The Islander: Cindy Altum MacDonough

SPI Music Guide

Picture: Courtesy of SPI Music Guide

A vacation away from home turned into a move down south for resident and SPI Music Guide Founder Cindy Altum MacDonough. Despite growing up in Harlingen, she lived most of her life in Dallas before retiring to the island in 2012.

MacDonough admitted she had difficulty deciding where to go for live music with little information during her vacation.

Once she moved back, she started brainstorming ways to showcase SPI's overwhelming musical talent. Developing websites in Dallas helped MacDonough teach herself how to build a website from the ground up.

By 2016 MacDonough had successfully built a one-stop-shop website of musicians' schedules along with a Facebook page called SPI Music Guide.

The SPI Music Guide website contains a homepage, a calendar, and four tabs. Users can quickly check the music schedule where artists and venues are linked and see the musical genre or menu options.

In Dallas, most musicians are in the same places, "but most of it is word-of-mouth or restaurants promoting artists. The difference between the island and Dallas is that the island has tourists."

Living in a tourist environment, the population changes constantly, and her goal was to make it as easy for them as it is for the residents. MacDonough reached out to tourists by leaving her business cards at places like the Visitor's Center and the Blue Marlin. "It's worked. In the wintertime, I get over 1000 hits a day. We peak in February with 1200 hits."

MacDonough knew after she retired she wanted to volunteer in some way and says the SPI Music Guide her form of art.

Pictured: Cindy Altum MacDonough

Through this journey, she's met several artists. After proving consistency, artists started coming to her along with businesses that host live music.

Currently, she's planning a month's trip to Europe from September 1 to October 7 and wants to let locals know she will not be posting the daily schedule.

In the meantime, she will put a message and links to the artists and venues.

In the future, as the website grows, she plans to add another tab to the page to highlight locals. "I want to focus on just local musicians and their routines and other musicians that come occasionally."

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