Finally the storm has broken here in Southern California, to be replaced by a wonderfully warm Santa Ana wind. Mmm… Actually went to the beach yesterday and laid out, enjoying my new iPod. I hope this weather lasts long enough for us to sneak in a band photo shoot. It’s about time we got some current portraits taken. I’m also starting to seriously think about album art for the new CD cover. We’ll probably go with colorful nature shots again, but maybe a bit less abstract this time. I’m not sure that folks even realize that the Windblown Kiss artwork is photos of reflections in water or not?

Ryan and I have come to the realization that 128kbps mp3s are way too old school. Like, so 1998!

I’ve been re-encoding my digital music library into 320kbps AAC files, which sound much better — much better even that 320kbps mp3 files. For special albums, I’m using Apple Lossless, which sounds basically like an AIFF or WAV file (which is what CDs are generally made from), but is only about half the size. I mean, I have a huge hard drive, so why not enjoy my music in hi-res quality?

I love the concept of the iTunes store, and selling our music there, but what I don’t love is the sound quality. We make these gorgeous 24bit start-to-finish albums (more music geek talk, I know!), only to have it all squashed down into measly 128k mp3 files. It’s murder! We really need to figure out a way to sell our fans nice, high quality files worthy of critical listening.

It’s so sad how the music industry is completely melting down under the pressure of new technology. Kids today don’t even think they should have to buy CDs anymore! They are perfectly content with crappy mp3s files traded on the Internet.

It seems that a whole new model for music is necessary now, one that somehow combines professional quality sound with affordable prices so that we artists can get our music out to fans in a format that is not only convenient, but great sounding, doesn’t cost too much, and yet allows us to cover all the costs of creating and distributing the music.

Any bright ideas, anyone?

Here we are on the first Monday of the new year. Hurrah! The band’s resolution for the year is to release our new album and to set that whole whirlwind of promotion in motion. Part of that will likely include our first practice with a live bassist and drummer. So I guess that’s 2 resolutions: 1. release album, 2. practice with live rhythm section. I ‘spose that would lead to 3. set up live shows. Sounds like a full year in and of itself, doesn’t it?

It’s great that the site has been redesigned so that the email list automatically updates itself when people join. Just about every day since the change, someone has joined. Even still, there are hundreds of folks on the old email list that I’m making sure don’t get left behind.

I think I’ve recreated our email list probably a half dozen times since I joined the band in 1999. I’ve done it so many times before that I feel like I’ve memorized some of these people’s contact info, even though I don’t know them personally.

Last night I was fricken dreaming that I was updating the email list… If only I had woken up to find that little elves had done all the work for me!

I’ve had this concept of an internet radio station and record label that I’ve been working on for a few months now, called chillcuts.

I thought I’d reactivate my old Live365 account that I used to stream “The Lovely Ladies of Electronica” with back in 1999. I began a trial run last week. I’m trying out their new Mp3Pro streams, which are better sounding, but a pain in the ass. I have to re-rip anything I might want to play from CD format into Mp3Pro format, because turning an mp3 into an Mp3Pro just doesn’t sound good.

Right now my station selection is relying heavily on the Live365 library, which luckily has a lot of cool tunes. I’m slowly adding my own selections into the mix as bands send me their CDs, so my playlist is expanding every few days. I’ve got about 6 hours of music on random play. Later, I’ll make personalized playlists and schedule them at set times.

The lame thing right now is that, since I’m using a free account I began during their beta phase, only paid listeners can tune into my stream. I’ll probably sign up for their free “upgrade” trial sometime soon so I can test out the new Mac live broadcast tool. Anyone will be able to tune in during that phase. If everything seems cool, then I guess I’ll bite the bullet and start paying for my account, so the general population can tune in, along with the paid subscribers.

After that, then I’ll worry about the record label side of my plan…

Find out more at chillcuts.com

Man, the site is looking awfully sharp if I do say so, myself! After a heavy 2 days of geeking out, everything has come together just as we envisioned. We really needed a good first page, but when we first changed the site over, we still weren’t sure what we wanted. Now we’ve got a pretty nice balance of image and content, with an emphasis on all the basic things any first time or returning visitor would want to find. We even have a link to the previous incarnation of the band, to make it easier on old folks looking up the band for the first time in a decade. 😉

Looks like we updated the site yet again! Seems like there’s always something new we want to try out. Sometimes we bring back something old that we miss, but with a new twist — like this blog! Now ya’ll can comment on things, if you feel so inclined. We’re still in need of some new band photos, as Ryan and I look quite a bit different than we did back in the Windblown Kiss period, but it looks like we’ll be hooking up with our favorite photographer, Susan Jennings, early next year. It’s not as far away as it sounds…

Ryan and I have already made a New Year’s resolution to stay in better communication with our fans, and part of that will be accomplished by sending out newsletters more often. We get people signing up to the newslist every week, but it’s been months since I’ve sent one and I do feel a little bit bad.

We’ve also set up an RSS feed of our news page, and I think we’ll have one of the journal soon, too. Looks like we haven’t added that link to the site yet, though. I’ll have to pester our code monkey. Heh heh…