Satellite radio is a filter. That’s its main attraction. That’s one of the main reasons I tune in. To hear new stuff.

Just now, pulling into my garage, the deejay on XM’s X Country said two people had birthdays today, Julie Miller and Butch Hancock.

Oh, what a wonderful world we live in. Acts that were completely underground, that had no traction, that had to keep their day jobs, are suddenly accessible, suddenly mean something. And then he spun this Butch Hancock tune "Road Map For The Blues". And it was GOOD!

My little sister went alt country before there was an alt country, back in the seventies, in D.C. She mentioned Butch Hancock, but I’d never really given him a good listen. He never quite flew on my radar. But here he was, this afternoon on XM, and his song sounded like late period Dylan, from the soundtrack of "Wonder Boys", you remember, "Things Have Changed", the last best thing Zimmy has done.

I rushed into my house to listen.

But Mr. Hancock only has one song on his MySpace page. And this isn’t the one. I just don’t get it. I hear this from the old guard constantly. Those who’ve eked out a living for decades, on the fringes. They don’t want to give a single thing away, because they rely on their recorded music income to SURVIVE!

Only one thing, they’re preaching to the choir at best. They’re not using the new technologies to spread the word.

EVERY act should have AT LEAST four songs on their MySpace page. Every act SHOULD HAVE a MySpace page. That’s the FIRST place people go to hear an act’s music. Some don’t even bother with Google, they just fire up the URL: www.myspace.com/ and after the slash put the name of the act. If you don’t find at least four songs by whatever act you’re interested in, you get frustrated. Unless you’re REALLY curious, you move on.

And move on I did. I Googled away.

Butch Hancock doesn’t have his own Webpage. Certainly not one at butchhancock.com. Oh, there’s a fan page, on ANGELFIRE! God, AngelFire STILL EXISTS?

And you can’t buy the track on iTunes.

And I didn’t find the album on a cursory search on CDBaby. (Although it is available on Amazon.)

In other words, THERE’S NOWHERE I CAN POINT YOU TO TO LISTEN TO ROAD MAP FOR THE BLUES!

And that’s what I want to do. That’s what WE ALL DO!

You hear about something, you tell people. That’s why ALL your music should be available for listening on the Web. You should stream YOUR COMPLETE ALBUM! Don’t think of it as losing sales, think of it as GAINING FANS! THE BEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU IS THAT SOMEONE LISTENS TO ALL YOUR MUSIC! If someone downloads your music, assuming you make it available for downloading, and you should, if not the whole album, at least four tracks, so people can play them again and again on their iPods, they’re a FAN! They want to see you, they want to buy merch. They’ll come to the show and purchase the CD as a BADGE OF HONOR!

It’s all the old farts, who finally have a chance of breaking out of their niche, who refuse to utilize the new technologies. This is their CHANCE! They can finally get some TRACTION! Fans can spread the word, people can easily experience their wares. They can grow their careers. Of course, it works exactly the same if you’re just starting out. Obscurity is obscurity, however you got there.

Meanwhile, "Road Map For The Blues" is a really good song.

You’ll probably never hear it.