Category: Blog

We’re about to move into a new year, which means we’ve hit the one year anniversary of what we deem the official “launch” of the site. We’ve posted 37 songs so far, and there are a lot more to go (headed to 150+, I hope). For those that are sticking with it, I really appreciate the support, and I hope you’re enjoying the songs.

As an FYI, this is the sparkline of traffic for the last year, relying almost solely on word of mouth:

 

 

Considering that someone only needs to come to the site once every 20 weeks…I think we’re holding our own. If we could add about two orders of magnitude to the underlying numbers, we might have something.

Seriously, though…thanks again. This site has been ridiculously healthy for everyone involved.

On my continued tour of places I haven’t been to…I was in Fargo, North Dakota for a night (I saw the wood chipper!). Richard Marx was playing the Fargo theatre two blocks away, and I wound up on an elevator with him at the hotel. I didn’t even know he was in town—I never looked at the concert line-up.

As I was headed to the lobby bar that night, I realized I left my iPad upstairs in my hotel room. So, I was out in the lobby, turned back around, and then went to get on an elevator to go back up. At the same time, Richard and another man with him were in the lobby dealing with fans, and then they went to the elevator as well. They got on first, and I walked on without needing to stop, right in stride. But…to them…it probably looked like I saw him, turned around, and chased him.

It was just the three of us. About half way up, I realized I had one last “gregorsongs.com” business card in my wallet (I’m out of stock). Should I give it to him? I already look like a stalker. This probably won’t go well.

I stepped out on the 9th floor with them, which was not my floor (and not his floor, as they were doing the get-out-and-then-get-another-elevator-to-go-to-the-actual-room routine). I gave him a card. He was polite. But…clearly…this has happened before.

What Richard was thinking: “I knew we shouldn’t stay in the only three star+ hotel in downtown Fargo. This is what we get. Everyone knows where I’d have to stay. This guy lives here and he’s been waiting for this moment for months. This sucks.”

What I was thinking: “I just handed my card to a guy that’s sold 30M records, and is known in the industry as a songwriting guru. Did I just lose control of my stuff?” Sure I have copyright control of these things…but you can change lyrics and chords. Who knows what it triggers.

My hunch is….the card was tossed before he got to his actual floor. But…I regret it. I should’ve left him alone.

As I’ve gone through this process the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to assess what the right pace should be for posting songs.   So far, I have to say that posting a song a week has felt a little frenetic.   It feels too fast.   I’m also concerned that if/when my schedule returns to normal, I’ll have a hard time meeting my own deadlines.

I’m going to take a stab at a different pacing.   Let’s try posting a new song every 2 weeks, on the 15^th and the 30^th of each month.

I might change my mind about that after we do some things to attract more people to the site (we’re really still in build mode here), but that’s probably a little ways off.

As usual, let me know what you think…

I’ve intentionally tried to have the look and feel of this website be different from standard music sites you find. When you go to a musician’s site, you usually see one of two things:

* Singer/Songwriters will leverage heavily on some scenery picture. They’re sitting on a beach…at sunset…with a seagull flying overhead…in a leather jacket no one would ever wear to a beach. The writer is SERIOUS. They’ve been CONTEMPLATING.

* Bands will almost always have sites that are totally black and white, with lots of bold print. You’ll find dramatic, black and white pictures of the band in mid-movement while performing. There will be lots of areas to look if you have ADD. They have ENERGY. It’s frenetic, because things are HAPPENING with the band.

I wanted something totally different from either prototype.

If you go to a site where someone sells art, you see something different. You see color. You see clean, white space. You see that the artist thought about how to make the site look different.

When I was sketching this out, that was my goal. I wanted a clean site. I wanted COLOR. I wanted the focus on the songs. I wanted someone to hit the site and say “hmmm…this is already pretty different…let me check this out.”

I may have overshot it a bit, and I may have developed something a little too niche and not bound for mass appeal. We’ll see. I’ll definitely play with the look and feel as we go…

My vision for this site is for it to be something different from the normal industry path.   I want this site to focus on individual songs.  For years, I’ve had long debates with friends about what to do with my work. The most common advice I get is that I should do the following:

* Pick 15 songs
* Record a CD with professional musicians
* Put together a band
* Perform the songs in clubs
* Sell that CD on various websites (and also while touring)
* Rinse and repeat until something hits

Make MONEY!!

Piece of cake.

In short…that’s just not my vision.  Not only does that upset my existing life, but nothing in the above list is conducive to continuing to write good songs.   And what I’ve cared about is whether or not I’m producing songs that can resonate.

If someone ELSE wants to take some of these songs and follow the above path, all good.   I’d love to see that happen.

For me, though, I’m determined to find another way, even if it means I fail at this.   Frankly, even the underlying technology itself for an everyday, individual website isn’t flexible enough to do what I want to do.  That’s actually battle #1 in the next few months.

I want this website to be different.  I want this site to be about each song.  One by one.  Updated every week.  Constantly changing.  Constantly engaging.  An ongoing discussion.  A place someone can come to every week for something unique.  It’s a different model, but let’s see how that goes…