Yes, it’s been a minute between posts, but I’ve been insanely busy working on projects with my new digital consultancy, Digital Strategy Works.

Netmix has been this pro-hobby, if that makes any sense. I’ve actually been working full time and going to school at NYU for the last 5-years. I graduated in May with a Bachelor Degree in Digital Communications and Media.

While I love writing this blog, it hasn’t been my first priority. I know that shows given the time between posts, but I try my best to update when I can. Given the economic turmoil we’ve faced over the last few years and the demise of the music business as we once knew it, I knew it was important to focus on work first and the hobby second. I always say, you have to have a base from which to work.

Okay, so even though I always say it, I ended up throwing that advice out the window—sort of.

In November, I left my full-time job. Yes, in this economy, I actually LEFT my job! I know. Call me crazy. I’d been working for a web development company in Long Island, but I really missed the New York City digital media and music scene. Long Island just wasn’t where I wanted to be every day. I felt really disconnected from the community. It was time to make a change.

I was passing up so many opportunities making the 3-hour+ commute. I’d been running myself ragged going back and forth. Not only was I missing out on all the nightly Meetup.com events and other entrepreneur and start-up gatherings, I was wearing myself down in the process.

If that wasn’t enough to do, I’d also taken on the side role of Director of Interactive for the National Museum of Hip-Hop. And, along with DJ Ming, Harold Stephan and DJ Chad North, we’ve been running 20dot20, a monthly networking event for the interactive and advertising music industry. Between driving back and forth to Long Island, Netmix, and my other extracurricular activities, I decided to go back to entrepreneurship.

Given my 15-years of web development experience, I thought I might as well just launch Digital Strategy Works and put that knowledge to work. This new addition to the Netmix Media portfolio provides strategy digital media consulting services to individuals, entrepreneurs, start-ups and corporations with a focus on the media & entertainment industry, including music, nightlife, fashion, film and television. We’re building web sites on Wordpress and Drupal, e-commerce platforms on Magento, and mobile applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

It all starts with the planning and execution of a measurable end-to-end digital strategy that makes an impact. In today’s competitive online marketplace, an effective digital strategy is executed across an array of online and mobile applications. This includes nformation architecture and user experience design, creative direction and graphic design, web and mobile development, search engine optimization, e-commerce and monetization, and social media and online marketing. There are so many things to know. Since that’s what we do everyday, we’ve become experts in the field and are passing on that knowledge to you.

Please visit the web site at http://www.digitalstrategyworks.com to read more about Netmix Media’s latest addition. We’re currently offering 2-hours of Wordpress consultation through March 31 for $250.

Last Wednesday night, despite the lingering rain that has been pestering New Yorkers for the last month or so, I decided to venture out to the newly revamped Mansion, which is now known as M2 UltraLounge–the stealthy moniker that is cover for what’s supposed to be Ministry of Sound’s new NYC effort. If Pacha can bring the funk to New York, then Ministry of Sound sure can too, even if it it takes over a space that has seen it’s better days. I wasn’t much of a fan of Crobar, the club’s original incarnation. But, I must say the venue’s design team have given a touch of class to a huge room that was sorely lacking sophistication.

Showing up to Bacardi’s B-Live was, for me, an off, then on again affair. It was 11 pm and I’d just arrived to my friend’s house across the Hudson in Guttenberg, NJ, where I’m staying for the month to be closer to the city. I knew I had to get up for work early, because I commute about 1.5 hours each way to the office in Long Island. As I sat down to check my Facebook messages, I saw a friend sent me an earlier note asking if I was going to go. If so, she was wondering if I was going to take some shots that she could use for a publication she writes for. Despite my better judgement, I knew she needed my help. I got my butt up off the couch, jumped in the car and shot into the city to see what I could come up with. After all, she’s a great gal and I don’t mind doing a favor for a friend.

Remember, I’m supposed to get up at 6:30 AM to make my way to Long Island for my day job. Staying out late on a Wednesday night is not something I’m accustomed to, but it was for a good cause. Plus, I got some great video and ran into some friends, including Armand Van Helden and my man Ricky and his production partner, Ray, who are working on some tracks as Housing Project (MySpace). More on new music from that crew another time, for sure.

The night was definitely jackin. I go there just in time for the last 1/2 hour of Jazzy Jeff’s set. Every element of every track dropped in that 30 minutes was a bomb that warmed up the crowd for A-Trak, who broke out a big beat infused set of electronic, rock and urban rhythms that kept the crowd jumping until around 3 am. Then, it was DJ AM’s turn to take the wheels. After a few intro tracks, he dropped Notorious B.I.G. and the late night revelers kicked into gear once again.

For Bacardi, this certainly was a highly successful branding experiment. To pack an NYC venue on a Wednesday night until the wee hours of the morning says something about the talent and the offering. Bacardi staffers were everywhere throughout the venue, directing punters to get the pics taken in the Bacardi photo booth, have a custom T-Shirt printed on-the-spot, or grab a rock inspired poster. Throughout the venue, Bacardi imagery was in full effect. Of course, the sure winner was the HUGE, fully lit boom-box, which backed the DJs on the stage. I saw some walking around with messenger bags with a boom box pic printed on the flap. For a commercial effort, they got it right. People dug it and it wasn’t too obtrusive. Even the tour bus out front was hot, which photos of the DJs plasted on the sides.

All in, it was a pretty exciting night for Bacardi and NYC. Definitely a hot event. If B-Live is coming to a city near you, I wouldn’t miss it.

Check out the videos and photos below of Bacardi’s B-Live stop in NYC.

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While we were out and about covering WMC from the Netmix perspect, About.com’s Dance/Electronic Music channel DJ Dewight Barkley was equally as busy traversing the many parties and happenings at this years event. Check out the post-WMC wrap-up by DJ Dewight Barkley on About.com Dance/Electronic pages.

Okay, so the last few days have been slow on the Netmix front. Reason: I’ve been finishing up some homework for the end of the semester at NYU, where I’m taking classes towards a degree in Digital Communications and Media. Trying to consult to clients, get my DJ career back on track, go to school and be a great boyfriend to my girlfriend, Missy, certainly doesn’t leave a lot of room for much more. However, since I’m enjoying the independent freelance life and am between projects, it’s given me some downtime to think through some new ideas I’m putting in the pipeline.

First, I launched a splash page for my Product Development consulting company, NetmixMedia.com, which will also develop internal projects that I’ll cover to follow. NetmixMedia will specialize in Information Architecture, Usability and People-centered design of Web 2.0 sites and applications. I’m working with a LAMP, Flash, Flex and Ruby developers to execute exciting media projects for our clients. We just finished up a blog-a-zine project for a major media company and wrapped up a fix for a project for Pepsi Cola. The next project starts up in a few weeks and we’re fielding calls from a number of other organizations. Feel free to contact me with your RFP at info@netmixmedia.com.

Going out to Web 2.0 in San Francisco was incredibly inspiring. I also just joined a new Facebook group, Ultra Light Startups, which held its first meeting this week at the offices of Rose Ventures, a angel investment firm that operates Angelsoft, a web site that helps angel groups organize and search for new projects to invest in.

I’ve been working lately with a great group of guys who manage an offshore team and we’ve been discussing the opportunity to work together to build some cool applications for the DJ market. I’ve got a couple of things in mind that I’d love to launch in an “ultra light” kind of way and I’m looking for DJs, developers and other web savvy DJ culture oriented individuals who want to join in the fun and work together to bring this project out in a “Twitter-esque” manner. I’m already talking to some friends in San Francisco and a few here in New York. It’s exciting to have that bug again and I’m gearing up to bring the idea to market.

The domain I’ll be launching that will service the DJ market is DJGig.com. It’s not live yet. It’s in the planning stages now and there are a few hurdles to jump over before I get it up and running.

The second domain is EroticDisco.com. That’ll be a web site featuring the world’s hottest (as in looks and sex appeal) DJs. I may keep it all female or I may decide to open it up to men as well, to serve the both the ladies and the gay market. It’ll be tough because men who love to look at women won’t necessarily want to see male DJs on the home page, so it may have to have a dual entry page so we can keep things separate and cater to both audiences.

So, all you hot (looking) female and male Djs out there who want to submit photos or video, the rules will be no nudity (want to keep this clean as I can possibly keep it while pushing the envelope, of course) and the shots must be highly stylized and be in a nightlife environment. It’s about DJs and nightlife, so it has to be in that setting only. No bedrooms, no street shots. Nightclubs and lounges are the only acceptable environments.

As the blog grows, I will be producing a calendar and possibly a digital movie release for download. All entrants will have to sign agreements and once we select the top photos or videos for the calendar and digital movie release, we’ll negotiate licensing fees.

I’m just waiting on the designs from a young, talented designer from New York, Ann Li. Once those are approved, I’ll be integrating the theme into Wordpress and off we go. Stay tuned for more on this and other news.

Peace,

Tony Z.