Rick just got a royalty check for $51.04.

Here’s the breakdown:

$0.09 from Napster. $0.30 from eMusic. $0.12 from mediaNET. $0.07 from Rhapsody.

Just click on any of the CD covers here for samples of the secret sauce.

Here come the big hitters: $12.74 through Apple iTunes. $4.64 through iTunes-Europe. The balance (too lazy to do the math) came from shrink-wrapped CDs sold through CDBaby.

Woo baby!! And I mean that in all sincerity.

Royalties are a very special category of income, worth much more than the amount deposited at the ATM.

They make you feel all glowy and noble and validated… like a king, even. Hey!… So that’s why they call them…

Never mind.

Royalties are concrete evidence that you’ve created art that is both original AND good. There are others, of course: hearing a young guitar player struggling to recreate your tune at a music jam, or watching little kids dance to your toe-tapper in an open air concert, or hearing grown men sniff back tears at your touching lyrics. In a world where people tend to measure value and success in dollars, such moments are priceless — and probably why it seems perfectly reasonable to tilt at windmills.

An original song, a blog post, a cartoon, a book, a photo… finding and giving voice to an idea is like bearing children: it can be an exhausting, frustrating, incredibly fulfilling and often under-appreciated labor of love that leaves huge stretch marks.

As for Rick’s music, it’s all here…

Enjoy!