There’s only a couple places in Nashville that everyone goes to meet.  Since Daniel was near downtown Nashville and needed to be at the airport, there was really only one place to go.  The trendiest place in this fine city.  Fido.  

One cool thing about what we do for work is that we can do work with people that live across the country and never actually sit down with them to meet.  It’s great to be able to communicate with someone online and on the phone, but there is something really cool about being able to sit down and have some trendy coffee with them.  Yesterday was the first day that Daniel and I were actually able to meet in person and we had a great time.  He’s a genuine guy and has a great record on top of it.  

Now, if you still haven’t gotten Daniel’s record, what’s wrong with you?  It’s time.  Go to iTunes, spend six dollars, and get it.  He’s gonna explode one of these days and then you can tell your friends at your trendy coffee shop meetings that you got his EP way back in the day and you already know four of his songs in guitar, and all that.  See I’m looking out for you and helping you be cool.  Now go.

In Nashville we have Fido, what’s your “trendy coffee place” called?

Alright everyone.  It’s been a busy few weeks for SkörInc, but it’s time to announce our newest blog.  I’m sure a lot of you have heard me talking about Joy Whitlock over the past few weeks and I know that news of her album release has been spreading it’s way around the world wide inter-web for a while now, but tomorrow is the day that her album releases along with a brand new site and blog.  (*This is where cheering and whistling occurs*)

Ardent Records has been amazing to work with and I’m excited to see what happens with Joy’s Blog in the months to come.  So now it’s time for us all to do our part.  I need your help getting the word out.  First off, it would be awesome if you all linked to Joy’s Blog and subscribed.  Next I need your help spreading the word.  Like most of you know we’re a pretty small operation here, and this community has gotten SkörInc this far, so your help getting the word out would be awesome.

Anyway, check it out, let me know what you think.   It’s still in the process of switching over so if something weird happens, don’t panic.  And make sure to check back and see what Joy is up to down the road.

Ready?  Go.

So tonight I was driving home from taking the boys to the movies and I flipped on the radio.  Typically when I listen to the radio I have it on the Christian station here in town for a couple reasons.  First, if I am driving in the mornings my friend Brant is on there and it’s cool to hear him, and second, if I am driving at night, I know Wally is on there and he loves to talk about blogs.  In fact, Wally even has a blog, though it’s really hard to find if you don’t know it’s there.

So anyway, tonight I’m driving home and they start talking about this cruise thing coming up that MercyMe is going on.  Wally starts talking about the MercyMe guys and how, no doubt, they will be running around on the cruise filming things for their blog.  ”Daddy are they talking about your blog?”, Blue asked from the back seat.  I told him it was one of the ones I work on, and told him that was pretty cool they were talking about it.

About five minutes later they started talking about a blog thing that they do every Friday, and first up they start talking about Phil’s blog and how he’s giving away a record on it.  Now, he got a few of the details wrong about how the album was uploaded on there but awesome none the less that they were talking about it. 

Almost instantly after talking about Phil’s blog they went into a story that was blogged about on the Fee guys blog.  What the heck?  Not to bad to have three blogs that I work with mentioned on the radio in a matter of ten minutes.  All we needed was them to start talking about Natalie and it would have been a commercial for SkörInc.  And you know what’s awesome about it all?  All of these blogs are getting noticed because all of these guys are blogging well.  The Industry is listening folks, and I think it’s pretty cool.  Well, at least Wally is listening, and I’ll take it.

So Wally, I know you are going to see this eventually, and when you do do me a favor.  Check out all those blogs you talked about tonight, and go down to the bottom and look for a common logo.  Then let’s go grab coffee.

So, this morning Randy and I met with these guys to talk about blog stuff, family, music and Fantasy Football.  Mostly we talked about blog stuff and the option of possibly doing some stuff with them down the road, but there was some non-work conversation mixed in.  

To be honest I haven’t heard a ton of The Katina’s music but I have heard of them as a group for years and I’m excited about the idea of working with them.  Not to mention sitting down with the guys for a couple hours this morning I can say that they really seem like good guys that love their families, love what they do for a living, and love their fans.  Those are the kind of people I get excited to work with.

Any Katina fans out there?  If not, you’re going to be.

Randy and I have had the awesome opportunity to meet and get to know some folks doing some great things just South of Nashville.  Rebecca and Ben Wynd have started the ball rolling for the creation of a recreation park in the Spring Hill area including a disc golf course, hiking trials, biking trails and a bunch of other things called Outdoor Encounter, and (imagine that) they’ve started to blog.

Growing up in Northern California I think I always took the beauty there for granted.  We lived ten minutes from one of the most amazing rivers I have ever seen, and living in “nature” just seemed to be normal.  Now that we have found ourselves living in the suburbs south of Nashville, more than once I have realized that I really missed nature.  I miss the peacefulness of walking around a park in the trees watching the leaves fall, and families play.  It’s awesome to hear the vision of Outdoor Encounter and see that align with what I think the area needs.

Here’s the deal.  This is a two-fold “Positive Post Tuesday”.  This time I need something more from you.  If you live even remotely near the Nashville / Franklin / Spring Hill area, and I know a lot of you do, and I also know a lot of you are really into the outdoors (Randy, Spence and Jeremy), I’m asking that you start talking about this.  Start blogging about it, and help the surrounding areas get excited about it.  The more a community is involved in what is going on, the better that community becomes.

So for all you locals, make sure to check out Outdoor Encounter and also make sure to follow their blog.  At the very least, head over there and welcome them to the neighborhood. It’s going to be a pretty cool process to watch take shape.

Happy Tuesday.  Let’s make this week massive.

(WCW)

So check this out.  We just launched Daniel Renstrom’s new site along with a brand spankin new blog.  Daniel has been a really cool guy to work with and is SkörInc’s first “Indie” guy to work with.  I’m excited to see Daniel grow and really move forward with his music.  Also if you haven’t heard any of Daniel’s record, where have you been?  It’s time you went and got that.

So anyway, Randy has been busting out on this one for the last few weeks and here it is.  I’m really happy with the design and some of the ideas that came forward with this one.  Head over to Daniel’s new home and say hello.

I’m pretty bad at grammar. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time you may notice a few things. One: I typically will opt for typing out a number rather than typing the numeric number. Two: I, tend to, over comma, sentences. I think it’s because it’s the way I talk. I pause a lot and get distracted easily so I think if I put comma’s in places where they aren’t needed.  ”But, Brody”, you say, “What does this have to do with Positive Post Tuesday?”.  Well, let me tell you.

A few days ago I got an email from Lindsey. She used to blog and now she doesn’t, which makes me sad because I can’t link to her. The email she sent me stated that she was a little OCD and noticed some grammatical errors on the text I wrote on the SkörInc site.  She was ultra polite and didn’t want to offend anyone, but little did she know that it was a massive relief to me to have someone care enough to mention it and offer to fix it.  

See this whole blog thing is about creating a community right?  A community where we connect with each other, and help each other, and use our different talents to enhance that community.  That’s what Lindsey did.  She stepped out and offered her services to enhance a community and help out with something that I suck at.  That’s awesome to me.  So since you can’t go to Lindsey’s blog to comment how awesome she is for correcting my poor grammar, feel free to tell her she’s awesome in the comments.

Thanks Lindsey. I owe you one.

It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.  Three months ago I was in Portland, Oregon with a rented camera I didn’t even know how to turn on, telling people I would broadcast a live show on a blog, without knowing if it would work.  Then I said that three months later we would give away a recording of that show even though I didn’t know how.  I told a record label that my company would take care of all the details.  But that was only after I convinced that record label, a management company and an artist they needed to create a community and trust that it would work.  They all took gambles and tonight we needed a win.

The site was built spectacularly, the word was getting spread, and we waited for the record.  About a week ago we found out the company set to give away the record wasn’t going to work due to some legal issues.  No problem.  We can work around it.  Four days ago we found out the second company set to give it away wasn’t going to work out due to other reasons.  This left us with one option, and that was to build it ourselves.  Had we ever built a website designed to capture emails and give away a free record?  Nope.  Had we ever done it in four days?  Nope.  Randy worked literally day and night to come up with something that was going to work, and with amazing compromise and effort from the second company, something magical happened.  It was going to work.  Except we still didn’t have the record.  

After several frantic phone calls, and stress levels though the roof, the day was upon us.  For those of you paying attention that day was today…. well yesterday if you’re paying attention to what time it is.  Everything was finally set, the meeting with the label today went outstanding, and we were still waiting on the record.  Turns out it takes a long time to mix things, and even longer to send them across the country via uploading.

Here’s where it gets interesting.  This record was set to release at midnight Pacific Time, which meant 2:00 AM my time.  By the time it was midnight my time I started to get worried.  By now we had a chat going on Phil’s site with people discussing what song was their favorite and what they were looking forward to.  Phil hung out there most of the night and did an amazing job cultivating the community that showed up to hang out.  Randy and I worked frantically without a record still.  

A few more phone calls and watching the clock the record finally arrived with just under an hour to spare.  We still needed to attach the album artwork, put the songs in order, compress the record, upload the record and make sure it worked.  By the time the upload started we had about twenty minutes before the release of the record.  Phil was calling asking about time, as we watched the progress bar chase the clock.  Once the record was uploaded we still needed to switch over to the new site and then hope that it worked.

The progress bar reached it’s end with three minutes to spare and everything was switched over but we still hadn’t tested it.  We decided to go with it anyway and fix something if it broke while people were getting the record.  Literally as soon as the clock hit 2:00 AM everything was switched and I started downloading a record I had never heard with a couple hundred other people.  Nothing broke.  Nothing crash.  And I didn’t throw up.  We needed that win.

I know there was a lot more to this story but if you are still reading this it’s time for you to just go get the record and enjoy it.  My kids will be up in three hours and it’s time for me to wind down.  Thanks for helping get the word out about this.  This is the idea of community behind SkörInc. Thanks for being a part.

Well, tomorrow is the day.  Phil is releasing his live record that he recorded in Portland back in May.  It’s been a ton of work, and has taken literally all of this time to get it where it needs to be, but I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be big.  Also, because SkörInc is such a new company, this is the first thing like this we have been involved in and it’s been a pretty intense learning experience.  It’s been a really cool thing to be involved in though.

So anyway, today will consist of making sure everything is perfectly in line and ready for the download tonight at midnight (Pacific Time), and making sure nothing will break in the middle of the night.  I’m sure most of you have read about it, and been along with us on most of the process from broadcasting the show live on Phil’s site, all the way to what is about to happen tonight.  Thanks for helping us get the word out about all of it.  I believe this community here has been an important element of making sure people know about the things that we are involved in.  That makes you all awesome.

So, tonight at midnight Phil’s Live Record “singalong” will be available for the world, and I’m excited to see what will happen with it.  It’s been a long road with plenty of hurdles, but I think it’s going to be great.  If you could help me get the word out one more time it would be amazing.  Plaster everything that you see online with the badge, tell your friends, call your mom’s.  Anything it takes to get the word out.  This is the idea behind what SkörInc is trying to accomplish.  The idea that viral, grassroots marketing is a powerful tool in the music industry, and that blogging well is an essential component of that marketing.  This has the potential of sending the Industry a message, and making a splash hopefully noticed by all the important folks out there. And hopefully that makes sense.  If not, just tell people about the record anyway.  Go HERE to get the badge.

Thanks again.

The Christian Music Industry is a small part of the larger music industry, that focuses on traditional Gospel music, Southern Gospel music, and Contemporary Christian music. The majority of artists working and performing within the Christian music industry are isolated from the mainstream public, to Christian radio, magazines and record stores.

Guess how I know that.  I know that because earlier today I Googled “Christian Music Industry” and Wikipedia was the first thing to come up.  I clicked on the first link as most do and learned what you are reading above.  You know what else I noticed when I Googled “Christian Music Industry“?  I noticed that my blog, and the post showing a video of Bill Marriott, CEO of Marriott Hotels blogging, was fourth down from the top.  I thought that was interesting.

According (again) to Wikipedia The Christian Music Industry’s roots are found in the late 1960s and early 1970s Jesus Movement and its Jesus Music artists.  That’s a long time for the Christian Music Industry to be around.  Also this fun thing we call The Internet has been around for quite some time, and I think you two have worked together nicely since their beginnings.  Wouldn’t you say?   

This here simple blog of mine started almost two years ago now on August 30th, 2006 with a post about me pretending to forget things.  Sure, I’ve blogged about a bunch of different things.  I’ve talked about my kids, my wife, even mainstream music.  For anyone that has hung out here much or knows me personally knows that this thing is as random as my brain is.  There has never been any strict focus to specifically write about you, the Christian Music Industry, yet for some magical reason my blog has still managed to end up on the first page of Google.  Isn’t that weird?  What a random coincidence!

Here’s the thing “Christian Music Industry”, you’ve been around for a while.  There are plenty of people talking about you online and otherwise.  Lots of people saying nice things, and lots of people saying not so nice things.  It’s a good thing you have someone on your team at the top of Google, don’t you think?

Are you ready to talk yet?

Read Part One
Read Part Two