At first glance, the house looks like any other house in the quiet Marietta neighborhood in Jacksonville’s Westside. A white Scion xB sits outside of a chain link fence that surrounds a small front yard of overgrown grass. A narrow sidewalk leads up to the front door of the white house. Only upon entering will visitors see that the house is something more than just another house.
The house is home to A Digital Me Studio. The studio was founded by Jared Jordan and Michael Taylor, who have almost 23 years of music experience between them. Both Jordan and Taylor have been in numerous bands, but they decided to open the studio to get away from life on the road.
“Going on tour sucks,” Taylor said with a laugh, whose shoulder length hair was pulled up into his hat. “So why not just stay at home and basically do the same thing and have fun just making music and recording music?”
Jordan agreed, and said he realized he was not going to make any money by being in bands.
Opening a studio has not been without its own set of challenges, though. The first was to find a location for the studio. They originally began recording in Jordan’s garage, during the peak of summer Taylor said, but they both knew that they would have to find a better place.
“We were doing it in his garage for a year,” Taylor said. “The sound in there was just horrible anyway. If we’re going to do it … we have to have a place to do it.”
They thought they had the location in late 2010, but the deal on the house fell through. They then set up A Digital Me Studio in what used to be Jordan’s grandfather’s house.
Susan Jordan, Jared’s mother, is happy A Digital Me Studio was able to find a location other than the garage.
“I’m glad they were able to find someplace else to record,” Susan Jordan said. “I’m not sure how much longer I could’ve been able to handle the noise.”
Operating out of a house means Jordan and Taylor have to change people’s views of what it means to record in a studio.
“You just have to change people’s perception,” Jordan said. “It’s a different mindset. You used to not be able to walk into a house and expect to make a professional recording.”
A Digital Me Studio has some of the most modern equipment required to produce professional recordings. They use Logic 9 recording software, which is the most up-to-date recording software, to help them create the highest quality of recordings they can. In addition to Logic 9, they use a variety of microphones, amplifiers and cabinets for bands to achieve the sound they desire.
There is also a lounge area in the studio so band members who are not recording have a place to hangout. The lounge has a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game systems, as well as over 1,000 movies according to the studio’s website.
Another challenge Jordan and Taylor said they face is getting people to know about the studio. One method they use to get people to know about A Digital Me Studio is by giving out business cards.
“We usually give business cards out to the bands we record,” Jordan said. He is sitting stretched out on a couch in the studio with the tattoos that cover his legs peeking out from under the bottom of his pants legs. “We’ll give them to some people we don’t know. Sometimes when we’re in a music store, we’ll jam on guitar with some random people and we’ll give out cards.
“That hasn’t gotten us anything yet,” Jordan said as if he is realizing it for the first time.
They have used other techniques to get people to know about the studio that have been more successful than business cards. They have used Facebook in creative ways to help promote the studio.
They put a picture of each band they have recorded in a special photo album on A Digital Me Studio’s Facebook profile. The bands receive a 20 percent discount of their recording at the studio once they get 100 people to like their picture in the album. People have to like A Digital Me Studio’s profile before they can see the pictures.
“It makes people see our page who normally wouldn’t see it,” Jordan said.
Jordan and Taylor agree that the most effective way of promoting the studio has been word of mouth.
“Most of our business definitely comes from word of mouth,” Jordan said. “That’s the best way to do it because if your clients are satisfied, then they will tell someone that else they know.”
Jordan and Taylor want people to know about the studio, but they do not want to get overwhelmed by clients yet. They said they want to gain more experience before they take on too many clients.
“As we go we’re trying to build up experience and build up clients at the same time,” Jordan said.
That doesn’t mean Jordan and Taylor do not have much recording experience. They have been recording for about two years, including only recording themselves for a year before they were comfortable enough to record others. They have recorded six bands and artists at A Digital Me Studio, including some bands several times.
They do not only record musicians, but they also give their creative input to try and make the recording sound the best they can.
“We try to give our ideas throughout the project. We try to do everything from building the foundation to wrapping the present,” Jordan said with a laugh. “We want everything we do to turn out as good as possible because it reflects on us.”
Even though they give their creative input, they do not want to take a musician’s originality away. They will continue to give their input, however, because they both want their creative opinions to gain credibility over time.
“We want people to think what we say is a good idea based on what we put out in the past,” Taylor said.
They do not only want their credibility as producers to grow, but they want A Digital Me Studio to grow into a successful business that can support them throughout life. Neither says they want to be rich, but they want the studio to become their main source of income that allows them live a comfortable life.
“I don’t have to be rich,” Jordan said. “I just want to live off the studio and have fun recording music I like.”
Jordan looks off into the distance. He appears to be daydreaming about the day when A Digital Me Studio is past the challenges all young studios face and turns into a successful business. It’s going to take some time to get the studio to where they envision it, but Jordan and Taylor have the determination to accomplish their goal.
I hope that turns out right. I hate copy and pasting from Word onto here. I also don't like the final paragraph.
