dEUS and Tinkerbell

Desiring a distraction today from watching Tinkerbell for the hundredth time with my little girl, I decided to check out some new music and thus came my introduction to dEUS.  To say the least I'm blown away by them.  I had a hard time wanting to listen to the rest of the CD because I found I just wanted to listen to the first track over and over and over.  Trust me, the rest of the album does not disappoint.  Check them out if you like to listen to experimental rock.  It's like and incredible amalgam of classical, jazz and rock.

dEUS Worst Case Scenario

 I was a little skeptical that my next CD to listen to was Captain Yonder.  Another band that I really knew nothing about.  I only listened to a couple of songs and decided to download it for later. It's very melodic, iTunes says the genre is alternative??? but sounds more like folk to me.  

Captain Yonder

If you have any input on these two bands, please fill me in.  Now it's back to Tinkerbell, who needs rescuing and so does my little one.  Where's the pixie dust?

SEO and R.E.M.

Today really was not my favorite day.  I spent the majority of it researching SEO, marketing and spiders.  I'm not as clueless as I was before but I am, without a doubt, a newbie.  The day was made better by R.E.M.  Another one of my favorite bands.  To make me feel better, and to share the love, I took a break from my research (and playing Castleville) to list 3 of their CDs.

Automatic For the People

 This CD is my favorite R.E.M. album.  But it does not contain my favorite song by them.  My favorite song is Losing My Religion.  Every time I hear that song it hits me like a ton of bricks.  It's me.

Eponymous

 Eponymous is a best of album and I like it a lot.  It's a great intro to who they were in the early years.

Green

Indie = Love

I love Indie music and I've decided to really build my store around it  I have tons of CDs that can be pretty tough to find and I just want to share the love.  My latest effort is starting a pinterest board: Indie = Love

Now I'm not saying that I love all Indie music, there's plenty out there that I don't enjoy, but isn't that the point?  To me it's about getting out of the mainstream, showing some spirit and giving the struggling bands a chance because they are making some really great music that never gets the notice it deserves.  

Now my store is def. a work in progress and especially the Indie selection.  There's no doubt that mainstream sells better and I have bills to pay so you'll find both at AK Music Storm but here's a link to my growing Indie selection - ak music storm/Indie

Here's hoping that I can bring this dream to reality!

The Stay at Home Dad and iPods

This is my post about why I love having a stay-at-home dad why it works so well for us.  I know that many people cannot understand why I, as the mother would choose to go to work.  There is many reasons and here are a few of my favorites.

Having a house-husband is the best.  When something breaks down, he's there to fix it.  Many a morning I've left to go to work with say a dripping faucet and I come home and Voila! it's fixed.  Ditto for the stove and septic system.  It's a bonus that he's a wonderful cook, cleans up after himself and when pesky telephone salesmen call, he actually has some fun with them.

Our baby is daddy's little girl.  They are building such a strong bond and relationship that will carry them through life.  

Financially it make sense.  I have a decent job only 4 miles from our home as an office manager.  Nick, my husband, is self employed and works out of our home.  He mechanics, welds and for the most part runs our store.  He is our in house repair tech, so if you buy one of our iPods, cameras or any gizmo he has probably refurbished it.  Most of our iPods come with new batteries, he likes to run diagnostics on the hard drive to make sure it's up to snuff.  He loves to talk on the phone to our customers about any questions they have and offers a 90 day labor warranty on all our electronics.  It's so nice that he is at home to do all this.  So don't hesitate to buy from us if you are worried about the used condition.  We'll go out of our way to make sure you'll get a good deal.  Shop at our store:  akmusicstorm

40 gb iPod

 

 Here's a few of our favorite products.  These Nano iPods are just cute!

 Brand New - I adore this band

 The Police - Every Breath You Take - I love the 80's!

Life Is a Highway

Yes, We Accept Visa and Mastercard

After what seemed like a trillion phone calls, applications and trips to the bank we now have our credit card processing up and running!  We were pretty picky about our processor and what we wanted, or actually didn't want.  We didn't want to see your credit card number so we searched out the best security certificate and found the right processor for us.  So now, if you buy from our store it is private and secure.  We did reluctantly agree to accept orders by phone and we will have to manually process those orders.  If you are thinking about starting an online business and need some advice, don't hesitate to ask.  My brain is overflowing with what I'm learning.

Next, we are going to focus on advertising.  I've been researching SEO, my husband has been looking at other sites and avenues.  More about that later when I've got more to share!

Rolling Stones & eBay

For the first time I sat and enjoyed a Rolling Stone album I've never listened to before, Bridge to Babylon.  I don't have it for sale at musicstorm but on my eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/spindriftgifts

We've been selling on eBay for several years and for the most part, sales have been good and steady but the fees are killing us, hence the step out to the new store.  We'll be keeping the eBay store open, its main function will be to promote ak Music Storm.  Check it out, there is some great music over there that may never find itself here.  I'm way to lazy to keep re-listing the old music when I have so much new to share.

Although I know I will have to keep popular, mainstream music listed, my passion is for Indie and local bands.  I raised 3 boys and all 3 have been involved in bands.  It was so much fun going to their shows, watching them open for the main acts, going to the festivals and just jamming in the garage.  I loved every minute of it and want to share that love with you. 

Bugs

Last night we tracked down some issues with the store site and hopefully those are worked out.  Who knew that offering free shipping on all of our products would be so difficult to set up  Some irony there because we offer free shipping to keep it simple.  Hopefully the merchant processing will get worked out tomorrow and we will be able to accept credit cards along with paypal.  

On the plus side, it is a beautiful day here in Alaska.  The sun is shining, the snow may start melting and music is playing.  I hope your day is just as wonderful!

Brand New (the Band)

Today I posted a CD of one of my favorite bands.  I love the band Brand New, but they are insanely hard to buy online.  There's not a whole lot of CDs out there but that's not really the problem.  Try putting Brand New in any search engine and the hits are enormous.  Now I know there is a way to filter out all the other things but I don't have the patience for that.  So I put it everywhere I could today, tweeted, pinned, facebooked and now blogged.  I've been trying to post the picture of the CD, which is their Daisy album, but the site isn't letting me upload.  I tried, Brand New, I tried.


PS - Please come to Alaska

Details

There so many more details to opening an online store that I did not consider.  Endless applications for business license, SSL certificates, merchant processing.  Ugh, to all that.  I'm taking the next 2 days off of my day job to help get these details cleared up (actually only the merchant processing is left), and to finish up last years taxes.  I noticed eBay is offering free listings for the next couple of weeks so I'll jump on that as well.  The images above are just a few of the CDs that I've posted in the last few days.  The Dr. Hook is one of my favorites.  I'd say that the best part of opening up a music store is getting to listen to the music. 

More than just CDs

We sell more than just CDs.  iPod anyone?

I wasn't the biggest "Friends" fan but I would watch it when I could and always sang out loud with the Rembrandts

I use to own a camera just like this one and loved it.  It takes great pictures for a shoot and point.  10.0 mp and 15x zoom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WooHoo! Live Store today!

Almost Live!

I made it a goal to go live with the store by tomorrow.  I think I am pretty close to it.  I still a ton of product to post but most to the details have been worked out.  I'm not too happy with the artwork yet but I downloaded paint.net to play with it some more.  I listed some more CDs and one of our best cameras on this site.  So here we go, fingers crossed for tomorrow!