People say they're producers. I don't like to say I'm a producer. It carries with it the image that you're just churning out sounds on an assembly line and hoping someone out their decides to buy it, and that's not what music is for me.

No, what I am is a composer, and I compose what I compose. I'd rather not call it dance or trance or dubstep or anything other than my music. I put time into it, I tweak it constantly, even after I upload the song, and I send it out into the world not in the hopes that someone will buy it, but in the hopes that it will connect with my listener, in the hopes that it will stir up emotion. This is what art used to be.

As artists, we try to connect with our audience on an emotional level. Art is meant to make you feel, to make you think, to make you understand. It is meant to lift you up and transport you into a new realm, where you will experience sensations you have never experienced. Art is not meant to be boring. It is not meant to be formulated. It is meant to be, and it is meant to document what we can only imagine.

This can be done without salary.

Alexander Stover is a genius who knows this. I've been a fan of his since I stumbled onto his website years ago, and it was the greatest discovery I've ever made. His thoughts on demanding pay for music can be found here.

Musicians, composers, artists, writers, filmmakers (some, at least), we are all artists. We are all free, and our art expresses a freedom that is our own, so why should we be paid for it? Why should we expect fame, or sexual favors? These things are fleeting and temporary, and they are nowhere near fair exchange for art that will last forever.

So what I demand in return for my music is a giant death ray, aimed directly at Scotland.

Oh, also, I made a song.