The St. Patrick’s Day that Changed My Life

Mar 22, 2012 News , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shamrockin in South Points

I had a fantastic St. Patrick's Day and birthday weekend.  I want to thank everyone who sent their birthday wishes.  Y'all are amazing. Thank you!

I love that I get to play music I love for people on my birthday. I guess that's the joy of being a Celtic musician born on St. Patrick's Day.  I always loved St. Patrick's Day, but it was thirteen years ago that I fell in love with playing music on my birthday.

In 1999,the Brobdingnagian Bards formed.  I don't think we actually had a gig then.  But we celebrated it at Excalibur Fantasy Faire, I've no doubt.  I've loved playing music on my birthday since then.  Now I get to play music with my family too.

On Saturday, Gwen, Kenzie, and I drove down to Five Points.  That's a cool little area of Birmingham with lots of restaurants and clubs.  That's also where the St. Patrick's Day parade ends up.

We arrived around 11am at J. Clyde.  Bringing Kenzie out, I was pleasantly surprised by how many families with babies and toddlers showed up for the event.  There was a great crowd.

I setup my gear and played with gusto.  I was excited so I started a wee bit early.  Despite a few technical problems, I had a great time.  The day was hot, but J. Clyde's porch was warm.  But there was a breeze to catch my kilt  a few times as I sang “Whiskey in the Jar” and all my other favorite Irish songs.  Folks were attentive and easily sang along.

Afterward, we loaded the gear into the car and drove to Dave's Pub.  Gwen dropped me off and took Kenzie home for a nap.  As a bar, Dave's Pub was a cool dive.  A bit smokier than I like to perform in, but it had a nice setup.  They were playing Celtic punk when I arrived.  It set the mood for my show.  With no a/c running and temperatures rising through the day, I plowed through an hour of pub songs like I was back in my own punk band.  It was fun, but exhausting.

Gwen and I got a baby sitter for the evening.  But by the time I got home, I didn't really want to do much.  So we went out for Irish sushi… which is really just sushi on St. Patrick's Day.  It was delicious.  Then we went home and watched a movie before crashing early.  What a wonderful day!

Promotion and the 17 Free St. Patrick's Day MP3s for 2012

A number of years ago, my music business lived entirely on search engine optimization (SEO).  Meaning, I spent a lot of time trying to promote my music using keywords that I thought music fans would be looking for.  Over the last few years, Google has changed its search algorithms.  So that SEO is more trouble than it's worth.  And I'm glad.  SEO is tedious work.

Yes, I still name my CDs using creative keywords like Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers, Firefly Drinking Songs or Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits.  But those are also fun titles.

The problem with these changed algorithms is that it's made it much more difficult to promote my music and services online.  Instead, I rely almost entirely on fans.

So I was really excited to see my Facebook event “Download 17 Free St. Patrick's Day MP3s for 2012” had a decent start.  78 people joined the “event”.  While that is far fewer than I hoped.  I'm actually pretty psyched that that many people joined it.  It's a great start.  Seventy-eight people this year, three hundred next, and ten thousand after that!

I can dream big, right?!

But 78 wonderful people helped me to share those free St. Patrick's Day MP3s over at the Celtic Music Magazine.  As a result, the album had 2411 downloads just two weeks after releasing the album.  That's 900 more than last year… after a one year's time!  Plus we had over 22,000 downloads of the 2nd St. Patrick's Day show.  I consider that a smashing success.  Who needs SEO!!!

That does raise the question.  How well has the podcast and magazine been in the past?  Let's take a look:

Downloads of St. Patrick's Day Shows and Free MP3 Albums by Year

2012
Show 2 on March 14th = 22,865
Show 1 on March 7th = 17,444
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = 2,411

2011
Show 2 on March 16th = 49,594
Show 1 on March 6th = 40,278
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = 1,516

2010
Show 2 on March 17th = 22,280
Show 1 on March 16th = 26,151
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = 4,495
Show downloads are not accurate since I using a different web host at this time.

2009
Show 2 on March 17th = 89,530
Show 1 on March 12th = 69,889
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = 12,419
The MP3s were the Best of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.  So this is not exclusively from people downloading St. Patrick's Day MP3s.

2008
Show 2 on March 16th = 77,270
Show 1 on March 11th = 64,805
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = skipped this year

2007
Show 2 on March 17th = 86,133
Show 1 on March 7th = 68,702
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = stats no longer available

2006
Show 2 on March 17th = 44,223
Show 1 on March 16th = 52,003
Free St Patrick's Day MP3s = stats no longer available

So there ye have it.  All the stats from the past Irish & Celtic Music Podcast St. Patrick's Day episodes and the St. Patrick's Day MP3s of the Celtic Music Magazine.  This year's numbers are up from last.

Thanks again to everyone who shared the free Mp3s and told folks about the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.  I look forward to another great St. Patrick's Day next year!

St. Patrick's Day on the Radio

Oh! I was also featured on a bunch of St. Patrick's Day programs and blogs including:

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