Greetings Gunn Runner
Facebook engagement goes through the roof. Bedtime music for my daughter and you. A video podcast? Liner notes for a USB. CD sale success… and failure. It's all on Celtfather Monthly for June 2021.
– PODCASTS
There were two more episodes of Pub Songs & Stories. This month, I did an Irish Refugee/Star Wars episode plus a Star of the County Down episode. I also got the luxury of an extra week this month since I'm releasing only two episodes a month at present. That worked to my favor because we had family visit at the end of May. My time vanished in the blink of an eye.
I would still love feedback for the episode. What do you like or dislike about it? Let me know.
I successfully completed four episodes of Irish & Celtic Music Podcast this month. I'm gonna try and include at least one special themed episode per month. We shall see if I can make it happen.
This month, my themed episode was a Sleepytime Slow Aires show. I made it because Kenzie's bedtime music stopped working on her Kindle. I was lamenting that when it occurred to me that I'm frickin' podcaster! I can make her an episode like that.
We shall see if she ever uses it. I actually turned her bedtime music into a podcast with a private feed. So we can listen anywhere there is internet.
On a side note, Song Henge is preparing for a big change. I started Song Henge in 2006 as a way to monetize the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Once a month, I email about 12 MP3s from 4-6 bands who submitted music to the podcast.
MP3s are so 2006 (LOL). So I finally figured out a different Song Henge benefit thanks to that Sleepytime episode. Anyone who is a Song Henger will get a private RSS Patreon feed so they can listen to just the music.
This has not started yet tho. I'm checking Jan to see how many albums we have left to create. Jan has compiled Song Henge for about 10 years now.
I'll be honest. I haven't worked out all of the details yet. I'd still like to giveaway 17 Celtic MP3s for St Patrick's Day every year… Hm…
Andrew and I talked about Sherwood Forest Faire again in the latest Brobdingnagian Bards Podcast. But we also talked about vaccinations and cryptocurrency. It was all recorded live.
Oh! And we officially announced the video edition of the podcast. We started recording the video of us chatting earlier this year. But we forgot to announce it to everyone else. Now it's official. And again, it's only available to Nagians on Patreon.
Catherine Tully had a new article written for Celtfather Music & Travel. I might return to this as a freeform podcast in the future as well. But for now, but we shall see.
– VIDEOS
Season 8 of Coffee with The Celtfather comes to an end n June 3. The following week, we head to the beach. But my plan is to keep the show running through the summer on Thursdays. But they just might be a little different. The show on June 17 will be an art show featuring the art of Carmanda. I think I might plan instrumental music for that show so as to highlight the beautiful artwork of Amanda.
The new Irish & Celtic Music Podcast YouTube channel is doing well. I'm still trimming shows down to the first 20 minutes or so. Not getting much traffic. But that's okay.
The channel also features episode of Pub Songs & Stories. Those shows are getting more plays over all. But the plays are still miniscule.
I'm not great at making videos get tons of views. That's seen with the new Cats ‘N Celts USB & Booklet video I published. It's sort of an infomercial. I published a booklet, sort of liner notes, for my first USB. There's a bunch of stories following the creation of my the 10+ albums featured on the drive. It's a cool idea. Will I keep it going? I'm not sure. I need to see how well the USB sells in general.
I'm still debating whether I will do a similar one for the Rise of The Celtfather USB.
I released several Spotify Canvases this month. In fact, every song on Heart's Ease now has a Canvas.
But I gotta say, much like for the travel music videos I create, it is much harder to make Canvases for vocal songs. I feel like they should fit the theme. Whereas with instrumental, I think most any video will work.
The next Celtfather Live is a PAID show. It's scheduled for Thursday, June 17 at 8 pm ET. Tickets are $8. They will go on sale on June 3.
– IN THE STUDIO
Mitchell and I continue to mix and remix songs for Selcouth. I also had Jamie Haeuser record background vocals for several songs
“Hobbit Polka” still hasn't made too much progress. Sam Gillogly and I decided to add some claps to the recording. But neither of us has had time to record it.
The Kilted Kings album Name On My Soul is still scheduled for a re-release. I ran into a few hiccups. Apparently, iTunes won't let me change the performers to include me. So I'm releasing the “Name On My Soul” single on June 4 and then the album will be re-released at the end of June under a new name, Flower of Scotland.
I'm disappointed the test releases didn't work. But I guess that saves me the trouble of pulling other albums like I had planned. So. Good. Woohoo!
– MERCH
Sales for Virtual Public House were indeed poor. However, I did learn a new marketing trick that might work at SOME locations.
One of the other musicians at Sherwood Forest Faire gave away CDs as sort of an upsell tip. Meaning, give a tip and you can have a free CD. I tried the idea out the second weekend of the faire, and it was a HUGE success.
That said, I tried it again at Freedom Farmer's Market and it was a complete flop. So I don't know where I am on that idea. But I do have a new pricing structure and I created an even quicker signup page for my music. Go to FreeIrishMusic.com and you can give a tip, follow me on socials, find websites, and follow me on streaming music sites.
This is what Celtfather.net was supposed to be. But it changed.
The new 12″ vinyl of As Long As I'm Flyin' is selling about as well as expected. Which is to say, not well at all. LOL. That's okay though because I bought my copy.
I'm gonna leave it up online for a few months. Then it'll be done.
You can still subscribe to my mailing list, you get a discount code to save 15%.
I started selling Sticker Art last month as well. These are stickers with album cover artwork. If you don't do CDs any more, perhaps you would like a sticker?
I'm selling the first one, Whiskers in the Jar, for just $9, that's $2 more than the digital album.
– CELTIC TRAVEL
Want to join me on Celtic Invasion of Scotland? Sign up to the mailing list at CelticInvasion.com if you want to be one of the first on the list.
– SOCIAL
One fascinating thing happened this week. My Facebook Likes went up a lot.
That's because I am posting questions and comments that are getting a LOT of engagement. One of my posts has reached over 400,000 people. It's been shared 468 times. It has 24K comments.
That's pretty dang good!
Of course, I've only had 31 new likes despite all that engagement. But it's a start. I'm learning a few new tricks. Now will I be able to do anything with that engagement? I'm skeptical. But it's cool to see nonetheless.
– WEBSITES
I updated lyrics for the Irish Song Lyrics website, including:
- “Black Velvet Band”
- “Donald, Where’s Your Troosers/Drunken Sailor”
- “Rattlin’ Bog”
- “Lily the Pink”
- “Jedi Drinking Song”
- “The Last Jedi Drinking Song”
– SHOWS PLANNED FOR JUNE
THURS: Coffee with The Celtfather, YouTube (Season 8 ends June 3) @ 12:00 PM EST
JUN 4-6: Con Carolinas ONLINE, Show times. Details TBA
JUN 17: Celtfather Live @ 8 PM ET. Get your tickets.
JUN 18-20: Magic City Con, Birmingham, AL
JUN 27: Tucker Brewing Company, Tucker, GA @ 3:30-6:30 PM ET
– STATS
Mailing list subscribers = 1138 is up from 1129
Celtic Music Magazine = 4062 is down from 4064
YouTube Subscribers = 5411 is up from 5380
Facebook Likes = 3802 is up from 3771
Instagram = 1874 is up from 1872
Spotify followers: 1789 is up 18 from 1771
# Number of listens on Spotify: 2802 is down from 2857
Latest Spotify Single Stats:
“Cloghden More” released on April 30: 24
“Slainte Mhaith” released on April 18: 41 is up from 23
“Proudfoot Shuffle” released on Mar 18: 28 is down from 127
“Hobbit Hornpipe” released Aug 26: 632 is up from 521
“The Hero of Christmas” released on Nov 17: 3 is down from 107
Latest Spotify Album Stats:
St Patrick's Day: 424 is down from 601
Most-popular songs on Spotify: “The Widow and the Devil” (1.6K), “Hobbit Hornpipe” (632), “Doctor of Gallifrey” (485), “A Working in the Garden” (366), “Hero of Canton” (226)
Most-popular songs on Amazon Music: “Hero of Canton” (743), “Doctor of Gallifrey” (533), “The Widow and the Devil” (92), “Scots Wha Hae (52), “Sail the Sky” (49)
Top albums: As Long As I'm Flyin (1095), Sci Fi Drinking Songs (925), Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion (478), Kilted For Her Pleasure (220), Going for Brogue (129)
Last year's playlists from this time last year:
Top Irish & Celtic Music: 584 582 is up from 575
Sci F'Irish Music: 12 (same)
Nagians Only: 21 (same)
Celtfather Experience: 29 (same)
Hobbit Drinking Songs: 5 (same)
Firefly Drinking Songs: 128 is up from 127
Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers: 73 is up from 71
Jedi Drinking Songs: 31 (same)
– PATREON
Patreon Subscribers: 161 is up from 157
Patreon Monthly Income: $1230 is up from $1206
Thanks as always for supporting my music. Streaming music gives you a quick and easy way to sample all of my music. Digital sales keep my business running. Tips and CD sales allow me to tour. Kickstarter funds physical products like CDs, shirts ,and other merch. And Patreon funds my songwriting!
Join the Gunn Runners Club on Patreon to support my songwriting. You will step behind-the-scenes with new music, bonus podcasts, videos, and live concerts.
Thank you for supporting Sci F'Irish music at Celtfather.com!
#CFMonthly
