It’s no secret that music has changed a ton in the past decade. Ever since Napster threw open the golden gates of the music business and said that everybody is allowed to participate – not just those deemed worthy by the big labels – there has been a steady movement towards people finding exactly the music that they want, and nothing else if they don’t want it. We all remember listening to the radio and dealing with the crap they made us listen to in order to get to that one song you liked. Then we’d quickly hit the record button on our tape player and own that song. That was the earliest form of downloading for those of us that didn’t want to buy an entire album for a single. Record labels (and the once-cool Metallica) hated it then, and they hate it now for one reason: they no longer control the music.

But music shouldn’t be controlled. If a guy makes a mean waffle, he opens up a waffle shop and sells that waffle to hungry people. He doesn’t send waffle samples until someone decides he’s good enough to sell his waffles. He just does it. Why should music – something as personal to the listener as it is to the maker – be any different?

I’m an independent artist. I record my own music, design my own album art, create my own website, book my own shows, and control my own music. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love giving my music out for free to anybody who wants to hear it. Click that little red box over there on the right and download it – it’s on me. If you want a hard copy of the album, email me and I’ll send one (or two if you want to give one to a friend).

Don’t get me wrong – big labels are marketing machines that get artists’ music out to millions that wouldn’t have ever heard it. They have the inside track to TV and movie publishing, radio airplay, and all music placement, and they’re very good at their jobs. It’s just not for me. I love being an independent artist, and I’ll continue to record and control my own music as long as I still have songs left to play.

-RS

So I finally got a much needed week off from my busy shoot schedule. Now, don’t get me wrong – I loves me a good ghost hunt – but when you’re a week at a time at an abandoned insane asylum or penitentiary, you kind of forget to do the things that are important to you. When I’m not following my first passion of writing and playing music, I shoot Travel Channel’s new show, “Paranormal Challenge,” premiering in June. I love my job and that show is a blast to work on, but as I said before, I don’t end up getting much time to focus on the music, which is why I’m sitting at this computer and writing on this site right now.

But I digress – I finally got a week off, which gave me some time to catch up on some tasks that I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Ever since I released my new album back in February, I wanted to revamp my website and make it something I could send around. I threw on my web developers hat this week and cranked out this site that you’re looking at right now. I do this once every couple years, so it took some refreshing, but I’m pretty happy with the way it came out. Check out the twitter feed right over there to the right, and the pop-out music player that you can click on from any page and listen to the whole new album. Lots of good stuff here, so look around and enjoy.

Also, a couple weeks ago, a few friends and I shot a comedic short that a friend of mine wrote. I’ve finally dug in and started editing that piece. It should be done by the end of the weekend and I’ll have it posted up on youtube asap.

Thanks so much for checking out my new site and giving my music a listen. Hope you enjoy.

-RS