Friday, June 3, 2011

6 Month Goal Up-date


I posted my plans & goals for 2011 at the beginning of the year so I (and others) could learn from both my successes and my failures. This post is to do an up-date...and to invite others along for the ride! You need a CD produced, engineered, or mastered? You need a guitarist for a studio or live gig? You wanna partner for one of the biz opportunities (recording studio, SD-TV, etc?)? You want a job as a guitar instructor, booking agent, personal rep, or PR agent? Or perhaps you just wanna duplicate my right moves and avoid my wrong moves? READ ON!

The original post with my goals & plans for 2011 is here:

http://skinnydevilmusic.blogspot.com/2011/02/sdml-creative-biz-goals-for-2011.html

How am I doing? Let's see:

1) Skinny Devil TV: Has mutated to web-cast...but currently on-hold. Several super artists lined up, but the financial support is just not there right now. Comes down to cash.....

2) A Personal Note: New logo, but has taken a back seat to other projects. Will ramp up at summer's end.

3) Music Production: The original post said: "Get back into producing, engineering, & mastering. In addition to Alien Blue, engineer &/or produce &/or master 6 projects this year." This one has taken off....student AND non-student projects: Already worked as producer on Sydney Cubit's up-coming CD and am actively involved with other student CDs (John Davis, Caitlyn Capriette, Paul Felice, Julia Knight, Chung Yen Twins, etc.), touring area studios, several non-student production & guitar player gigs on the table, and more. PLUS gigs as guitarist (see below).

4) Alien Blue: Half the CD was recorded at Open Sky Studio (Atlanta) and sessions are being set up for 13 O'clock Studios (Richmond) and Sneak Attack Studio (Lexington) and possible Pinnacle Studio (Lexington). Plus hope to record some live shows & maybe include some live trax on the new CD!

5) Skinny Devil Magazine: Totally on hold at the moment.

6) SDML Instructor Network: Original post said: "Actively work to expand the SDML Instructor Network to include instructors in at least 5 states outside KY. Produce expanded teaching & business materials." 2 additional states as of this writing have instructors-in-training!

7) Gun for Hire: As with item #3....played guitar on Sydney's CD and will have guitar credits on at least 2 more and a couple possible offers on the table! In addition, played bass & am currently recording guitars on a multi-state project (Pharaoh 2.0) and guitar clips for a dance project out of Denmark.

8) Film/TV/media and Music Licensing: One film credit for producing 3 songs for Caitlyn Capriette that appear in the movie "No Lost Cause"....and one more to go!

9) Endorsement Deals: I've dropped most of my old deals and will be pursuing new deals at year's end.

10) Skinny Devil Records: We'll see how this pans out by years end.....

11) Recording Studio: Original post: "Partner to open recording studio by end of 2011." Not sure how this one is going to go down. The continuing recession has put a big damper on this as well as item #1.

12) Music Workshops: On hold.

13) Student Opps: Glad this has taken off!!! Some I have provided and some not, but I have students in all manner of projects now...from touring the southern US to movies to Hard Rock Cafe & Six Flags gigs to opening for nationally touring acts to CD releases to radio airplay to big festivals.....and cutting deals with area recording studios to provide discounts for student projects....BOOM!

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Also in the original post I mentioned reducing teaching to 4 days a week (done as of June 2011), aggressively reducing debt (car is now paid off and I have little debt left other than my house payment), and increasing income by 50% (not done yet, but currently at about 10% increase).

4 out of 13 are on hold, and 8 out of 13 should meet or exceed expectations by year's end.

I'll check in again at the 3/4 mark and see how things are progressing!!!