Since its establishment in 1993, TortoiseClimbing™ experienced 4 significant evolutions from its modest beginning. Its original goals/mission were to produce 1) nice recordings for 2) private release.
Question
Were these evolutions serendipitous (or were they perhaps destined?) The path of evolutions is a scintillatingly delicious story.
Summary of the Story
Original TortoiseClimbing™
Immediately prior to establishing the original, hobby TortoiseClimbing™ i 1993, David recorded a group of at least 6 songs with friends at Bias during 1990-1991, which were not released, even privately. Following the private release of Solo Collection in 1993 and creation of TortoiseClimbing™, David began working on a follow-up private album, Romantic Duets with a variety of women singing duet parts. Several years after beginning work on that 2nd private album, David's father died in late 1996.
Evolution 1: Upgrade in Mission/Goals
Then in spring 1998, David's mother, knowing he had sung for years, studied voice during and after college, and was recording at a professional studio, requested he record an album of selections from his father's and her favorite traditional hymns and songs. David and his mother jointly selected the hymns and songs to include on the album, which became Hymns and Songs of My Mother.
(A simple playlist of that album is available at Simple Playlist. An annotated playlist of that album, with artists and streaming of sample hymns, is available at Annotated Playlist.)
That hymns project led to a significant change in missions/goals. In discussions with his mother about what she wanted the album to be, she expressed her preference was that the album be 1) high-quality, and 2) be publically released. That meant the new project required considerably more attention to:
Production quality, including arrangements for accompaniments, instrumentation, vocal harmony parts;
Vocals needed to be meticulously checked for being on pitch;
When there were multiple parts, they had to be meticulously checked, both for pitch and for being exactly together timing wise;
Plus, since the album was targeted for public release, we had to explicitly deal with copyright licensing requirements;
We had to deal with creation of the cover content and art work;
We had to plan for creation of sufficient quantities for public distribution.
Accomplishing those resulted in the first major evolution of TortoiseCimbing™'s mission/goals, i.e.,:
Its quality bar was raised from nice to exceptional, and
Its market was expanded from private to public.
As a result of mother's request, the goals/mission for TortoiseClimbing™ were redefined, substantially impacting TortoiseClimbing™'s future by expanding the roles performed to encompass the larger related areas of:
Working with multiple artists as part of producing a high-quality recording;
Obtaining mechanical licenses for those hymns/songs still under copyright;
Working with a replication manufacturer to create the cover and CDs;
Identifying and working with a digital distribution vendor as our online marketplace;
Developing a marketing program to let people know the album is available; and
Distribution, including:
Possibly multiple Online store sites; and
Physical product, e.g., CDs.
Evolution 2: Creation of Subsidiaries
Around 2004, it became obvious the notes being prepared to accompany the recording had morphed into a history book. That essentially meant TortoiseClimbing™ had also entered the publishing business. With that realization, we embraced the fact that in addition to Audio Recordings, we had taken on publishing as another part of its operations.
Thus, TortoiseClimbing™ acknowledged its recording committment by officially creating the subsidiary TortoiseClimbing Audio™, and created a new separate subsidiary of TortoiseClimbing Publications™, with a focus on the requirements for publications.
Evolution 3: Further Subsidiary Expanion
Building on the previous evolution in mission/goals to 1) upgrade audio product quality for public release, and 2) to expand the role to include creating and distributing publications, another significant evolution occurred in 2019. That year TortoiseClimbing™ became able to devote full time to completing elements of the multiple pieces of the Hymns and Songs project. That project is elsewhere referred to as the beginning of Phase II of the hymns and songs project.
The production goals/mission for recordings and publications remained unchanged. But, because of today's heavily oriented online environment, to be a success as a small business, clearly we needed to:
Develop a detailed Quality web presence; and
Develop the ability to quickly make revisions/expansions to that website, as needed, for marketing needs.
That led to creation of the additional WebServices portion/subsidiary of TortoiseClimbing™.
As a result, by 2020 TortoiseClimbing™ had 3 operational subsidiaries:
TortoiseClimbing Audio™;
TortoiseClimbing Publications™; and
TortoiseClimbing WebServises™.
Evolution 4: Change in Legal Structure
About a year after beginning Phase II of the Hymns and Songs of My Mother project, the increasing amounts being spent on development of the hymns album made it clear in 2020 that it made sense to transition the legal structure from the 1993 original of being a hobby, into a small for-profit, sole-proprietor business.
Becoming profitable is a significant challenge! Trying to sell "cover" recordings of songs in any style of music is competitive. There are many independent artists producing recordings in Many styles. Selling recordings is a challenge to rise above the considerable "noise."
Our research leads us to believe Nostalgic Songs is a small, but somewhat less viciously competitive niche market. However, to be perceived above the "noise" of MANY other sellers of recordings remains a challenge, needing an effective marketing program, likely will not cheap.
As noted above, we have also commited to working in the area of publications. We plan to market those products both as companions to the recordings, and as standalone publications.
We are also considering alternative possible channels for selling and distribution. Examples include:
Selling to corporations to give out as gifts to their clients/customers;
Selling to various organizations to use as part of fund rasings efforts supporting their organization's activities.
This would logically include the publications as well as the recordings.
As of 2024, it becsame obvious TortoiseClimbing™ needed to take on the responsibilities for marketing and distribution, and to develop more systematized financial tracking abilities, including more detailed and capable recordkeeping and tax accounting.
We were forced to put those requirements on hold to provide support to the lady in David's life for the past 35 years as her health deteriorated. In 2026, we are returning to addressing these requirements. We need to establish:
An effective marketing and distributing program for our now multiple products, and
We need to turn attention to creating a more robust recordkeeping function.
Future Products
Current plans for next recording products, include:
Upgrading the group of songs from our back catalogue for public release, and their accompanying marketing;
Developing an easy listening instrumental version of the hymns and songs album;
Developing backing tracks for soloists and choirs for chruch services and home of the hymns and songs album;
Completing the eBook;
Recording narrations of chapters from our initial eBook, e.g., History Through 27 Hymns and Songs for:
Advanced podcasts;
Editing together as an Audiobook;
Identifying an online marketplace for offering standalone versions of the eBook without being part of a bundle with and audio product.
Ideas for new songs, albums and publications are in planning stage.
Current plans for publications are to complete the eBook, create narrations of the chapters, and sell them. Work on these activities have been in hiatus, preempted by the health deterioriation and death of David's lady of 35 year, and a focus on jump starting the Nostalgic Songs effort. However, we will again be dedicating efforts to completing the eBook and narrations of it.
Role of Life Experiences in Evolutions
The question of whether TortoiseClimbing™'s evolutions were serendipitous (or destined) likely should include consideration of the part David's life's experiences played in influencing TortoiseClimbing™'s evolutions.
Perhaps the pivotal steps were the initial decisions to:
Begin recording with friends in 1990;
Undertake recording a solo album: and
Deciding to privately distribute the album and create Tortoiseclimbing™ as part of that private release in 1993.
All else flowed from those decisions.
The 1st evolution to expand its mission occurred in 1998, because TortoiseClimbing™ chose to take on significant new functions to accomplish making an 1) excellent album, for 2) public release. That required taking on greater recording Production responsibilities.
The 2nd evolution to take on publications to produce companion eBooks to the recordings was because of taking on greater writing and publication responsibilities.
The 3rd evolution was to tackle creation of the subsidiary WebServices. The website requirement initially began from several needs:
The website is an important part of marketing, publicizing albums, publications, podcasts, audiobook, and eBooks;
It provides an additional marketing functionality for obtaining feedback on questions to TortoiseClimbing™;
It provides links for easily connecting customers to our online marketplace, where they can listen and purchase digital downloads of the album, EPs, eBook, podcasts, audiobook, and CDs; and
Enables David to be professionally collegial, by giving credit to each person involved in creating the recordings.
The 4th evolution was to become a for-profit, which also means taking on requirements for marketing, distribution, recordkeeping, etc. We are similarly blostered by David's background experiences, which are complimentary to a number of these new requirements. His experiences give him a headstart in being able to take on the multiple new roles. His experiences include:
Years of singing, from Elementary school on, inbued his love of singing and performing;
Being part of making a private record in high school gave him a taste of what could be accomplished, while highlighting areas where he needed more knowledge about recording and album production;
Years of studying singing in college and privately afterward prepared him for both solo and ensemble performance, now exemplified in Hymns and Songs of My Mother;
Formal education, including Business and Economics aided his ability to conceive, organize and operate TortoiseClimbing™;
Experience working with and teaching Information Systems aided his ability to learn and program. For this website he needed to work in Html, CSS, JavaScript and Php;
Experience from the previous seven years (1990-1997) slowly making relatively simple recordings for two different private albums helped fill in more knowledge about areas of making an album, that he had begun with his high school record experience; and
Previous experiences working with programming in several languages on mainframes, and subsequently a variety of desktop software automation tools, enabled him to be comfortable with and master a number of such tools now extensively used by TortoiseClimbing™, plus made him comfortable learning new software. Examples of software, include:
Adobe Dreamweaver, for creating this website;
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software Adobe Audition, for editing music files;
Photoshop, for creating album/EP covers;
InDesign, for final "typesetting" of history eBook;
Bandcamp, for publicly releasing digital music files;
Multiple Microsoft business suite software: Word, Outlook, Excel;
Using various desktop publishing software in his previous professional career at U.S.Transportation.
etc.
Those experiences provided valuable foundations upon which to build knowledge and skills for performing the new resposibities TortoiseClimbing™ needs to run:
A record label;
A publishing house; and
An informative website.
Summaries of Each Component
Each of these areas of business activity were significant new roles from the original TortoiseClimbing™, requiring numerous additional skills. TortoiseClimbing™ needed to undertake them because, we are an independent entity, without a:
Supporting organization;
Mentor; or
Current budget to hire persons to perform the additional roles and provide detailed business knowledge for running a record label, book publisher and website development and maintainence.
Thus, TortoiseClimbing™ has undertaken becoming proficient in all of these requirements. While this allowed us to be a "low cost" endevor, the limited number of resources available limits what can be accomplished. (We are evaluating where we need to reach out for additional external assistance, and its relative cost/benefits, to augment what we can accomplish.)
TortoiseClimbing Audio™
Production responsibilities of TortoiseClimbing™ include identifying and arranging for multiple artists and skills needed. The following examples are explicity from Phase II of the album Hymns and Songs of My Mother, but most also apply to other albums/EPs.
First step - migration to using digital audio technology for Phase II, was converting Phase I recordings from analogue multi-track tape technology to digital technology. (Unfortunately that lost the automated mixing logic on analogue master tapes, which was recreated);
A producer was needed - The one from phase I of Hymns and Songs of My Mother, Ms. Heidi Gerber-Salins, was not available. So for phase II, David Goettee took on the role;
Identifying and scheduling instrumentalists for Phases II;
Identfying and scheduling accompaning Vocalists for Phases II;
Arrangers:
Identifying descant parts for some hymns (Jeff Whitmill);
New acoustic guitar arrangement for the contemporary Christian song "Welcome Home" (Jim Westlyn);
Vocal harmony parts for refrains of "Welcome Home" in phase II (John Creger);
Handbell arrangements to "Amazing Grace" and "Just A Closer Walk with Thee" in phase II (Larry Sue).
Recording engineer for Phase II - Ms. Gerber-Salins was not available, so Mr. McElroy was selected for phase II;
Post production processsing of the audio files;
Ms. Gerber-Salins made time available and assisted with an initial post production processing of one number. She intended to provide more assistance, but was injured by a rearend car crash. So, David picked up that requirement. He obtained needed software and learned how to perform post production processing for all other numbers;
Arranging for replacement of synthesized organ accompaniments with on location recording of Real pipe organ. The Schribner-Keeble Memorial Pipe organ in Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church) was seleted;
Locating credible handbell ringers willing to record the handchime and handbell arrangements during the Covid 19 pandemic (only the Westminster Ringers responded);
On location recordings in phase II of:
Pipe organ in Ashland, VA (James Doering-Organist, Bill McElroy-Recording Engineer);
Handbells and handchimes in Westminster, MD (Larry and Debbie Henning-Directors, Bill McElroy-Recording Enginer);
Shuttle pipe in Westminster, MD (Wayne Morrison-Piper, Bill McElroy-Recording Enginer)
Post production processing adjusted pitch of shuttle pipe to key of recording;
Arranged for and scheduled recordings of both cello (Matt Treacy) and string bass (John Creger) to augment accompaniments of a few hymns;
Bill McElroy and David sent sound files back and forth with edits and comments on how to create final mixes of the numbers; and
TortoiseClimbing™ used its DAW software to determine the mastering order for the hymns and songs on the album.
TortoiseClimbing Publishing™
The entry into publishing grew from the initial preparing of notes to include in the CD jacket. That effort morphed into:
Researching extensive historical information about the times around when each hymn was written;
Presenting details of the historical facts together with information about each of the hymns and songs for a draft of the History Through 27 Hymns and Songs book;
Finding editor assistance to help with developing the draft for the book (Dr. Nancy Graham, Dave Mather, Ingrid Bartinique);
Ms Bartinique also reached out to a knowledgeable hymnologist expert friend willing to assist (Dr. Laura ??????);
Examined and determined that an eBook, rather than hardcopy was the preferred medium for its distribution, and that we would use EPUB format rather than PDF.
Identified a need for:
A narration version of the eBook; and
A Marketing and distribution program for the eBook.
TortoiseClimbing WebServices™
It is critical for marketing to have a quality website supporting both the audio and publications of TortoiseClimbing™ -
An intelligent, responsive, interactive, comprehensive web presence with information about all the audio and publication products. To create that capability, we acquired the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software Adobe Dreamweaver and undertook coming up the learning curve on using:
HTML5 - This is a substantial revision from the HTML4.01 used on the initial 2003 website. A major change is the full incorporation of CSS, rather than embedding styling in each line of HTML;
CSS3 - The initial 2003 website did not use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Although the concept of separating styling from the HTML content existed, and there was even a CSS2 specification, but Browser implementations differed widely, making it quite risky to count on CSS2 for styling. Now in 2024, browsers' implementations of CSS3 (and even some CSS4 pieces) are much closer to predictable, reliable implementations;
Javascript (2015) is used to make the webpages more dynamic. The 2003 website used earlier Javascript generated by the web editor software (FrontPage), but none was explicitly written by TortoiseClimbing™;
Server side processing. The new website uses PHP7 (PHP8 was released end of 2020) as the implementing language for server processing. it is used to error check data submitted via the contact form. It passes data from the forms via email, and other processing. (No server side processing was implemented for the 2003 website.)
A significant benefit of using php for server side processing, is we are able to hide the email addresses used for sending form responses to TortoiseClimbing™. That prevents internet bots from collecting the email address from the Html code. (That avoids lots of Spamming to email addresses used on our website. The 2003 website coded email addresses in the visible HTML, resulting in receiving A Lot of Spam.)
We use the website as the mechanism for providing professional credits to each of the persons involved in creation of the recordings and companion projects, like History Through 27 Hymns and Songs. We do that by including biographies/credits for each artists. (For the Hymns and Songs of My Motherz, tracking down artists involved in the Phase I work, which was from 20 years before building the website, was a challenge!); and
Contacting each of the artists to verify they are comfortable with the bio/credits about each.
Future server implementations will incorporate use of relational databases and an upgraded email capability.
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