Going Public

September 23, 2008

I haven’t been posting as often to this blog lately. I am sorry about that.

But let me make it up to you. I’ve been posting elsewhere.

Some of you may remember that back in June, I shared my vision for my future?

Well, I’ve been testing and refining it — I found some interesting legs along the way — and now I have a full-fledged business plan.

And I announced it on my brand new web site, AriKoinuma.com.

Please go there, and read it now. I hope you read both the summary and the detailed versions.

And leave me a comment, send me well-wishes.

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OK, did you go and read it? Great! Now you can go on reading below — you’ll know what I’m talking about.

My Vision for Aries9

Now, what does this all mean to the future of Aries9?

I said before that I have another album’s worth of songs in the can. And they will be the first I’ll record once I start working on my business full-time.

I am so excited about my songs, and the lessons I learned from my first album that I can apply to it.

When I release it, I will release it in several ways. From the launch of my business, I will release all my music in “standard” grade mp3 for free.

Yes, that’s right. I am willingly joining the evils of digital music revolution.

But there will also be higher-grade mp3s and of course, CDs. I will sell those.

Why am I giving away my music for free, you may ask. Well, I’m doing so because I want my music to travel to far, far away, to the ends of the internet. I hope to hire a virtual assistant and have my music posted on every mp3 sites out there.

I’m doing so because I believe in the power of my music. It’s hard to stand out when I’m not gigging and promoting myself in the physical world — plus, there are so many songs out there, just releasing a few good songs isn’t really noteworthy.

But I believe that if I keep releasing consistently good music at a very prolific pace, sooner or later people will take notice. My songs are my greatest assets, and I myself feel that the average quality of all my songs are rather high. And when I used to write children’s songs for Songs of Love, I tasted what it’s like to write within a strict time-limit. I rose to the occasion every time and wrote good music, some great, even.

So I’m intending to write and release 40 songs a year. Not all of it will be the Aries9 moniker. If you’re fan of Aries9, you may not like other stuff I put out. But the chances are, you’ll still enjoy them, as they are all my songs, and they are all good.

40 songs a year is a lot of music. A typical album contains 12 songs or so, and if an artist releases one album every other year, it usually takes 6 years of a career to reach close to 40. I’m proposing to do that in a year.

And if I keep building up my catalog that way, I can amass a formidable body of work that is noteworthy.

Aries9 will be my outlet for my heaviest, darkest, most complex and most ambitious music. I realize that my first album isn’t that dark or that heavy — and the second album won’t be a major departure, though it will be a step in that direction. And after that, I plan to incorporate more metal and prog rock influences. The songs I am writing now go down lower and are meaner. I LOVE it.

Probably in the first year, I will also release my first album for my “sensitive rock” project, Aristotle’s Hope. It’ll be a nice contrast from Aries9. I am a big fan of acts like Toad the Wet Sprocket, Jars of Clay and Death Cab for Cutie — and Aristotle’s Hope will be inline with that. I have enough songs there to make an album as well. Plus, I have plans to venture out into roots rock and children’s music.

So, what’s next? I’m afraid I’m going to remain somewhat inactive on the Aries9 front, as I gear up the other aspects of the business to support what I do here. But I promise you’ll be the first to know, when I start making music. I hope it will be soon — within the next few months. I still fully plan to release my next Aries9 album in 2009.

In the mean time, check out my self-improvement blog Our Best Version, my new music recommendation site Smart Music Review. And keep checking the AriKoinuma.com blog to learn the latest news. Thanks!

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