LEVI WEAVER

I’ve been making a spreadsheet this week. Recognizing that my budget for this tour is well over $35,000 will do that to a guy. I have to make sure I’m cutting every corner I can, and eliminating things that are costing me needless money.

I went through today and figured out how much I’ve paid in fees this year, and I noticed something. For all the “Dark Clay” downloads of the last couple of weeks (you can listen / buy here, if you’re interested) I was only receiving $.52 per download.

The first place the money was leaking was that bandcamp charges a 15% fee, taken out once you have a transaction that is less than your accrued fees. That way, you’re still getting the full $10 (or in these cases, $1) sent to you until you owe them that much, then they just keep that transaction).

15% feels pretty steep, if I’m honest. But their site is so good, so easy to use, and so reliable that I figure even if I’m paying a little higher than I’d like, I’m getting stellar service, and I’m okay with paying for quality when I can.

But the next place I noticed the money leak was Paypal. For every $1.00 transaction, $.33 was being taken out. HOLY CRAP. How was I paying 33% to paypal?!

I went back to bandcamp (again, i reiterate, they’re worth the 15%), and found a link to this. https://micropayments.paypal-labs.com/

Bands, go do this now. (Seriously. Click here, Do it.)

Here’s how the breakdown worked. Paypal’s standard fee is $.30/transaction + 2.9%.

BUT, you can sign up for micropayments, and that changes to $.05/transaction + 5%. The percentage is a little higher, but the per-transaction fee is MUCH lower.

This means for every $1 that comes in, instead of keeping:

$1.00 – ($.30 + (1.00*.029)) = $.66

I’m keeping

$1.00 – (.05 + (1.00*.05) = $.90

That’s a difference of almost a quarter PER TRANSACTION.

Obviously, the difference is less the higher the transaction goes. In fact, it tops out at almost exactly $12. Here’s that breakdown:

STANDARD: $12.00 – (.30) + (12.00 * .029)) = $11.35
MICRO: $12 – (.05)+(12.00 * .05) = $11.35

So if you don’t sell singles and all your albums sell for higher than $12.00, don’t bother with this. But we musicians mostly live in a world where we are primarily selling things that are $10 and less. I’m self-funded and independent too, so I took the risk of posting a boring Math / Money blog to tell you that you should be saving a little cash.

See you down the road,

Levi

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I’m fulfilling a lifelong dream today: I’m ordering Vinyl.

“The Letters of Dr. Kurt Gödel” will be available on vinyl this fall. I’m only printing 500 copies – I’ll put them up for sale on the website after the tour is over, so the only way to know for sure that you’ll get one is to come to one of the 100 shows I’m playing this Spring / Summer.

I’m still waiting to hear back if they’ll be ready to go by SXSW, but I suspect it’s more likely that they will be in my hands in time for the West Coast run that starts on March 29th.

I’m also talking with the folks at Hatch Show Print to see if I can get some custom-designed posters for the tour. These will be way more limited: I’m only printing up 100, and they will be available only at shows.

In addition: a new 5-song EP (currently being mixed by Aaron Dethrage) and a new T-Shirt design.

Anyway, merch is not the point. It’s just evidence that I’m going back on the road soon, and I’m excited about that.

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I have kind of a backlog of cool things I have been meaning to tell you guys about, so here they are in blog form so I don’t clog the h*ck out of your twitter / facebook timelines:

1. I’m playing a show tonight in Nashville, TN at The Basement. Bear Cub, Allen Thompson, and Don Gallardo are also playing. If you like shows, I suspect you would have a killer time here. If you don’t like shows, or you’re not in Nashville, TN, please turn to page two.

Page Two: I’m helping to do the musical score for a documentary about sloths (slothi? Slitheryn? This is something I should know if I’m going to be involved). It’s got a kickstarter campaign, and if you like …sleuths(?), you should check it out here.

Trés: Renee Yohe, who has been a really vocal supporter of my record, and whose movie is coming out soon is also in a band called Bear Cat. They’re going to be touring soon with Never Shout Never, and the kickstarter to fund their new record is here.

Three.5:
While I’m on the topic of funding – most of you won’t be able to get involved (unless you live in Canada!) but you should still take some time to read about this, because it’s awesome. Corin Raymond, A Canadian musician is paying for his record in Canadian Tire Money. If you’re like me-until-last-night, you probably have no idea what Canadian Tire Money is. Well, just click on this link, scroll to the bottom, and start reading your way back up. It’s absolutely infectious enthusiasm, and an inspiration to continue to be creative as an independent musician.

And Lastly (D.)
I’m touring again this year! (it’s my job.)

If you want to know when I’m going to be near your city (and maybe help me book a living room / barn / rooftop / prison show), click here and scroll on down. I’m hitting a lot of places twice, so if you can’t make the first one, don’t despair, just keep scrolling down and maybe it’s there again. If it’s not, then it’s okay to despair a *little bit.

I love you guts. I meant to type “you guys”, but …guts. I love you guts.

-Levi

*”despair a little bit” = say “aw, bummer.” and send me an email about it.

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