Tag: team

The Move, Part 1: “Out with the old…”

Well, you know what they say— “Out with the old, in with the new.” And with that said, it’s time for us to move our Murfie office!

It’s no secret that with Murfie has grown a TON over the past couple years. Yay for us (and for you!)! But with such huge growth, our current space availability for discs, and for staff, has been getting more and more… snug, shall we say.

So, we decided to move— all the way to— the next block down the street! Lucky for us, we get to stay on the lovely Madison capitol square.

Here’s the first of a series of photos that document our move: the joy, the sweat, the tears, the reward! Enjoy.

We’re getting there… just a few things left to do. Wish us luck as we move in to our new space!

Caffeinating “The Shawns”

Coffee break time! Here’s some food for thought, courtesy of Murfie COO Preston Austin.

Optimal return on Murfie’s executive payroll is achieved via reducing activation barriers to consumption of socially sanctioned performance enhancing drugs.

Erhm, say that again?! In the meantime, here’s something a bit more straightforward—a photo.

Murfie’s Shawn Broderick (customer development) and Shawn Lockyear (marketing), aka The Shawns, fuel up on coffee at Graze in Madison, WI.

Shawn L (left) and Shawn B @ Graze

Most Talented Staff Ever? (Chapter 1)

This is me bragging about the Murfie team. We’ve got a whole bunch of not-so-hidden talent in our ops staffers (the folks who receive your kits and process all your CDs, makin’ the Murfie magic happen). Most of our ops-ters play music, sing, song write, and/or produce. No joke! So let’s meet a few of these Murfie musicians today…

ALEX – Aside from the occasional jam session, most of my time performing is with Fundamentally Sound, one of the all-male a cappella groups from UW-Madison.

BRIAN – I’m a composer, cellist, electronic musician, and Chinese string instrumentalist who is creating music in Madison with Lovely Socialite, Watercourse Q4, and the Brothers Grimm. After studying Chinese music in Hong Kong and receiving my Bachelors of Music Theory & Composition, I’ve found a niche composing and performing live scores for dance and theater. Lovely Socialite’s new album Registers Her Delight is now for sale on Murfie, and the Brothers Grimm forthcoming album Redolent Spires will be available later this month!

LEAH – Music is a big part of my life in general, but in particular, I happen to play the piano and the flute. I’m mostly trained in classical music, but I’ve played some jazz and popular stuff, and love to play pretty much anything. I’m currently finishing up my music degree, and might start teaching piano lessons in the future. I also work as an accompanist for local events, and have a lot of fun playing gigs for retirement homes and with community musical pits.

JON – I’ve spent over 15 years cultivating skills as a musician, recording engineer, and producer. I’ve written songs that have been performed on stages from Oriental, North Carolina, to Olympia Stadium in Berlin, Germany (performing as part of the World Culture Festival). I’ve also used my music and engineering background to help out numerous non-profit organizations in Madison.

HENRY – I’m in a radical band called Phantom Vibration, and we play chilled out pop songs. We’re based in Saint Paul, and our catalog consists of two self-recorded EPs. We’ll be releasing a third in a few weeks! We’ll be touring the midwest and east coast this summer, so good times are ahead!

The Dev Cave, Episode 1

Forget man cave, mantuary, or manspace. Let’s hear it for “dev cave,” a monthly update from our lead developer, Jason Gullickson.

“This month we focused on bolstering the inner workings of the Murfie machinery. We just rolled out a new “Disc Dematerializer” to improve the speed at which members’ discs get posted as well as an overhaul of our existing warehouse system to support posting discs one-at-a-time (instead of having to wait for an entire kit to be processed).

Once we finish up the improvements under the hood, we’ll be focusing on the parts of Murfie our members use the most. We want to make the site faster and easier to use as well as implement the features popularly requested by members.

In addition to our regularly scheduled programming (har har har) we have some experimental work going on in the Murfie labs. Mobile apps, cloud music locker interfaces, and other R&D projects are under way as we continue to look for new ways to make Murfie the best online music platform in the world.”

Sweet! Thanks, Jason! For the very latest from our developer team, stay tuned to more episodes of The Dev Cave each and every month.

New Year’s Resolutions by the Crew

We got guts, yes we do! The crew at Murfie is willing to share – with you, you, and YOU! – their most deepest, most heartfelt, most ambitious resolutions for the New Year. Please, be gentle in your reaction, or better yet: share YOUR resolution to level the playing field.

I’ll start: For once, I’d like to learn all the lyrics to a song. I’m shockingly inept at memorizing the words of a song.

“I’m going to play ice hockey, or release a new album.” – Jason Gullickson

“To learn Television’s classic album Marquee Moon note for note on the guitar, while also becoming a table tennis master. Needless to say, my work is cut out for me this year.” – Henry Mackaman

“I resolve to get each and every CD I own into my Murfie shop. Boom.” – Alyssa Severn

“I’m going to make a renewed effort to sell my Milli Vanilli CD. It seems like there must be a good home for this disc out there somewhere.” – Matt Younkle

“To benefit others with my own self-righteousness!” – Keith Knutson

“I resolve to explore a wider variety of music genres and give some artists more of a chance than I have in the past.” – Andrew Hinkens

“To do ONE pull-up! Right now I can’t do a single one. I just need to know that I can pull myself up if I was hanging off a cliff or something.” – Kayla Liederbach

“To accept the things I cannot change (and build a team of superpowered misfits to change the rest).” – Preston Austin