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Why are you giving away your music for free? Don’t you think it’s worth anything?

How can you afford to do this? Don’t you want to make your living with music?

Who are you, anyway?

I don’t quite understand how this site is organized. Where is the song I heard last week?

Can I really have any of these songs for free?

Can I distribute your songs to my friends??

Could I chop up your song and make my own thing with it?

I have a project that needs music, and I was wondering if you could provide it.

I really like what you’re doing. How can I help you out?

Is your music for sale online, like on iTunes?

I’d love to mix or master your music. How can we start working together?

Why can’t I hear your songs? Is your website broken?

What is the meaning of life?

Why are you giving away your music for free? Don’t you think it’s worth anything?

I’m giving you my music specifically because I think it’s worth something! To be honest, I’m getting pretty happy with the quality of my music, and I want more than anything to share it. But I also have to face reality, which is that not too many people know me yet. Would you pay money – even just a dollar – to download a track from somebody you’d never heard of? Maybe a cumbersome-to-access, lo-fi 30 second sample would change your mind?

The point is that I want you to connect with my music, and it seems foolish to put up barriers and try to keep you away from what I want you to hear.

How can you afford to do this? Don’t you want to make your living with music?

Of course I’d love to earn my livelihood this way. And someday I will… but things develop at their own pace. In the meantime, I’m determined to share my work with you, in the hopes that you will like my tunes as much as I do. I support my family by teaching music at Raskob Day School in Oakland, composing video game soundtracks for AddictingGames.com and Shockwave.com in San Francisco, and translating between Russian and English at Lavalingua. I love making soundtracks for fractal zooms for the Fractal Foundation, and someday soon there will be some money for that, as well.

Who are you, anyway?

My name is Daniel Wolfe, and I’ve played around with music and writing as far back as I can remember. I was born in New Mexico, grew up on the hop between Albuquerque and Geneva, Switzerland (it’s a long story), earned a degree in Russian at Grinnell College in Iowa, and lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, before moving out to Berkeley, California, where I am now. I have always wanted to create beautiful things and share them, and I hope that my work makes a connection with you.

I’m not sure I understand quite how this site is organized. Where is the song I heard last week?

Each post has a small line of text under the title and before the text of the post. This text includes the category or categories I’ve filed it under. These category tags are so supremely useful I can barely believe it. They let you sort the content of my site almost however you want.

I find it useful to remember that this is a dynamic page, and not at all static or rigid like earlier websites, which resemble sales brochures or photo albums, set a certain way and never changing. At the same time you could see this site as a whiteboard or an empty frame on which you can call up whatever information you want, via the category selections on the top right of the screen, under the heading Categories. This is sort of like your table of contents, except that you don’t have to read in a set order.

The Home page, found on the menu bar under the banner graphic, will always take you to a list of the most recent songs I’ve posted. You can also subscribe to my site via RSS feed, which means that your web browser will automatically update with my latest posts.

Can I really have any of these songs for free?

Yes! You can have them all. I am giving them to you in the hope that they will resonate with you, and that they will become part of your life. I can’t imagine a better outcome of this experiment than the pleasure and honor of people all around the world connecting with my music.

When you get down to it, I’m not giving you a song. I’m actually asking you for the most valuable thing in the world – your time. I figure I’d better have something pretty special to warrant asking you for that, or else I’m the worst kind of thief. So first off, you should know that I care a lot about making the best music I can, and I spend an awful lot of my own time on this work. In fact, I think this is what I’m really supposed to be doing on the planet. Finally, I’m eager to hear what you think. That’s why I’m not attaching a price tag to anything: I want my music to be priceless in every sense of the word.

Can I distribute your songs to my friends?

Are you kidding? I’d be thrilled! My only caveat is that you keep my name on it, and not make money off my work. If you want to use my music in a commercial enterprise, please contact me and we’ll come to an arrangement. But as for sharing it, I say share away. And thanks! That is one of the most powerful compliments I know.

Could I chop up your song and make my own thing with it?

Sure. I love seeing what people come up with. I’d love to hear it when you’re done, because it might inspire me in new directions, too. Only, please don’t make money with it or take my name away from it (see above).

I have a project that needs music, and I was wondering if you could provide it.

Maybe so. Please get in touch via the Contact page and we’ll go from there. I’m pretty good at doing soundtracks, and always eager for new challenges.

I really like what you’re doing. How can I help you out?

Aw shucks, thank you! Telling friends who may be interested is always a great start, and very much appreciated, but if you’re really serious, you can always give me money on the Support This Work page. I’m working on some options for you there, but right now it’s not much more than a simple ‘donate’ script through PayPal.

Is your music for sale online, like on iTunes?

Yup. I’ve got my album Mostly About Ferns for sale digitally on all five iTunes sites, Amazon mp3, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, Lala, and GroupieTunes. It takes forever to get them live on those sites, however, and I’ve been given an ‘on-or-before’ date of July 21. In the meantime, why don’t you download the album for free from me here? And if you insist on giving me money, you can buy an honest-to-goodness real CD from me as well.

My general idea is to work on albums in public, here on this site, and then publish the completed albums for sale on a number of different stores like iTunes. But the completed album, as well as the works-in-progress tracks, will always be available for free from WolfeSongs.com. My hope is to use those stores to reach a broader community, and also to gain some credibility from people who don’t take you seriously unless you’re charging money (it’s a weird phenomenon, but kind of common if you think about it).

But again, I encourage you to download to your heart’s content from my site. If you really want to pay for my music, then the best way to help me out is to buy an album through my site, because then I don’t have to pay percentages to an online store.

I’d love to mix or master your music. How can we start working together?

Hey, I’d love to have my stuff mixed and mastered by someone who knows what they’re doing more than me. Please get in touch either on the blog, or privately via the Contact page. Maybe something great will come of it!

Why can’t I hear your songs? Is your website broken?

There are several possible reasons that I can think of: 1) Your internet connection may be too slow. If you’re using dial-up, there is no chance that you’ll be able to hear the songs streaming live. However, you can still download the songs by clicking the “Download Free” link by each song, and then listen to it on your computer later. 2) Your speakers may be off, or you may not have speakers. Or worse, something wrong with the sound drivers on your computer. Are you able to hear anything at all? For instance, could you play a CD? 3) This site’s mp3 player may be acting funny with your browser. I regularly test the site’s usability and am pretty good about catching errors, but still they crop up from time to time. If you notice a broken song that persists in being broken, please contact me privately and I’ll get on it right away!

What is the meaning of life?

As far as I can tell, I think this whole show is about finding and following your own path with the most amount of kindness and the least amount of damage to you or those around you.

If, on the way to your goals, you’re plowing down everyone around you, you’re sinning against your community. But if, through cowardice or sloth, you’re not following your path, I think you’re committing a pretty big sin against yourself.

Anyway, following my path without damaging anyone else is pretty much what I’m trying to do with this project. And thanks for being here to watch!