It has come to our attention that CD Baby has been uploading Barry's music to YouTube. Don't worry, they have permission to do so. It's quite useful actually, as a lot of people go to YouTube when they want to play music or check out artists. What's quite handy is that if you type in the name of an album you'll get all the tracks, and in the order they're in on the CD. Here's an example of what we mean - Beyond The Tears
So please feel free to tell your friends about this or use it as a guide to introduce Barry's music to those who may not be familiar with it yet.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year
As we get ready to close out another year and wind things down as we head into the holiday period, we would like to thank you all for your continued support throughout the year. I know we say it every year but we still mean it; your support means the world to us.
Music can be a faithful friend in good times and bad, happy days as well as sad. A big hello to all of you who discovered Barry's music for the first time this year. We hope it will bring you lots and lots of listening pleasure.
New video clip on YouTube
A new video clip has been uploaded to YouTube. It's for Barry's most recent composition, "The Day They Lowered You Down". This song is part of the overall soundtrack for the "Souls of Utrecht" documentary that Barry composed together with Ralph Schraven. You can view the clip here
Some recent radio activity in the US
Barry's music was featured recently on an NPR radio program on KQBM. The tracks "Lonely Road" and "In The Dead Of Night" were featured. The host is James Fox.
Barry was interviewed by Louise Dunphy for her "Celtic Crossings" program on 93.9 & 101.5FM, The River. That show goes out at 7am on Sundays. Louise is also the promoter who booked Barry's acoustic tour in the US when he toured there with Danny Vlaspoel.
CD Baby partners with Show.co
CD Baby has teamed up with Show.co, a company that makes elegant marketing tools used by the likes of Ignition Records to promote big acts such as Oasis.
We thought we'd give it a try. You can view what we put together for The Peace Within song here
