2024 has come to a close, and it’s been another exciting musical year filled with new gigs, new gear, new collaborations, and plenty of new courses. Moving forward, I’d like to structure these yearly recap blogs based on my current categories: Portfolio, Studio, Courses, School, and Store.
Here’s a brief recap of the year!
PORTFOLIO
I finally decided to leave Soundcloud after over a decade of hosting my portfolio there. I realized that performance metrics, which were once driven by their algorithm, were steadily declining, and the cost was rising dramatically each year. When I started, it was $40 CAD per year, offering lots of interaction and unlimited uploads/playlists. By the time I left, the price had climbed to $160 USD per year, and the only interaction I was receiving was from spam bots. It just didn’t make sense to stay with them.
So, I downloaded a new MP3 player for WordPress, Sonaar. It allows me to host my portfolio within my own ecosystem, and it looks great. However, there were some issues with the player’s coding, so I had to fully update my WordPress template and work to make the site look the same as before. I think I did a pretty good job! Now the player works perfectly, and I’m really happy with the result. At the moment, my full portfolio isn’t updated yet, as the transition is taking more time than expected, but I’m confident it’ll be worth it!
As for musical releases, I put out an album of hip-hop instrumentals. The style is a bit old school, with some boom-bap and a hint of Lo-fi influence. I also recorded a set of piano improvisations and released them as Rainy Day Improvs. These songs were all improvised on the spot, recorded both audio and video, and are now available in sheet music form at cookmusic.store.
Additionally, I had the chance to create a digital mockup of a big band track for a composer based in New York. The piece, “Christmas in New York,” required me to pick up a new sample library in Kontakt. I now have what I believe is the best big band library on the market (at least for horns), and I hope to work with this composer more in the future.
A particularly exciting development this year was getting on board with Soundbooth Theater as a composer. This is a dream job for me! I get to work alongside a talented team of composers, geek out over music talk, and create wildly adventurous music across many genres. So far, I’ve composed the credit music for Calamitous Bob (an adventurous hero navigating the land of the undead), Thresholder (a dystopian world with mech-suits and monsters), Industrial Strength Magic (a 9-5 worker with one magical parent trying to figure out where they fit in), and Wriggly Little Hands (think Lord of the Rings, but with goblins instead of hobbits!). The music I’ve created has spanned many styles and influences, and I’m set to do some chapter music for them in 2025. It’s always a pleasure finding composer work, especially with AI encroaching on our field these days.
STUDIO
While my website is mostly back together after the theme update, I still need to fill out the Mixing and Mastering pages. I have enough work to populate them, but it’s just a matter of setting aside time and deciding how I want to advertise my rates.
I also got some new software! Spitfire Symphony Orchestra went on sale, and it’s been a game changer for my orchestral compositions. I also picked up Epic Choirs, which runs separately from Labs or Kontakt but provides an excellent base choir sound—especially now that I no longer have EastWest. Speaking of EastWest, I got rid of my entire collection this year, and I now use that hard drive to store my raw and edited course files.
In other gear updates, I picked up Gold Clip by Schwab Digital, and it’s made a huge difference. My mixes are now 2-3 dB hotter with an even better sound! I didn’t realize just how important a clipper is for getting the best mastering results. It’s now on all my drum buses, and I plan to upgrade to Orange Clip (from the same company) in the future. I also picked up iZotope RX11, the best audio correction and treatment software on the market right now. It’s going to be invaluable for any layer extraction or audio buffing I need to do.
During Black Friday, I grabbed a bunch of Teletone products, which gave me access to some amazing retro ‘80s sounding synths. While I have a lot of Arturia products, these Teletone synths sound far superior in my opinion. I also now have fantastic retro bass, piano, and drum sounds, which I’ve been loving in my GRDN PRTY productions. Lastly, I installed Sonarworks SoundID Reference, which applies a filter to my ASIO, ensuring that my speakers are tuned for my current room. It’s been giving great results so far, though it took a little getting used to.
I had the pleasure of mixing and mastering Skin Writer, a pop/rock album by Toronto-based musician Chloe Watkinson. Chloe is an incredible singer and an amazing person. You can check out the album on all major streaming platforms.
COURSES
Speaking of courses, I’m currently finishing the editing on my 25th course! My goal is still to hit 100 courses by the time I’m 40 (which gives me a few more years!), but it’s an exhausting process. I do wish I could outsource the editing and revision, but when I crunch the numbers, it still makes more sense for me to do it myself. The upside is that I maintain full control over quality, and it’s helping me refine my skills.
This year, I started promoting some of my courses through Instagram. I’m still too nervous to run a full-fledged ad campaign, but I’ve been using simple class ads to attract more followers. I’ve gained about 500 followers since I started running the ads, and some of them have become “super fans.”
Towards the end of the year, I actually started seeing ads for my courses popping up on Instagram as Udemy ads. That was really cool to see, and it made me feel like I’m in good hands with the platform (which I’ve had mixed feelings about in the past).
SCHOOL
Cook Music School hired five new teachers (mostly piano) this year, and we hosted a spring recital in May. As always, it was a great turnout, and the performers did a fantastic job!
I applied for my first grant for Cook Music School. It was for small Toronto businesses under five years old, and I just barely hit the mark. I had a grant writer help with the application, but unfortunately, I didn’t win the grant. Still, it was a great step forward in learning about the grant-writing process, and I’m glad I did it.
The school was also selected to receive help from fifth-year marketing students at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). I was lucky to be short-listed, as one of the professors involved had worked with me in the past. So far, the students have done a basic audit of the school and found some great ways to help me improve my marketing and brand. Their assistance will wrap up in April 2025.
STORE
The price of the URL cookmusic.store went up significantly this year! I’d like to continue using it, but it may take a while before the store can generate enough revenue to cover the cost of the URL. I might eventually switch to something simpler, like cook-music.ca/store, but for now, I’ll keep the .store URL.
I’ve also added some merch to cookmusic.store. We now offer hats and T-shirts featuring quirky sayings and images. I’d like to release more merch for the school as well. These items are mainly for anyone looking to support, and I might even pick up a couple of the quirky shirts to wear during some of my YouTube shorts.
As mentioned earlier, Rainy Day Improvs sheet music is available in the store. One of my former students, Jonah Ain (who has perfect pitch), transcribed the improvs for me—he was able to notate these pieces much faster than I could!
I’m sure I’ve missed a few things (hopefully nothing too important!), but I think this covers the highlights of the year musically. Catch you in the next blog!
Goals for 2025:
- Score 1-2 short films
- Continue to develop my relationship with Soundbooth Theater and work on plenty of credit themes and chapter music
- Polish my next Seizures Palace album enough to release it late 2025 or early 2026
- Install two new analog compressors (Stam La-2a and 1176 emulations) in my workflow. Eventually, I’d like to upgrade to a new desk by DangerFox, though that’ll probably be in 2026
- Gain traction with successful marketing for the music school. I’d also like to further refine the school’s vision (what do we focus on, what’s our biggest strength?) and run new promotions (first lessons and referrals). Additionally, I’d like to post more often on the school’s Instagram (at least 4 times a month)
- Take a spa trip with my wife to a Scandinavian spa just north of Toronto
- Connect more with friends
That’s it for now – catch you in the next blog!