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Songwriter Forum => Resources & Marketing => Topic started by: 2tuoo on November 07, 2017, 10:18:37 AM

Title: What I learned in Oxford
Post by: 2tuoo on November 07, 2017, 10:18:37 AM
Couple years ago I was in London, attending a business convention.
So, being the foreigner as I am, what do you do on a spare day?

That's right! Visit a library in Oxford.

Since I had no Patron (Bizare concept for a tourist) They did not let me into the Historic one (can't remember the name) and I took a tour in the Biggest functioning library in the city. (the one where they shot Hary Potter movies)

Now we get to the relevant part:

Apparently, all biggest libraries WW are on a mission to gather all they can books and music alike. According to them, they are not sure what media and what cultural significance will be valuable to future generations so they don't make value judgments.

On another hand, their resources are not infinite so:

1. They will buy every single book, no matter the size from Amazon within a year. They will store it digitally and in print (probably microfilm or some storage effective paper media  - they are very concerned about the ability to maintain their assets over various technological changes, good or bad ones alike).
    For us songwriters, this means that a word document of your poems will be actually bought if you convert it to ebook and post it on Amazon.

2. They will buy your music! I can't recall what resources are bulletproof, but I think the guide was very enthusiastic about vinyl records or other physical goods.
    This means that If you print a vinyl record with visual art on it and put it on Amazon, it will be bought and stored in at least this library for ages to come!

The tour really blew my mind, I never thought that libraries would actually do such thing or consider themselves about anything but mainstream books but there we have it!

What do you think of this? Would you give it a go one day?
Title: Re: What I learned in Oxford
Post by: redrhodie on November 07, 2017, 03:42:59 PM
That's really cool. We are actually in the process of recording an LP, which will be printed in vinyl. I actually haven't given marketing any thought, because I am doing this for purely selfish reasons. I don't care if it sells, we just want a vinyl record. But putting it on Amazon, even just for this, is a great idea.

Thanks for starting these album threads. It's gotten me back on track.

Lynn