As Record Executives, you’ll all want to know how our budget is coming along. So, here’s the break down so far.

I launched this site exactly one week ago.

And we’ve created a budget of $4425.00!

For the dubious marketers who are lurking in the background wondering how/if this site is going to make anything happen, here’s how it breaks down:

As of Monday night at 11pm, we’ve had 74 orders in all.

41 people pre-ordered #1 - CD Style

11 people pre-ordered #1 - Digital Style

10 people pre-ordered #2 - The “Read Grow and Listen” Package

11 people pre-ordered #3 - The “Write Me a Song, Girlfriend” Package (Sorry David and Emily - you’ve got competition!)

1 person pre-ordered “The Great Big Dreams” Package

To view the Pre-Order Packages, click here.

As an artist on your record label, I feel compelled to let you know that I spent $75 on a pedicure and manicure upon arriving in New York City on Friday night and feeling a little lonely. The woman kept offering me various foot and hand massages and waxes for additional charges, and I just kept saying yes. So it turned out to be quite the extravagant evening. In my defense - at least I didn’t trash any hotel rooms.

When I return from NYC, I’ll write a post about what it costs to make a record. Many of you have written with that question. It’s a good one.

For now, I’m very tired. We spent the day yesterday working on final vocals and guitar on “Wide Awake.” The chorus of that song goes, “As the world goes by all I know is I wanna be wide awake.” Well, after singing that line over and over and over yesterday, I was up til 2am completely wide awake. (To make matters worse, I kept hearing that stupid genie in “The Secret” saying, “Your wish is my command.”)

Today we worked on “I am the Moon.” Finished the vocals and guitar.

Most of our time has been spent arranging the songs. Trying to figure out chord progressions into the bridge and into the instrumental sections. We have had many moments of being uncomfortable about our aforementioned being “comfortable with uncertainty.” And of course, we’re laughing about it a lot. Like “What were we thinking? We can’t stand uncertainty!”

Oh, and an update on my aforementioned Kombucha sponsorship: GT’s Kombucha emailed me. They’re sending me a t-shirt. Hey - it’s progress!

Thank you thank you thank you for pre-ordering this CD and my eBook and all the other stuff!

So, what do you do on your first day in the recording studio?

I honestly don’t know what other people do.

But Ben Wisch and I are both intensity junkies. So, we spent hours talking. We talked about ego, perfectionism, and our growth since we saw each other seven years ago. He asked me about my vision for this CD and what I wanted it to be. We talked about the internet and how much it has changed music and art. We talked about envy and relationships and insecurity. He told me I was a little “tough” to work with when we did Rain & Mud & Wild Green. (ME????)

So, after four hours and lunch, we came to these conclusions:

- That we’re going to allow this recording to flow in what ever way it needs to.

- That we aren’t going to line up the musicians yet.

- That we’re going to be comfortable with not knowing anything about what should happen.

One would think that it wouldn’t take four hours to reach these simple conclusions. But starting in the studio is a vulnerable thing. So, it was good for both of us to say to each other, “We have permission to not know and to let this unfold as we go.”

One thing that trips up a lot of songwriters in the studio is trying to sound like someone else. For instance, right now, there are probably tons of people wanting their music to sound like Jack Johnson’s. Or whomever. I’ve done that. And Ben and I talked about the futility of trying to be anyone but yourself, and offering anything but what you can offer. (Though I did admit to being a bit of a pop slut and secretly loving Hannah Montana and Kelly Clarkson.)

Finally, we worked on a song called “Wide Awake.” It’s my least favorite song of all of them. And it’s Ben’s favorite. (I sent him a rough demo a few weeks back.) When we worked on Rain & Mud & Wild & Green, “The Customers” was my least favorite song as we began. I was going to dump it from the CD. But it was Ben’s favorite, and he won. (I wrote about it in this blog post.) So, he won again today!

We did some work on the arrangement of “Wide Awake.” And I played the guitar to the click track - except on the first part of the song, which has a slow floaty intro part that I sing with no real timing. So we recorded that separately, and Ben patched the click track up to the non-click track part - and made it all seemless. Tomorrow (Sunday) we begin at noon.

Why G.T.’s Kombucha should sponsor this CD

Since I arrived in NYC, I haven’t been able to find G.T.’s Kombucha anywhere in the city.

Now, let me just be clear about G.T.’s. I have no idea why I love it so much. It’s my addiction. I’ve studied the label on this stuff wondering if I might find, say, heroin as one of the ingredients. But I see nothing but healthy raw organic ingredients. Go figure.

So I looked at my shiny coated fold out NYC map and thought, “Well, that doesn’t look all that far.”

(A pause for knowing laughter from anyone who has held a fold-out map of Manhattan and thought the same thing.)

Seven hundred miles, eighty blisters and giant low back pain later, I arrived at Whole Foods and got several bottles of Kombucha. Whole Foods only uses paper bags now. And a few blocks from the store as I was hailing a cab, my bag broke.

I know. I know. It’s not such a big deal. It’s the city. These things happen.

But that, my friends, is customer loyalty.

Yesterday, Leonie wrote in a comment with several suggestions about this site. Here are her thoughts…

My suggestions would be:
1. Host a logo competition at http://www.logosauce.com for the redesign of your header banner. Banners are the first thing a person sees, and they immediately make a decision about how professional the website is and what its about.

2. Change the green graphic of record down at the bottom, make the discs black instead.

3. Remove the pop-up banner from the front. Create a static post at the top of the blog under the banner with a photo of you, and a brief reason why you are doing this and (most importantly), HOW PEOPLE CAN BE INVOLVED.

4. Rename your packages to be user-centric. I loved one of the packages being called “executive producer”
I would suggest going with this “join my team, be a part of the record label” idea by calling the rest of them music-team words. I’ve got no idea what they are… but things like the first package being “roadie” or something. And have the Executive Producer package first, going in descending rank.

5. Define exactly *how* people can be involved. People want to be involved. They just want to know exactly how to do it. Have it permanently posted either in the side bar or up the top.
i.e. “Order the CD now to be a part of the Christine Kane record label; sign up by email to be asked important decisions about the songs, record name and record design etc etc”

6. Totally my own point of view, but I don’t understand why I pay for the “song for you” package if it was just for a raffle of it. Is there another model you can go with? I think it’s a GREAT idea and like many others am totally attracted to having a song about me hee hee hee!
Basically, make it really easy and obvious for people to understand the practicality of being involved, and they’ll come in droves

Here are my responses. I’m curious to know if anyone else has thoughts on this.

First off, thanks Leonie for jumping in with ideas!

#1, #2 — Header and Overall Design

My intention with the design was about whimsical and fun more than about heavy-duty design. What I think you’re saying here is that you don’t personally like the design. Nor do you find it professional. This is fine. i also don’t want to spend my budget on web designers and presentation.

My husband said a very cool thing about websites. He said that they need to be more about conversation and less about presentation. This site is definitely about conversation. I understand that presentation is important – but it’s certainly not everything in this situation.

I’m curious to hear from other people about this. Does the look of this site dissuade participants?

#3 – Introductory Pop-Up Page

The Introductory Pop up banner only occurs for first-time visitors. I chose not to have a static blog post at the top of this page because, when I visit blogs the static post thing confuses me. Complete personal preference there. If anyone else has any thoughts – have at it.

#4 – Renaming the Pre-Order Package Deals

While I am fine with re-naming the packages to be “user-centric,” I don’t want to rank people in “levels” according to what they want to do with money.

For instance, I LOVE that so many people have already given me $15 for a CD that doesn’t yet exist. I don’t want it to be hierarchical. “If you give me $15 you’re a roadie. If you give me $1000, then I think you’re more important.” That doesn’t feel good.

The “Executive Producer Package” is called “The Executive Producer Package” because that’s what it is. If someone puts $5000 into this project, they get all the other stuff, a concert in their home AND I’ll put their name on the back as an Executive Producer. Executive Producers pay for a CD. That’s why their name is usually on the back!

The other packages are defined by what’s in them. Yes, I could’ve come up with more original package names. I’ll take any ideas about the names of each package if anyone has thoughts on this. But I don’t want to define the buyer in terms of their monetary choices.

#5 - How will people be involved

This site IS how people will be involved. The blog posts will slowly define the process. The act of creativity - whether writing a song or producing a CD - is completely unknown. I truly don’t know how any of you will be involved at this point. (I am so totally winging it here!) I don’t even know what’s going to happen once I arrive in NYC. (Last time I did a CD in NYC, I flew in at 10pm on September 10, 2001. I imagine I will experience some grief when I first arrive.) That being said, pre-ordering is going to be the HUGEST way to help make this record happen. Let’s be honest.

#6 - The “Write me a Song, Girlfriend!” Package

Strictly for extra fun. Yes, it’s almost double the price of the package before it for no other reason than the raffle. But I didn’t want to just write a song to the highest bidder. This is another experiment. I have no idea how it’ll work. (Right now, there are two people in that raffle. So maybe I’ll end up writing a song called, “Emily and David Paid Me 150 bucks each for this song.” ) I recently did a show where someone paid me $500 to sing two more songs after my encore. So, Emily and David are getting a bargain! I can’t give you a reason for buying that package. But I can tell you that if it doesn’t feel good to you, then don’t buy that package!

Lastly, there is absolutely and positively NO practicality for being involved in Be My Record Label.

This is art. Art isn’t practical.

Eight times a year I am subcontracted by the U.S. Federal Government to teach Creativity to its Leaders. Eight times a year I get evaluations that either say it was the best class ever in the history of the world and I’m wonderful - or that it was the most frivolous class ever in the history of the world and that I should go back to my hippie dippie life in Asheville. That’s creativity. That’s art. The practical part isn’t obvious until years later when you realize, “Oh my God - I’m actually happy!”

So, maybe someone has clarifications about practicality and getting involved in this site because I might be missing something here. I don’t want to pretend this site is practical, when clearly, it’s just plain not! It’s just for fun. And it’s just because the music business is changing so fast, no one knows how to make CD’s anymore!

Okay - your turn if you want to jump in here…

Welcome to my new CD!

I won’t write much on this first blog post because there’s lots more to come.

For now, you can get a free previously unreleased song just by filling in your first name and email address over there on the right.

Or you can leave a comment, or make a suggestion on what you’ve always wanted to know about making CD’s.

Or you can order your CD now - and be the first one to order!

Thanks for stopping by. More to come!