We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dono Duvall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dono below.

Dono, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge to profitability right now in the music industry is streaming services. To earn $1,000 on Spotify you would need to get around ~300,000 streams. Tidal pays a little more, but still its not an attainable reality for most artists. Usually for a song I’ll spend around ~$400-~$600 for studio musicians, ~$300 for mixing, and ~$600 for studio time. Not to mention the gear I need to buy to record even at home. Y’all can do the math as far as how many streams I’d need to make on an album of 7 songs to make a profit. Streaming isn’t going away unfortunately. The convenience has deeply wormed its way into the way we consume music these days. I’m guilty of it as well. The best thing you can do as a music fan would be to donate to the artist directly or buy their music on bandcamp. It’s about ~229 streams to make a dollar on Spotify, so even if you purchased the music for $1 you’d be helping greatly.

Dono, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got started in music playing percussion at 8 years old. I quickly moved to drumset and became infatuated with rock n roll. I started producing at around ~15 years old which really got me thinking about making music my career. I’ve been supporting myself full time with music for about the past ~5 years now. I offer music lessons, songwriting consulting, music production, studio musician services, as well as helping with Audio/Visual production for live events.

I really enjoy hearing the song that’s in people’s heads and doing all I can to bring it out into the world. I love thinking big picture and I’m so fortunate that I get to do this kind of work that lets me. I love building the feeling of trust with artists as we work through some of their darkest and most vulnerable thoughts. To create a space that’s free of judgement and that’s filled with creative freedom is a dream for me! I love doing this stuff and I’m so proud to be able to.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing has gotta be the eternal possibility of joy found in discovering something new. I don’t necessarily claim to be the most innovative or ground breaking artist, but the elating feeling of when you find that exact sound the song needs, or experimenting and finding a new tool simply doesn’t grow old. To me there’s something really poignant about the fact that we use the word play for music. Musicians really don’t ever stop playing honestly.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To me being a musician is a position of service! Sure our songs start out from our perspective and from our journey, but as soon as someone else hears it its no longer only ours. Musicians can ease someone’s anxious mind, or make a drive home in traffic more fun, or keep you going during a tough time, or make a cup of tea on a porch the absolute best cup of tea you’ve ever had. To know that I could be a small part of someone’s day and that I could make it better is what sustains me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dono__dono__/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dono__dono__