A little luck...

Played 2-3 last night and booked a win, although it was the result of a terrible all-in bluff check-raise that spiked an ace on the river.  I need to temper my instincts to try to force people out of hands that they shouldn't be in at these levels.  Nobody is folding.

Need to start scheduling blackjack trips at some point, although I'm really not looking forward to that...

Home Stretch...

Gearing up for a release has proven to be an incredibly involved process.  It's great that I'm running everything through the first time with a "preliminary" single that's primarily being used to get the social media ball rolling (which - thankfully - I'm leaving to the promotions team, since I know nothing about it).  Here's a breakdown of what's been going on:

Distribution:   Just finished sending a link to download the 24-bit master for the iTunes channel.  (Everyone else, like spotify, pandora, etc. requires a 16-bit master)...

Reporting: Sent the single info to both Mediabase and Luminate to register for sales/stream/radio tracking in North America.  Need to consider doing the same for Official Charts overseas, although that may be overkill at this point...  

Soundexchange: Started the registration process (for collecting digital sound recording performance revenue), but awaiting feedback with respect to registering "26th Street Records" as the recipient...  

Promotions: Finished uploading the rest of the raw video footage from the orchestra recording and final overall mix session, which they'll use for social media and possibly other forms of promotion.  I also answered several "interview" type questions they posed, which led me to think about a few things I hadn't previously considered.  Still need to solicit some quotes from both Matt and Steve regarding the project...  

Video:  Need to figure out how to get the first video to youtube; I think the distributor needs to first send the track to them so that they can establish an artist profile.  I also need to work out a youtube promotion campaign with Lee at Music Gateway... 

Merchandising:  Need to add my newly acquired office address to my CA seller's permit, and then remit a new resale cert to the supplier, so that my home address doesn't show up on invoices... also need to ask them to redigitize the II logo in a slightly simpler format for embroidery (as opposed to print) products...

Publishing:  Waiting to hear back from Songtrust on a question regarding applying the right IPI to my publishing moniker...

Copyright:  Need to start those registrations!

Palms On Fire

Great win for the Isles, coupled with a Panthers loss... 6 points clear of the playoff cutoff line.  Kyle Pamieri proving to be so clutch down the line.  Keep it going boys...

Final Mix Session...

About to head up to LA for "finally" the final mix session.  I asked Matt that we monitor with headphones today, as that will be critical for making sure we accurately catch all of the subtle (and not so subtle) adjustments I think are needed...

All Alone In NYC...

...on the night before New Year's Eve.  Relaxing with Sam's Winter Lagers and VOs in an eastside bar on 45th street. Flying back to OC tomorrow with a clear schedule for the next couple of days.  I'll be using that time to prepare for the February release of the first single.  Primary tasks will include consolidating the notes for the final mix session, going through the Grey Wolf video draft, and soft launching the website so that i can begin working on integrating the merchandising provider... also need to start thinking about a video for the second single, coming up with some ideas for the EPK, and sending a note to the guys at CLG requesting thumbnail artwork for the singles.  There will be more to think about as well, but that will set me well on my way to a productive few days.

Really crappy blackjack trip through the northeast corridor; haven't had one of those in awhile.  At least i didn't get backed off anywhere.

Was great to see a couple of Islanders wins while they're starting to play some very consistent hockey.  Hopefully this will be the impetus to launch them towards a playoff berth and another deep run...

Happy birthday, Jeff Lynne...

String files are huge...

Spending a decent part of this Saturday afternoon downloading wave files from the Glasgow string sessions.  It's a complex part of the project... properly recording an orchestra requires a variety of mic setups in different locations, and each of the location files are roughly 80MB in size.  Multiplying 10 files per song by 11 songs, well - the total amount to download is roughly 9 gigs.  And the internet connection seems a bit on the slow side today.

Got my first piece of swag in the mail from printful a few days ago; a camouflage hat with the band name and album title stitched in gold lettering.  Have to say, it looks pretty good - will be looking forward to offering these merchandise items on the website.  An email confirms two other items (a coffee mug and gym bag) have also just been delivered; looking forward to retrieving those when I get around to checking my mail later today...     

Blogger export...

Spent most of today back on bandzoogle figuring out the intricacies of setting up pages, graphics, etc.  One of the challenges was in trying to get the site to import my entire 30-post collection from blogger.com.  It stopped at the most recent 25; there was no indication of a setting on either site restricting the number of imported posts, and a help message to bandzoogle was met with the online equivalent of shrugged shoulders.  

An effective workaround was exporting all posts to a secondary blog, eliminating all but the five oldest posts on that secondary blog, and then importing the remaining content of that secondary blog (the five oldest posts) into bandzoogle.  I'm hoping bandzoogle automatically picks up this next entry as well.

One great feature of bandzoogle is functionality for selling merchandise - including an arrangement with an on-demand fulfillment center that appears to allow for realtime printing and shipping of orders on an individual basis - so that there is no inventory requirement.  I'm now stuck in the resulting nightmare of trying to determine how to calculate and satisfy any sales tax collection and reporting obligations; I'm hoping an email to my accountant will result in a favorable response in the morning...  

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