Christopher the Conquered is an american songwriter who toured Italy in December 2014 after assigning the royalty collection for his live gigs to Soundreef. After 14 acoustic gigs his royalty earnings where 248.88 euro and he received the payment only a few days later. We recently spoke to him about the Italian tour and his experience with Soundreef.
Hi Christopher, for the people who haven’t had the pleasure of hearing your music yet can you tell us a little bit about yourself? When did you start making music and what have you been up to lately?
Well I guess I’m a singer/songwriter with a focus on storytelling. Music is really just my medium for my art. I wouldn’t call the music itself the end goal. It’s the story and the emotional response from the listener that I’m interested in. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m doing since I was about 17 years old! I’m 30 now…I started Christopher the Conquered in 2006.
How did the tour in Italy go? What did you make of the Italian audience and their response?
The tour was brilliant. Rocketta Booking put together a beautiful tour for us. A lot of my songs have layered meanings in the lyrics, and it is a bit hard to translate to non-native English speakers sometimes, so I was forced to rely more on my emotive expression, melodies, and tone of voice to communicate the meaning of the songs. I didn’t always nail it, but the audiences were wonderful and I think some people had a nice connection with what I sang.
What was your experience with Soundreef’s live royalty collection service like?
It was easy! Had a Skype call and pretty soon we were up and running. The venue owners along the tour really seemed to prefer how easy (and cheap) it was for them, too! It was painless.
Are there any innovative aspects of the service which suprised you? Did you find it difficult to use?
This was my first tour outside of North America, so getting any meaningful royalties for live performance was new to me anyway, but it seems like Soundreef’s approach makes the most sense! I did get to see the old-school way used in Italy when you don’t go through Soundreef and I have to say the complexity was jaw-dropping.
What were the venues you played in like? What did they make of Soundreef live?
The venues were relatively small listening rooms, and each venue owner was intimately involved in the booking process. I was there because they personally approved booking me, so that was nice. Our relations with the venues were really friendly, and many expressed gratitude regarding using Soundreef. It seemed to take a lot of stress off their minds.
How long did it take to see your royalty earnings and when did you receive the royalty payment from Soundreef?
My tour ended on December 21 and I received the majority of my earnings from the tour on December 22nd! The rest came just three weeks later. All through Paypal, super convenient.