This Should Have Been Posted Yesterday
So, yesterday was another big day for the SkörInc camp. Two very noticeable things were the release of Phil Wickham’s Heaven & Earth. Now, most Phil fans have had this record for a while because I don’t know anyone who didn’t pre-order it, but apparently some folks bought it yesterday because it shot to the number two spot on iTunes. Now, if you don’t have this record, you know what I’m going to tell you. Go. Get. It. Now. Phil has a way of writing things and putting sounds together that you don’t expect. I don’t know if that makes sense, but you’ll just have to listen to it and find out yourself.
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The other awesome thing of the day yesterday was MercyMe’s ‘I Can Only Imagine’ was the musical wake-up call for the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Pretty awesome right?
Lots more coming from SkörInc over the next few weeks so keep a heads up.
Everything Is Different, Safe & Alive
I’m going to ask you to spend another two dollars today. You know why? Well, first because it’s my blog and I can do whatever I want on it, and second, I want you to hear my friend Michael’s new song and also my friend Phil’s new song.
Pocket Full Of Rocks released their new song “Alive” today to iTunes and it’s absolutely worth picking up. I’ve known Michael for a while now. Him and his wife live down really close to us, but in ‘Nashville language’ that means that we have to schedule time to get together three months out and even then it’s hard to get together. There’s a rumor that we might be getting lunch one of these days, but I’m not sure when…. Sorry… long rambling story about how I wish we could hang out more. Anyway…. go now and first check out Pocket Full Of Rocks’ “Alive”. Then come back here for your next mission.
You back?
Okay, next up is a Mr. Phil Wickham. Phil’s new single “Safe” featuring Bart Millard from MercyMe is also available on iTunes today for the low (though fairly standard) price of 99 Cents. You see how I did that? I made it seem like a reasonable price by saying “for the low price of”… Clever marketing right there folks. Seriously though. If you haven’t heard Phil’s song “Safe” yet, you’re missing out. Seriously. There’s something missing from your life. And that something only costs 99 cents. Can’t beat that can you?
So let’s recap your mission at iTunes today shall we? First up, we’re going to get Shane&Shane’s “Everything Is Different”. Then we’re heading over to get Pocket Full Of Rocks’ “Alive”, and finally we’re grabbing Phil Wickham’s “Safe”. All in all I think it will set you back exactly $11.97. Not bad for 17 songs eh? Go now and you can come back and thank me later.
The New PhilWickham.com
So check it out BlogNation, Phil Wickham has a brand, spankin’ new website. Isn’t it pretty? We’ve had a fun time working with Phil and I’m excited to see what happens with the release of his new record, touring and now a new site. And by the way, Phil’s record is ridiculous if you haven’t heard it yet. Seriously, go get it now. Download it, the big package and get the acoustic version of the record too. You’ll thank me later.
So anyway, like always, I’d love to know your thoughts, concerns, comments about the site. We rely a ton on you guys being out ‘extra set of eyes’ on these things to see if we’ve missed anything or need to add something. And also, like normal, it’s time to spread the word about the new site.
Ready? Go.
Pre-Order Phil’s ‘Heaven & Earth’
Starting today you can pre-order and download Phil Wickham’s ‘Heaven & Earth’. The record isn’t scheduled to release until November 17th, but if you order the record for $25 you can get an immediate download, an acoustic version of the same record, a t-shirt and a hard copy mailed to you when it comes out. Not a bad deal right?
Now, I know this is a pretty anticipated record and I’m excited to see what happens with it. Phil is truly has of the best voices I’ve heard, and he’s got a pretty unique songwriting style. But you already knew that.
So here’s what we are going to do. Head over to Phil’s site and download the record and come back here and let me know what you think. Oh yeah, and I heard there’s some other new things coming from Phil concerning his website soon. Be on the lookout for that too.
So, did you get it?
Wally Is Listening
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.
We Needed A Win
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.
Phil Wickham – 8/8/08
Most likely most of you have heard about this already, but Phil has posted a pretty amazing sounding, live version of his song Cannons from his live record over on his blog.
The record is scheduled to release August 8th, and I know for a fact it’s really good. Make sure to head to Phil’s blog and get this image and put it everywhere you can think of.
Ready? Go.
Two Things
- My friend Phil has a special announcement over at his blog if you haven’t seen it yet. There’s a lot more coming from him this week, but everything in due time.
- My friend Derek is launching an amazing new site today where artists can give away music and anyone with a website / blog / myspace ect, can also be a part of giving away great music. It’s called NoiseTrade and will be launched some time today.
I think there might have been more announcements, but I forgot them in the forty minutes it has taken me to calm down the kids enough so I could think enough to type this. So make sure you run over to Phil’s blog and check out his announcement and then check in on NoiseTrade and get some free music.
My Little Bunny
So some of you may have noticed my little bunny that has popped up here and there. Well today since I have nothing really to blog about and it’s a weekend anyway, I wanted to point out that now up in my address bar I have my little bunny sitting up there too. Randy figured it out and made it work.
We are currently hanging out at a very loud, busy cafe’ trying to get some work done and I think my brain is being over stimulated. It was quiet here when we got here but the lunch rush has shown up and it’s kind of freaking me out.
In other news, check out Mr. Wickham and his two posts in one day. He has said, with his own mouth, “it’s time to step it up with the blogging”, so expect some more awesomeness from him. Not to mention a pretty rad announcement on Monday.
You will also note that below this post is another button directing you all to today’s 40 Day Fast post. Make sure you take the time to click that and check out the two posts today. I love how two very different parts of the world are represented today, Paris and India. It really shows the point of this whole thing and how far it can reach.
Have a great Saturday.
Live From Portland
I’m sitting at the airport in Chicago halfway home from a great trip to Portland. I have a couple different thoughts on the night but most of all I am thrilled the way that the entire thing turned out. The recording went great. The video went great. Phil did great. And I think it was a massive step for Phil’s career and for the Christian music industry. I had a great time being a part of it.
The day started a little shaky since, you know, I had no idea how to do any of the stuff that I said I would do. I had no clue how to use the camera that I rented, and didn’t even really know if the church had good enough internet to pull it off. For a detailed, bullet point outline of the day go here. Once again, there would have been no way to pull off the day without Randy making things happen. There were a couple freak out moments, but everything turned out great. I was on the phone with this guy and one of these guys way more than they probably appreciated, but I totally appreciate their help.
Once we did eventually figure everything out we were able to grab lunch with Tyler. We hadn’t met before but because of blogs we were, once again, able to bypass all the formalities and actually talk. It’s always cool to meet someone that you feel like you know already. Cool in a weird sort of way. After the show Randy and I were able to also meet Samantha and her friend. Like most of you know, my memory is garbage so I apologize, friend, it was great to meet you. We talked for a little bit after the show and then packed everything up, and went back to Randy’s house.
All in all, a great night. I had a blast, got to see Portland again, and now I can’t wait to get home. Thanks again for watching and getting the word out. I wonder what’s next.
