Meet the Publishers of Hudson Valley Music

Steve Wehr

Steve Stiert

"I live in the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley with my wife and daughter. We've lived here all our lives and truely enjoy the richness and diversity of this region. During the daylight hours I make my living helping customers make sense of the hardware and software sold by a major worldwide computer company (I'll give you a hint, it's initials are IBM). But during the evenings I annoy my family by sitting at the computer (instead of paying attention to them) and build web sites for small businesses. It doesn't pay enough to retire yet, but I really enjoy the creative challenges and working with the people, and it helps to support my scuba diving habit. I hope that you find HVmusic informative and enjoyable. This project has given me the opportunity to meet many amazing local musicians. And it constantly annoys me that such talented people are struggling, while national acts with much less talent (but slicker marketing) make it big. My hope is that HVmusic.com helps get the word out to the public about the amazing people we have right here at home. I'd enjoy hearing from you about any aspect of the HVmusic.com web site. You can e-mail me via our message page.

"I could play a mean recorder in junior high, but despite having a wonderful music teacher (Mrs. Brown, 1973, South Jr. High, Arlington Heights, Ill), it wasn't until the last few years that my interest in music became a driving force in my life. Oh sure, I played a little guitar in college (any Northwestern alum out there?), but, hey, who didn't. Then about two years ago I had the chance to join a local band (Lost Dog Woody) as the lead singer (cause the guys heard me play guitar). Since then, I've become a music CD club addict, taken voice lessons (cause the guys heard me sing), had a small singing role in a local production of Camelot, have purchased more music applications for my workstation than I know what to do with, and have been spending a lot of time trying to learn to play the piano and learn music theory. And now there's HVmusic.com. One thing I've learned in the last few years is that there is a lot of great music talent in the Hudson Valley that goes largely unrecognized. I hope HVmusic can become a focal point to showcase all that talent and also provide a real service to local musicians and lovers of music. I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who has ideas for this site or just wants to chat. You can e-mail me at steve@stiert.com or send me a message via our HVmusic message page."

Purpose/Goals of HVmusic

Please keep in mind as you read this that while we currently have some specific ideas for this site, we expect HVmusic to evolve over time as we are exposed to and learn more about music in the Hudson Valley and develop more proficiency and technical capability in our use of the internet. We encourage feedback and suggestions for new ideas from all of our users. We fully expect and believe that HVmusic will eventually be influenced more by our visitors than by our initial vision. But, we need a place to start and here it is....

There is an enormous amount of musical talent in the Hudson Valley, both young and old, amateur and professional. We want HVmusic to be a place where folks can come to read and hear and learn about it all. And we mean all. We hope to have as many different forms and level of music represented as there are in the community. And that means (to name just a few):

• a cappella
• alternative
• barbershop
• big band
• blues
• classical
• country
• folk
• hip/hop
• jazz
• latin
• metal
• musical theater
• opera
• polka
• rap
• rock
• school bands
• school choirs
• ska

Our "Business" Philosophy

It's a matter of simple respect and good business to be courteous, professional, and reliable. Both of us are constantly discouraged by the general lack of this approach by many businesses today. This seems so fundamental that we can't imagine doing business any other way.

We both have high quality standards. About the only problem here is between ourselves when we can't agree on the best way to do things!

We know that the internet is a fast-changing environment that is difficult to keep up with even if you are technically inclined. So, we'll do our best to fully understand your current needs and anticipate your future needs. You won't suffer because you don't know how to ask the right question. We'll spend as much time as needed to make sure we understand what you need and that you fully understand what your options are. Before we finish the job, we'll make sure you are satisfied with the results.

Funding

Neither of us are well-off enough to fund this site entirely out of our own pocket. We realize, however, that unlike many nationally popular music acts, the average musician doesn't make a whole lot of money. So, in order to achieve our goal of having all music represented in the Hudson Valley, we've recognized that we're going to have to be flexible and creative about funding HVmusic.

To encourage everyone to at least list themselves and to contribute information, our major features such as the listings and the classifieds are free. We are donating our labor and the yearly adminstrative cost of our internet services to achieve this. In other cases, we try to work out some sort of skill/talent exchange such as offering exposure or web services in exchange for contributions of talent/services.

Our most significant costs are those charged to us by our ISP (internet service provider) for our use of memory on their system. Pictures and graphics and, particularly, audio files use up a lot of memory (from $5-$10/month per MB depending on usage). An average web page with a page of text, two or three graphics and two songs uses about 1MB. As much as we'd like to personally absorb these costs, we just can't afford to.

We would also like to be able to put a some cash back into the project so that we can upgrade our software and hardware and stay current with the technology. And, we'd like to be able to fund some music related projects when the opportunity arises.