The Soda Shop
In the past few months, I've felt an incredible push to find some career within the music industry. Originally, I thought it'd be fun to help out with an independent record label, promoting the music that I hold dear. Then, in February, that abruptly changed. In meeting a music industry contact, I gained a brand new opportunity, and that opportunity was to start an Internet radio station. Instantly, I felt like this was a brilliant idea, and now it's time to introduce that to those of you that may stumble upon my blog.
The name of the radio station is, you guessed it, 'The Soda Shop'. The station was not my idea. It was mentioned by Ron, my industry contact/business partner, that I should start up my own radio station online. I thought the idea was brilliant and thus born was The Soda Shop. Of course, I couldn't just band wagon jump. It's only natural that my station be as unique as myself. The station is going to be unique in several different ways, and in two ways specifically. The first is that it's going to focus on stoner rock and doom metal, but it will also play other great rock acts, as well. Why stoner rock and doom metal? Simple, that's the music that I love, and I feel that it's entirely underrated. The second unique aspect of The Soda Shop is that the intention is to bring attention to the lesser known stoner bands, the up-and-coming stoner and doom bands. If the genre is going to thrive, new blood needs to be exposed, and that's what we want to do.
The station's progress is rapidly picking up. We've been gaining quite a bit of band support from all around the world which is always a great motivation. We have received nearly a dozen separate albums from bands, and that number continues to grow every week. The station currently is streaming 24/7 on ustream (or, as reliably as one can expect on ustream). There's no set programming schedule yet, but along with the site coming up here in the next couple of weeks, the station should have a set programming schedule.
I am extremely excited about the site coming online. It's going to be greatly interactive. The biggest feature that should set us apart will be that bands will be able to have their own pages that they can edit themselves. Bands will be able to update their bios with current tour dates, discographies, links, and will be able to upload some sample tracks for visitors to play. Eventually, we hope that the site will also allow for fans to buy music downloads (and even physical copies?) of music from the site, which should also be available on band pages. The site will have a forum that will allow for great discussion amongst fans and bands. It'll also have sections for bands and venues to connect for gigs, for bands to look for new members, promote new albums and tours, and much more. Of course, this is only a small bit of what all will be available on the site.
I will have more information in the upcoming days and weeks, so hopefully I'll remember to keep posting updates on this blog for all to read.
LINKS TO STREAM/SITE/SOCIAL NETWORKS
MySpace | last.fm | facebook | Twitter | thesodashop.us | stream