No. That’s not the case. DistroKid sends music to Pandora.  ... View more

I agree that streaming is designed to make others money. The PROs (Performance Rights Organizations) and the MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) are trying to get fair royalties from streaming. I also agree that to be serious, it’s important to treat our activities like it’s a business.  Yet, I started this because I felt it would help me with cognitive strengthening after a couple strokes. Now that I belong to a PRO (ASCAP) and my work is getting attention, I do plan and operate in a business-like mentality. Some days I’m not quite there, so I sit in front of my MIDI keyboard and play around and create new melodies. When I hit the “Record” button and start playing, I’ll have a record of new material for later. I’m about to start planning for a new structure for one of my websites. It has a domain name that could easily be converted.  Then, I’ll organize my music into albums for direct sales. I’ve done that with my books and when they sell, they bring in profits. Music can be sold as downloads and I don’t need to share costs (except the merchant fees). I’ve joked with some friends that I’m looking forward to making enough money through streaming to buy a pizza. 😊 ... View more

My guess is that like the rest of us here, none of us are on a time line. Take your time and allow yourself to perfect your skill. First, I believe it’s important to define for yourself (everyone has their own goals) , why you’re creating music in the first place, and what you’d like the impact of your music to be… and to who? What does your perfect listener look like? What message do you want to put out them in your music? Even if we were the best singer/songwriter/musician, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have an audience that benefits from the music and they can trust that we care about them. In my case, I started writing songs because I had 2 strokes and nearly died. My intent was to engage in something that will strengthen my cognitive skills. Figure out what your “Why” is, then identify what you need to learn and do it better.  When I started, I didn’t even know what proper song structure looked like. I didn’t know what a DAW was or what to do with it. There are a LOT of moving pieces in the music industry and we should constantly be on a learning and perfecting mission, and those will always look different for each person. Many years ago (before I began writing songs), I had a commercial photo business and I spent time on stage with many of the most famous Country artists in the 80s. Talking with many of them off stage taught me the successful ones knew that “We NEVER arrive - It’s an ongoing process to stay current, put out good music, and give back to others.” Then, what will it look like if you become a “Famous Artist”? What does that mean to you?  When I wrote my first song, it was on a whim to write a song for a book trailer of one of my books. I was surprised that anyone even liked it and it helped to sell books. In the beginning, I was excited with each new song. Yet, I incorrectly thought that every song was a hit. When we decide to learn, practice and perfect our work, we’ll see a progression in our skills. The more we learn, the more detail we’ll put into the final version. Looking at my songs, a lot of them are good. Yet, when we are honest with ourselves, we’ll probably weed some of them out and not distribute them. I figure that maybe 1/3 of my songs are distributable. I’ve found that “Good” is not defined by me. I have a YouTube music channel and I put my songs there first as a test before I decide whether (or not) to distribute them. My songs that get a lot of positive attention are the ones I put out for distribution. Don’t be afraid to test your work and see if it resonates with people.  If it does, do more of that. If not, learn from it. Like I said, we’re not on a timeline. Just be sure to make the time you put into it count. Figure out your goals and don’t try to accomplish them all at once. Multi-tasking was designed by people that want to see others fail.  Starting and working with a plan is the best help you can give yourself. There are MANY artists out there and a huge number of those are light years ahead of me. Yet, I’m not in a “Competition mode”. I’m still amazed that my work is out there and starting to get attention. Every day is an opportunity to learn and perfect what we do. Hopefully there are some ideas here that will help you focus and develop a plan. ... View more

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, safe and blessed Christmas and New Year. For me, it’s good to be home. I remember many holidays at sea with the Coast Guard.  ~ Tony Davis ... View more

Thank you. I see a big difference in streams between here and Spotify. Hopefully after I figure my way around here, Pandora and the other place will be consistent with each other. ... View more

Hi @JamiePandora I’m new here. I have 5 or 6 tracks here so far and more to post. I did go to I-gram, FB, and TikTok and posted my new song, “Grace on the Bridge”, a true story about how I was almost taken out by a person texting and driving across a bridge. I wrote this song because I hope to increase awareness and keep people alive. For each of the posts, I’ve tagged @pandora_amp  https://pandora.app.link/yKalyk3UbPb I know you said you take 1-track here so at a time. Should I still get in the habit of tagging @Pandora_amp for your awareness? I saw a post below by a person that mentioned getting in other Pandora editorial playlists. How/where would a person do that? ~Tony Davis ... View more

Thank you. This is good info. I’m a complete NEWBIE here on Pandora. While reading the qualifications for a featured track, one of them states: The track is receiving at least 10 spins per week on radio My question is: I’m unsure what the difference between regular Pandora streams and Radio. I see my tracks are listed for streams and Radio spins. Is there something I should do to ensure it gets to the”Radio”? Where is the Radio in Pandora?  Like I said… I’m a NEWBIE. ~ Tony Davis ... View more

Hi there!!, My name is Tony Davis, (Listed as Anthony M. Davis). I'm new here and only doing the "Claim Artist" thing today. I guess they'll approve me in a day or so. If someone told me I'd have music distributed a couple years ago, I wouldn't have believed them. About 2-1/2 years ago, I had my 2nd stroke and nearly died from it. I lost my left side and speech. Then, after retiring from a toxic work environment (that was probably the healthiest thing I could do), I began working on self-care. I began getting function back so I wrote books and went to the gym to get well. On a whim, I wrote a song to use as a book trailer, and to my surprise, book sales went up. Aside from the positive motivation of doing something like that, I wondered if there was something to it. Today, with 41 songs, I figure about 1/2 of them are good enough to distribute. The others I might split into stems for possible use for sync tracks later. Through DistroKid, I have 5 tracks out there (a new one from last week, and another releasing next week).  There are four of them here at: https://www.pandora.com/artist/anthony-m-davis/ARZ3V4rrXJPhq7P The funny thing is being that I'm so new and not into my AMP account yet, they used photo of "Bob" from one of my tracks, "Bob the Blues Mouse" as my profile image. It's okay. He's a cool guy. 😊 It's hard to say for sure who inspires me. I like good Blues, Rock, Country, Christian and a variety of other genres, and I write and produce the same. Much of my work is what I categorize as "Human Condition" songs. Those are the things that happen to us, and what we do to ourselves, along with how to move forward through those storms. I guess it makes sense (in an odd way) because during 2 military services, one of them, U.S. Coast Guard, I spent many winters in the Bering Sea in storms. Years later I began a coaching and therapy practice helping people get their lives better, and helping female abuse clients across the country. This practice was in addition to the Toxic place I left. I've found these kinds of songs are relatable to people. This is a longer post than I planned. I look forward to interacting with folks here. Hopefully the AMP account will be alive soon. Best to you, Tony Davis ... View more

Hi, When did you upload them in DistroKid?  I have five tracks in DistroKid. My first one was uploaded on November 18th and I have a new release on the 10th of December. After it showed up on Spotify, I began looking to see about the other places. A day or so after landing on Spotify, it started showing up on Apple/iTunes, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Deezer, Tidal and YouTube Music. I keep checking to see about the others, but today (7 December 2024) is the first time they showed up on Pandora. After uploading and approval of my cover image and lyrics, DistroKid said it was sent out to all the other stores. It seems like the others, and Pandora might have a slower in-processing. I wonder if they ingest the tracks in batches. Of my five songs, four of them all showed up on Pandora today. One that released last week has not yet. Given the timeline of how mine came in (about 2-1/2 weeks), you might give it some time, unless yours was supposed to be there awhile earlier. I just did the "Claim Artist" thing today so they don't have a profile image for me until I'm approved. Funny thing... One of my songs, "Bob the Blues Mouse" was a fun one I did with some great Blues guitar. They set my profile photo as Bob, a big mouse playing guitar. 😂 That's okay. Bob is a cool guy. 😊 Here's that track: https://pandora.app.link/G3sfzZqC8Ob ... View more