Lily Amis's Blog, page 3

RIP Pope Francis!

Forcing an old, sick man to function despite his fragile condition, just for the sake of money and greed, is beyond disgusting. I hate the world we live in. It is revolting. I was worried this would happen, and it did!

I knew it! Seeing Pope Francis yesterday showed me how greedy the Vatican is. He needed rest. He needed to recover! BUT the church didn't care! Your greed for money is simply disgusting! I feel ashamed for your lack of humanity, kindness & care! I'm heartbroken! I hope the Vatican is happy! Did you make enough money over the holidays?

This poor, fragile and sick man needed rest, but you decided to torture him despite his weakness! You didn't respect his need for recovery! :-(

RIP Pope Francis :-( 

LEONARDO - Humans Just Dont Care!

Leonardo is a young and hopeless dog with a difficult life journey full of emotional and physical obstacles. After leaving an animal shelter he ends up in an orphanage in the heart of Florence. But the manager and the children treat him so badly that he runs away in the darkness of the night in hope of finding love and kindness. After a stressful journey filled with struggles, he ends up in the capital city of Italy, in Rome, and has only one goal. He wants to meet Pope Francis and ask him why he sees humans but not humanity. Why humans treat each other and him so badly and why they just don’t care!

My Voice for the Voiceless
During our many visits to major cities like Rome in Italy, we have experienced unfortunate people sleeping on the streets, while residents of the cities, national and international tourists walk by daily without taking notice and we’ve been wondering why. It is heartbreaking and shameful to look out of your fancy and warm hotel room with your comfy bed, while helpless humans struggling and surviving on the freezing cold streets just a few footsteps away and are only covered with newspapers. It is a tragedy of humanity how ignoring homeless people has become normality. It is a scandal how we look away and don’t act. Every single human being deserves a life of dignity. Every single soul deserves to be taken care of. Every single human being deserves to experience love and kindness, whether it is a child in an orphanage or homeless people and refugees on our streets. The story of Leonardo is my voice for the forgotten souls!

Who are Fallen Angels?

Fallen Angels are secret devils! 

After my song release “Secret Angels”, the 14th track on my album Legacy4Humanity, I was going to name the follow-up and last song on the album “Secret Devils”. But in my heart, I didn’t like the idea of promoting the word DEVIL on my song cover and in my social promotions. So I changed the title from Secret Devils to Fallen Angels.

Fallen Angels are people with criminal, evil and negative energy who toy with other people’s lives and destinies by misusing their power and position or by misleading others with dishonesty, corruption and criminal activities. 

Whether we like the idea or not, every one of us is surrounded by secret devils. They are here to teach us painful life lessons. We only grow through pain, disappointment and heartbreak. 

In today’s shallow, superficial, selfish, ignorant, dishonest, disloyal and thoughtless society, people have more possibilities to toy with other people. Before the Internet, we only had to deal with the evil people in our circle. Nowadays thanks to social media, we have to deal with plenty of fallen Angels, who we never get to meet in person face to face. Thanks to all the social platforms, people create identities and profiles within minutes and claim to be someone that they're not. 

Catfishing is a perfect and easy way for the secret devils to use other people's trust and cluelessness for their own benefit and profit!

This is one of the main reasons why I'm no longer on Facebook and have changed my Instagram settings to private. I’ve had enough of fake accounts and fake people who only wasted my time in the past. Once the trust is broken, you can't fix it! And trust is everything in life, but to secret devils TRUST is a holly word that destroys demons and devils like holly water! 

Be aware of the Fallen Angels around you and don't give them a chance to toy with you as they wish. Sooner or later, they are caught and can't hide their evil side any longer! Secret Devils are not only the mighty-hungry, fame and fortune hunters in politics, governments and celebrities, they are often the ones close to us, and it takes some time until we finally see their true evil character and nasty personality!

Open your eyes, open your mind and protect yourself from the Fallen Angels!

Fallen Angels by Lily Amis feat. Thir13een

Fallen Angels - Fighting Fallen Angels!

Neverbefore has one of my song lyrics inspired me to write an entire book series. Tothis date, my songs were inspired by my books. “The Stolen Years”, “The Threeof Us” and “SIMA” are inspired by my memoir "The Stolen Years in Zurich”. “TheMiracle of Music” is inspired by my book “Lennon, The Miracle of Music”.

But mysecond Bonus track on the album Legacy4Humanity (15 tracks), “Fallen Angels”has opened me to a magical and spiritual world. Recently I have been learningso much about healing stones, protection scents and amulets. It is such anexciting new world. I wish I had known about all these protection and self-carepossibilities years ago. Knowledge is mighty.

The songtitle FALLEN ANGELS was actually supposed to be SECRET DEVILS. After my bonustrack release SECRET ANGELS, I thought Secret Devils would match perfectly. Butin my heart, I didn’t feel comfortable using the word devils on the cover andin my promotions. There are enough evils around us daily. So there is no needand desire to promote these dark souls at all! 

Anyway, Iwill be working on a new, exciting book series in the upcoming months while I’mtaking necessary actions against the secret devils in my life. Self-protection andself-care are my priority!

If you wantto join my journey, follow my new IG account @FightingFallenAngels

Fallen Angels by Lily Amis feat. Thir13een

Who can you trust? Your distributor or the stores?

It’s been months since I have takendown ALL my audiobooks from audiobook stores, including Spotify. Why? Because I haven’tseen any mentionable profit since my first audiobook release, Teddy & Lilyback in 2017. Also, I simply don’t trust these stores any more. I can’t believe howtime flies and how naïve I was to believe, that I would be able to make donationsto charities with the profit from my audiobooks! Ha ha!

Indie writers spend so much money for aprofessional production, not realizing that we will NEVER make any profit. Everyoneelse such as the narrators and recording studios is making a living except usthe writers.

It just doesn’t make sense any more. It’sthe same stupid game with music. Indie writers invest time and money inaudiobook production and have to put up with a corrupt system! Sooner or later,all these companies will be removed for good because all they do is use indie author’swork like the music stores do. We bring traffic to these billion-dollar companies’platforms by promoting our work, and they get new subscribers! Who are the fools?Unfortunately, we the indie writers!

While I have published my 10 audiobooksONLY on LilyAmisBooks.Bandcamp.com, I still discover online stores that havelisted my audiobooks. Some mention the product is no longer available. Some sayit’s been sold out. I really do wonder why they don’t remove unpublishedcopyrighted works, but hey, whatever their policies are, I no longer have to putup with their nonsense!

However, this week I discovered Teddy& Lily and Bon Voyage on a Swedish audiobook store! As you can imagineafter my recent awful experience with my former corrupt distributor the SwedishCompany Amuse.io and Spotify, both Stockholm-based companies, I’m more than alertwhen it comes to Swedish companies. I don’t trust them! Discovering my workthat had been taken down for months was a red flag! So I contacted the CEO and supportteam by mail, contact form, and Instagram, and to my surprise for the veryfirst time within a day, I received an answer from the CEO, and my request wastaken seriously.

I received the following message:

“Thanksfor contacting us and informing us about the situation withyour books in our service. Our content department has replied to yourrequest via customer care. All books are disabled now, and we are investigatingwhy we did not get a takedown notification from Findaway thatnormally automatically would disable the books.”

Opposed to the corrupt musicstores such as Tidal, Deezer, Audiomack, and my latest annoying experience withthe lyrics platform Musixmatch, I didn’t have to waste time on sending outseveral emails back and forth until my request was respected and taken care ofright away! That’s how ALL stores should react when the copyright holder has aproblem!

And as you read, according tothe stores' feedback, my distributor didn’t do its job. It’s not the first time that I havediscovered my work in stores since my take-down request! 

But I have to say, the way people behave and treat writers couldn't be more different than the way people treat artists! While writers work is being respected, the lack of respect and support with artists is shameful and beyond upsetting. It is simply unacceptable! These two worlds couldn't be more different! 

So my takeaway from this experienceis: You can’t trust either your distributor or the stores! NONE OF THEM! Whenyou publish a work and use a distributor, you lose control over yourcopyrighted work. That’s why make sure who you trust before you push the release/publishbutton! It’s better to have your work listed in one single store than in many acrossthe globe and not knowing how much they actually sell!

DON’T TRUST THE FALLENANGELS!

Reviews, advice and criticism are NOTHING but a personal opinion!

After taking down my 15 tracks from ALL the corrupt streaming stores such as Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc, I feel a sense of relief. Following what my former corrupt distributor the Swedish company Amuse.io made me go through in recent months, I was completely blocked and no longer able to promote and run campaigns for any of my releases the way I used to and the way I should!

I was afraid of ending up on an AI Playlist (BOTS) again without my knowledge and being treated like SHIT again by my new distributor for no reason.

But now that my music is ONLY available on LilyAmis.Bandcamp.com, YouTube, and social media, there is absolutely no reason to be afraid of running promotions. I'm no longer a clueless TARGET for corrupt digital marketers/playlist curators who only waste the artist's time and toy shamelessly with our reputation!

So in the recent week, I have been running campaigns on GROOVER again and have contacted music supervisors, labels, and mentors worldwide because I feel as if I have achieved everything possible in self-promotion regarding PR & Marketing as a PR specialist and indie lyricist.

I’m looking for serious and professional support regarding the MUSIC BUSINESS from like-minded, and have received different feedback for different tracks. Mostly positive, inspiring, and encouraging reviews, but also some indifferent ones, which is fine because people have different tastes in music.

One of the feedbacks though, that I have received for a song that I think has a strong message AND inventive, clever and original LYRIC in today’s coldhearted, unkind, and inhuman society “Tasteless Breakfast” has been so condescending, and non-constructive for me as an indie lyricist, that I have to share it publicly on my blog.

If I wasn’t self-confident about my journey as an indie writer, blogger, lyricist, Voice4Refugees, and Voice4Humanity, I would probably feel miserable and confused about this irritating, and contradictory feedback, but I don’t! Why? Because I smell the Fallen Angels from miles away! The more BS you experience and fight in life, the stronger you become and know exactly from which kind of negative energies you need to protect and distance yourself! Honestly, I just feel sorry for the lack of understanding of my meaningful lyrics from whoever I received the anonymous nameless feedback from the indie label company www.zoberecords.com owned by Alonzo Black, the CEO of the label who also claims to be a member of the “Grammys”. Whatever that means!!! 

So here is the feedback that I have received for my song TASTELESS BREAKFAST, Lily Amis feat. Thir13een from zoberecords.com:

“This song was okay. The music production, beat/instrumentation, mixing, and mastering was okay. The song structure was nice. The lyrics were not the best but we understand where you were trying to go with this song. The message is good and if the listener chooses to appreciate that over the lyrics then cool but a lot of the lyrics was spent on food items which takes away from the track. The delivery was great so you selected a great artist to collaborate with! The vocals were on point.

Recommend considering your audience and what they want to hear when choosing your lyrics. Your goal is to capture your audience's attention and to keep it and make them want more. You seem to have potential and we feel you are capable of more.

However, although we don't currently have a slot available on our roster for you here at Zobe, we will be able to offer you an opportunity through one of our sub-labels who may be a better fit at this time. They will be able to work with you if there is mutual interest. This would give you the opportunity to still be distributed by us and obtain our publishing. Contact our sub-label via email  @zoberecords.com and submit your music, bio, and links to them with the email header: "Upstart Records Artist Submission" for consideration and let them know that you were referred by Zobe Records. Hopefully we will be your connection to major label distribution. We wish you the best.

By the way, we’d also like to introduce to you our new music platform ZobeLab. Be sure to get on the wait-list to experience the Beta release of this new innovative music technology software application as soon as it comes out of development: LINK”

Summarized: My lyrics were not the best, but the listener understood where I was TRYING to go with this song. The message is good if the listener chooses to appreciate that over my lyrics. A lot of my lyrics were spent on food items, which takes away from the track. 

What does this feedback say to me about the listener? Sadly, this person DIDN’T UNDERSTAND MY MESSAGE AT ALL. What do the food items in the lyrics represent? Clearly not the food itself, but the country where it comes from! Why else would I choose the title “Tasteless Breakfast” and design a cover with food items next to little country flags that represent the stupidity and incapability of our corrupt global world leaders?

Why did I open a fridge to prepare my breakfast? Because Tasteless Breakfast is an awareness song about the plight of refugees and homeless people who suffer from HUNGER and THIRST, lack of safety, compassion, caring, and support by our selfish and shallow society.

I guess only people with an empty fridge or NO fridge at all with an empty stomach and no shelter understand the deep and sarcastic message behind every single food item that I have listed and chosen intentionally one by one in my lyrics! 

So my personal takeaway from this feedback is: Reviews, advice and criticism are NOTHING but a personal opinion by random people from different backgrounds, level of education, social class, and most importantly emotional intelligence! Don’t take reviews and feedback seriously, no matter who the person claims to be. No matter what kind of “BIG” names, they choose to level up their EGO to feel better about themselves and public image. 

"Criticizing and putting others down doesn't make you bigger!" is a life lesson that unfortunately The Fallen Angels never understand!

As you can already guess, I have absolutely no interest and desire to collaborate with a company that doesn't understand and appreciate my language! I reject a possible collaboration wholeheartedly and fully confident!

Remember my motto from my #RespectIndieArtistsWork online petition:  Don’t sell yourself short! Don’t put up with BS! You deserve more! Believe in yourself and your work, and just say no to BS!

My song lyrics on Musixmatch!

As you know by now, mymusic is no longer available on any streaming platform. After my awfulexperience with my former Swedish distributor Amuse.io and my online petition#RespectIndieArtistsWork at openpetion.org, I made a lot of changes! Seriousand extremely necessary changes!

Not only have I takendown ALL my tracks from these corrupt streaming companies who offer our hard workfor FREE, but I also have deleted my Facebook, TikTok, and other socialprofiles to spend less time on these useless and only time-consuming platforms.And it was the best decision I made.  Iwish I had done this years ago or never opened an account in the first place! But better late than never! We only learn and grow from our mistakes, naivety and let's face it stupidity! 

Most of us, don’t realizehow much control Facebook has over us. We open accounts and set up profiles ondifferent platforms by using Facebook to log in quickly instead of using an emailaddress and a password. Not only are we giving FREE information about ourselvesto this billion-dollar spy organization, but we also end up being on several websitesthat must be updated and taken care of regularly.

One of these must-have-websitesas a lyricist is Musixmatch!

According to Google, itis the world’s leading music data company - where you can search, enjoy, andshare lyrics from any track, anywhere in the world to my surprise based in Bologna, Italy.

Unfortunately, I hadopened my account with Facebook, and now that I have deleted my FB profile, I nolonger can log in and update my information, change the banner, add new song lyrics, and disconnect the deletedSocial accounts!  

So, I have contacted thecompanies support team and asked for help. Several emails back and forth and no onecares to give me access to my account!

This is what they wrote:

In order to protect the quality and securityof our verified artist’s content, we are now requiring that all free usersprovide proof of identity within the tool - Please note that paid users'accounts are reviewed manually, so this step will not be required for paidplans.

Once the ID verification is completed, youshould be able now to add your lyrics, except for songs with a featuring artisteven if you are the primary artist, since at the moment maintenance on them isstill ongoing.

The team will be checking in this week tohelp with any issues and provide you with additional updates if there are any.

I wrote back:

I never share my IDonline for security reasons and asked for another solution.

And that’s what they answered:

The old verification has beenremoved. If you want to verify your artist profile with anew account, Two easy steps are required:
1) Create an account on the Musixmatch site (oruse an account you already have)2) Fill the form on our website once you’re logged in with your account

Well, I did that and because I'm no longer onSpotify and Apple, I still have NO access to my artist profile and have receivedthe following message from Musixmatch:

Unfortunately, it's not possible to verify anartist if you don't have a profile on Spotify and Apple Music

In other words, if you are not on Spotify orApple, you are not an artist. So you have no access to your artist profile! Great!And that’s why I'm posting this on my blog to warn other artists and Lyricists:

Firstly, be careful how you sign up forwebsites. Don’t always use Facebook because it is the easiest and fastestway!

Also, as I wrote in my previous blog post, bepicky with the websites you choose to promote your work. Using FREE websites isrisky because you end up communicating with an unprofessional support team who couldn’tcare less about your problems and finding solutions!

I have asked Musixmatch support team to eithergive me access to my profile or to DELETE my artist profile and song lyrics! Nothing has happened so far. So, I w illkeep you posted! 

UPDATE: After this blog post and my tweet, I have received the following message on Twitter and an email saying that my profile will be DELETED within 48 hours! 

As expected, the page is still online and has not been taken down!!!!! More message back and forth were required until my request was finally respected! 

Fallen Angels by Lily Amis feat. Thir13een

 

Writers, hands away from the Free Booklemur Spotlight!

When I started my journey as a part-time indie writerback in 2004 and later as a full-time writer since 2014, I was overwhelmed byall the websites that offer free promotions for independent writers. Like most authors,I was excited to share my work wherever, whenever!  

Today, ten years later, I realize something important. Wehave a saying in German “Man kann nicht auf alle Hochzeiten tanzen!“ translation„You can't dance at every wedding!” which means you can’t be everywhere! Andyou know what? You shouldn’t be everywhere!

My recommendation to new writers is: Be picky with thewebsites you promote your work. Make sure you read reviews about the company firstand know who to contact if you have problems with your profile. Why am Isharing this post today? 

Well, I want to warn you about the following company www.Booklemur.com based in the USA! Do not sign up for the FREE artist spotlight! Once youare listed on their website, you can't get rid of your profile! You can't makechanges and updates, NOTHING!

This is their company philosophy:

BookLemurwas created by Press One Publishing (est. 1995). We love readers, authors, andgreat books! We take pride in introducing our dedicated eBook audience to newand existing, quality titles. That goes for traditional or indie authors. Sofar thousands of people are receiving the daily alert email and thousands moreread the BookLemur Facebook Fan Page. We want to connect readers and authors.Author Spotlight Pages will be promoted at the website, Facebook page, and indaily alerts. There is no cost to authors for this program, if accepted.

Why should Ihave an author spotlight page?(1) Because you want to reach readers. (2) Yourpage will be promoted throughout the BookLemur website. (3) Increase sales. (3)We will randomly include author spotlight pages in each daily alert based onsubscriber preferences. (3) It's FREE. (4) Spotlight authors will be the firstto receive promotions for advertising discounts. (5) We will promote spotlightpages from time to time on our Facebook fan page and Twitter feed.

What's thecatch? How can this be free?There is no catch. It's free. The only conditionis that we must always have your permission to contact you via email. That's it.

FYI: Well, yes, there is a catch! A BIG ONE! Your profile is permanent andno one cares to respond to your messages and requests! I have contacted Booklemur several times in recentmonths. I used the contact form and Twitter but to this date, NO ONE has answeredand respected my request!

That’s why I'm sharing this post to warn other indie writers from naively sign up for such FREE websites. 

Remember, nothing of good and high quality is FREE!

UPDATE: 21. July 2024

After this blog post and my tweet, 

my profile was finally taken down after 

4 months and several emails! H allelujah!

Fallen Angels by Lily Amis feat. Thir13een

 

The Fallen Angel Rishi Sunak on ITV’s This Morning!

On July the 3rd 2024, Rishi Sunak, UK's nowEx-Prime Minister was a guest on the sofa at THIS MORNING on ITV 1 hosted by the presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard.

Just the otherday, I mentioned his ridiculous Rwanda plans in my post Fallen Angels – Self-protection.Now, a few days later, this Fallen Angel is nothing but the Ex-Prime Minister ofthe United Kingdom. Thank God for that!

His interview was so awful that it was crystal clear to me thatNO ONE with a heart for humanity would vote for this cruel man. I’m so glad andrelieved that his awful and unlawful migration control plans were his finaldownfall after only 18 months in his position at Nr. 10. Let me quote him wordby word and you see what I mean:

“If people come to our country illegally, they shouldn’t beable to stay.. I just think that’s fair. This means we need a safe place toREMOVE them, which we have: Flights to Rwanda!”

“You know where these people come from? They come fromSyria, Afghanistan, Iran. I don’t mind being the leader in Europe of solvingthis problem, saying this is the way to do it!”

“I’m always very grateful for what this country has done formy family. By welcome my grandparents here, two generations later, my grandparentswere little, here I am sitting here chatting to you, so I love my country, whatit does for my family, and I’m in this to make work my socks off to make thatsame difference for everybody else!”

Only an arrogant, self-centred man living in self-denial withobviously ZERO sense of respect for humanity with a heart of stone would talk ascruel as he has on air. I don't want to know how he talks about humans in need off-air!!!

I would love to ask him face to face, what if the UnitedKingdom didn’t welcome your grandparents and would treat them as awful as youplan to treat foreigners and refugees? What if the United Kingdom had sent yourgrandparents to Rwanda? Who would you be today? Where would you be today?

What if the United Kingdom would decide to remove you and your family to Rwanda (THE SAFE PLACE) now that your service is no longer needed? What future would your daughters have in this safe haven? Why don't you apply for a job in Rwanda where you can work your socks off to make a change?

What makes you think that it is OK to discriminate Muslimcountries by name and decide about their future and their next generation? Whodo you think you are? Who knows, maybe one of these desperate families now lookingfor safety and a future in the United Kingdom is the UK’s next Prime Minister'sgrandparents? Shame on you! Shame on your disgusting politic. Shame on yourinhumanity! May God save your heart of stone because you are a Fallen Angel! 

We hope and pray that UK's new Prime Minister Mister Keir Starmer will put an end to your madness and STOP your inhuman, unlawful and criminal migration control plans ASAP! We hope that he will show the same moral values and respect to humans in need - despite religion and nationality - as he shows to his community, religion, tradition and family! 

Ever since I saw this horrible interview, I can't get Rishi Sunaks discriminating words out of my head. I still can't believe that he had the audacity to speak so disgraceful about other humans because of their nationality and religion! This is beyond upsetting, it is revolting! I feel sick!

Fallen Angels by Lily Amis feat. Thir13een