Bounte

The Beatserv launch has gone well. There were some technical difficulties to take care of in the initial rush, and while the rush and the tech problems have both died down, I'm sure there will be more. We're already working on the second series, talking to some guest producers, and working on site enhancements.

One of the interesting (and awesome) things about Beatserv is that most viewers are not using IE. According to Google Analytics, IE users comprise about 8% of the visitors to Beatserv. I've blocked my own IP address from the tracking, so that data is not skewed. And one enthusiastic person is using Camino, of all things. What all that means is I can do a lot more cool design things with the site than I usually can, because I don't have to accommodate, as heavily, old technology. Our users are cool and progressive.

Bounte had a nice chat with the Silver Atlas boys. Alan has agreed to work on vocals for a Bounte song, and Jason is going to send me some remix stems for a couple SA songs I like. I've got another couple tracks done, and a couple more to finish, then they will all be ready to mix.

Finally launching Beatserv this week has been a grueling and great process. We've been working on the concept of selling premium audio loops, and the ecommerce website for over a year now, and while the financial overhead has been rather low, the amount of time involved has been high. Despite the mad dash at launch to put out some fires (who knew collecting money could be so annoying?), it's been amazingly gratifying to finally have it running and selling.

The best part is that now we can focus on making increasingly superior beats and improving the user experience on the site. I find that once something is running, it's easier and more enjoyable to incrementally improve it, than it is to get it running in the first place.

Here's the official About Us:

Beatserv provides premium, royalty-free drum loops for creative use in audio production and performance.

We utilize professional music producers, programmers, songwriters and musicians to achieve the highest quality samples and compositions. With a strong emphasis on superior production and unique creativity in our products, our goal is to support and foster excellence in both professional and hobbyist audio projects.

Our products are released exclusively as downloads, allowing customers to easily access files and keep track of orders in their online accounts. This helps us keep prices down, allowing access to higher quality beats by a wider range of audio creatives.

Go get em and enjoy!

Last night's DJ set went very well. Sheena, Kenny, and the rest of the crew at Collaboraction were quite friendly and good at their jobs. I "spun" tracks between the short plays and did my best to match tunes to the mood of each piece. It was a little difficult since I had to keep my laptop screen off during the sketches, for blackout purposes, so I had to think of all the tracks in my head, then queue them up at the last moment when the lights went back on.

I pulled out a few new unreleased Bounte tracks, which the crowd seemed to dig, so that's a good sign. At the end I was free to do a few more, and while I stuck mostly to electronica the whole evening, with a brief Chris Randall interlude, I surprised myself by going into some pseudo-trance pieces, if you can count Hybrid as trance. I handed out a few stickers and business cards, and filled out a W-9, which means I'm being paid, so the evening was overall a success.

And jeepers, is it ever easier to take just my laptop case to a performance than a giant wood/metal keyboard, turntable, mixer, laptop, corresponding road cases, and 2 keyboard stands with a tabletop.

I've added a bunch of my remixes to the Audio page. The Marvin Gaye is a very early track of mine that has always gone over well.

I don't think people take me seriously when I say I like doing remixes. When I offer to make one, maybe they think I'm bullshitting them for networking purposes, or trying to garner a favor. But really, getting me to do a remix is like getting Christopher Walken to do a movie for you: all you have to do is ask (and provide some audio stems).

Working on a requested custom remix is more satisfying than doing something like the Marvin Gaye where the acapella or stems are freely available, and your remix is just one of 9000. It's a personal connection with the music, and it's just a fun exercise for me. I don't feel as "precious" with a remix as I do my own tracks, so I tend to pump them out pretty fast.

Bounte album

I got in touch with J*Star, a rapper I met in Cleveland about working on one of my tracks, and he's down with it. I just have to call him and work out how to work it out. Which is intimidating for me, Mr. non-verbal. Those of you who have met Phone-Dean can appreciate where I'm coming from.

I have 10 tracks lined up, and I want to write one more. Then I'll bring in the rest of the guest singers (in addition to the absolutely wonderful track Lauren already did - you're gonna love it), record them and do the final mixes. I want to talk again with Alan from Silver Atlas about doing a song (that's the one more I was talking about). He has a wonderful voice and charisma. Then where we at? I'll probably shell out for mastering, and a limited run hand printed CD or something like that, say 100 screen-printed copies. Then promotion. Then live.

Bounte live

The DJ set next week is going to be different than I expected. I have to attend a preview performance to be certain, but seems I'll be filling in all the gaps between the theater performances, rather than doing a full-on set. But I still encourage you to come out and enjoy the evening of art - should be some good theater, and I'm going to pull out a couple exclusive new tracks.

Beyond that, Bounte live will get a serious overhaul. I'm going to find a singer that really fits the project, and rearrange tracks for a live instrumentation. In the end it may turn into a collaboration that moves away from Bounte, but I'm ok with that as long as I'm enjoying the music.

Beatserv

This is the most immediately exciting thing. We've got 2/3 of our beats packaged, with the rest on the way. The site is done and being proofread. Plans for the future are already being discussed. I'm having some problems uploading some large files, but some PHP research should take of that. We'll give you some sort of fanfare when we launch.

I got a bump from the last Atomica show I played, and have been put on the ticket for the April 23 production of Collaboraction's Sketchbook festival. This one will actually involve some theater, I think, rather than just fundraising. But I'll be DJing an electronic set somewhere in there. I'm hoping the crowd will be ready to get bumpin, but I'll have some chill tracks ready just in case. More info on their festival is here.

I've put my tracks on sale at Flagrant Records TODAY, rather than waiting a couple months to finish another album. This includes the CD for One, which hasn't been available for over a year. The old Bounte ringer tees will be available there soon. Thank you to Wade for agreeing to put these things up on the Flagrant site. As is Flagrant's practice, you can stream the whole songs on their site, or you can still do that on the Audio page here on bounte.com.

You can now stream all of my album released tracks on bounte.com's Audio page. It's the internet age, after all. Once I'm closer to releasing my second full-length, um, collection of songs, it will all go on sale at the Flagrant Records site at a higher quality bit-rate.

I also updated the Visual page with my standard Flash slideshow gallery that I use on sites. I was feeling a little like the cobbler with holes in his shoes, making everyone else's sites look whizbang, without updating my own.

Saturday was my last show playing keys with The Atomica Project. It's not creative differences or anything negative about our relationship. I'm dealing with some things right now and am in a bad head-space. While some wear their heart on their sleeves, I often wear mine stapled to my forehead, and the turbulence in my head was making waves in tAP rehearsals and shows. I respect and love them too much to bring that to the table, so I'm distancing myself while I clear things up, allowing them to move full speed with the momentum they're building after the recent tour.

I'll still be closely involved with them, seeing as how I have control of their band website and record label website. But the upshot of all this is that I'll have more time to focus on Bounte and other projects. So you all will get the new Bounte album faster, and witness the opening of Beatserv very soon.