Speakerheart

It's Monday

It's Monday!

We are working through an issue on the listener side right now with Adobe.  We are noticing some browser problems while navigating from a search page to an artist storefront.  We have not had a ticket opened up on it but we are noticing the problem internally.   

We finally got some more flex talent on board, Justin joins us on Wednesday.  Cherie is working on the new bios page which should be up in the next week or so.

We had another fun evening on Wednesday.  Half the team was at Christopher's for our regular show and a few team members then headed over to the Stephen Marley show at Exit Inn where we sponsored the VIP Packages.   A couple of pics for ya.

Lee Pepper

Speakerheart

Back in Nashville

We made it back from a successful trip to LA.  David and I met with Nashville artist Cheyenne Medders for lunch yesterday.  We brainstormed on the service and future events in Nashville and Little Rock, AR. If you are in the Little Rock area, send us an email so we can hook up. Cheyenne had a great comment about Speakerheart helping create the "music middle class."  I thought that was insightful because it really speaks to the new music business models evolving.  Artists are looking for  opportunities to write, perform, sell and make a living first.  If they sell a million units great but what about the folks selling 5K, 10K, 50K.  Exciting opportunities continue to evolve as artists set their own prices (or like Radiohead let the fans set the price), control their own merchandising, own their publishing etc.

Here are some pics from the Nettwerk showcase.

Lee Pepper

Speakerheart

Digital Music Forum West and Nettwerk Showcase

We are rolling to Digital Music Forum West today.  David Wright will be a panel moderator.  Jozef and Brad left Monday for a series of meetings.  The conference should be stellar. 

Showcase will feature Nettwerk artist Sara Melson and Speakerheart fan Josh Doyle. Check them out.

We pushed the new homepage out this afternoon.  It's all wide open now.  We are going to keep it in beta mode while we monitor the app and infrastructure for a few days more.  Let us know if  you are having any issues.  If you are posting on Facebook be sure to turn on Advanced Walls within Facebook and post the shelves there.   Friendster, Facebook and MySpace all look good so far.  It takes a decent speed connection.

Lee Pepper

Speakerheart

Soft Launch of Listener and Storefronts

This morning we pulled the trigger on our Artist side.  Shelves, storefronts, artist's search etc. are all live.  We have not updated our storefront yet.   We will probably swap that in a few days.  We want to have a few days more for artists to use the app.  Listeners can access it but have to go through an artist's storefront or shelf.  They cannot hit it through speakerheart.com. 

Enjoying Next Big Nashville, Speakerheart Style

Friday night could be described as one of great music.  Next Big Nashville has taken over the city, and we started out at the Rutledge to see David Condos perform backed by a full band.  Condos rocked out and the songs felt as tight as the album.  The cello was a great touch and provided a cool dynamic on stage.  He concluded his set with what is becoming his trademark song "I Should Be Lost Without You", recently featured on Barnes & Noble's Sunday Music compilation.  I particularly enjoyed the harmonies on the live version of the song.

Next we rushed over to 12th and Porter to catch the end of Brandon Young's set.  Young sounded great and looks ready for his upcoming studio time in October.

After 12th and Porter, it was off to Cannery Ballroom for Butterfly Boucher, followed by Jeremy Lister.  Jeremy put on a great performance, as expected, complete with a duet with Katie Herzig.

Once Jeremy's set concluded, we walked next door to hear Brooke Waggoner.  This is the first time I've heard Brooke live and I was blown away.  It was refreshing to hear a set of keyboard, cello and violin, and Brooke nearly silenced the crowd at Mercy Lounge with her intimate stories and grace reminiscent of a Regina Spektor performance.  I picked up her recently-released EP Fresh Pair of Eyes and it doesn't disappoint.  This is the type of album I hope to see on Speakerheart as we approach our full launch.  The night concluded with Paper Route putting on a memorable performance to a packed house.  We have a great podcast we captured of Paper Route a few months ago that we can't wait to debut.

There's more great music to be enjoyed tonight, including Matthew Perryman Jones and Gabe Dixon Band.  Jones will be part of our Pies and Pints showcase at Christopher Pizza on September 26th.  Speaking of Pies and Pints, join us this Wednesday for a fantastic lineup as The Music Society Nashville and Speakerheart present Josh Doyle, Natalie Prass, David Condos and Patrick Coman.  The doors will open at 8 p.m. and music starts at 9 p.m.  See you there.

ddub

Bongo Java Free OJ Giveaway

The Speakerheart team hit Bongo Java at Belmont this morning with free orange juice and live performances from David Condos, Allie Peden and Adam Agin 

The event coincides with our continued closed beta and promotion of our artist showcases every Wednesday night at Christopher's this month. 

Thanks again to David, Allie and Adam for a nice performance and thanks to Belmont for a great turnout!

Continued Progress

We are set for another build this aftenoon.  Looks like Labor Day will be a day or work as we prep the final touches for our pending launch.  Wayne has our reporting services looking good and we should have our new sharepoint server online today too.  Stephen is finishing up the paypal connects.

Hypebot published the short interview with Jozef.  Hypebot Article

Our very own David Condos is included in Barnes and Noble new compilation mix  Sunday Music

Conditions are perfect for our Wednesday nights at Christopher's showcases.  If you are in the Nashville area, come meet us at Christopher's on Demonbreum (sp?) :)

Look for David and Bill and other reps of the Speakerheart gang who aren't busy reading Dr. Seuss to their wee ones.

Friend us on myspace! 

ciao,

Lee Pepper

Walk before run

It's 6 am-ish and my 9 month old, Cy, just started walking big time yesterday and of course he is up and at it early this morning.  Speakerheart like Cy is walking and close to our running stage in mid-September.  Progress continues on the app front.  Download, shopping cart, shelf functionality are all in our latest test build.  Mike, Burke and Stephen are doing an amazing job making things happen. We just hired a new resource who happens to play a little guitar.  We'll try to get some clips. :)

Wednesday was a crazy day of activity.  Jozef and I started with a breakfast meeting at the local Nashville power breakfast location Noshville off of Music Row.  Scott Welch, music industry veteran including tour managing with Van Halen and Quiet Riot as well as managing Alanis Morrisette early on, met with us through a recommendation from Kelli Richards.   Thanks Kelli! 

By the time we got back to the office David Pack and Billy Dean were at the office brainstorming.  We had some great meetings about reaching out to singer/songwriters and refining the service.  After lunch David and Billy played a set for the team in the office. 

And yes, Billy serenaded Audrey in honor of her pending nuptials!

Lee Pepper

Live from Exit/In: BarCamp Nashville

I must admit it's a bit odd to be writing a blog from inside Exit/In, let alone have my computer open, be connected to the internet, be in a slightly work-directed mindset and have my laptop bag beside me, but the occasion is BarCamp Nashville.  It's hotter than a rock show, at least temperature-wise.   I'm currently listening to the presentation "Design for the User" by Matt Reed of Nashville design firm Cabedge, first reminding us to think about the designer, client, user and Google.

In other news, CMJ picked up our latest and greatest yesterday complete with a catchy title.  Speaking of CMJ, we hope to be in NYC for the Marathon in mid-October.  More info on that to come.

Chris Wage of CentreSource gave a nice overview of what Web 2.0 is and isn't earlier, the core of his message being that it is participatory, has open communication (two-way), decentralized architecture (less monolithic), includes social networking and is evolving into a semantic Web.

Well, back to networking for now.

dw

Speakerheart love

As Lee mentioned, Speakerheart saw some press pickup yesterday in announcing our spin off from PassAlong Networks.  Hypebot, Billboard, Digital Media Wire, Coolfer and inclusion as a new application at Simple Spark.  All-in-all, a pretty good day.  Also, check out our newer, fancier tutorial complete with enlarging images for you interactive types.  And yes, that's one of Nashville's great young songwriters, David Condos, whose debut album was declared "quite an achievement" by American Songwriter.

dw