@Martin Eibisch you pretty much described my process too, haha. Except I do sometimes work on a few songs at once. Sometimes a riff comes that doesn't fit the current song I'm working on so I start conceptualising and collecting ideas for another one. And sometimes it makes sense for me to record a few songs in the same session (over a few days) because the mics are all set up and I want the songs to sound the same.

@Sebastian Jautschus i use compression when mixing but I prefer not having any compression while recording or playing live. In production, I feel i can dial it in more precisely at the mixing stage and choose the right compressor for the occasion (I'm a big fan of UAD's models of amazing classic compressors) without committing to one too early. Though I'd say a good pedal/hardware compressor may well be preferable for someone who's not interested in becoming a mixing guru or is overwhelmed by the endless choices. While playing live or practicing, a good compressor can certainly make for a tighter tone. But i think it also creates more room for you to be sloppy with your playing dynamics (because it weakens the feedback between what you play and what you hear in terms of the dynamics). So being a bit of a perfectionist, I challenge myself to control the dynamics in my playing more. Though of course a compressor can be an important part of one's tone - it all depends on what you're after :)

@Martin Eibisch Thanks Martin! If you don't mind sharing, what is your average cost-per-conversion for the discovery campaign? (and for what countries). The best ads from my latest testing sit at around US$0.25-30 for Tier 1 countries and US$0.09 for Tier 3. Would be very interested to see how that compares. And yes, that approach does require so much work - first and foremost in the social media content. Without that, there's nothing to build on. Will see how this works out for me, and happy to share :)

@Rebecca Mardal thanks Rebecca! (And lovely to meet you :) Yes, I think it's crucial to build stories and narratives around instrumental music- that makes it much easier for listeners to relate to it. Which I find a bit annoying because, for me at least, the songs aren't always explicitly inspired by some idea or story - it's just music for it's own sake. Rebecca, if you have a moment, do you mind telling how you grew your pretty impressive Instagram following with a high engagement? I imagine there's more to it than simply a side-effect of your ads?

I'm no expert at all in this, but my understanding is that this is meant to enable them to use your music in AI applications and training - an area currently not regulated by anything. It cannot enable them to use your music in areas currently protected by existing copyright legislation (e.g. stream it without royalties, use in ads, release on various media, etc). I could be wrong though - the wording sounds pretty drastic and I wonder if it could be interpreted as signing your rights away in all domains after all... But common sense says it can't- no big artist would agree to this and there would be a massive exodus from the platform.

@Sebastian Jautschus Or did you mean how I filmed the video? That was an ordeal indeed :) Setting up the camera on a cliff above and then bouldering to the spot while the camera is running

@Joe Cabrera Thanks Joe, that's very kind of you! The cello is live though it wasn't me who played it :) I play a 914 Taylor - a beautifully rich-sounding guitar. I also have a vintage valve Neumann mic to record with, so that adds some depth to the sound too