Who are you?

My name is Joshua Jay Salazar (sometimes referred to as "Salt"), and I'm a classically trained musician studying music composition at Belmont University. I've been playing guitar for over a decade, along with several other instruments in the past few years. Percussion is my second musical love, coming in as my best instrument next to the guitar, followed by voice, piano, and various other random instruments. Due to this abundance of instrumental ability, along with a solid composition knowledge, I decided to open this website in an attempt to begin cataloguing my various compositions. In addition to original music, I've also opted to record various works by other composers/artists to show my stylistic flexibility. For me, this website is as much of a personal project as it is a resumé.

On the personal side of this project, I've always loved writing for various types and sizes of ensembles; however, I've never much liked the thought of being limited by the personnel in a band. Being in a band is great (assuming the chemistry is there), but what you get is what you get. Often, each member of a band has a single instrument he/she can play, and therefore any compositions for the group must be within the limitations of the group. However, I'm the type of composer who's just as likely to write for cello as I am to write for electric guitar, and just as likely to write for a solo performer as I am to write for a large symphony orchestra. With that, I had a few options. My first option was to try to find a group of extremely flexible musicians, which is a difficult thing to come by. This would, however, allow me to be part of the performances. My second option was to settle into a pure compositional role, in which I never really played any music in front of anybody; instead, I would become the man who would be gestured to by the performers for my brief moment of recognition at the end of the concert. As one might imagine, neither of these roles appealed to me as a viable permanent option, so I opted for a hybrid of the two, which is what you see before you.

On a more professional note, I did state before that I'm currently attending Belmont University, pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition. This means that this website does have a tinge of professional motive behind it. In the music business, it's one thing to have a properly formatted, run-of-the-mill resumé to hand over to a potential employer. However, being able to direct that potential employer to a website showcasing exactly what I'm capable of composing and performing is so much better than the basic piece of paper. Incidentally, that's what drove the design of the website in the first place. You may have noticed that navigating to http://www.salazarofficial.com/ instantly redirects to the most recent recording. That was no minor design detail. I specifically wanted it to be as easy a process as possible to get straight to the music. The way I see it, many potential employers probably don't have a ton of extra time to go digging through some scrub's website that he insisted you visit. That's why I made sure it was a one-step process.

On this website you will find many, many types of music recorded as time goes on. Some of it will be solo repertoire, and some of it will be for such large ensembles that recording it will prove to be a difficult task by itself. I will, in time, bring on various guest musicians to help me fill out any roles that I'm simply incapable of filling (singing a classical soprano solo comes to mind). Accompanying each recording will be a video. I don't pretend to be an expert with video editing, and that's certainly not why I made this decision. The decision to include video with every recording was purely functional. In previous incarnations of the website, I would have trouble convincing listeners that I was, in fact, playing all of the instruments myself. It's a minor point of annoyance, but it was something that could be easily solved.

Why a website? Why not a record label?

There are several factors behind my decision to put my music out in this format. The most driving of these factors is the most obvious one: because I can. Don't get me wrong; I don't mean that to sound arrogant. I mean it in the most literal sense. Web design has become second-nature to me. In fact, before I decided to lean full-tilt into the music industry, my original plan was to become a freelance web designer. As it stands, that remains my backup plan should my music never amount to anything. In the meantime, being an experienced web designer comes with the benefit of being able to design my own website exactly as I want it without having to pay an outside source. After doing a little research on other musicians' and composers' websites, I drew up a few rough sketches of what I wanted my website to look like. After scrapping two or three previous designs, I finally found a format that makes me happy. This is that format.

The second reason behind this free music internet format is the current state of the recording industry. It's always been the case that getting "discovered" is as much a matter of luck as it is a matter of talent. By itself, that's enough to encourage me to look for alternate routes of distribution. However, a more powerful motivator is the ever-growing popularity of internet piracy. I'll reserve my opinion, as I realize there are many passionate points of view on the subject. I will say that piracy takes money away from the artists, no matter what way you look at it. For the bigger artists, it may not be that much of a hit. For independent artists such as myself, that can be the death of my art. So rather than spend a good portion of my time policing the piracy activities of the internet trying to protect my intellectual property, I decided to take another route. I found out about Creative Commons a few years ago, along with Google Adsense. Here I saw an opportunity. I would offer my music for free to the public, under the protection of Creative Commons, and supported by an ad service that doesn't interfere with the content (if you've ever loaded up a webpage to be greeted with an audio clip proclaiming, "Congratulations, you won!" you'll know what I'm talking about).

A slightly less pressing motivation was the fact that this is, for all intents and purposes, a solo project. Sure, I'll bring in the occasional guest musician as I mentioned before, but the majority of recordings will be me alone. This, of course, presents a problem with the traditional route of discovery in the music business. To get discovered, you generally need (at least) three things to maximize your chances. First, you'll need a (roughly) six-track EP showcases your abilities. Next, you'll need to play as many writers' nights and small bar gigs as you possibly can. The latter of these presents a problem for me. Just because I like to write for large ensembles on occasion doesn't mean I can afford to pay them to play at my gigs. Therefore, I would be forced to repesent myself purely as a songwriter, and that just wouldn't do. That's not my goal. Third, you'll need an agent in some fasion. For some bands, that as easy as reprenting themselves. For others, they actually need an extra person to handle booking, promoting, merchandise, etc. All of that comes back to the main issue: it's just me. I needed to find some way to wiggle my way into the music business without depending on a bunch of other people. This website is my attempt at doing just that.

How can I contact you?

The best way (and indeed, the only way I'm offering) to contact me is via email. Please use whichever of the following email addresses best suits your needs:

To answer your next question, of course I will be the only one checking all of these email addresses. I'm using separate email addresses purely for organizational purposes. Please don't hesitate to contact me for any purpose. I check my email constantly throughout the day, so you can expect a quick response. I only ask that you not contact me in the case of a comment related directly to a specific video. In that case, please use the comment section below the video.