About
This Web site (https://www.scottcooley.com) was created by Scott Cooley, a songwriter and recording artist from Michigan. It is where Scott Cooley posts information he writes about himself, as it pertains to him writing songs, recording them, and releasing them for music streaming. It is a collection of web pages published on a Google server. Its topic is the singer-songwriter/solo artist Scott Cooley, and is intended primarily for entertainment. The domain includes the subdomain blog.scottcooley.com - the purpose of which is news about Scott Cooley's songwriting and recording activities. It is a publicly accessible site on the World Wide Web, and can be accessed on computer, tablet and smartphone devices via any web browser app. Written in HTML and hosted in the cloud, it offers text, photos, videos and audio that are primarily related to original music written and recorded by Scott Cooley. The primary purposes are advertising of Scott Cooley's recordings, and information about Scott Cooley of interest to fans of his music.
Vision
Where we want to be is a future state in which Scott Cooley's album sales and song licensing royalties surpass merely offsetting costs to provide profitability due to steady growth in exposure, notability and recommendation.
Mission
Make it easy for people to:
Buy Music: Make it easy for people to purchase Scott Cooley recordings (albums and songs) released on the Scott Cooley Records label via integrated Amazon shopping cart (for CDs) and by providing links to popular online digital music (MP3 albums/songs) stores (Google Play, iTunes, etc.). The business model is a blend of:
General Shopping (the Store page serves as a virtual mall that allows you to shop for Scott Cooley albums, songs, CDs, and MP3 downloads without leaving the site, however, you must leave the site to purchase them).
Comparison (the Store page has direct links to the same Scott Cooley products for sale at different online stores, and offers summaries of features of each service for comparison).
Content / Niche (the Store page provides access to Scott Cooley music content).
User-Generated / Social Shopping (by providing reviews, lists, forums, groups and other social networking features with buy buttons, widgets and links).
License Songs: Make it easy for people (artists, artist reps, music supervisors, etc.) to license Scott Cooley songs to record cover versions of them and release them, and also to license Scott Cooley's studio recordings of his own material for use in film soundtracks, etc.
Find Out More: Make it easy for people (fans and music journalists) to learn more about Scott Cooley and his songs by providing detailed biographical and recording information; as well as making available additional items of interest such as free photos, videos, poems, lyrics, news, etc.
Make Connections: Make it easy for people interested in becoming more involved as a fan of Scott Cooley the solo artist by providing methods of interaction such as an email list, forum, blog, volunteer and discount opportunities, live performance calendar, social media, and contact information.
Strategic Areas Of Focus
Strive To Reach A Wider Audience: Aside from the DIY work on releasing new product (songwriting, recording, performing, producing, copyrighting, publishing, pitching, licensing, packaging and distributing Scott Cooley albums, updating this site) and pursuing various commercial and promotional opportunities, the remaining work focuses on laying the groundwork for others to easily lend their contributions in any way they think will help advance this mission and ultimately result in Scott's music reaching a wider audience.
Make It Easy For Others To Help: In doing so, we aim to merely guide, nurture and protect the more permanent community created by the culture of appreciators of Scott Cooley music and songs to grow a "street team." We strive to foster complete freedom of selection of roles and involvement levels for anyone to leverage his or her creative abilities to promote the unique and common experience of appreciation of Scott Cooley songs.
Core Belief
We believe that participation in the act of enjoying music that features songs written by Scott Cooley can produce positive spiritual change in the world.
In support of this belief and the ongoing cultivation of this culture, there are two things we recommend to those interested in helping spread the word about the music:
Listening to a variety of Scott Cooley songs must occur prior to a decision to participate.
Participation is always more important than sponsorship in the sustainability of this mission.
Sustainability
It is our sincerest hope that the tradition of Scott Cooley album release events announced herein every two years will at a minimum endure as a self-supporting enterprise that is capable of sustaining the community of participants who dedicate themselves to this mission. Should a financial profit ever become a reality due to the gifts of a growing community, the quality of the subsequent albums and songs they celebrate may improve, but this mission will likely stay the same.
Created With and Powered By
The Scott Cooley Cloud was created and is maintained by Scott Cooley with the aid of hardware and software from Google and Amazon:
This site is hosted "in the cloud" and utilizes free infrastructure and services from Google, which include Apps, Analytics, Webmaster Tools and Sites to design, develop & host.
It also uses free "cloud computing" technologies and e-commerce services from Amazon, which let you shop for and buy Scott Cooley music from the convenience of our Store page.
Utility Links
These pages provide important information about your interaction with this site and its creators:
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | FAQ | RSS Feeds | Search | Sitemap | Contact Us | Help | Accessibility
Domain Details
Site History
This section is the humorously honest version of the continuing story of scottcooley.com.
Background Information
The pages on scottcooley.com provide straightforward information about the songs of Scott Cooley, written by Scott Cooley himself but intended to sound like someone else wrote it about him. A lot of it is humorous hype, fluff, or total B.S. provided for your entertainment. The content on these pages inconsistently use the first and third person, but you can rest assured, I (Scott) wrote it all myself. This site began as a way for Scott to experiment with web site development in order to gain knowledge and skills that would benefit him in his evolving day job and technical writing career, but it has also provided a way for Scott to make the results of his songwriting hobby accessible to the world.
What started as a site that was served to you from the secret man cave under the stairs in the basement of Scott’s humble home; and powered & hosted for your enjoyment almost daily from the giant, old-school, beige tower-style Gateway desktop computer for two years, this is a continuation of Scott’s first and ongoing foray into the world of DIY Web stuff, for the dual purpose of learning a little about web writing and e-commerce while getting the word out about his songs.
Writing about yourself is as fun as talking about yourself, but at the same time makes you feel uncomfortable. The concept of "faking it 'till you make it" just doesn't feel right, but instead of deciding it's a little crazy and deleting it all, once you get going on it, it's easy to get carried away. Obviously, I've gotten carried away, but maybe preserving information about one's hobby will be of value to someone, someday, you never know.
Track the Evolution
To view an historical list of updates by page, see the Sitemap Tree View.
See also the News page for site updates and announcements in reverse chronological order.
See also the global Recent Changes page for a recent revision history of site activity.
Archives
Click the images below to enlarge and view screen shots from the original scottcooley.com (circa 2007) that leveraged Dreamweaver, SnagIt, Oracle Tutor Author & Publisher, MS Internet Information Server and Zonedit technologies:
Original Home Page
Original Store Page
How The Site's Purpose Has Changed
Webmastering - Most agree one needs a reason to have a Web site, so for lack of a better one, this site initially provided a way for Scott to use the domain name he registered years ago for the usual reasons a person might want a web site, such as to maintain a blog or stay connected with family and friends. Since this wasn't quite a good enough reason for experimentation and showcasing of a more conventional business site, Scott thought his songwriting hobby could serve as an excuse for subject matter content. Indeed Scott has gone on to design and develop websites for other people, and currently writes content for and maintains websites in his day job. Overall, it is a way for an introvert with a big ego to show off (or embarrass himself) and feel smart, while offering a great way for a writer to write about his favorite topic - himself.
Getting Feedback - When you're new to songwriting, you want to know what other people think of your songs, so this site allows that to happen, but the need dwindles as you develop your own notions of what is a good song for you. As it turns out, I now have an appreciation for why a lot of creative artists out there in the world don't read their own press and strongly dislike critics. I don't seek out reviews from people, and I don't get any press coverage because I don't play live. Once in a while, someone will voluntarily send me some kind words about my music, and in the rare event that occurs, I post it on the Reviews portion of the Press page. There might be some real comments on iTunes, but I don't ever log in there to check. I got an iPod once, and tried the service for about a week, strongly disliked the whole concept, then deleted it all and went back to being a now-old-school CD fan.
Collaboration - Writing songs with other people used to be something you had to do together in person, but the combination of technologies used in scottcooley.com provide a means for uploading/downloading music and lyric files by geographically-dispersed individuals, online review and editing, and even real-time virtual collaboration - all for free. Scott's co-writers can now be in LA, New York, Nashville, or elsewhere in Michigan, and still co-write songs with Scott. Although the technology on the allows all this, and I figured it all out on my own, I generally don't like collaborating with anyone, even though the pros advise it. I like writing by myself and for myself and doing everything involved in recording myself without anyone's help. It's just how I enjoy the hobby.
Song Pitching - Later on, this site was tailored for somewhat seriously taking Scott's songwriting hobby to the next level by facilitation of the pitching of his original songs to established recording artists seeking new songs to "cut" and then release for sale on their upcoming albums. Ideally, this site's future promises to serve as an efficient means to coordinate the communication and file exchange necessary for the licensing of Scott's songs. At least back when I set up the Licensing page, when this DIY songwriter/recording artist stuff was new, the old school music business wasn't ready for a link to a song in an email. Maybe it's different now, but let's face it - it's face-to-face networking in person in Nashville that is most effective, and it's who you know, and the song demos have to be way, way better than mine for successful pitching to work. You learn these harsh realities when you start pretending you're better than you really are.
Recording Sales - Additionally, this site has evolved to become a vessel for the shameless self-marketing of online digital distribution and sales of compilations of Scott's demonstration recordings of his original songs, as encouraged by the crazy voices in his head he considers friends. Since he was already recording demos of songs he'd written, why not self-release them and see if anyone might want to actually buy them, he thought. Instead of paying for a merchant account, the Store page is as close to a real online store page as I thought necessary, since I distribute to the major stores rather than sell directly from here. I did all this for free, by the way. The reality is that I don't seek publicity, nor do I do any promotion, marketing or advertising at all, even though I'm sure it would help. Other than this site, that is. Indeed you can buy my music from this site, and although I don't get many visitors, once in a while I check the analytics and see a correlation between this website content and transactions.
Sincere Thanks - For someone who admits to not taking this too seriously, he also will readily admit it is a true passion, and that he has been ecstatic about the slowly-growing online community of appreciators and networkers whose favorable reviews have sparked what is sure to eventually lead to qualifying as viral recommendation. You can be certain Scott has represented himself in the most favorable light on the pages herein for your benefit. Scott sincerely thanks those shoppers and consumers whose song and album purchases have allowed this site to stay afloat, and who thereby simultaneously have allowed Scott's dream of becoming a professional songwriter to stay alive.
Historical Headline Samples
The following are possible angles that might summarize the story of what this site has been about:
Non-Performing Songwriter Self-Releases Demos Online To Become Recording Artist
Aspiring Songwriter Uses Free Information Technology Services To Facilitate Song Pitching and Licensing
Amateur Songwriter Creates Own Professional-Appearing Web Presence, Becomes Less Amateur In Process
Web Site Experimentation Leads Amateur Musician To Unexpectedly Sell A Few Recordings
Guy Uses Songwriting Hobby As Content For Web Site Design Practice Which Becomes Real Web Site
"Example" Web Site Featuring Guy's Songwriting Hobby Evolves Into Actual Web Site
Amateur Songwriter/Recording Artist Uses Web To Become Somewhat Professional
Songwriter / Original Music Recording Hobbyist Uses Web To Gain An Audience
Internet Allows Michigan Songwriter To Develop Small Following / Fan Base
Guy Makes Himself Out To Be Bigger Deal Than He Really Is On DIY Web Site, People Believe It
Other "About" Pages Within This Site
This page is generally about the website and its purpose, but this site provides the following additional informational pages that may also be of interest:
Detailed story of Scott's interest in music, his influences, and the evolution of his songwriting hobby.
Short, medium, long & PDF versions of Scott's songwriter/solo artist bio for bloggers and journalists.
The Free Scott Cooley Encyclopedia - about his early life and career, private life, awards, and more.
The Scott Cooley Data base - featuring fascinating trivia about Scott, in the style of Internet Movie.
Press releases, performed with list, places played list, photos, reviews & promotional file downloads.
Read all you ever wanted to know about Scott Cooley's music, described with excruciating detail.
About Scott Cooley Records (the label)
Read about the Scott Cooley Records microlabel (netlabel), demo info, links to more release info.
About Scott Richard Cooley Music Publishing
Scott Cooley Music Publishing history, purpose and goals, sound recording & lyric reprinting info.
About Scott Cooley Music Productions (studio)
Learn about Scott's home basement recording studio where the albums are produced and recorded.
Read random Frequently-Asked Questions with Scott's answers to them, ask and submit new ones.