My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[J Posega]

I'm hoping that my two album solo debut will come out this year. Seriously. It's all instrumental though, so I'm not convinced it will do anything financially, nor am I really pushing it that way. I might try for some licensing, but there again, not holding my breath.

Sign up for Distrokid as a distributor. For $20 a year and 15% off the top they'll send your stuff to 150+ streaming sites and music marketplaces (Spotify, iTunes, etc).

I can send you a discount code to get a Songtrust account for $25 ish. They'll collect publishing royalties AND sign you up with ASCAP. For less than it would cost to register directly with ASCAP.

Sign up with SoundExchange for master royalties handling, and stuff like international royalty collection.

For $45 you'll be in place to actually collect anything you might earn and you'll be in a position to actually earn something because you'll be steaming everywhere.

This is what I've done for an album I just released under my fledgling indie label. It sucks to throw more money at something in hopes of earning a profit but it's the nature of the beast.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I'm hoping that my two album solo debut will come out this year. Seriously. It's all instrumental though, so I'm not convinced it will do anything financially, nor am I really pushing it that way. I might try for some licensing, but there again, not holding my breath.

All the best with your release.

These days, social media can bring wide attention to your work. I've seen so many brilliant people fail to connect. It isn't just about hearing it, it's about selling it to people. Hard work is needed but luck and happenstance seems to play a large roll in making contacts that can pay off.

Years ago I did an industrial video featuring robots. There was narration and some scoring. That helped open other doors in film, something that you could never plan. Interesting aside, the voiceover was done in an enechoic chamber. I just wanted a quiet place to work. It was a odd sensation to spend a day in that sort of isolation. The dryness of the voice worked very well in that application, adding an intimacy which stood out. It was a happy accident and led to using that room on other occasions.

 

[DigitalMan]

There was a VERY brief consideration of doing a cash-out refinance on our mortgage either for the portion remaining on the studio (around $20,000), or the maximum amount we could borrow before hitting 75% LTV (around $67,000). Either scenario comes with such a drastic cost differential compared to financing it ourselves due to the fact that we'd be amortizing the added principal and interest payments over 30-years. The studio's remaining $20,000 would have cost me $50,760 by the time it was paid off in 30-years based on today's rates. It's possible that we'll have sold the house by then, but we're assuming that we'll be here for a long time, short of winning the lottery

That cost differential was not appealing in the least, so we're just going to fund it ourselves. All that means is that I really need to buckle down on finances and get very aggressive with my allocation towards projects each month.

We did a refinance of our primary mortgage several times when the interest rates kept dropping about five years ago. One thing we did was kept the term date the same so we didn't extend back to 30 years each time. Depending on where you are at in the lifecycle of the primary, getting a "30 year" mortgage for a shorter period might work.

 

[silky smoove]

That's a non-starter. We're only two years into our mortgage. The value of the house, along with the rest of the Seattle housing market has shot WAY up in those two years which provides a lot of equity to work with, but doesn't negate the reality of amortizing the cost of a project over 30-years.

 

[silky smoove]

Got the new deadbolt in the mail last night. I'm helping a buddy move tomorrow (one of the two guys who helped me build the base course of blocks way back many pages ago in this thread), and Sunday I need to repair a problematic gutter on my house. Next week is looking good to get that in-place. Pretty sad as far as updates go, but... At least it's sunny out!

 

[silky smoove]

Deadbolt keypad is now functional!

 

[Ulf_Hansson]

Deadbolt keypad is now functional!

Safe and sound!

 

[silky smoove]

Nothing about this door can go smoothly can it? The sign guys came out and replaced my door logo since the old one left with the original door (the leaky one). The new door has a larger glazing section, so the sign could be upsized from 18" to 24". Hooray!

I told them to install it with the top of the lettering 9" down from the top of the glazing, but instead they installed it 16" down from the top of the glazing. The difference amounts to a little more than one "logo's height." I'm really torn as to whether I should have them redo it, or just live with the placement. In the photo below it looks pretty good, but when you're standing in front of the door it looks too low.

What say you talkbass peanut gallery? Leave it, or have them come back and move it up?

 

[J Posega]

Look at it this way (no pun intended), it's not like you're getting a lot of walk-in clients in your backyard. I think it looks decently proportioned in the photo.

Your adventures terrify me about the prospect of taking on a project like this someday. I can't do any of the construction, but then again by the time I could afford to build a studio I'll have had plenty of time to learn.

 

[crlujan]

Leave it.

 

[Stevorebob]

It appears to be optically correct. I think it looks good.

 

[somegeezer]

Looks fine and groovy. I'd be happy with a logo looking that good on my door.

 

[beans-on-toast]

It looks good as is.

I would avoid using up additional stress over this. There will be plenty of other things to stress over. Often signs are positioned at eye level. You want people to know what door to use, the sign accomplishes that.

I like the color of the siding. The glass color compliments it well. The dark door hardware goes with the sign color. Having them closer together frames them and catches the eye. All small details but it turned out well.

 

[Drucifer]

For what it's worth, I think it looks great. Pick your battles, you'll have plenty.

 

[stevenA800]

I don't see a problem

 

[TedH]

Leave it be!

 

[silky smoove]

Often signs are positioned at eye level. You want people to know what door to use, the sign accomplishes that.

Therein lies the rub. The picture is deceiving because what it doesn't highlight is the fact that you walk down to the door from a higher elevation. It's currently just a dirt mound, but once the electrical is in-place I'll be constructing a nice landing area with concrete pavers and concrete block stairs (2-3 steps).

When you approach the door now the sign hits me at about my sternum. I'm quite tall (6'-6"), so I had my wife walk up to it. She's a foot shorter than me (5'-6") and the sign was still well below her eye level. Sort of at the top of her chest. I specified 9" down from the top of the glazing so that the sign would be at eye level when you approach the door.

 

[pbassjbass]

I'd get it fixed, otherwise I'd be reminded of it everytime I stepped to the door.

 

[peterpalmieri]

It looks great where it is. You are way over thinking this. People see it as they approach so the angle is less significant. By the time you get to the door your eye looks down for a bell or to open the door. Nobody is going to stand a foot from the door and stare at it.

I'm pretty particular but I think you move on.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Therein lies the rub. The picture is deceiving because what it doesn't highlight is the fact that you walk down to the door from a higher elevation. It's currently just a dirt mound, but once the electrical is in-place I'll be constructing a nice landing area with concrete pavers and concrete block stairs (2-3 steps).

When you approach the door now the sign hits me at about my sternum. I'm quite tall (6'-6"), so I had my wife walk up to it. She's a foot shorter than me (5'-6") and the sign was still well below her eye level. Sort of at the top of her chest. I specified 9" down from the top of the glazing so that the sign would be at eye level when you approach the door.

Being tall certainly changes your perspective and I can see why you would want it positioned higher. Good enough is never good enough when you have a high attention to detail.

I see a lot of store signs and business hours on doors that are around the level of the door hardware. You'd think that the sign installer mounted it where they normally would on this type of door. In tems of scale on the door, I think that it looks good. Where it aligns with your eye is something else.

I think that Pete makes a good point, people will look at the sign from a distance. That mitigates positioning issues.