Newsletter - January 2023

A new website and a 2023 plan (sort of!)

Hello,

It’s still January!

It seems to have been January for a long time.

Does time go slower when the days are shorter?

In my little corner of Scotland is has been mostly, wet, with periods of bitter cold and ice and a scattering of snow covered days.

I even spotted a frosted palm tree nearby on one snowy day - only in Scotland?

I took some time away from music, the streaming platforms, being online, obsessing over numbers etc over the Christmas and New Year period with the thought that the time saved would help me get some plans organised for music, writing and creative projects for the coming year. However, I received a 1000 page book on Christmas Day and that was the end of that idea…

Took me nearly 3 weeks to find out that **** did it!

Planning for me takes the form of a series of scribbly pages in various notebooks - like this …

This runs on over several pages at which point I may well ignore my thinking altogether.

There was no real mention or thoughts of a new website amongst the scratchy pages.

Which is why I decided to go back to the future and create a new website!

And here it is SIGNALSCOTT

Nice hat!

Who needs a website in 2023 I hear you ask?

Have I not heard of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, TikTok -I can have pages on all of these (and more) and they are FREE - aren’t they?

Yes, I've dabbled in all of those and could write extensively about them (another time!) but I’ve followed the advice of someone who knows about being an online creative more than most and he says:

There are lots of reasons for having your own website and my uncomfortableness (is that a word?) with some of the big tech platforms feeds into this.

I would like somewhere I can stream my own music, allow downloads of music and the guides and tips I’m working on as well as having a blog where I can work up some of my ideas and of course this newsletter which is where I can summarise and share what I’ve been up to.

My own work with the Signal Source Unknown music project is at the heart of this but it’s not all about me!

I’ve been lucky enough to encounter some great emerging artists and independent musicians and I’d like to use Signal Scott to discover and promote the talents of the other musicians, bands, and creatives that I come across, giving you an inside look at their creative processes and their stories through interviews and features.

Instagram is great for searching and discovery and it’s certainly my favoured of the big platforms but I’m not convinced you can really run a successful creative project from there.

The favoured model for music on-line is to distribute to the big streaming platforms and try to push listeners to them (usually Spotify) but where is the real benefit for the smaller independent in that model?

And so I do like the idea of having a central place for everything (or most things). Of course not everyone wants to dig through a website for new music or articles and that is where this newsletter comes in as it acts as a summary of what’s going on and coming up.

It also keeps me right as I sometimes wonder what I’ve actually been doing and when.

Which brings me back to plans.

EP-Album

In the first part of this year, I’d like to package up the music tracks I’ve done so far, and finish off the two I’ve got demoed and then make them available on the SIGNALSCOTT website to download.

As part of that I’m going to remix parts to improve (hopefully) and try out a new mixing/mastering set up that I’ve not got yet!

A preview of one of the new tracks named “Wake Up Fireflies” is here

Newsletter

The newsletter will be a monthly update on creative projects and the development of the website. I’d also like to do a monthly Music edition for promotion of other musicians, bands, and creatives with interviews and profiles.

A bit like this one

If you would like to be featured or know of someone who would then please let them (and me) know. If they sign up for this newsletter they can email me directly (by replying to the newsletter).

I hope you'll continue to enjoy my music and writing this year!

Until next time! E