Sauvie Island

Hello Friends. It’s been a while since I made a Soundscape podcast. I guess I wasn’t feeling the wind in my sails on this particular front.¹

I found this recording and post in my “drafts” just now, so I’m winging it out there. Maybe it will jumpstart my workflow over here. It’s timely, given we’re still exploring Sauvie Island.

Enjoy!

1. If I had to chalk it up to something, it’s tempting to point to the changes the leading streaming service rolled out in April which slashed the royalty rates they pay for “functional audio” (nature sounds, etc.) by 4/5ths. So instead of $.003 per stream, it’s now $.0006—it now takes 16 streams to earn a penny with a nature sound recording on that platform. (This is assuming the track sustains more than 1000 streams in the preceding 12 month period, in perpetuity. If not, it’s essentially a donation to the top 10% of artists and labels.) The profit motive wasn’t the primary motivation for my field recording practice—I am still recording at a fever pitch—but the hope of small return did offset the labor of preparing these particular works for publishing.

I began releasing nature recordings under the pseudonym Field Sound in 2021. I removed all but one title from the leading streaming service earlier this year.