The new office digs

I’m tired but very happy. Today was my first day at my  new gig at a music  2.0 startup. It was a great day … I arrived mid-morning  was handed a new laptop (mmmm, that new laptop smell), given a new, completely empty desk and got right down business.  As you’d expect in a startup,   everyone (except the suits) sits in the same room, the average employee age is under 30 and the staff is entirely male.  I’m surrounded by people who eat, drink and breathe music.

The big excitement for the day for the office was the new music setup. One of the guys had just connected a Sonos system to the office stereo which lets the entire office share a single playlist. Anyone  in the office can queue any track, by any artist for the whole office to hear.  The music for the day was a very eclectic mix – ranging from cool jazz, to power pop – some was a bit hard to work through (the Zappa and the Wedding March) – and there was a surprising amount of  80s pop (the last time I listened to Toto’s Rosanna was in the supermarket).

My first day at work was an interesting contrast to my first day at Sun Microsystems almost 9 years ago.  On my first day at Sun, there were about 30 other people who were starting on that same day, and we all spent the first few hours in the Human Resources meeting from hell learning about TPS reports and coversheets. It ultimately took a week to get my login, and email setup by the IT department. And no one played any music at all.

The only downer for the day was the commute – I’ve added an extra 40 minutes  to my daily drive  – that will take a bit of getting used to.

It is really exciting to be working at a company that I suspect know will be at the heart of the next wave of music on the web.  The team is top notch, driven and perhaps most important of all are extreme music fans. The company founders and CEO seem to have  a real vision for the future of music. This is the place where things can happen. I feel lucky to be part of the team.