Reading through the changes to the Sellaband concept has left me with very mixed feelings. In many respects I'm actually extremely pleased they've finally taken the action they have, but by the same token I now see only a make-or-break option with no obvious alternative routes for the progress of the site.
The change to only 1CD per believer may seem like a relatively small thing once you get past the legitimate reasons such as artists investing in themselves and people wanting more than one copy for friends/relatives, but I think for the average believer it should now make you stop and ask the following 2 questions - Why did I join Sellaband? and What do I expect now the new terms have been revealed?
When I originally joined Sellaband, with the exception of Nemesea I was quite a small believer. Like several other believers, I actually became a "big believer" (or at least a bigger believer than originally intended) most particularly after Sellaband raised the idea of believer shops. Many may see me as a "big believer" but I'm really a music lover who turned into one, because of the way I viewed Sellaband at the time. Was it really so naive to think that so few CDs would sell via Sellaband? After all, we're talking a company here with contacts in the music industry already. Like many others I thought those contacts would be able to have some impact, because I do genuinely believe there are 5000 homes for the CDs of any artist out there and they can be found eventually. After all, how many people are there in the world with an Internet connection who listen to music? 5000 is the merest fraction of a percent! And when it comes to contacts, you also get the ideas of marketing and promotion in mind - the contacts ought to exist not only to make the CD but also to give some guidance to help it to sell too!
But I think that Sellaband has stated its position very clearly with the new terms and has basically stated that it does not want to be the revolution in the music industry, but rather wants to be a small cog which may or may not turn out to form part of that revolution in the future.
Sometimes I despair, because when it comes to "music 2.0" nobody seems to have figured out that being just part of the equation isn't enough if you truly want to start a revolution in music. The first company to figure out how to help an artist get fans, book gigs, record their music, manage their money, deal with promotion and generally stop them going insane in the process is going to be onto a winner. It's fine to say that in the "new music world" artists are now in control of their own destiny, but when you consider all that's involved in terms of finding and keeping an audience on top of them actually having the creativity to make music in the first place, "non omnia possumus omnes" surely has never applied more strongly than to the artists themselves. And sure, a company can take that "we can't do everything" approach as well, but having the options all in one place is surely going to be a winner over having to go everywhere for all the tools you might need. Some artists may be good at self-promotion. Some may know one of the guys who works at the local recording studio. The reality is, most don't know what they're doing - they just have a dream to make music. So the person who can come along and fill in the gaps so making music is all they have to think about is always going to be in demand.
From my point of view, therefore, Sellaband has stated that they are merely a tool where you can turn up, raise 50K and record an album. Don't expect anything outside of that, because I haven't seen it anywhere in the "new era" concept changes. Don't expect them to find your fans and don't expect them to promote your music (despite this maybe being quite a weird concept to get your head around as they're taking publishing revenue). Maybe if their top-secret partnership to be revealed on 1st December is someone like Topspin I may change my mind, but I see the future as a combination of 1 part believers, "fanatics" who really get hooked on an act and a few of the super-rich who are just spending their pocket money (yes we have a few believers on Sellaband who own companies, their own aeroplanes etc. etc.).
Look at it this way - if 50K artists aren't selling a large number of normal copies of CDs or digital mp3s now through Sellaband and its third party links, what makes you think 50K artists will be able to sell copies in future? With Sellaband saying it wants no real part of promotion (but hey you're free to use the 5K from your budget for that if you want it) and there being no additional copies of CDs for buying more than one part, I see no obvious reason to buy more than one part in an artist in future, unless one of the as-yet-unknown incentives is deemed to have sufficient value to you as a believer to make you want to spend the extra. (hence the "fanatic"). Artists are going to have to prove they can already effectively promote themselves through channels other than Sellaband in future and bring people in via that or I can't see how they will stand a chance of raising 50K until Sellaband has an awful lot more real believers on board.
I think it should therefore be obvious from the above what my own strategy will be in future. I will be buying one part in artists I like (probably fairly early to reserve that low-numbered CD) and only decide much closer to the 50K whether I want to go for an incentive, based on how much I like the act, or whether they've actually done anything to convince me they're worth spending extra cash on. I figure questions such as "Have you got a manager?", "Who is your promotion company?" and other similar nuggets may be on others minds before they part with a lot of cash under the new rules. On the upside, if a lot of people start looking at incentives then we could actually get some faster runs to 50K than we've seen of late as people snap them up. The bar has really been raised for new artists - if you can't bring a heap of people with you I'd now be inclined to say forget it until Sellaband actually has that 100,000 new believers on board (assuming it can get them)
For my existing multiple-part acts the future is unclear, but I am in no immediate rush since the 1 year extension plan on CDs announced. I figure that I've got until an artist gets close to 50K or the 1 year deadline is up before I decide anything. If I'm still on a heap of parts and an artist hasn't moved significantly forward in that year the incentives (including any I've received to date) will decide what I do, and I think that's fair given the amount of time. Likewise, if an artist looks like hitting 50K and I'm not sure I'll be able to sell all the CDs myself then I'll be having a chat with the artist in question and seeing what we can work out, but I think there will be very few of those.
New believers therefore become the crunch point. Without some "big names" arriving and bringing believers with them, Sellaband is pretty much going to have to provide these believers themselves. I can only hope for their sakes that they are sitting on something really big, because the early part of 2009 and the number of new believers it brings is going to mean the difference between artists stagnating and new artists being able to make progress as well as artists already on Sellaband trying to make the rush before the Dec 1st deadline. Will Sellaband still exist in 2010? I guess we'll have to wait and find out.
P.S. As you can probably realise my change in strategy means there will be a few changes concerning my "hatchet day" blog but you'll have to wait until the 1st December to find out what the future of "hatchet day" looks like.
Saturday 22 November 2008
Saturday 1 November 2008
November 1st 2008 Hatchet Day
If you want to know more about what "hatchet day" is, visit my Sellaband profile and read my info section.
Results from last month
I did better than I was expecting this month. Only one artist actually forgot to thank me, and I will be watching them with interest as, incredibly, they have actually shown a few signs of life otherwise. More about this artist later in this blog!
Well after a couple of weeks I finally had a message back on Myspace from Jo of Luna Assassins which confirms they're leaving the site. I'm therefore going to run my "12 days of Christmas" again this year (this is where I choose an artist to highlight every day for 12 days by buying a part - you can probably dig up last year's forum thread if you go deep enough) and also treat the Luna Assassins parts as a pot of money to draw from unless the "change" that's coming on 1st December is one where Sellaband actually do their housekeeping. So unless Sellaband do actually pull their fingers out and delete the profile, expect my parts to slowly reduce.
Walter B hasn't heard any more about Kristianna than I have so I've removed one part already and will continue to withdraw slowly over the next couple of months unless I see some kind of reaction. Likewise there's still no sign of life from Sasha Vella so the same basic rules are now also in effect.
Finally, it seems the artist out there that I mentioned last month who has some rather eager believers just hasn't got the message. Within a few hours of Jess King announcing she was leaving the site I was receiving PMs inviting me to move my parts from Jess to this artist instead. Talk about walking on others graves! When will people get the message that I'm not going to invest where I'm told, but rather where I decide? So I predict an artist is going to get a rather nasty shock in their inbox after I've finished my hatchet day and uploaded the photos from last night, because if I get one more such "invite" before my next hatchet day blog (and after I've dropped off the warning so I can be absolutely sure the artist is aware and the believers aren't doing this off their own initiative), then I WILL name and shame. And that would be a pity because I'm convinced Greebo would be interested in the music, even though I'm not particularly sure, but there's no way in hell I'm going to point him in the direction of listening to an artist whose believers are basically trying to bully parts out of other people. To the artist in question, I'm going to say this publicly: You don't need these tactics. Irrespective of whether I personally like the music enough to buy a part, I actually know you've got what it takes to succeed on here, but at the moment you're doing yourself no favours with me, and for all I know, possibly other believers too.
This month's gainers and losers
Not a single artist I mentioned last month as being under threat showed any sign of life so it's goodbye to Skin Diary, The Reverend Coyote, The glo, Tico Verde and Jon Curtis
I landed up splitting the parts reclaimed between just two artists this month. As I said last month, MOPI are proving to be one of my favourites on here, so the choice to increase was an obvious one. MR-10 is the other recipient, mainly as a result of the Selloween gig last night. Get less covers and more originals in the set list and fulfil that potential, because that was one cracking gig!
Next month's "under threat" list is as follows: Air Raid Anthem, Devil's Food Cake, Lo Mass Republic and Percy Mejhagen.
It seems that as well as "believer fatigue" we're also getting quite a few cases of "artist fatigue". As well as Jess King announcing her intention to quit, Cris Tanzi, Chapter 9 and Marc Supsic have asked for people to buy (or reduce to) just the one part and Telepathy and Tarek Sidani announcing they're scaling back on their activity on the site, at least for the present. I've not shifted any of my parts in these artists, nor do I intend to at present, but I can only hope that there is a genuine "change" on the way because the signs don't look that healthy at present. In fact you could say it goes even further than this given that I posted a thread in the forum back in August announcing my intention to come visit a gig or two in the euro-zone of Europe in November if anyone had one planned. Given the response from artists (or rather the lack of it as I only had a response from one artist in the euro-zone) to that thread, I've abandoned the idea. Obviously I was mistaken in thinking artists would jump at the chance to get a face at one of their gigs they wouldn't normally see, and possibly even a chance to convert me into a believer if I wasn't one already. Is this the ultimate symptom of "artist fatigue"?
New investments
I put the "curse of the knifelady" on Lucia Barreto earlier in the month. For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon it means I bought the first part, which seems to be akin to a death sentence as far as getting believers is concerned - just ask any of the other artists I have "first part" in as I'm still waiting for one of them to hit 10K, never mind 50K! Lucia herself is friends with So What and I suspect it's they who persuaded her to sign up. I just hope she stays active as she seemed quite keen for her first few days on the site.
Next on the list is Cubworld. The conversion actually happened earlier in the month when he posted "Wounded" and I could actually feel the hairs starting to stand up on the back of my neck. I think this is the first time I've actually felt that "something" that others see in him. It's a hard thing to describe and the nearest I can get is by drawing a parallel to a young Finnish guitarist I've met called Markus Nylund - he wrote a song called "Millionaire" and when he plays it you can actually hear the room go quiet and people start to listen. Listening to "Wounded" feels exactly like that.
As the first has fallen on a weekend, we obviously haven't received any payout from Sellaband yet, so I've only bought one more part today and that was in I Am Not Lefthanded who only signed up a few days ago. Hopefully this means I'll be spending more next month, but to be honest I haven't actually found many artists really grabbing my attention recently.
Watching
I wasn't watching Sunsoma that closely before but I will be now, as they didn't turn up at the Selloween gig last night. I've left a message on their page, so I hope things are alright.
The inclusion of the Sundial Project in this week's Sixpack reminded me that I haven't been near their profile in ages, so I've resolved to go visit some of the other people I haven't been near in a while, such as Seventh Sin, Soulslide and Grant Stevens. Incidentally, you can download the latest album from the Sundial Project for free if you go visit their profile - I've got as far as the downloading and just need the time to listen. They're inviting feedback in a thread on the forum for anyone who does download - you might have to dig down a bit in the "road to 50K" section before you find it though! The album I downloaded from John C Fraser is now next in line to be listened to, and he'll tell you how long ago I got a copy of that!
Biggest worry of the month is probably Spellbox though. After a bulletin announcing that their cam streams would be live again from October 13th, I haven't actually spotted any confirmation of days/times anywhere and this date wouldn't have fitted their usual Friday sessions anyway. Their budget has also shrunk to just over 2K now and their profile hasn't been updated in over 2 months which is completely out of character. Fingers crossed it's just the ongoing promotion of Mysti's album getting in the way, but I'm starting to feel the need to rattle a few cages and find out what's happening.
In terms of people dropping by my profile, story of the month is basically an artist who hasn't. I had a friend request from an artist on Myspace with the attached message "Hi I see you're on Sellaband". Having seen hundreds (well thousands) of bands on Sellaband, I automatically assumed they were a recent signup as the name didn't ring any bells, however when I reached their Sellaband profile I discovered the last message on their profile was actually from me and dated well over a year ago! The artist in question is Quarter2. Needless to say, I still like the music but what I wrote back then is unfortunately still true today, and I haven't had them leave a message on my Sellaband profile either.
Rooga dropped by to say they're now back on Sellaband, as they'd been away on tour.
Most noticeable of the "people i don't believe in (yet?)" set of profile posters have been Anne Marie Sunshine and Meo and the Alternative Preachers, mostly because I bumped into both of them during the Tiffany Gow countdown chat. In the first case I've been interested enough to wishlist straight away, but in the second nothing has caught my interest yet.
Sixpack Stories
I actually decided to start this new section before the current Sixpack was posted, and, in fact because of what happened the very first Sixpack week because I thought you'd find it interesting. The aim is to tell you any interesting stories I've encountered as a result of the Sixpack and I will also be revealing who I have been voting for in previous weeks and why.
In the first week all six of the artists chosen were basically "new and untested" therefore logic dictated that my choice for the week was going to be between the two artists I had already bought parts in. In the end, I went for The Hoodoos because I preferred the music but by the end of the week I was wishing I had gone for Promethic instead. Remember I said at the start of this blog that there was only one artist who hadn't thanked me. Well that artist was The Hoodoos. In fact, they still haven't.
So although they finished the first week in second place, I didn't actually vote for them the following week. Amazingly The Hoodoos did seem to actually come alive in the second week of the Sixpack, presumably through hearing they'd actually done quite well the first week and they even posted a new track. I'll be looking to see how "alive" they remain though. The second Sixpack week actually proved quite a hard choice between Alex Joe Marczak and Conflict in the Sky, but a combination of the fact I am a rocker at heart and I also often have a soft spot for the underdog, meant that Conflict in the Sky got my vote that week.
I was originally thinking of voting for them again in the 3rd week but unfortunately for them Sellaband threw one of my real favourites into the mix in the form of Morris, so no prizes for guessing where the vote went.
Which brings me neatly onto the current week's voting. Well, I don't know who chooses the Sixpack but they sure have picked some interesting (dare I say controversial) choices this week. I'm voting for Morris again, as you may have guessed but there is actually more than one artist with an "interesting" story in the rest of the lineup.
Most obvious is I Kissed Charles as people have already dragged the threads up from when they were asking how to delete their profile because they were already signed. Indeed the question we can expect to be answered on Monday about signed artists is actually from me as a result of their selection in the Sixpack. I'm hoping for a definition of what Sellaband consider a "signed artist" as part of this answer as there are circumstances I can see where there's no real conflict of interest e.g. when an artist has their current album signed but wants to start fundraising for another which isn't. I think this is one area not clear at all to believers (let's face it, how much does your average person know about the workings of the music industry) and hence one area where a proper clarification could make things a lot easier for all concerned. In actual fact, I wouldn't be averse to seeing Sellaband working with some of the smaller "indie labels" - in terms of partnership there's probably benefit to be gained from both sides.
But a less obvious potential source of controversy that nobody seems to have pointed out or got wound up about is the current 3rd place The Last Grand. Hands up how many people noticed they were on Slice The Pie? I'm not over there so I don't know how much of the 15,000 funding they were looking for has been raised. What I do know is that they're advertising on their Sellaband profile that they're looking for people to go and fund them on Slice The Pie and only one of the two sites (Sellaband and Slice The Pie) is mentioned on their own website. And I'll give you three guesses as to which one that is (and the first two don't count!)
Add to that the fact that The Words will be performing in the hopes of getting a deal from either EMI or Sony next week and I think we can agree it's definitely been an interesting selection on the Sixpack this week!
Sellaband
As if the current Sixpack wasn't enough potential source of controversy,
Ferry is back as furr:www.unrocked.net. For those who missed what happened - last year he was 13 and was kicked off the site along with the various artist profiles he'd set up after he pretended to be a well known Dutch artist. Interestingly, this new profile says he is 16. Reformed character or an accident waiting to happen? I know he's been spotted by other long time believers but I see that Sellaband haven't deleted this new profile, so I'll leave you to make up your own minds what the real truth is here.
Change may be coming on December 1st, but will it be too little, too late? One thing is for sure - if it isn't seen to resolve some of the long-time issues, I can't see the site surviving 2009 given the reactions I'm seeing from both artists and believers at present.
That's all for this month. Hopefully I'll get that post about expectations done before next hatchet day, but the need to earn a living keeps getting in the way!
Results from last month
I did better than I was expecting this month. Only one artist actually forgot to thank me, and I will be watching them with interest as, incredibly, they have actually shown a few signs of life otherwise. More about this artist later in this blog!
Well after a couple of weeks I finally had a message back on Myspace from Jo of Luna Assassins which confirms they're leaving the site. I'm therefore going to run my "12 days of Christmas" again this year (this is where I choose an artist to highlight every day for 12 days by buying a part - you can probably dig up last year's forum thread if you go deep enough) and also treat the Luna Assassins parts as a pot of money to draw from unless the "change" that's coming on 1st December is one where Sellaband actually do their housekeeping. So unless Sellaband do actually pull their fingers out and delete the profile, expect my parts to slowly reduce.
Walter B hasn't heard any more about Kristianna than I have so I've removed one part already and will continue to withdraw slowly over the next couple of months unless I see some kind of reaction. Likewise there's still no sign of life from Sasha Vella so the same basic rules are now also in effect.
Finally, it seems the artist out there that I mentioned last month who has some rather eager believers just hasn't got the message. Within a few hours of Jess King announcing she was leaving the site I was receiving PMs inviting me to move my parts from Jess to this artist instead. Talk about walking on others graves! When will people get the message that I'm not going to invest where I'm told, but rather where I decide? So I predict an artist is going to get a rather nasty shock in their inbox after I've finished my hatchet day and uploaded the photos from last night, because if I get one more such "invite" before my next hatchet day blog (and after I've dropped off the warning so I can be absolutely sure the artist is aware and the believers aren't doing this off their own initiative), then I WILL name and shame. And that would be a pity because I'm convinced Greebo would be interested in the music, even though I'm not particularly sure, but there's no way in hell I'm going to point him in the direction of listening to an artist whose believers are basically trying to bully parts out of other people. To the artist in question, I'm going to say this publicly: You don't need these tactics. Irrespective of whether I personally like the music enough to buy a part, I actually know you've got what it takes to succeed on here, but at the moment you're doing yourself no favours with me, and for all I know, possibly other believers too.
This month's gainers and losers
Not a single artist I mentioned last month as being under threat showed any sign of life so it's goodbye to Skin Diary, The Reverend Coyote, The glo, Tico Verde and Jon Curtis
I landed up splitting the parts reclaimed between just two artists this month. As I said last month, MOPI are proving to be one of my favourites on here, so the choice to increase was an obvious one. MR-10 is the other recipient, mainly as a result of the Selloween gig last night. Get less covers and more originals in the set list and fulfil that potential, because that was one cracking gig!
Next month's "under threat" list is as follows: Air Raid Anthem, Devil's Food Cake, Lo Mass Republic and Percy Mejhagen.
It seems that as well as "believer fatigue" we're also getting quite a few cases of "artist fatigue". As well as Jess King announcing her intention to quit, Cris Tanzi, Chapter 9 and Marc Supsic have asked for people to buy (or reduce to) just the one part and Telepathy and Tarek Sidani announcing they're scaling back on their activity on the site, at least for the present. I've not shifted any of my parts in these artists, nor do I intend to at present, but I can only hope that there is a genuine "change" on the way because the signs don't look that healthy at present. In fact you could say it goes even further than this given that I posted a thread in the forum back in August announcing my intention to come visit a gig or two in the euro-zone of Europe in November if anyone had one planned. Given the response from artists (or rather the lack of it as I only had a response from one artist in the euro-zone) to that thread, I've abandoned the idea. Obviously I was mistaken in thinking artists would jump at the chance to get a face at one of their gigs they wouldn't normally see, and possibly even a chance to convert me into a believer if I wasn't one already. Is this the ultimate symptom of "artist fatigue"?
New investments
I put the "curse of the knifelady" on Lucia Barreto earlier in the month. For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon it means I bought the first part, which seems to be akin to a death sentence as far as getting believers is concerned - just ask any of the other artists I have "first part" in as I'm still waiting for one of them to hit 10K, never mind 50K! Lucia herself is friends with So What and I suspect it's they who persuaded her to sign up. I just hope she stays active as she seemed quite keen for her first few days on the site.
Next on the list is Cubworld. The conversion actually happened earlier in the month when he posted "Wounded" and I could actually feel the hairs starting to stand up on the back of my neck. I think this is the first time I've actually felt that "something" that others see in him. It's a hard thing to describe and the nearest I can get is by drawing a parallel to a young Finnish guitarist I've met called Markus Nylund - he wrote a song called "Millionaire" and when he plays it you can actually hear the room go quiet and people start to listen. Listening to "Wounded" feels exactly like that.
As the first has fallen on a weekend, we obviously haven't received any payout from Sellaband yet, so I've only bought one more part today and that was in I Am Not Lefthanded who only signed up a few days ago. Hopefully this means I'll be spending more next month, but to be honest I haven't actually found many artists really grabbing my attention recently.
Watching
I wasn't watching Sunsoma that closely before but I will be now, as they didn't turn up at the Selloween gig last night. I've left a message on their page, so I hope things are alright.
The inclusion of the Sundial Project in this week's Sixpack reminded me that I haven't been near their profile in ages, so I've resolved to go visit some of the other people I haven't been near in a while, such as Seventh Sin, Soulslide and Grant Stevens. Incidentally, you can download the latest album from the Sundial Project for free if you go visit their profile - I've got as far as the downloading and just need the time to listen. They're inviting feedback in a thread on the forum for anyone who does download - you might have to dig down a bit in the "road to 50K" section before you find it though! The album I downloaded from John C Fraser is now next in line to be listened to, and he'll tell you how long ago I got a copy of that!
Biggest worry of the month is probably Spellbox though. After a bulletin announcing that their cam streams would be live again from October 13th, I haven't actually spotted any confirmation of days/times anywhere and this date wouldn't have fitted their usual Friday sessions anyway. Their budget has also shrunk to just over 2K now and their profile hasn't been updated in over 2 months which is completely out of character. Fingers crossed it's just the ongoing promotion of Mysti's album getting in the way, but I'm starting to feel the need to rattle a few cages and find out what's happening.
In terms of people dropping by my profile, story of the month is basically an artist who hasn't. I had a friend request from an artist on Myspace with the attached message "Hi I see you're on Sellaband". Having seen hundreds (well thousands) of bands on Sellaband, I automatically assumed they were a recent signup as the name didn't ring any bells, however when I reached their Sellaband profile I discovered the last message on their profile was actually from me and dated well over a year ago! The artist in question is Quarter2. Needless to say, I still like the music but what I wrote back then is unfortunately still true today, and I haven't had them leave a message on my Sellaband profile either.
Rooga dropped by to say they're now back on Sellaband, as they'd been away on tour.
Most noticeable of the "people i don't believe in (yet?)" set of profile posters have been Anne Marie Sunshine and Meo and the Alternative Preachers, mostly because I bumped into both of them during the Tiffany Gow countdown chat. In the first case I've been interested enough to wishlist straight away, but in the second nothing has caught my interest yet.
Sixpack Stories
I actually decided to start this new section before the current Sixpack was posted, and, in fact because of what happened the very first Sixpack week because I thought you'd find it interesting. The aim is to tell you any interesting stories I've encountered as a result of the Sixpack and I will also be revealing who I have been voting for in previous weeks and why.
In the first week all six of the artists chosen were basically "new and untested" therefore logic dictated that my choice for the week was going to be between the two artists I had already bought parts in. In the end, I went for The Hoodoos because I preferred the music but by the end of the week I was wishing I had gone for Promethic instead. Remember I said at the start of this blog that there was only one artist who hadn't thanked me. Well that artist was The Hoodoos. In fact, they still haven't.
So although they finished the first week in second place, I didn't actually vote for them the following week. Amazingly The Hoodoos did seem to actually come alive in the second week of the Sixpack, presumably through hearing they'd actually done quite well the first week and they even posted a new track. I'll be looking to see how "alive" they remain though. The second Sixpack week actually proved quite a hard choice between Alex Joe Marczak and Conflict in the Sky, but a combination of the fact I am a rocker at heart and I also often have a soft spot for the underdog, meant that Conflict in the Sky got my vote that week.
I was originally thinking of voting for them again in the 3rd week but unfortunately for them Sellaband threw one of my real favourites into the mix in the form of Morris, so no prizes for guessing where the vote went.
Which brings me neatly onto the current week's voting. Well, I don't know who chooses the Sixpack but they sure have picked some interesting (dare I say controversial) choices this week. I'm voting for Morris again, as you may have guessed but there is actually more than one artist with an "interesting" story in the rest of the lineup.
Most obvious is I Kissed Charles as people have already dragged the threads up from when they were asking how to delete their profile because they were already signed. Indeed the question we can expect to be answered on Monday about signed artists is actually from me as a result of their selection in the Sixpack. I'm hoping for a definition of what Sellaband consider a "signed artist" as part of this answer as there are circumstances I can see where there's no real conflict of interest e.g. when an artist has their current album signed but wants to start fundraising for another which isn't. I think this is one area not clear at all to believers (let's face it, how much does your average person know about the workings of the music industry) and hence one area where a proper clarification could make things a lot easier for all concerned. In actual fact, I wouldn't be averse to seeing Sellaband working with some of the smaller "indie labels" - in terms of partnership there's probably benefit to be gained from both sides.
But a less obvious potential source of controversy that nobody seems to have pointed out or got wound up about is the current 3rd place The Last Grand. Hands up how many people noticed they were on Slice The Pie? I'm not over there so I don't know how much of the 15,000 funding they were looking for has been raised. What I do know is that they're advertising on their Sellaband profile that they're looking for people to go and fund them on Slice The Pie and only one of the two sites (Sellaband and Slice The Pie) is mentioned on their own website. And I'll give you three guesses as to which one that is (and the first two don't count!)
Add to that the fact that The Words will be performing in the hopes of getting a deal from either EMI or Sony next week and I think we can agree it's definitely been an interesting selection on the Sixpack this week!
Sellaband
As if the current Sixpack wasn't enough potential source of controversy,
Ferry is back as furr:www.unrocked.net. For those who missed what happened - last year he was 13 and was kicked off the site along with the various artist profiles he'd set up after he pretended to be a well known Dutch artist. Interestingly, this new profile says he is 16. Reformed character or an accident waiting to happen? I know he's been spotted by other long time believers but I see that Sellaband haven't deleted this new profile, so I'll leave you to make up your own minds what the real truth is here.
Change may be coming on December 1st, but will it be too little, too late? One thing is for sure - if it isn't seen to resolve some of the long-time issues, I can't see the site surviving 2009 given the reactions I'm seeing from both artists and believers at present.
That's all for this month. Hopefully I'll get that post about expectations done before next hatchet day, but the need to earn a living keeps getting in the way!
Wednesday 1 October 2008
October 1st 2008 Hatchet Day
If you want to know more about what "hatchet day" is, visit my Sellaband profile and read my info section.
Results from last month
This is a new section in which I'll be posting about things relevant to the previous "hatchet day" blog.
First off, as one of the things people seem interested in is whether artists actually thank people, let me tell you that from those I bought parts in last month two forgot to thank me. I did have some say thankyou via PM, so if you were watching my page, you will have thought there were more than this who didn't thank. I won't mention any names but let's just say the two in question were artists I didn't hold any parts in before, which significantly increases their likelihood of meeting my knife sooner rather than later, as I'm sure you can guess.
Secondly, it looks like Erik must have heard my ponderings, because sure enough there was a new tune posted on Dandelium's page in the middle of September. See - I told you he usually shows up.
This month's gainers and losers
If you are on Sellaband, be warned! Last month I posted a list of artists who were under threat. I actually left messages on the vast majority of the pages in question on 1st September and only ONE artist in the list was active enough to take any notice and make a response. As a result, BillyJon, Off the Bridge, Immortality, Rotten Cheri, Joel John, Guy Barnes and Striving in Greater Hopes have all been removed and I'm still wondering what to do about Worow (the one who responded) as it seems the band itself is no more, but the singer who started the profile is interested in continuing on with Sellaband. We've seen it before when Glass Moon split and we got MR-10 back, so for the time being I'm going to leave the part where it is, wait some more and see what happens. So, if you are an artist and you spot me mentioning your name as being under threat in my blog, then I think it should be obvious from what I've just posted what you need to do. And if you're a fan reading the name and you're convinced the artist is genuinely out there - go give your artist a kick!
As always, parts removals benefit other artists and this month I decided to make a bigger dent than normal in my wishlist as there's been some names on there a while. So, apart from the extra part for The Jade Diary and the part I was obviously going to buy in Elise Azevedo as I was one of those sad to see her go from when she was here last time, the rest of the recipients have been lurking on my wishlist for varying amounts of time.
Natalia Safran has been hovering on the fringes of my awareness for a while now, but hasn't been one of those whose music I've fallen instantly in love with. With her recent fast movement in particular, it was obvious that I was running out of time to decide which side of the fence to be and couldn't sit hovering forever so it's taken some serious listening for me to decide that, yes I do want a part. "Overdrunk Love" was really the song that decided it and she becomes one of the recipients of my hatchet day parts as a result.
MOPI on the other hand are an act I've fallen in love with. My recent sales on Sellaband have been slow otherwise it's quite likely I'd have given them more than just the one part at present, proving once again that whilst my favourite genre is rock it's not necessarily the only genre that can produce my favourite artists.
Raza, Fay Stevenson and The Hoodoos complete the rest of the recipients of the moved parts.
In addition I've had a part return from when Mandocello left earlier this month and I've also reclaimed my part from Jay Stenning as he's looking to concentrate on Sandbox at the moment. In the first case the profile is gone, in the second I was the last believer to remove even though the profile is still there, so there's no point in me reminding people to move their parts.
But you're probably wondering about why I still have 25 parts in Luna Assassins. The main reason for this is that I haven't made contact with Jo yet to find out what's going on. You see Jo removed all her own parts and posted the bulletin about the band leaving, yet she came back a few days later and bought one part in Luna Assassins. She's also quite obviously been into the profile in just the last few days. Strange behaviour for a band that's leaving, so for the moment I'm going to hold where I am until I can get the time to chase up after this. I'm thinking of doing my "12 days of Christmas" or something similar again this year anyway, so it may be I decide to use some of those parts for that, depending on what the story is.
I'm continuing to weed out artists who haven't been around so long it's insane, so those under threat of the hatchet next month are as follows: Skin Diary, The Reverend Coyote, The glo, Tico Verde and Jon Curtis. And yes, I still have even more of you on my parts list that I'm keeping my eyes on!
New investments
All money in this section comes from money received from Sellaband or where parts are returned/reclaimed through artists leaving the site. I only ever buy parts in artists I like or grow to like - I'm certainly no Sellaband collector, so what you see here is always a reflection of my own musical taste. And as always, where it's an artist new to my belief list I often have no idea just how active they'll become. (that's why hatchet day exists of course).
This month I've bought, or increased parts in the following artists: Promethic, The Opposed, The Akibas and Achilla. I also bought yet another part in Skitzo Calypso earlier in the month as I've been loving the music arriving on the profile over the past few weeks. Warning: I already have a strong feeling that one of those mentioned here is likely to face the hatchet at a later date - I often pick up vibes when I visit a profile about how interested the artist is really, and they're usually correct - but there are just times when I like to go against instinct in the hopes that I can be proved wrong, because I love the music.
Watching
My watching list this month is heavily influenced by similar artists or artists in similar situations.
For starters, Cubworld is back. I didn't buy a part last time round. You could say I fell off the fence the other side (think about what I said about Natalia Safran earlier) as he never quite grabbed me with anything he posted. Truth be told, I nearly landed up regretting that decision when the listening session for his album started and I heard the first track on his album. "Rocked out" is something that would have tipped me the other way off the fence if I'd heard it before the 50K were reached, however none of the other tracks on the album managed to win me over, so I'm not overly disappointed I made the decision I did at the time. With it being that much of a close run thing though, I will definitely be keeping an eye on him this second time around - from what I've heard so far, I'm still sitting on the fence.
The "similar artist" link from Cubworld goes to Kimo Watanabe. I've never quite worked out why the two of them have so few believers in common, because they both play the same sort of "island music" and to me it's logical that if you like one, you should have at least some liking for the other. Check him out and see what you think.
I'm not a big R'n'B fan so it's probably no surprise that I have no parts in Audley Anderson, but all I've done over the last two months is watch his parts slide backwards from close on the 3K mark at their peak. Although his page was last updated in July he has definitely been round in August (I can't say for sure about September) and he's never been one of the "noisier" artists round here. He is another case like Kimo Watanabe, where I land up scratching my head - in this case wondering why people go nuts over N'Kenge but not him. I'll be watching to see how the situation develops.
Other noticeable "parts sliders" have been Sunsoma and The Quahaugs. Sunsoma originally removed some of the money they invested in themselves to buy new recording equipment, but I've seen their budget shrink further since, presumably because people don't read and have panicked. They're performing at Selloween at the end of October for heavens sake - what makes people think they're vanishing? The Quahaugs story is even more of a mystery though as all they did was announce they'd be off into the studio to record some new music so wouldn't be quite as active for a while. But that simple message seems to have been the catalyst for a mass parts pullout. Ironically they have still been around - their page was last updated a few days ago.
And talking of updates, one of the benefits of making the "last updated date" for artists more visible is that it's highlighted people I haven't really noticed before, or reminded me of some of the other "quiet but active" artists I haven't been near in a while. The most noticeable pair of these are DiVan and DaNnY. DiVan has been here since December 2006 but the first part was only bought a month ago and they've grown to $380 in budget since. Proof that if you do stay active, someone will notice you eventually. I wouldn't say the current selection of tracks from DaNnY is necessarily the best I've heard from him, but he is definitely one of the "quiet but active" set and one I'd half forgotten about. Check him out, most of his believers currently aren't the "usual suspects" from Sellaband!
Rather than one artist I'm worried about this month, I actually have two. Kristianna has been pretty static for a while with no updates, and it seems she's been having a baby, but it's unclear if she plans to be active on Sellaband again or not. I guess I'm going to have to go chase after Walter B and see if he knows any more than I do (unless he reads this and gets to me first!). Sasha Vella is the other artist in question. She has "disappeared" on a previous occasion for several months and it looks like it's happened again. With people seemingly taking such a "snapshot" approach to the site, that last updated date is now a big cause for concern.
As for some of those dropping by my profile, I was absolutely horrified this month at the audacity of one of the PMs I received from a believer, who named an artist I had parts in and said the artist in question was inactive and said I should move them to the artist they were suggesting instead. Absolutely nothing wrong on the surface of that as far as I'm concerned, but when you consider the artist they named was one I mentioned in my last hatchet day blog as one that people should take a look at because they were actually active, and on top of that said artist had updated their page AGAIN less than 7 days before I received the PM in question and perhaps you can understand why I'm not amused. I hope it's a genuine mistake on the part of the believer in question, though the coincidence does leave me wondering. And it also leaves me wondering if any believers have been tricked into moving parts from artists who really don't deserve that treatment through similar tactics. Why do you think I'm mentioning who is under threat of parts removal in this blog? It's to try and avoid me making a mistake along these lines - at the very least it should show an artist that if I think they're inactive, it's likely others do too and hopefully they will get the message and change their behaviour accordingly.
Chloe Michelle also stopped by to thank me for sticking with her and to be honest it got me wondering. Here's a voice looking for music and equally I know we've got musicians looking for a voice. Wake up and work it out people! Anyone spotting a missed opportunity yet? To be honest I'm amazed she's not involved with the Collaboration Project.
Sellaband
Are Sellaband finally going to do something about "inactive" artists? They say they are and I'll be watching to see if they can meet the deadline to sort this out by the New Year. I've already said it on the forum, and I'll say it again here just so people can be sure I genuinely mean this - if Sellaband do have a system in place by the end of 7th Jan 2009 (they've promised Jan 1st but I know this date is going to slip) that will solve this artist problem then I will send 5 gift parts to JohanV for him to distribute amongst the SAB staff who made it happen as he sees fit. (and yes, that could include keeping one or more for himself - it'll be his decision where they go, not mine!) The problem of working out who is really still on Sellaband and who isn't is one that's been annoying me for far too long and I will be glad to see the back of it. Sellaband have been absolutely terrible at keeping their promised deadlines in the past, but those were back in the days when they didn't have their own in-house development. Although there was some slip in the launch date of the new website, I'd consider the few days we had this time as normal, whereas we've been talking months and months of slip in cases before. I'm seriously hoping they can pull this off to prove that the old days are truly over and get some confidence back in the system as a result.
I'll also be watching to see who gets selected for the "Sellaband Sixpack". It will be interesting to see where the chosen artists are in budget as well as things like the number of people signed up as fans. Is this going to be a case of those low on budget never standing a chance, or will artists actually be able to get fans (i.e. people who don't currently believe) in to get them to the top too?
That's all for this month. Next month's episode may prove to be even later in coming than this one as I'm going to the "Selloween Seance" on October 31st. Check out Sheet Metal's page if you want more details on that.
Results from last month
This is a new section in which I'll be posting about things relevant to the previous "hatchet day" blog.
First off, as one of the things people seem interested in is whether artists actually thank people, let me tell you that from those I bought parts in last month two forgot to thank me. I did have some say thankyou via PM, so if you were watching my page, you will have thought there were more than this who didn't thank. I won't mention any names but let's just say the two in question were artists I didn't hold any parts in before, which significantly increases their likelihood of meeting my knife sooner rather than later, as I'm sure you can guess.
Secondly, it looks like Erik must have heard my ponderings, because sure enough there was a new tune posted on Dandelium's page in the middle of September. See - I told you he usually shows up.
This month's gainers and losers
If you are on Sellaband, be warned! Last month I posted a list of artists who were under threat. I actually left messages on the vast majority of the pages in question on 1st September and only ONE artist in the list was active enough to take any notice and make a response. As a result, BillyJon, Off the Bridge, Immortality, Rotten Cheri, Joel John, Guy Barnes and Striving in Greater Hopes have all been removed and I'm still wondering what to do about Worow (the one who responded) as it seems the band itself is no more, but the singer who started the profile is interested in continuing on with Sellaband. We've seen it before when Glass Moon split and we got MR-10 back, so for the time being I'm going to leave the part where it is, wait some more and see what happens. So, if you are an artist and you spot me mentioning your name as being under threat in my blog, then I think it should be obvious from what I've just posted what you need to do. And if you're a fan reading the name and you're convinced the artist is genuinely out there - go give your artist a kick!
As always, parts removals benefit other artists and this month I decided to make a bigger dent than normal in my wishlist as there's been some names on there a while. So, apart from the extra part for The Jade Diary and the part I was obviously going to buy in Elise Azevedo as I was one of those sad to see her go from when she was here last time, the rest of the recipients have been lurking on my wishlist for varying amounts of time.
Natalia Safran has been hovering on the fringes of my awareness for a while now, but hasn't been one of those whose music I've fallen instantly in love with. With her recent fast movement in particular, it was obvious that I was running out of time to decide which side of the fence to be and couldn't sit hovering forever so it's taken some serious listening for me to decide that, yes I do want a part. "Overdrunk Love" was really the song that decided it and she becomes one of the recipients of my hatchet day parts as a result.
MOPI on the other hand are an act I've fallen in love with. My recent sales on Sellaband have been slow otherwise it's quite likely I'd have given them more than just the one part at present, proving once again that whilst my favourite genre is rock it's not necessarily the only genre that can produce my favourite artists.
Raza, Fay Stevenson and The Hoodoos complete the rest of the recipients of the moved parts.
In addition I've had a part return from when Mandocello left earlier this month and I've also reclaimed my part from Jay Stenning as he's looking to concentrate on Sandbox at the moment. In the first case the profile is gone, in the second I was the last believer to remove even though the profile is still there, so there's no point in me reminding people to move their parts.
But you're probably wondering about why I still have 25 parts in Luna Assassins. The main reason for this is that I haven't made contact with Jo yet to find out what's going on. You see Jo removed all her own parts and posted the bulletin about the band leaving, yet she came back a few days later and bought one part in Luna Assassins. She's also quite obviously been into the profile in just the last few days. Strange behaviour for a band that's leaving, so for the moment I'm going to hold where I am until I can get the time to chase up after this. I'm thinking of doing my "12 days of Christmas" or something similar again this year anyway, so it may be I decide to use some of those parts for that, depending on what the story is.
I'm continuing to weed out artists who haven't been around so long it's insane, so those under threat of the hatchet next month are as follows: Skin Diary, The Reverend Coyote, The glo, Tico Verde and Jon Curtis. And yes, I still have even more of you on my parts list that I'm keeping my eyes on!
New investments
All money in this section comes from money received from Sellaband or where parts are returned/reclaimed through artists leaving the site. I only ever buy parts in artists I like or grow to like - I'm certainly no Sellaband collector, so what you see here is always a reflection of my own musical taste. And as always, where it's an artist new to my belief list I often have no idea just how active they'll become. (that's why hatchet day exists of course).
This month I've bought, or increased parts in the following artists: Promethic, The Opposed, The Akibas and Achilla. I also bought yet another part in Skitzo Calypso earlier in the month as I've been loving the music arriving on the profile over the past few weeks. Warning: I already have a strong feeling that one of those mentioned here is likely to face the hatchet at a later date - I often pick up vibes when I visit a profile about how interested the artist is really, and they're usually correct - but there are just times when I like to go against instinct in the hopes that I can be proved wrong, because I love the music.
Watching
My watching list this month is heavily influenced by similar artists or artists in similar situations.
For starters, Cubworld is back. I didn't buy a part last time round. You could say I fell off the fence the other side (think about what I said about Natalia Safran earlier) as he never quite grabbed me with anything he posted. Truth be told, I nearly landed up regretting that decision when the listening session for his album started and I heard the first track on his album. "Rocked out" is something that would have tipped me the other way off the fence if I'd heard it before the 50K were reached, however none of the other tracks on the album managed to win me over, so I'm not overly disappointed I made the decision I did at the time. With it being that much of a close run thing though, I will definitely be keeping an eye on him this second time around - from what I've heard so far, I'm still sitting on the fence.
The "similar artist" link from Cubworld goes to Kimo Watanabe. I've never quite worked out why the two of them have so few believers in common, because they both play the same sort of "island music" and to me it's logical that if you like one, you should have at least some liking for the other. Check him out and see what you think.
I'm not a big R'n'B fan so it's probably no surprise that I have no parts in Audley Anderson, but all I've done over the last two months is watch his parts slide backwards from close on the 3K mark at their peak. Although his page was last updated in July he has definitely been round in August (I can't say for sure about September) and he's never been one of the "noisier" artists round here. He is another case like Kimo Watanabe, where I land up scratching my head - in this case wondering why people go nuts over N'Kenge but not him. I'll be watching to see how the situation develops.
Other noticeable "parts sliders" have been Sunsoma and The Quahaugs. Sunsoma originally removed some of the money they invested in themselves to buy new recording equipment, but I've seen their budget shrink further since, presumably because people don't read and have panicked. They're performing at Selloween at the end of October for heavens sake - what makes people think they're vanishing? The Quahaugs story is even more of a mystery though as all they did was announce they'd be off into the studio to record some new music so wouldn't be quite as active for a while. But that simple message seems to have been the catalyst for a mass parts pullout. Ironically they have still been around - their page was last updated a few days ago.
And talking of updates, one of the benefits of making the "last updated date" for artists more visible is that it's highlighted people I haven't really noticed before, or reminded me of some of the other "quiet but active" artists I haven't been near in a while. The most noticeable pair of these are DiVan and DaNnY. DiVan has been here since December 2006 but the first part was only bought a month ago and they've grown to $380 in budget since. Proof that if you do stay active, someone will notice you eventually. I wouldn't say the current selection of tracks from DaNnY is necessarily the best I've heard from him, but he is definitely one of the "quiet but active" set and one I'd half forgotten about. Check him out, most of his believers currently aren't the "usual suspects" from Sellaband!
Rather than one artist I'm worried about this month, I actually have two. Kristianna has been pretty static for a while with no updates, and it seems she's been having a baby, but it's unclear if she plans to be active on Sellaband again or not. I guess I'm going to have to go chase after Walter B and see if he knows any more than I do (unless he reads this and gets to me first!). Sasha Vella is the other artist in question. She has "disappeared" on a previous occasion for several months and it looks like it's happened again. With people seemingly taking such a "snapshot" approach to the site, that last updated date is now a big cause for concern.
As for some of those dropping by my profile, I was absolutely horrified this month at the audacity of one of the PMs I received from a believer, who named an artist I had parts in and said the artist in question was inactive and said I should move them to the artist they were suggesting instead. Absolutely nothing wrong on the surface of that as far as I'm concerned, but when you consider the artist they named was one I mentioned in my last hatchet day blog as one that people should take a look at because they were actually active, and on top of that said artist had updated their page AGAIN less than 7 days before I received the PM in question and perhaps you can understand why I'm not amused. I hope it's a genuine mistake on the part of the believer in question, though the coincidence does leave me wondering. And it also leaves me wondering if any believers have been tricked into moving parts from artists who really don't deserve that treatment through similar tactics. Why do you think I'm mentioning who is under threat of parts removal in this blog? It's to try and avoid me making a mistake along these lines - at the very least it should show an artist that if I think they're inactive, it's likely others do too and hopefully they will get the message and change their behaviour accordingly.
Chloe Michelle also stopped by to thank me for sticking with her and to be honest it got me wondering. Here's a voice looking for music and equally I know we've got musicians looking for a voice. Wake up and work it out people! Anyone spotting a missed opportunity yet? To be honest I'm amazed she's not involved with the Collaboration Project.
Sellaband
Are Sellaband finally going to do something about "inactive" artists? They say they are and I'll be watching to see if they can meet the deadline to sort this out by the New Year. I've already said it on the forum, and I'll say it again here just so people can be sure I genuinely mean this - if Sellaband do have a system in place by the end of 7th Jan 2009 (they've promised Jan 1st but I know this date is going to slip) that will solve this artist problem then I will send 5 gift parts to JohanV for him to distribute amongst the SAB staff who made it happen as he sees fit. (and yes, that could include keeping one or more for himself - it'll be his decision where they go, not mine!) The problem of working out who is really still on Sellaband and who isn't is one that's been annoying me for far too long and I will be glad to see the back of it. Sellaband have been absolutely terrible at keeping their promised deadlines in the past, but those were back in the days when they didn't have their own in-house development. Although there was some slip in the launch date of the new website, I'd consider the few days we had this time as normal, whereas we've been talking months and months of slip in cases before. I'm seriously hoping they can pull this off to prove that the old days are truly over and get some confidence back in the system as a result.
I'll also be watching to see who gets selected for the "Sellaband Sixpack". It will be interesting to see where the chosen artists are in budget as well as things like the number of people signed up as fans. Is this going to be a case of those low on budget never standing a chance, or will artists actually be able to get fans (i.e. people who don't currently believe) in to get them to the top too?
That's all for this month. Next month's episode may prove to be even later in coming than this one as I'm going to the "Selloween Seance" on October 31st. Check out Sheet Metal's page if you want more details on that.
Friday 19 September 2008
Out with the old, in with the new
New Year seems to have come early this year, and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad. Whilst January is traditionally the time for making new starts, Sellaband seem to have shuffled this around to the autumn.
We'll wait and see what the new Q&A section in the news brings I guess, though at the moment I don't hold any high hopes for it. My instincts are telling me this is going to be a case of getting more answers that aren't really answers at all, or as Mawa would put it "if you have nothing to say, better say nothing"
As a result,I had to have a wry smile at Friday's "weekly update" section of the news. Seems they completely forgot to mention one of the artists who has been very active in asking questions in the past - Mandocello - whose profile they were very quick to delete when he decided he didn't want to be around any more, yet they are mentioning that "Luna Assassins decided to call it quits", which is going to make people think the band has split when they haven't, rather than that they've decided to leave Sellaband. So we know Sellaband have noticed they're off but the profile is still there. I'll be waiting to see if the answer to the first set of questions can adequately cover inconsistencies such as these.
And of course that in turn got me thinking about the other questions for Monday - the most obvious of which was the one concerning how quiet SAB HQ have been on subjects as of late.
I have to admit I was initially quite surprised when the Sellaband management started getting publicly involved with the "active" community back in its early days. E-mails/private correspondence I could understand - you soon find out who your most interested people are, so it's natural to demonstrate you're interested in them too, but when you have only 4 guys it's hard to understand how they could have the time to spend getting involved with that community and yet still have the time to spend doing the necessary things to expand the company. Yet, as a believer, it's one of the things I particularly liked about the "old" Sellaband - the fact you felt part of the family rather than belonging to some "faceless" corporation of the kind I suspect several came to Sellaband to avoid.
Yes, I've given Sellaband a hard time in the past, and it's likely there'll be cases where I'll continue to do so, but I still remember the little things, even when I'm winding up to take another shot. I once sent an e-mail on a Sunday evening, not expecting to hear anything before Monday morning if at all, yet a response came back later that Sunday evening. Time doesn't exist on the Internet. It's always open 24/7 and when you're going to bed there's someone on the other side of the world taking an interest instead. If you're planning on being a "Web 2.0 company" it's something you need to be aware of, and this kind of response from such a young company at the time, was something that actually exceeded my expectations. That level of customer service is just one of the little things that I've genuinely appreciated and have been very sorry to see go as Sellaband has evolved. I fear the Q&A section will turn Sellaband further towards that "faceless" corporation - how long before the stock message of "Dear (insert name), We have a FAQ located at (insert url) which covers most of the questions people ask. If however, it doesn't then please feel free to e-mail us at question@sellaband.com. Thankyou for you interest in Sellaband" appears? A large part of me thinks that would be a shame.
But like many things, it comes down to a case of expectations. I've got used to expecting Sellaband HQ to take an active interest, so now it's going it feels like a backward step, even though the new situation more closely matches what I originally thought life at Sellaband would be like. And because of this, I've already started planning my next of these "between hatchet day" posts in my head, because expectations exist all over Sellaband, but it's not easy to understand why or what to do about them and that's worthy of a post all of its own.
Finally, I needed something to cheer me up after a hard few weeks, so I thought I'd tell you that my thing to look forward to for the weekend is actually not on Sellaband, but is summed up by this e-mail I received a few days ago from one of my favourite artists.
"The Howard Jones 25th Anniversary Concert CD will be available to
purchase and take away with you minutes after the concert has ended
this coming Saturday 20th September 2008.
This is not a typical live album, and it’s not a bootleg. Think of it
as something in-between a unique and official souvenir to remind you
how amazing Howard's live music is.
The concert will be on 3 CD's and is priced at just £17. The release
is being handled by Live Here Now - part of Mute, and they are the
same people who record and distribute the Depeche Mode Live CD's.
For those who will not be attending, you can order your copy for
delivery via the Live Here Now website:
You will also be able to download the album via Live Here Now from
Monday 22nd September.
The track listing will be available on the Howard Jones Website on
Sunday 21st September.
More information about the CD will be available at the Merchandise
Stand on the night, so be sure to visit the stand to secure your copy."
What more could any music lover want? It's interesting to see that whilst Howard was one of the early pioneers of the "official bootleg", a company has now sprung up to do the same for all musicians and fill that hole. I can't help but feel there's some lessons waiting to be learnt from this.
We'll wait and see what the new Q&A section in the news brings I guess, though at the moment I don't hold any high hopes for it. My instincts are telling me this is going to be a case of getting more answers that aren't really answers at all, or as Mawa would put it "if you have nothing to say, better say nothing"
As a result,I had to have a wry smile at Friday's "weekly update" section of the news. Seems they completely forgot to mention one of the artists who has been very active in asking questions in the past - Mandocello - whose profile they were very quick to delete when he decided he didn't want to be around any more, yet they are mentioning that "Luna Assassins decided to call it quits", which is going to make people think the band has split when they haven't, rather than that they've decided to leave Sellaband. So we know Sellaband have noticed they're off but the profile is still there. I'll be waiting to see if the answer to the first set of questions can adequately cover inconsistencies such as these.
And of course that in turn got me thinking about the other questions for Monday - the most obvious of which was the one concerning how quiet SAB HQ have been on subjects as of late.
I have to admit I was initially quite surprised when the Sellaband management started getting publicly involved with the "active" community back in its early days. E-mails/private correspondence I could understand - you soon find out who your most interested people are, so it's natural to demonstrate you're interested in them too, but when you have only 4 guys it's hard to understand how they could have the time to spend getting involved with that community and yet still have the time to spend doing the necessary things to expand the company. Yet, as a believer, it's one of the things I particularly liked about the "old" Sellaband - the fact you felt part of the family rather than belonging to some "faceless" corporation of the kind I suspect several came to Sellaband to avoid.
Yes, I've given Sellaband a hard time in the past, and it's likely there'll be cases where I'll continue to do so, but I still remember the little things, even when I'm winding up to take another shot. I once sent an e-mail on a Sunday evening, not expecting to hear anything before Monday morning if at all, yet a response came back later that Sunday evening. Time doesn't exist on the Internet. It's always open 24/7 and when you're going to bed there's someone on the other side of the world taking an interest instead. If you're planning on being a "Web 2.0 company" it's something you need to be aware of, and this kind of response from such a young company at the time, was something that actually exceeded my expectations. That level of customer service is just one of the little things that I've genuinely appreciated and have been very sorry to see go as Sellaband has evolved. I fear the Q&A section will turn Sellaband further towards that "faceless" corporation - how long before the stock message of "Dear (insert name), We have a FAQ located at (insert url) which covers most of the questions people ask. If however, it doesn't then please feel free to e-mail us at question@sellaband.com. Thankyou for you interest in Sellaband" appears? A large part of me thinks that would be a shame.
But like many things, it comes down to a case of expectations. I've got used to expecting Sellaband HQ to take an active interest, so now it's going it feels like a backward step, even though the new situation more closely matches what I originally thought life at Sellaband would be like. And because of this, I've already started planning my next of these "between hatchet day" posts in my head, because expectations exist all over Sellaband, but it's not easy to understand why or what to do about them and that's worthy of a post all of its own.
Finally, I needed something to cheer me up after a hard few weeks, so I thought I'd tell you that my thing to look forward to for the weekend is actually not on Sellaband, but is summed up by this e-mail I received a few days ago from one of my favourite artists.
"The Howard Jones 25th Anniversary Concert CD will be available to
purchase and take away with you minutes after the concert has ended
this coming Saturday 20th September 2008.
This is not a typical live album, and it’s not a bootleg. Think of it
as something in-between a unique and official souvenir to remind you
how amazing Howard's live music is.
The concert will be on 3 CD's and is priced at just £17. The release
is being handled by Live Here Now - part of Mute, and they are the
same people who record and distribute the Depeche Mode Live CD's.
For those who will not be attending, you can order your copy for
delivery via the Live Here Now website:
You will also be able to download the album via Live Here Now from
Monday 22nd September.
The track listing will be available on the Howard Jones Website on
Sunday 21st September.
More information about the CD will be available at the Merchandise
Stand on the night, so be sure to visit the stand to secure your copy."
What more could any music lover want? It's interesting to see that whilst Howard was one of the early pioneers of the "official bootleg", a company has now sprung up to do the same for all musicians and fill that hole. I can't help but feel there's some lessons waiting to be learnt from this.
Tuesday 9 September 2008
Believer fatigue
I'm suffering from what has been called "believer fatigue". If you're an artist, the feeling is often more familiar as that raindrop in the middle of the ocean - you don't necessarily want to reach the shore as a tidal wave, but you do at least wish someone would notice the ripple (or as one artist said to me "sometimes it feels like nobody ever gets to hear our music"). From a believer point of view the feeling is the same, the thing that most often causes it being the complete and total lack of progress by Sellaband itself which leaves you being that raindrop, banging your head against a brick wall or worse.
I've seen more than one believer seemingly suffer a terminal case of believer fatigue. Who can forget Kristen for instance and her Sellaband promos? (here's just one as a taster - I'll let you find the rest), yet if you go to her page today, it's pretty much a case of the lights are on, but nobody's home. Don't get me wrong, she's still around. In believer land, just because you give in on Sellaband, it doesn't mean you stop caring about those you leave behind.
You've probably noticed the Amazon widget under my picture by now, and are probably wondering what it's doing there instead of one of the Sellaband ones. Simple - the Sellaband ones don't let me promote Sellaband, they only let me promote artists I own parts in, so I've decided to go with what I consider a more suitable solution for people who just happen to stumble over this blog and are wondering what music has come out of the place so far. I also like how obvious and simple the Amazon one is, rather than the somewhat confusing design from Sellaband.
That's just one example of something that believers have been shouting about for ages ("give us promotion tools!"). Add to that incidents such as the fuss over the "stolen" T-shirt slogan, poor CD sales through Sellaband and the fact Sellaband doesn't seem to be going anywhere believer-wise to the casual observer and it's maybe easier to understand why the faithful seem to be slowly losing it, thoughts of incompetence are appearing and that fatigue is creeping in. Remember the Paradiso concert after Nemesea hit 50K and how many believers turned up buying parts in the following weeks, catapulting Cubworld to 50K in the process? Bit of a disappointment not to see the same after Sellabration both this year and last, wasn't it?
My own case of "believer fatigue" currently exists as a result of Sellaband's lack of response to dealing with the "inactive profile" problem. I originally started on about this in April 2007 when the biggest common theme was the fact that artists seemed to be using it as a dumping ground for music, often didn't bother uploading any info or a photo, were completely non-responsive when you tried to contact them and didn't make any mention of Sellaband anywhere on their other sites. These days, you won't find quite so much of that going on, but will find the deficit made up of profiles of artists who have left Sellaband, have split and are no more, or who opened a new profile and the old one is still hanging around.
Whilst artists are supposed to send an e-mail to Sellaband if they want their profiles closed down, it's impossible to tell how many do this and how many arrive in Sellaband's "other" inbox (otherwise known as the spam folder). I used to report in profiles to Sellaband, but I stopped because they never do anything about them.
I've been trying my best to try and find some of the "interested" hiding in the mass of seemingly "inactive" profiles. Hopefully a case such as Essentia, who this week sent another bulletin round Myspace about Sellaband, yet who still haven't updated their Sellaband profile demonstrates these people exist. (Of course that's only part of the story, but I won't go into the rest of the hell you have to go through if you decide to do something to try and help in this post). I've also traditionally listened to every artist that signs up, irrespective of my own musical taste. With so few believers on Sellaband to start with, I think every artist deserves to have been listened to by someone. But the fire and enthusiasm has gone. With Sellaband seemingly not caring, it gets harder and harder for me to care too. Sellaband isn't helping me to try and help artists, so why should I bother? I've changed the way I approach Sellaband as a result.
I'm now only listening when I feel like it or have the time, which means I'm only listening to a fraction of the music I was not so long back. All artists I believe in I am now a fan of (if I missed you, let me know - I have rather a lot). If I set myself as a fan of an artist, but don't own a part it's pretty much a guarantee that I love the music enough that there will be a part there sooner or later if the artist is active. Wishlist is now for people I'm watching or whose music I haven't really decided on yet.
But maybe you're thinking I'm making a fuss out of nothing. I've never asked for Sellaband to do something to every artist who hasn't updated their profile in a while, only to do something about the obvious problems which can be fixed e.g. deleting profiles of artists who have left, or not even displaying/creating profiles of artists until they have filled in a minimum amount of information (say info section, upload main photo and one song). So to give you a very brief intro as to what I'm talking about, here is the list of profiles that I can think of where the artist is quite clearly stating they are no longer there, has messaged believers to say they are no longer there, or has made some attempt to clean out their profile. Obviously, there could be more, and remember this doesn't include some of the really crazy profiles out there like the band that's been on Sellaband for well over 2 years and never had a song on their profile to start with. (If you want a list of those, we could be here all night)
Mellow Yellow - if you want them these days, go visit Rebelle instead
Awake - Siger is back as Tarball
Man Made Ivory - Remember their game?
Yakir Shahar - Note the comment of frustration (presumably at being unable to delete the profile themselves)
Orange latitude - hmm, how soon is soon? That was a year ago.
Private Nation, Emily's playground, Mira gem, This side Up, Alioune K, Marijke, The Super Dead, Alien Orphans, Lapser, Trailer Trash Tremblers, Joyz, Eutopia, The Mitchell Blues band, Jesse David, The tonic rays, Dirty Wee Middens, Syrius Jones, Monsieur Cannibale,
There are also other profiles I've heard about from other believers that are still there when the artist is supposed to have given in, but with only their word and no evidence of my own I'll leave those out of the mix, despite the fact the profiles in question haven't been updated since I was told.
So what do you think now, with more than 20 profiles that I can think of just off the top of my head on display? Am I being unreasonable in expecting Sellaband to sort out the situation with artist profiles? In the (albeit unlikely) event that one of these artists were to reach 50K, I get the distinct feeling there'll be some lawyers somewhere making an awful lot of money while the situation is untangled.
Meanwhile, I'll go back to waiting for pigs to fly, which seems likely to happen sooner than Sellaband taking any interest in doing its "housework".
I've seen more than one believer seemingly suffer a terminal case of believer fatigue. Who can forget Kristen for instance and her Sellaband promos? (here's just one as a taster - I'll let you find the rest), yet if you go to her page today, it's pretty much a case of the lights are on, but nobody's home. Don't get me wrong, she's still around. In believer land, just because you give in on Sellaband, it doesn't mean you stop caring about those you leave behind.
You've probably noticed the Amazon widget under my picture by now, and are probably wondering what it's doing there instead of one of the Sellaband ones. Simple - the Sellaband ones don't let me promote Sellaband, they only let me promote artists I own parts in, so I've decided to go with what I consider a more suitable solution for people who just happen to stumble over this blog and are wondering what music has come out of the place so far. I also like how obvious and simple the Amazon one is, rather than the somewhat confusing design from Sellaband.
That's just one example of something that believers have been shouting about for ages ("give us promotion tools!"). Add to that incidents such as the fuss over the "stolen" T-shirt slogan, poor CD sales through Sellaband and the fact Sellaband doesn't seem to be going anywhere believer-wise to the casual observer and it's maybe easier to understand why the faithful seem to be slowly losing it, thoughts of incompetence are appearing and that fatigue is creeping in. Remember the Paradiso concert after Nemesea hit 50K and how many believers turned up buying parts in the following weeks, catapulting Cubworld to 50K in the process? Bit of a disappointment not to see the same after Sellabration both this year and last, wasn't it?
My own case of "believer fatigue" currently exists as a result of Sellaband's lack of response to dealing with the "inactive profile" problem. I originally started on about this in April 2007 when the biggest common theme was the fact that artists seemed to be using it as a dumping ground for music, often didn't bother uploading any info or a photo, were completely non-responsive when you tried to contact them and didn't make any mention of Sellaband anywhere on their other sites. These days, you won't find quite so much of that going on, but will find the deficit made up of profiles of artists who have left Sellaband, have split and are no more, or who opened a new profile and the old one is still hanging around.
Whilst artists are supposed to send an e-mail to Sellaband if they want their profiles closed down, it's impossible to tell how many do this and how many arrive in Sellaband's "other" inbox (otherwise known as the spam folder). I used to report in profiles to Sellaband, but I stopped because they never do anything about them.
I've been trying my best to try and find some of the "interested" hiding in the mass of seemingly "inactive" profiles. Hopefully a case such as Essentia, who this week sent another bulletin round Myspace about Sellaband, yet who still haven't updated their Sellaband profile demonstrates these people exist. (Of course that's only part of the story, but I won't go into the rest of the hell you have to go through if you decide to do something to try and help in this post). I've also traditionally listened to every artist that signs up, irrespective of my own musical taste. With so few believers on Sellaband to start with, I think every artist deserves to have been listened to by someone. But the fire and enthusiasm has gone. With Sellaband seemingly not caring, it gets harder and harder for me to care too. Sellaband isn't helping me to try and help artists, so why should I bother? I've changed the way I approach Sellaband as a result.
I'm now only listening when I feel like it or have the time, which means I'm only listening to a fraction of the music I was not so long back. All artists I believe in I am now a fan of (if I missed you, let me know - I have rather a lot). If I set myself as a fan of an artist, but don't own a part it's pretty much a guarantee that I love the music enough that there will be a part there sooner or later if the artist is active. Wishlist is now for people I'm watching or whose music I haven't really decided on yet.
But maybe you're thinking I'm making a fuss out of nothing. I've never asked for Sellaband to do something to every artist who hasn't updated their profile in a while, only to do something about the obvious problems which can be fixed e.g. deleting profiles of artists who have left, or not even displaying/creating profiles of artists until they have filled in a minimum amount of information (say info section, upload main photo and one song). So to give you a very brief intro as to what I'm talking about, here is the list of profiles that I can think of where the artist is quite clearly stating they are no longer there, has messaged believers to say they are no longer there, or has made some attempt to clean out their profile. Obviously, there could be more, and remember this doesn't include some of the really crazy profiles out there like the band that's been on Sellaband for well over 2 years and never had a song on their profile to start with. (If you want a list of those, we could be here all night)
Mellow Yellow - if you want them these days, go visit Rebelle instead
Awake - Siger is back as Tarball
Man Made Ivory - Remember their game?
Yakir Shahar - Note the comment of frustration (presumably at being unable to delete the profile themselves)
Orange latitude - hmm, how soon is soon? That was a year ago.
Private Nation, Emily's playground, Mira gem, This side Up, Alioune K, Marijke, The Super Dead, Alien Orphans, Lapser, Trailer Trash Tremblers, Joyz, Eutopia, The Mitchell Blues band, Jesse David, The tonic rays, Dirty Wee Middens, Syrius Jones, Monsieur Cannibale,
There are also other profiles I've heard about from other believers that are still there when the artist is supposed to have given in, but with only their word and no evidence of my own I'll leave those out of the mix, despite the fact the profiles in question haven't been updated since I was told.
So what do you think now, with more than 20 profiles that I can think of just off the top of my head on display? Am I being unreasonable in expecting Sellaband to sort out the situation with artist profiles? In the (albeit unlikely) event that one of these artists were to reach 50K, I get the distinct feeling there'll be some lawyers somewhere making an awful lot of money while the situation is untangled.
Meanwhile, I'll go back to waiting for pigs to fly, which seems likely to happen sooner than Sellaband taking any interest in doing its "housework".
Wednesday 3 September 2008
Love is a two-way street
I could seriously kick myself. In fact, forget that - someone seriously kick me!
As some of you may know I am a seriously big fan of rock and metal from Finland, but I've been struggling to find Finnish artists I'm interested in on Sellaband - even when there's been something vaguely interesting there's been no sign of life on the page in question. However last night I decided to wander down to the "under 1K in budget but more than 0 dollars" department on Sellaband and I landed up having a very interesting evening as a result.
I came across an artist from Finland sitting on $150 by the name of Essentia and yes I love the music! Their Sellaband page looks pretty typical of many I see where the artist signs up, maybe updates for a week or so and then seemingly disappears, so there was no way I was going to jump in and buy a part when the last update was May. But whilst the page looks like nothing particularly special or different, there were 2 things on it that struck me. The first was the fact that it actually had comments on the page, some of which were from just a few days ago and the second was the name of the guitarist. "Sammy Black" probably means absolutely nothing to you, but as a follower of Finnish music it was a name I recognised, though my brain failed me and I couldn't work out from where. Some research was obviously needed.
As I was going over to Myspace anyway to leave a comment on Skitzo Calypso's page (which incidentally I never got around to at the time as a result of what I'm about to share with you - sorry boys, hope I rectified that now though!) I thought I'd start my search over there. I don't know whether someone from Essentia has been reading the various tips on how to succeed on Sellaband since the revamped website, but I discovered a blog post on their Myspace page, again from a few days ago which was trying to get people over to Sellaband to believe in them, as well as finding "stickied" topic discussions about Sellaband in both their English and Finnish parts of the forum on their website. This is despite the fact their page on Sellaband hasn't been updated since the end of May!
But to come back to Sammy Black - music in Finland gets quite entertaining because a lot of musicians seem to play in more than one band and you can land up following and listening to quite a trail of music before you come back in a circle or reach a dead end. The reason the name struck a chord is because I already own the first 2 albums of the other, more famous and signed band (at least in Finland) he plays in! I'm going to give you the Wikipedia link to Lovex rather than their band site because it will give you a faster idea than trying to fight your way through the flash content.
I view this as an absolutely FANTASTIC opportunity, both for Sellaband and Essentia and the reason I am kicking myself so badly (see my first sentence in this post) is the fact it has taken me so long to spot them, which is going to make things a lot harder. But you need to understand why I am so excited about finding them.
Think about the following things. Finland went absolutely nuts after Lordi won the Eurovision song contest - media storm doesn't even begin to describe it. This is a country in which selling a mere 15,000 copies of an album earns you a gold disc and we need artists to raise enough for 5,000 albums on Sellaband. I don't know about you, but I think an unsigned band turning up in Finland having raised 50K on Sellaband to record their first album might actually cause a bit of a stir as a result. We've also talked many a time about how to get young fans interested in Sellaband and I can tell you for starters that Lovex has a small legion of young female fans in tow from all across Europe (Sellaband users, think of Lovex as the Finnish equivalent of So What if it helps, though they are obviously musical different). Some of these young fans have obviously followed Sammy's involvement into Essentia too. Here's an ideal opportunity to get some of that "missing generation" involved with this site somehow. It's noticeable that most of Essentia's existing money comes from these young ones too.
North European bands (dare I say Scandinavian?) are noticeable for their different approach to Sellaband from the majority of those from other countries. You only have to look at artists on Sellaband like Morris, Slim Void, Silverimage or Six Eyes Lost (to name just a few) to see they pretty much sit around making music or touring and don't tend to make loads of posts or direct attempts to attract believers on Sellaband itself. And I think it can put them at a real disadvantage as a result. Hence where the title of this blog post comes in.
It's all very well to moan about bands not bringing believers or being too quiet, but if you think trying to get people into Sellaband is easy, even if you're the artist then you need to think again. It's also not easy to find your way into an existing community and become part of it, particularly if you're not of the same age group. Sometimes it's necessary to look beyond what you see of an artist on Sellaband and understand that whilst Sellaband is still an "unknown", believers also need to get out of isolation and go elsewhere to see what they can do to try and help artists they love get going on Sellaband. Take some of that Sellaband love out into the world and maybe some love of Sellaband will come back in. Help create that two-way street.
So wish me luck because I now have two battles to fight. I'm off to Essentia's various sites to rattle a few cages, fight the suspicion (and the language difference) and try and get a couple of really simple things done - see if I can wake them up enough to get their Sellaband page kept up to date and as many of their existing fans as possible to add themselves to Essentia's Sellaband page as fans too. Then the other battle has to be fought in Sellaband itself, because even if we can get that far it needs the Sellaband community to wake up and take real notice of them too in such a way that may encourage more of their existing fans to become a part of Sellaband (and hopefully an active part too).
Maybe if you're reading this blog, there's something here you can help me with?
P.S. Apologies to Phil Tweed who provided the inspiration for the blog title.
As some of you may know I am a seriously big fan of rock and metal from Finland, but I've been struggling to find Finnish artists I'm interested in on Sellaband - even when there's been something vaguely interesting there's been no sign of life on the page in question. However last night I decided to wander down to the "under 1K in budget but more than 0 dollars" department on Sellaband and I landed up having a very interesting evening as a result.
I came across an artist from Finland sitting on $150 by the name of Essentia and yes I love the music! Their Sellaband page looks pretty typical of many I see where the artist signs up, maybe updates for a week or so and then seemingly disappears, so there was no way I was going to jump in and buy a part when the last update was May. But whilst the page looks like nothing particularly special or different, there were 2 things on it that struck me. The first was the fact that it actually had comments on the page, some of which were from just a few days ago and the second was the name of the guitarist. "Sammy Black" probably means absolutely nothing to you, but as a follower of Finnish music it was a name I recognised, though my brain failed me and I couldn't work out from where. Some research was obviously needed.
As I was going over to Myspace anyway to leave a comment on Skitzo Calypso's page (which incidentally I never got around to at the time as a result of what I'm about to share with you - sorry boys, hope I rectified that now though!) I thought I'd start my search over there. I don't know whether someone from Essentia has been reading the various tips on how to succeed on Sellaband since the revamped website, but I discovered a blog post on their Myspace page, again from a few days ago which was trying to get people over to Sellaband to believe in them, as well as finding "stickied" topic discussions about Sellaband in both their English and Finnish parts of the forum on their website. This is despite the fact their page on Sellaband hasn't been updated since the end of May!
But to come back to Sammy Black - music in Finland gets quite entertaining because a lot of musicians seem to play in more than one band and you can land up following and listening to quite a trail of music before you come back in a circle or reach a dead end. The reason the name struck a chord is because I already own the first 2 albums of the other, more famous and signed band (at least in Finland) he plays in! I'm going to give you the Wikipedia link to Lovex rather than their band site because it will give you a faster idea than trying to fight your way through the flash content.
I view this as an absolutely FANTASTIC opportunity, both for Sellaband and Essentia and the reason I am kicking myself so badly (see my first sentence in this post) is the fact it has taken me so long to spot them, which is going to make things a lot harder. But you need to understand why I am so excited about finding them.
Think about the following things. Finland went absolutely nuts after Lordi won the Eurovision song contest - media storm doesn't even begin to describe it. This is a country in which selling a mere 15,000 copies of an album earns you a gold disc and we need artists to raise enough for 5,000 albums on Sellaband. I don't know about you, but I think an unsigned band turning up in Finland having raised 50K on Sellaband to record their first album might actually cause a bit of a stir as a result. We've also talked many a time about how to get young fans interested in Sellaband and I can tell you for starters that Lovex has a small legion of young female fans in tow from all across Europe (Sellaband users, think of Lovex as the Finnish equivalent of So What if it helps, though they are obviously musical different). Some of these young fans have obviously followed Sammy's involvement into Essentia too. Here's an ideal opportunity to get some of that "missing generation" involved with this site somehow. It's noticeable that most of Essentia's existing money comes from these young ones too.
North European bands (dare I say Scandinavian?) are noticeable for their different approach to Sellaband from the majority of those from other countries. You only have to look at artists on Sellaband like Morris, Slim Void, Silverimage or Six Eyes Lost (to name just a few) to see they pretty much sit around making music or touring and don't tend to make loads of posts or direct attempts to attract believers on Sellaband itself. And I think it can put them at a real disadvantage as a result. Hence where the title of this blog post comes in.
It's all very well to moan about bands not bringing believers or being too quiet, but if you think trying to get people into Sellaband is easy, even if you're the artist then you need to think again. It's also not easy to find your way into an existing community and become part of it, particularly if you're not of the same age group. Sometimes it's necessary to look beyond what you see of an artist on Sellaband and understand that whilst Sellaband is still an "unknown", believers also need to get out of isolation and go elsewhere to see what they can do to try and help artists they love get going on Sellaband. Take some of that Sellaband love out into the world and maybe some love of Sellaband will come back in. Help create that two-way street.
So wish me luck because I now have two battles to fight. I'm off to Essentia's various sites to rattle a few cages, fight the suspicion (and the language difference) and try and get a couple of really simple things done - see if I can wake them up enough to get their Sellaband page kept up to date and as many of their existing fans as possible to add themselves to Essentia's Sellaband page as fans too. Then the other battle has to be fought in Sellaband itself, because even if we can get that far it needs the Sellaband community to wake up and take real notice of them too in such a way that may encourage more of their existing fans to become a part of Sellaband (and hopefully an active part too).
Maybe if you're reading this blog, there's something here you can help me with?
P.S. Apologies to Phil Tweed who provided the inspiration for the blog title.
Monday 1 September 2008
September 1st 2008 Hatchet Day
If you want to know more about what "hatchet day" is, visit my Sellaband profile and read my info section.
This month's gainers and losers
I've just made my most reluctant part removal to date and finally taken my last part out of Matt Byers. This is yet another classic case of someone who shows a lot of talent and promise just disappearing from the face of the earth. I even contacted Wetwerks and some of their friends a few months back to see if they could persuade him into at least sending a message round if he was still interested. Got a response within a few hours from the Wetwerks boys as always to say they'd give it a go, but from Matt, nothing, nada, zip.
She Tells Lies were one of the artists I tried to promote with my Christmas special on the forum. Sadly I never received any response or thanks from them for buying a part, and with their profile not updated since January either, it should be obvious why I feel I can no longer keep them on my list of belief.
Other removals this month have been fairly obvious ones. Douglas Jordan has only visited the place a couple of times since he signed up and even posts on his page by his friends from Spellbox seem to have failed to make any impression. Johnny UK was another of the complete non-responders who has never thanked or contacted me.
As always, where I remove parts through inactivity these always go back immediately to other artists. This month's recipients are Phil Tweed, GD Allan, The Black Doves and Katie Thompson
I have quite a list of artists I haven't removed this month but will definitely remove next month unless they show me some sign of life between now and then. BillyJon, Off the Bridge, Immortality, Rotten Cheri, Worow, Joel John, Guy Barnes and Striving in Greater Hopes are all definitely under threat. There are others I'm watching but there's only so many parts I want to move every month because I like to put some of those parts back into acts new to my belief list rather than just increasing in existing artists.
In addition to all the above, I've also done some parts reclamation from artists who claim to no longer be here, yet whose profile still remains. I seriously wish Sellaband would get this sorted. I had hoped that they would have used "Sellaband 2.0" to save me some work and improve the situation, but no, to date they've put a proper forum in and made the site look "prettier" (even though the new colour scheme sucks) rather than tackling any of the real underlying problems inherent in the system. So if you have parts in Awake, Private Nation or The Tonic Rays now's the time to find a new home for them.
New investments
All money in this section comes from money received from Sellaband or where parts are returned/reclaimed through artists leaving the site. I only ever buy parts in artists I like or grow to like - I'm certainly no Sellaband collector, so what you see here is always a reflection of my own musical taste. And as always, where it's an artist new to my belief list I often have no idea just how active they'll become. (that's why hatchet day exists of course).
I've added (or increased) parts today to Bleeding Black, Percy Mejhagen, Boej, Toz, Tarball and Silverimage. In addition I joined Inge during Gisel's countdown chat earlier this month. Check out the music of these artists and see if it's something you could believe in too.
Watching
I watch artists for all kinds of reasons. The most usual reason is that I'm interested in their music and am looking to buy parts later, but I also try and keep an eye out for artists whose music may not appeal to me, but who I spot around the site trying (and usually failing for one reason or another) to gain interest for their music. I also like to keep an eye out for bands leaving, seeing as Sellaband is too lazy to weed them out itself. (If you don't believe me when I say Sellaband is lazy check out the dates on this old post, which references an even older one, follow the threads and decide for yourselves how much is still relevant today!). I'm a firm believer that believers can help each other find artists they like that are worth their time spending parts on, but I also believe Sellaband is (still) doing a lousy job of making this possible.
So who has caught my attention this month and why?
Shelley has been on my belief list a while now and she always has new music appearing on her profile, even though you won't see her making a big noise about it on Sellaband itself. Her latest song is called "Cheeky, Lovely, Naughty, Bossy" and is well worth a listen.
Blister also posted new music fairly recently so if you haven't stopped by their profile in a while, now's a good chance to see what they've been up to.
I was going to buy a part in Leave this month because I've been watching them a while and felt it was long overdue, however I'm wondering from the change in name whether they are going to be one of the "leavers whose profile remains."
Dandelium is being rather too quiet for my liking at the moment. If you know me, you know I'm still waiting to hear the songs with the vocalist(s) they intend to use before committing parts because it could well turn something I love as an instrumental into something I can't stand due to the vocal style used. Under normal circumstances I'd remove the band from my wishlist, but Erik has usually surfaced sooner or later, so I will be keeping an eye on what happens over the next month.
As to some of those who've dropped by my profile this month to leave messages, I will be continuing to keep an eye on Banshee, Chump and Sandbox as they're all obviously active and keen for believers, but at the moment it's looking unlikely I'll be buying parts in any of them because I haven't found anything I like yet. Marie Dance however is one I may buy into later, just not this time around.
Sellaband
Well the new website is out, and I noticed a "last updated date" appearing in the list when you search for artists. Fingers crossed this one can help people filter out the inactive from the interested but quiet in future. It's still early days on the upgraded site, so I think it's unfair to start looking for progress until next month, but I'd have to agree with the comments so far that at the moment, there doesn't seem an awful lot of difference compared to the old site. As for Sellaband on Second Life, I'll probably have more to say about that in a later post - let's just say for now that I've been to the island and I'm still not sure about the toilet full of plants decorating HQ (yes I am serious.. go see for yourself if you don't believe the toilet exists!).
That's all for hatchet day this month. Hopefully I'll have some more postings for you to enjoy before the next hatchet day posting. In the meantime, check out some of the music I've highlighted and have fun!
This month's gainers and losers
I've just made my most reluctant part removal to date and finally taken my last part out of Matt Byers. This is yet another classic case of someone who shows a lot of talent and promise just disappearing from the face of the earth. I even contacted Wetwerks and some of their friends a few months back to see if they could persuade him into at least sending a message round if he was still interested. Got a response within a few hours from the Wetwerks boys as always to say they'd give it a go, but from Matt, nothing, nada, zip.
She Tells Lies were one of the artists I tried to promote with my Christmas special on the forum. Sadly I never received any response or thanks from them for buying a part, and with their profile not updated since January either, it should be obvious why I feel I can no longer keep them on my list of belief.
Other removals this month have been fairly obvious ones. Douglas Jordan has only visited the place a couple of times since he signed up and even posts on his page by his friends from Spellbox seem to have failed to make any impression. Johnny UK was another of the complete non-responders who has never thanked or contacted me.
As always, where I remove parts through inactivity these always go back immediately to other artists. This month's recipients are Phil Tweed, GD Allan, The Black Doves and Katie Thompson
I have quite a list of artists I haven't removed this month but will definitely remove next month unless they show me some sign of life between now and then. BillyJon, Off the Bridge, Immortality, Rotten Cheri, Worow, Joel John, Guy Barnes and Striving in Greater Hopes are all definitely under threat. There are others I'm watching but there's only so many parts I want to move every month because I like to put some of those parts back into acts new to my belief list rather than just increasing in existing artists.
In addition to all the above, I've also done some parts reclamation from artists who claim to no longer be here, yet whose profile still remains. I seriously wish Sellaband would get this sorted. I had hoped that they would have used "Sellaband 2.0" to save me some work and improve the situation, but no, to date they've put a proper forum in and made the site look "prettier" (even though the new colour scheme sucks) rather than tackling any of the real underlying problems inherent in the system. So if you have parts in Awake, Private Nation or The Tonic Rays now's the time to find a new home for them.
New investments
All money in this section comes from money received from Sellaband or where parts are returned/reclaimed through artists leaving the site. I only ever buy parts in artists I like or grow to like - I'm certainly no Sellaband collector, so what you see here is always a reflection of my own musical taste. And as always, where it's an artist new to my belief list I often have no idea just how active they'll become. (that's why hatchet day exists of course).
I've added (or increased) parts today to Bleeding Black, Percy Mejhagen, Boej, Toz, Tarball and Silverimage. In addition I joined Inge during Gisel's countdown chat earlier this month. Check out the music of these artists and see if it's something you could believe in too.
Watching
I watch artists for all kinds of reasons. The most usual reason is that I'm interested in their music and am looking to buy parts later, but I also try and keep an eye out for artists whose music may not appeal to me, but who I spot around the site trying (and usually failing for one reason or another) to gain interest for their music. I also like to keep an eye out for bands leaving, seeing as Sellaband is too lazy to weed them out itself. (If you don't believe me when I say Sellaband is lazy check out the dates on this old post, which references an even older one, follow the threads and decide for yourselves how much is still relevant today!). I'm a firm believer that believers can help each other find artists they like that are worth their time spending parts on, but I also believe Sellaband is (still) doing a lousy job of making this possible.
So who has caught my attention this month and why?
Shelley has been on my belief list a while now and she always has new music appearing on her profile, even though you won't see her making a big noise about it on Sellaband itself. Her latest song is called "Cheeky, Lovely, Naughty, Bossy" and is well worth a listen.
Blister also posted new music fairly recently so if you haven't stopped by their profile in a while, now's a good chance to see what they've been up to.
I was going to buy a part in Leave this month because I've been watching them a while and felt it was long overdue, however I'm wondering from the change in name whether they are going to be one of the "leavers whose profile remains."
Dandelium is being rather too quiet for my liking at the moment. If you know me, you know I'm still waiting to hear the songs with the vocalist(s) they intend to use before committing parts because it could well turn something I love as an instrumental into something I can't stand due to the vocal style used. Under normal circumstances I'd remove the band from my wishlist, but Erik has usually surfaced sooner or later, so I will be keeping an eye on what happens over the next month.
As to some of those who've dropped by my profile this month to leave messages, I will be continuing to keep an eye on Banshee, Chump and Sandbox as they're all obviously active and keen for believers, but at the moment it's looking unlikely I'll be buying parts in any of them because I haven't found anything I like yet. Marie Dance however is one I may buy into later, just not this time around.
Sellaband
Well the new website is out, and I noticed a "last updated date" appearing in the list when you search for artists. Fingers crossed this one can help people filter out the inactive from the interested but quiet in future. It's still early days on the upgraded site, so I think it's unfair to start looking for progress until next month, but I'd have to agree with the comments so far that at the moment, there doesn't seem an awful lot of difference compared to the old site. As for Sellaband on Second Life, I'll probably have more to say about that in a later post - let's just say for now that I've been to the island and I'm still not sure about the toilet full of plants decorating HQ (yes I am serious.. go see for yourself if you don't believe the toilet exists!).
That's all for hatchet day this month. Hopefully I'll have some more postings for you to enjoy before the next hatchet day posting. In the meantime, check out some of the music I've highlighted and have fun!
Saturday 23 August 2008
An introduction
I've been frustrated for a while because it's virtually impossible to communicate information to a large number of other believers on http://www.sellaband.com/ for fear of upsetting them. I don't believe in wasting time on people who aren't interested, so how do I find the people who are and get information I think they might be interested in to them?
Despite the fact I'm a lousy blogger (I never seem to find the time, and I certainly don't have the storytelling capability of someone like Pete Strobl who instantly captures the imagination) I decided the best way of achieving what I'm looking for was to start this blog in order to track my monthly "hatchet day" on Sellaband. That way, those who are interested can find out all about what I'm up to and why, but I don't have to shove it in the faces of people who might not be interested.
I have two basic ideas with this blog:
1. To provide a hatchet day report (1st of every month) which covers the following items
Despite the fact I'm a lousy blogger (I never seem to find the time, and I certainly don't have the storytelling capability of someone like Pete Strobl who instantly captures the imagination) I decided the best way of achieving what I'm looking for was to start this blog in order to track my monthly "hatchet day" on Sellaband. That way, those who are interested can find out all about what I'm up to and why, but I don't have to shove it in the faces of people who might not be interested.
I have two basic ideas with this blog:
1. To provide a hatchet day report (1st of every month) which covers the following items
- Who I've added and removed parts from and why
- To promote some of the artists on my belief list, that I see as "stuck" with no obvious reason why
- To highlight artists I've noticed (whether they are on my belief list or not) that are worth a look because they are around and updating, rather than being part of the "inactive" crowd.
- To show some of my potential interests for future belief.
With so many artists to choose from on the site, I hope this can help people weed out the "inactive" from the "interested".
2. To give the occasional report on something of interest on Sellaband from my point of view in order to try and attract more people into at least finding out about the site. This would fall into one of the following areas
- Past events and my experience with the site
- My view on new developments within the site
- Ongoing problems and prospects
- My "vision" of what Sellaband is really about
There's always something bugging me, whether it be with an artist or with Sellaband itself. Hopefully this will let me get a few things off my chest and give others something to think about.
So, if there's something about Sellaband that you'd like the knifelady to give a public opinion on, here's your opportunity! I've got quite a few subjects that have been bugging me a while, that I hope to be commenting on in the coming weeks and months, but I'll also be interested in finding out what you, the reader, would be interested in hearing me talk about with relation to Sellaband.
So stay tuned for the next post, which should give you a good idea of what the majority of my future posts will look like. I can only hope you find something useful here.
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