Category: News

  • Why 2025 Changed Everything: Music Tech, Direct Fan Connection, and What’s Coming in 2026

    Why 2025 Changed Everything: Music Tech, Direct Fan Connection, and What’s Coming in 2026

    Goodbye 2025, it’s been nice knowing ya. But I’m damn glad to give you a swift kick out the door. There’s been some awesome highs and a few horrid lows. Here’s looking at 2026 with delusions of grandeur while giving a 2025 review.

    Starting with the road of improvements. This year brought a massive redesign of my website. Part of it is thanks to building a new backend and more advanced server. The tech part has been more blessing than curse, and I happy about that.

    Along with the redesign came the added feature of bringing the email list under personal control, where there isn’t a 3rd party with prying eyes. Plus I’ve added features of fan levels. A lot of work but worth every painful minute of frustration that now works as intended.

    Another massive feat was releasing music every week. Talk about a massive undertaking, and I’m finally getting into the swing of it. 2026 will see more of the same, new releases every week. What’s more awesome is how my website can integrate each new release with the fan list.

    The music releases are also building to Atmos versions. Which is exciting and fun. They bring back the giddiness of what made music feel special when I was growing up. Which is exciting.

    Publicity cover art

    Along with the music releases are the new animated covers. Sadly it’s only Apple Music that currently does animated covers. Though non Apple Music users can still see the animations right here on jodywhitesides.com.

    Getting used to the new tech of it wasn’t all smooth sailing. There were some tragic setbacks. For every step back it’s been three steps forward. And with just a puzzle piece or two left to complete the entire picture, I’m stoked with what I’ll be able to announce in 2026.

    It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the clown show in the White House. That has been a tremendous bummer. What makes it worse is having to inadvertently see it and hear about it every day. I like it better when politicians are not a constant never-ending news cycle.

    Which leads to the ironic lead off single for 2026: Publicity. A song all about what it takes for fame. Good news, bad news, it’s all fake news. Oh what a prophetic lyric that became. That now comes with the updated mix and master you can now get right here in full studio quality. Not that watered down streaming.

    So yes, I want to engage you more on a personal level. Not via social media, but between you and I. Which is what all the work in 2025 was for, to make 2026 a year to really shine for the music and the direct connection between you and I.

    I’m telling ya, 2026 is gonna be bright.

  • Christmas Brought Me You: Memories, Music, and Creative Growth

    Christmas Brought Me You: Memories, Music, and Creative Growth

    Getting around to the Christmas spirit of 2025. What a wild and crazy year it’s been. Lots of changes here in JodyLand and at my web domain. Of course in the spirit of the holidays it’s been four weeks of holiday oriented music.

    It was an undertaking years ago to think thru a Christmas Past, Present and Future concept musically speaking. I had this notion that I had to be the one to do it, since no-one had musically done it before. Recording one album in a year is an undertaking, at least it was prior to AI.

    Add two more albums on top of that and it became a mad dash to get it done under the wire. In fact it released right before Christmas in 2006. In hindsight it would have been better hold off the release and done a bit more work on it for 2007.

    Fast forward to 2021 for a Pickleball themed Christmas party. I was on a court with friends and one friend in particular put Christmas Future on. As I was dinking around in the game, I said to myself: Self! It’s time to do it again.

    I put on the engineer’s baseball cap, dug out the files, and jumped into revamping the mix, added some extra holiday percussion, and dropped it again in 2022. It didn’t stop with Christmas Brought Me You, it continued with the entire 3 album release.

    The crafty artistic side of me delved into a way to make each album stand slightly apart from the 2 others in the trilogy. Not just via the songs chosen, but by how they got remixed. Which meant using different recording consoles based on the era the music represented.

    This particular song has been the theme to the longest running Advent Calendar Vlog, Grant’s Advent Calendar. It’s created a special crowd thanks to Grant! Always look forward to his original takes on opening his Advent Calendar. Which has spawned copy-cats.

    Stay tuned for next week’s recap of 2025, until then enjoy your Christmas, you holiday, your whatever-you-do time to be with loved ones.

  • High Quality Christmas Music Downloads for the Holiday Season

    High Quality Christmas Music Downloads for the Holiday Season

    What a wild week. There’s been some new versions of Christmas music added to my web store. There’s been a technical update to the fan email system. There’s been a big update to the fan rewards system. The holidays are bringing some additional gifts to close out the year and it’s looking mighty fine!

    Last week it was the addition of the studio WAV files of Christmas Past. Meaning you can now obtain the highest quality versions of the Christmas classics that we all know and love. Full on depth and clarity that you won’t find on any streaming service. There’s also a nifty gift coming in the next 365 days in regard to this Christmas music.

    christmas-present-jody-whitesides

    For this week it’s Christmas Present. It’s a limited time offer to purchase the music in the next week. After Christmas it will come down off the web store and will be gone for the foreseeable future. Which means – get it now while you can!

    There’s been a bit of a hiccup with the fan email system. It hasn’t been doing the automated releases just yet. Meaning I’ve had to manually get them out which is why they’ve been coming out in the afternoons and not in the morning. I believe I’ve solved the issue and they should be hitting inboxes in the morning. If you update your account preferences, you can have it email you as per your time zone as well.

    The super big news of the week, which will get an official email tomorrow is – the first streaming platform that can be connected to my fan rewards system is now live. There may be a hiccup or two, but so far it appears to be working. If you’re on my email list, you’ll get an email tomorrow and I’ll encourage you to try it out.

    As for the holidays, it’s been crazy slow start to the winter season. Right now, the ski resort that I live near is open (and I use that term very loosely) but we literally have no snow. It’s finally gotten a little chilly out, but storms have been avoiding the area like the plague. That hasn’t stopped me from watching cheesy Hallmark style Christmas films, and enjoying getting gifts for loved ones. Whether we have snow or not, it will be a pared back but lovely holiday.

    Stay tuned…