Summer Keeps On

I love Summer. The days are longer, which means we have tons more day light! And more daylight just makes me happy.

I leave again for Nashville Wed to work some more on the record. It's getting closer to being finished, but there's just a little more stuff I need to do to get it where I want it.

Unlimited Dowloads

Norway is introducing a new subscription plan for mobile downloads.

"NetCom, the Norwegian unit of Swedish telecom giant Telia Sonera, is planning to steal Nokia's thunder with NetCom FreeMusic, a three-month trial to offer free unlimited mobile-music downloads. [The offer] is a three-month pilot that gives subscribers access to a catalog of 50,000 tracks from Universal Music Group International. The project involves a selection of handsets from several mobile manufacturers. Each device will come accompany a voucher with a text number that will direct users to a mobile Internet site. Once they log in, customers can download as many of the participating tracks as they want. And they can keep the tracks indefinitely. But the downloaded music will be locked to the handset and cannot be transferred to another phone or PC. At the end of the three months, NetCom (one of Apple iPhone's distributors in Scandinavia) will examine consumers' response to the trial to determine how to proceed on a commercial basis."

Some people thing this is the future of music.

I think an internet radio model should be developed that takes the burden of payment off the consumer and places it on advertising. Much like conventional radio does today.

Love Me Some Statistics

Go here to see some stats on the culture of music in Great Britian.

Pretty straight up stats, but when you read into them a little it's really great stuff.

Though the Music Industry has been searching for answers to the digital age for some time, that doesn't mean that people are still not interested in music. It's quite the opposite. People are more in love with music today than ever.

The opportunity for us to find music that inspires us and connects with our lives is greater than ever.

On another note, people are spending more money to see live shows than they are on purchasing music. That's great!

AND. The CD is not dead. People still love getting a CD and looking through the artwork, pics, and lyrics of an album.

More Photos

Find more photos of the studio and the recording here.

The Ups and Downs of Making a Record

Making this record has been a great experience so far. I couldn't have asked for anything to go more smoothly. But, I am getting anxious for the project to be finished so that I can start sharing with you the experience of my songs, how they've affected me, and hopefully, how they will impact you.

After getting back from Nashville yesterday, I am glad to see the album taking shape. And, I also heard some things that needed to be added. Hopefully, I will be going back up to Nashville next week to get some more recording accomplished so that I can stay on track for having everything completed in July!

Record is Coming Along

I head back out to Nashville this week to give some feedback on the mixing of the record. Jason is spending this week making some minor tweeks to the recordings so we can start mixing and keep things moving along.

The mixing should be finished by the middle of the week after next (Does that make sense?).

Then it's off to mastering and then CD duplication.

The closer I get to seeing this complete, the more excited I become.

Can't wait to share it with you!

The Future

There are so many options to get people your music.

I want to be able to do this. Wouldn't it be cool to have people performing your music all over the world from within their own living rooms?

Del.i.cio.us Links

NoiseTrade - Interesting
Artists House - Great video's on the Music Industry
IGigYou - A little weird

Imeem

Have you heard of it. Well, it's now the #1 music-streaming website in the world.

Finding Yourself

I read this blog post this morning and it reminded me of some things I'd been processing through as of late.

I wrote this down in a journal that I keep ideas in a few weeks back.

"If it is true that people are attracted to a strong stand i.e. Method, then, what stand am I going to take? What comes out of me naturally that I want to be known for? What is my mission?"

(check out this inspirational video from the Method founder, Eric Ryan)

Here's a few examples of some other artists I found.

"I am a creature of community, inspired to write sing along pop songs." Mat Keraney

In this article, Coldplay's, Chris Martin says, "[Coldplay] is still obsessed with making songs that can be sung to the rafters."

In both cases, each artist's songs are inspired by a singular mission. So, no matter what they write about, there is an inner working of passion that produces the sounds that come out of them.

Regardless of whether you're a musician, painter, accountant, or engineer, I think it's important for us all to know the mark we want to leave on the world. In everything you do, what do you want people to experience? To receive? To believe? To gain?

I have an idea of what that is for me, but I'm not finished with my thoughts on it. I'll let you know when I get it.