The Pipes are Flowing: Hoopla, Substack, and Scaling the Collective

In my last update, I talked about laying the "pipes"—the unglamorous, backend distribution networks required to get independent art out of Portland and into the global marketplace.

For the last few weeks, my head has been down (and admittedly, fighting off a nasty cold—a harsh reminder of the very human side of the "indie label journey"). But while the studio was physically quiet, the digital machine was roaring to life.

Today, I am incredibly proud to announce that the pipes are officially flowing. We aren’t just building platforms anymore; we are operating them.

Here is an open-source look at the milestones we hit this week across the Foundry.

1. The Ultimate Proof of Concept: Hoopla Integration

When we launched NBGee Publishing with Trish Ginther’s Learn to Grow: Life Skills for Teens, the goal was never just to sell books on Amazon. The goal was to democratize access to vital knowledge.

This week, we hit a massive milestone: Trish’s book is officially live on Hoopla Digital.

Hoopla is the primary digital gateway for public libraries across the United States. This means an independently published book by a senior creator in our collective is now sitting in the national library ecosystem, accessible to millions of patrons for free, while still generating revenue for the author. This is the exact proof of concept NBGee Foundry was built to achieve.

2. NBGee Studios and the "Video Comic" Model

As the publishing wing expands, so does our visual storytelling. We are officially moving into full production on our next major property: Gus Tells Terry, an original manuscript by our featured artist and author, Juanita Buckles.

To bring this to life, we had to upgrade our tech stack. I spent the week building and deploying a custom upgrade to our internal NBGee Audio Lab. We can now direct and mix up to five AI voice actors simultaneously, allowing us to produce fully scored, multi-actor "Video Comics."

But making the art is only half the battle; you need a stage. We have officially launched a dedicated series channel for Gus Tells Terry over on our Substack (studios.nbgee.com). We are utilizing Substack's "Sections" feature to build a Netflix-style infrastructure. Subscribers can pay a single monthly fee to access our entire slate of upcoming shows, including the NBGee Alien Universe (animated stories based on our best-selling merch characters).

Most importantly, this subscription revenue will be split with the creators exactly like our merchandise model.

3. Scaling E-Commerce: Gallery Views & The Spring Collection

Over on the retail side, our 2026 Spring Collection is officially live. It features incredible new botanical and abstract pieces from Kim Poff and Juanita Buckles.

We also launched a fascinating hybrid product: physical artisan soaps by Carrie Taylor ("Neon Sugar" and "Indigo Salt") designed specifically to accompany her digital audio capsules.

To support this expanding catalog, I rolled out a brand new UI update: The Gallery View. Store visitors can now click on a specific piece of art and instantly see every piece of NBGee merch that features that image. It shifts the shopping experience from "browsing products" to "browsing art," which perfectly aligns with our creator-first mission.

4. Locking in the Financial Backend

You can’t run an indie record label without securing the royalties. Behind the scenes, I successfully completed our SoundExchange, DistroKid, and UnitedMasters audits. We officially cleared all past catalog disputes and have firmly routed our Master and Label royalties to the new NBGee Records and NBGee Publishing entities. The financial backend is fully locked in, legally compliant, and ready to scale.

The Next Chapter

The infrastructure is built. The royalties are routed. The creators are in the national library system.

Now, we make movies.

If you want to see the new audio lab in action, head over to studios.nbgee.com and subscribe. The pilot episode of Gus Tells Terry drops this week.

Thank you for being part of this journey. The Foundry is officially humming.

— George Bowden Founder and CEO, NBGee Foundry

The Storm, The Voice, and The Machine

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for tools we use and trust (like ElevenLabs and CapCut). If you use these links to build your own studio, NBGee Foundry may earn a commission.

The Plumbing is Done

In my last update, "Going Global," I talked about plumbing—the unglamorous but vital work of laying the "pipes" to get independent art into the biggest marketplaces in the world.

Those pipes are now live.

• Trish Ginther’s Learn To Grow: Life Skills for Teens is finding its way into libraries and onto devices from Portland to Europe via Draft2Digital.

• Juanita Buckles’ "Sky Fire" collection is officially out in the wild, turning abstract art into wearable energy.

The distribution machine is humming. But a Foundry isn't just a shipping center; it is a place of creation. And right now, the hammers are ringing loud.

Today, I want to pull back the curtain on the next phase of NBGee: The expansion of the Guild.

Enter The Storm: Indigo Salt is Live

If Trish provides the roots (resilience), and Juanita provides the color (joy), our newest Artisan brings the atmosphere.

I am proud to officially welcome Carrie Taylor to the Foundry as our resident Poet & Artisan.

For the last month, Carrie has been building something entirely new for us. It isn't just a book, and it isn't just an audiobook. We call it a Digital Capsule.

Today, Indigo Salt (Digital Capsule 001) is officially available in the NBGee Shop.

It is a blend of spoken word, atmospheric soundscapes, and raw poetry that feels less like reading and more like weathering a storm. It is moody, it is grounded, and it is exactly the kind of brave work we built this platform to support.

> Listen to the preview and download the capsule here.

The Voice: Upgrading the Digital Forge

One of our core beliefs at NBGee is that technology shouldn't replace the artist; it should amplify them.

To create the immersive soundscapes of Indigo Salt, we needed tools that could keep up with Carrie's vision. I am excited to announce that NBGee Foundry has been approved as an Official ElevenLabs Affiliate.

ElevenLabs is the world leader in AI audio research. We gained access to the tools that allowed us to layer human performance with digital textures, creating a sonic depth previously reserved for major studios.

• Editor's Note: To ensure we heard every detail of those textures, DJ NBGee mixed this project exclusively on Steven Slate VSX Modeling Headphones, which allowed us to simulate world-class studio acoustics in our home offices.

The Machine: Reaching the Unreachable

While the art was being made, the machine was finding an audience.

The most exciting stat I saw this week wasn't a sales number; it was a "reach" number. Our latest video campaign reached over 7,000 people. But the stat that mattered? 100% of them were non-followers.

That means we are no longer just talking to our friends. We are talking to the world. We are proving that an indie studio in Oregon can hold the attention of a global audience.

How do we do it?

1. Creation: We produce our high-retention social clips using CapCut Pro, which allows us to edit music videos and add dynamic captions right from the studio.

2. Distribution: We schedule our cross-platform blasts using OneUp, allowing us to manage 10+ social accounts from a single dashboard.

The Studio Lot: NBGee Studios Goes Live

While NBGee Records is handling the audio and NBGee Publishing handles the text, we needed a dedicated home for our visual storytelling and "Building in Public" narratives.

We realized that social media is great for clips, but it’s terrible for context.

So, we have officially launched studios.nbgee.com.

This is the new digital headquarters for NBGee Studios. It is where we will post:

• NBGee Vignettes: Exclusive premieres of our new micro-cinema series—short, narrative films that capture the essence of the Second Act.

• Deep-Dive Journals: The real "making of" logs for projects like Indigo Salt.

• The Blueprint: Script developments, storyboards, and visual concept art.

• Director's Commentary: Honest breakdowns of the tech stack and tools we used to get the shot.

If you want the product, go to the Shop. If you want the process, meet us at the Studios.

> Subscribe to NBGee Studios (It’s currently free)

What’s Next?

The pipes are built. The storm has been poured into them.

1. Go listen to Indigo Salt. It’s unlike anything we’ve released before.

2. Join the Studio. See how we built it.

3. Watch this space. February is only getting louder.

— George Bowden Founder and CEO, NBGee Foundry

P.S. Want to build your own "Machine"?

People ask how we manage books, music, and film simultaneously. I just launched the Foundry Tech Stack—a transparent list of the exact software and hardware we use to run NBGee. See the full list here.