After the crazy-fun social media foreplay that was 2005-2007, last year was the disappointing realization that this is not porn and we really DO need long-term commitment if we want satisfaction at the end. I survived, barely, but a lot of my friends both digital and corporeal suffered heavy losses and are currently regrouping.

I’m still self-employed, but I’m not able to tour like I did in 2007. In fact, I’ll be lucky if I can get on the road again without a record deal.

All that being said, we have great cause for hope. American ingenuity reacts inversely to the stock market; we find our best ups when we’re really down. Currently, I’m drawing a blank other than “work my ass off”, but a wartime strategy is in the works. When the pickings are this slim the noise of less-worthy competitors dies away, leaving the battle-hardened lifers on the front line alone. The halfhearted indie bands go back to their day jobs while the shining stars like Geoff Smith and JoCo find better opportunities.

Perhaps I’ll be so lucky.

It’ll only be a good 2009 with a lot of effort and help from you. Yeah, you, the person reading this right now. I am nothing without your support. No one finds out about Matthew Ebel dot net or Goodbye Planet Earth unless you tell them. I can wave my arms, light myself on fire, and dance naked in the streets, but nobody pays attention to the self-promoter. You are my lifeline in these dire economic times, and you are what kept me alive in 2008.

Let’s see what we can do together this year.

Photo by Daisy’s Little Cottage

Biking in the Rain (Download Video)

I released a new album in 2007 that paid for itself from the pre-orders alone. Fans in Germany, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, and the US have already bought copies. My fans released another album on my behalf seven months earlier. They also launched their own website at matthewebel.net and created their own music videos.

I discovered UStream, Second Life, and Twitter in 2007. Half my fan base has never seen me perform in person, and most of that half thinks I’m a bird. UStream.tv put my face and my music in front of viewers around the globe. Twitter has found me beds to sleep in, gathered crowds for badly publicized gigs, solved technological mishaps, and made working alone a lot less lonely.

I visited Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, Tennessee, New York, and New Jersey all in the name of the music business. More travel than I saw in the previous five years.

Touring has paid my bills in 2007. So has Coca-Cola, the Mommycast, crayon, Porter Novelli, Justin Kownacki, Joseph Jaffe, The US Postal Service, The Podcast & New Media Expo, Jeff Pulver, and a whole lot of music fans.

Chase Home Finance paid my bills for two and a half months in 2007, even though I wasn’t working there anymore.

I got my first mutual fund, my first IRA, my first business bank accounts, my own health insurance, and printed my first business checks with those useless stubs for people’s records.

Or, to summarize, 2008 is going to have a damn difficult time outclassing 2007.

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, 2007, 2008, Goodbye Planet Earth, Virtual Hot Wings, matthewebel.net, UStream, Twitter, Second Life, Hali Heron, Hali of Firpine, Touring, podcasting, Chase Home Finance[/tags]