Positive signs?

If you already know about my rating system then skip on down to the next header, otherwise here's the lowdown.

The rating system
The rating system I use for this blog is somewhat unique. It's not a reflection of how much I like the music itself as much as it is of how far I am along the process of conversion from consumer to fan. So, over time you may well see some of these ratings go up if I mention an artist again. And indeed go down, as musical changes of direction or failure to keep my interest are just some of the reasons that may affect a rating.


Congratulations, you've made a temporary blip of interest on my radar. Now how are you going to keep it?


I've seen enough of you to recognise and remember you, but I'm undecided so I'm not really following you (yet). I may make a spur of the moment decision to check in on what you're up to once in a while, but even that's no guarantee. May also apply to artists I am aware of, but whose music I've decided I don't have enough interest in to want to pursue further based on what I've heard.


I'm liking what I hear in general, but I still wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I will be wandering past your site occasionally, and there is something like a 50% chance I'll be buying your next offering once I find out about it, providing I have the money available.


Now I am a fan, so the chances are I'll be past your site once every month or two at least. There's a 90%+ chance your next offering is already sold, and occasionally I might even be going for something more than the basic package (if you have one)


Reserved for very few, this is about as close to internet stalker as you can get. I am actively watching because I do not want to miss your next release date, tour in my area etc. etc. You may not always be aware of the fact I'm looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to, but trust me, I'm there on a weekly if not more like a daily basis. Depending on how you tend to release your information, I may well be signed to your mailing list as well.

Video of the Month

As I'm still in the process of moving house, it's only really appropriate I feature a video from an artist I've been checking in on occasionally as I haven't really been searching for new music during this time. As Gayle Skidmore is about to release her next album + colouring book project, here's the first video that goes with that album. This video for "Little Bird" has only just been released as well

Who I've been looking at

With the passing of the 4th anniversary since funding completion, finally some news on Lori Greco's album. Firstly I've had not one, but two mails from Sellaband asking me to check that my address is correct so the album can be sent. Of course, this isn't the first time this has happened - it must be a year or two ago now that I was asked to double check my address for Lori and as we know that message was supposedly sent in mistake. This time there is a second positive sign though in as much as it's possible to download some rather dodgy mp3s from your believer dashboard for the album. And I say rather dodgy because it appears (yet again) that someone needs a lesson in creating tracks with proper metadata. All the tracks are apparently coded as track 1 and the artist name swaps between "Lori Greco" and "Loredana Greco" depending on which song you're listening to. Looks like I'll be creating my own copies if/when the CD finally gets here as it'll be quicker than sorting out the mess that's the tracks provided on Sellaband. At the moment I'd be expecting it to arrive by the end of September assuming it actually gets posted in August.

As for the tracks themselves, initial impression is that the music has a habit of drowning out the vocals (though whether this is down to poor mp3 encoding or the reality of the mixing on the disc is something I'm going to have to wait to find out). Songwise the overall album feel is somewhat chilled out and quite a pleasant listen otherwise so "Get Out of My Life" is a rather unexpected change which actually feels out of place compared to surrounding tracks as a result. (Incidentally that track has potential single written all over it). The album is a decent length as well with 13 tracks mainly between 3 and 4 minutes in length. So far I'm liking this much more than I have with many other overdue albums - there are a few tracks which have particularly caught my interest though I think the album as a whole isn't likely to land up as a favourite. I am however, not convinced that this is so earth shatteringly good as to have been worth a 4 year wait (or more like 6 if you consider when I originally bought into the project).

Elsewhere Cubworld's album release party is showing on his Twitter feed as 30th August and on his Facebook page it says the tracks should be available to download for Sellaband believers before then. He actually posted an update on his Sellaband page a few days ago saying he'd sent them the information, however nothing has actually appeared as of yet and there are only a few days to go before the release party.

As I mentioned last post, the Poets of The Fall DVD I'm waiting on from Pledge Music is behind schedule, though hopefully not too far based on the updates. It was originally due for release at the end of August, but much in the same way a CD goes off to be mixed and mastered, the raw material is currently booked in to have its final editing, colour correction and audio mixing etc. done starting on 10th September. There looks to be about an hour and a half of extras included on the DVD from the latest information provided. It also looks like the copies for pledgers are going to be even more exclusive as the plan is to manufacture and ship them from Finland rather than waiting for the original plan of getting duplication done in Germany (which will still happen for the shop copies) as that would take longer. In the meantime there's a rough version of video for one of the tracks available to pledgers only. And it's not often I get to say this, but if the rest of it is even half as good as the rough version when completely finished, this is definitely going to be the best music purchase I've made this year. And like I said when the project was first announced, I was expecting it might not quite come out on time, so I have no worries about the delay so far.

If you were thinking of getting your hands on one of these, you're unfortunately too late as funding recently finished with nearly 300% of target reached so you will just have to wait until it hits retail. It looks like it's going to be well worth your money based on what I've seen so far.

Once again, it's more than 2 months since the last update from Vertical Horizon on how that album is coming along and that particular project is STILL open for pledging nearly 18 months after I made my pledge (when they'd already reached target completion several months before that). Comparing this project to the Poets of The Fall one has been like chalk and cheese to date.

I'm still waiting on news about when exactly Fox Amoore's project for an album recorded at Abbey Road studios will go live, mostly because it seems he's still on the tour circuit at the moment. It does appear that it's likely to happen on IndieGoGo, will be called "Come Find Me" and some time in September though, so hopefully I'll have more information for you in my next post.

Coincidence or did someone read my last post? Aly Cook dropped her project total to the 18,000 euros I suggested in my last post and managed to complete the project before its deletion deadline as a result. Given she managed it with several days to go, I actually wondered if a 18,500 or maybe even a 19,000 target would have been possible or whether that would have been considered too much for a last minute rush.

Civilized Tears haven't been so lucky. Their project still appears stuck around the halfway funded mark, though it did move very slightly since my previous post. I did see a Facebook post from them asking what incentives people would like to encourage them to spend money on the project but at the time I looked it hadn't had any replies and I haven't been back to check up on it since.

With the main set of funding projects that I've been keeping an eye on dealt with, it's time to move onto the artists who have caught my attention for other reasons.

In terms of the "blast from the past" category, there have been a few names from the early days of Sellaband that have managed to catch my attention in one form or another recently. First on the list is Darren J Claxton who signed up on Sellaband once again recently. Whilst I think the songs have improved both in terms of quality and songwriting since his last failed attempt, it's clear the fanbase is still missing which means he's had even less attention on the site than the last time. He even sent me a message asking how to get more followers, believers and plays on the site, so it seems he hasn't realised the site is a very different place to when he originally signed up.

Next is SupermassiveQuazar who still seems to be putting out music left right and centre and according to the odds ought to have made something I really like by now but somehow still seems to be failing on that score.

The other name on the list is Mike Nealis who some of you may also remember from Sellaband as being part of the band Private Nation. It seems that he's currently involved with a new band called Martian Soul, but there doesn't appear to be any music online to listen to yet. So far all I've been able to find is a Facebook page and a very recent and barely used Twitter profile but no website. Their debut album is apparently supposed to be out some time in the Autumn.

On the new discoveries front, Christopher Battles caught my attention with his rather interesting mailing list offer. At first glance you'd think he's offering the standard "sign up to my mailing list and get a song in return" deal, however there appears to be what can be best described as an affiliate offer available as well. In essence you get a spreadsheet to download and fill in with contact details of others you've passed his music onto and in return for the number of different people you send back as willing to join his mailing list you can get various different incentives such as personalised notes, free skype concert or even a free house concert (amongst others). You'll find the full details of the deal here.

In one of my rare trawls of the new signups on Sellaband I came across an artist called #22 who are from Poland and the rather catchy track they have posted caught my attention. Unfortunately it looks like they're using the site as a promotional tool rather than being serious about any kind of funding attempt. I'd quite like to hear more from them based on what I've heard so far, but it seems they're not the easiest of artists to find music or indeed much other information for.

The sites I've been looking at

Tastemakerx
The web version of this site has had a number of bugs for a few months now and there has been no sign of when they might be fixed. As a result I haven't been using the site much, thinking they'd be fixed in the "August update" , which now appears to be happening mid-end September instead.  However I'm now left wondering on whether there's going to be a lot more than just an update given a Twitter conversation between a fellow user and the site itself, where it's being described as a "2.0 version". He's assuming that means a complete rewrite (possibly even a pivot) so it looks like it will be a case of watch this space to see what exactly happens with the site.

Plumspotter
Following on from the conversation about Tastemakerx, I landed up looking at this website which appears to also be heading down the "music discovery as a game" route but which is still in beta. The "how it works" video on the site makes it seem rather interesting, however there's no way to see how any of it works in practice without signing up and currently that's only available via Facebook (which I don't have and wouldn't use to sign in anyway even if you paid me). I may revisit the site if they make it more accessible than it is at present.

Sellaband
It's been over a year since I last requested a payout from the site, so I decided I'd drag out the current balance (what little of it there is, given there have been only 3 small eurocent revenue payments added in that time). And it seems that the message about Sellaband updating the payment system that's been in the automated withdrawal messages since the previous management is (you guessed it) still there. This is the smallest amount I've requested from the site to date, so I'll be interested to see what happens with it.

The number of artists on the site itself continues to drop slowly although the number of artists with at least 1% of budget does appear to be remaining stable or possibly creeping slowly up. It will be interesting to see what effect the changes to the terms and conditions have on the figures as it's too soon since their introduction for anything much to have been done yet and only a small fraction of the artists currently on there would appear to fit with the activity required by the new terms.

Pledge Music
I've recently been asked to take part in a survey about the site so the ad agency they have employed can obviously issue some recommendations and help them promote it.. I'd kind of like to be a fly on the wall when someone reads what I've sent in as it includes both the good and the bad (much of which you've read at least something about on this blog), and I'm half expecting some more questions to come my way on the subject based on what I've sent. I've also been offered a free download of any artist on the site for my help, so the next problem is going to be who to pick.

And finally
Looks like the house move is going to take longer than originally planned, so I should get at least one more post in before things get really hectic. You can therefore expect the next one in about a month.

Pre-move blues

If you already know about my rating system then skip on down to the next header, otherwise here's the lowdown.

The rating system
The rating system I use for this blog is somewhat unique. It's not a reflection of how much I like the music itself as much as it is of how far I am along the process of conversion from consumer to fan. So, over time you may well see some of these ratings go up if I mention an artist again. And indeed go down, as musical changes of direction or failure to keep my interest are just some of the reasons that may affect a rating.


Congratulations, you've made a temporary blip of interest on my radar. Now how are you going to keep it?


I've seen enough of you to recognise and remember you, but I'm undecided so I'm not really following you (yet). I may make a spur of the moment decision to check in on what you're up to once in a while, but even that's no guarantee. May also apply to artists I am aware of, but whose music I've decided I don't have enough interest in to want to pursue further based on what I've heard.


I'm liking what I hear in general, but I still wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I will be wandering past your site occasionally, and there is something like a 50% chance I'll be buying your next offering once I find out about it, providing I have the money available.


Now I am a fan, so the chances are I'll be past your site once every month or two at least. There's a 90%+ chance your next offering is already sold, and occasionally I might even be going for something more than the basic package (if you have one)


Reserved for very few, this is about as close to internet stalker as you can get. I am actively watching because I do not want to miss your next release date, tour in my area etc. etc. You may not always be aware of the fact I'm looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to, but trust me, I'm there on a weekly if not more like a daily basis. Depending on how you tend to release your information, I may well be signed to your mailing list as well.


Video of the month
As part of my look at artists I haven't visited for a while, I went to see what The Blanko were up to. This is a group that formed when one of my previous likes from Finland (an artist called Flylow) split with the members heading off into two different bands, the second of which (Cobrastyle) seems to have dropped off the face of the earth some time in 2010. Enjoy Face The Fear which looks like it might be a release off a forthcoming album

Who I've been looking at

Music is being forced to take more of a back seat at the moment. As I mentioned in my previous post there's a house move on the cards which means I've been spending a lot of time recently doing all the stuff necessary to get it on the market and sold rather than looking round for music.

Priority one on the music front has therefore been to try and get an updated status on things I'm waiting for. As all of these are coming from abroad, I obviously need to be keeping a close eye on dates etc. in order to coordinate with an address change. This type of mail can't always be redirected to a new address (depending on a number of things) and could land up getting returned to sender a month or two later as a result.

Cubworld's second single release before the album was supposed to be out in June, but I landed up tweeting him late on 30th as there was no sign of anything on Sellaband.  A few days later I got a reply which said "I decided to take another 5 years to release all the tracks. Wish me luck :)". On the one hand seemingly a joke, on the other not really the kind of joke I want to see given my sense of humour circuits have been pretty much disconnected for a number of months where the last few overdue Sellaband albums are concerned - this is a subject which just isn't funny any more. A second track "Good Morning Love" has since appeared on his Bandcamp page and his website which appears to be one of the more "chilled out" tracks he mentioned, but if it is the second single release before the album, it hasn't shown up for Sellaband believers on their dashboards yet.

Elsewhere on overdue albums, Lori Greco's twitter feed contained a couple of interesting tweets over the past few weeks, suggesting in the first that the album would be finished in July ready for a digital release in August and in a more recent second one that it would be finished "next week" , which at time of discovery equated to the first week in July. Not long after this an email came through from Lori via the Sellaband system saying the album would be available for download by the end of July. Could it really be that I might actually see an album in my hands before the "4 years since funding completion" deadline hits in mid-August? And will the album actually appear on Sellaband before the end of July in the first place based on what I've been seeing with Cubworld? Watch this space.

Finally another update from Vertical Horizon on their overdue album. Apparently they are looking at releasing it in the Autumn but have no firm date set yet. It's looking more likely that this will appear after the move rather than before as a result, but is currently the item I need to keep the closest eye on based on the information I currently have.

Poets of the Fall are currently spending most time on getting together bonus material for the DVD. August release date is therefore still looking good at this point. Couldn't be happier with the way they are keeping people updated on the project either, and it's probably no surprise that they have passed the 250% funding mark and are still going as a result (albeit slowly but steadily) despite many incentives now being sold out.

The last item on my current list of outstanding items is in the more-or-less "on its way" category. This is Matthew Ebel's "Best Of" album which you can get a digital copy of completely for free just by signing up to his mailing list, as he's now sending this out instead of the 5 free songs he was sending previously. This contains tracks taken from all of the albums he has released via his website to date, but in many cases (particularly tracks from earlier albums) they have been remixed and enhanced compared to the recording you'll find on the original CD. As an Entourage membership, I'm obviously expecting something a little more physical in addition to the digital release going to his mailing list, though whether or not he's close to sending this yet or whether it will hang around until the annual goody bag (most likely due in the Autumn) to help save on postage is something I don't know. Based on how the house move is going, I may still need to get some coordination sorted here at a later date.

My most recent music purchase has been the new We Love The Underground album "Mouthful of Graffiti" which I've been a little hesitant about as the preview tracks Brad posted didn't exactly grab me in the same way as those from the first album and I was left wondering whether it would find itself in the traditional "difficult second album" category as a result. The biggest surprise when the album arrived was probably the fact that it included a couple of tracks he had originally released under the Niki Thunders name. Overall, after listening some more, I don't think it's as good an album as the first, mostly because there's nothing that immediately grabs your attention, but I am finding a few of the tracks are starting to grow on me more than I originally thought they would. I've actually cooled slightly from the 4 star rating I felt the project warranted after the first album to more like 3 to 3 and a half as a result.

And I've already got my next album purchase planned. Even if anything comes out beforehand that I'm interested in, it's likely it will get left until after the move and most likely behind this one in the queue if I'm short of cash, given how much I like this particular artist. Elton John's new album "The Diving Board" is the album in question, due for release in September and you can already view a lyric video of one of the tracks from this album on his official website.

Keeping watch on some of the crowdfunding projects I mentioned in the last post has also been interesting. Initially I was rather worried about Gayle Skidmore's effort to raise $8000 given it didn't seem to be moving much despite what I thought were some pretty tempting incentives on offer (e.g. digital download of the new album along with a PDF of the colouring book for just $1, or digital download of her entire back catalog of albums on bandcamp for just $10) , but after she started going overboard with the tweets and retweets it accelerated into a last minute frenzy I haven't seen since the early days on Sellaband with over half of the money raised arriving in the last couple of days of the project. In the end she actually finished with over $10,000 and 460 people on board.

The Civilized Tears video funding by contrast seems to have been a much more painful affair given they have only been looking for 1000 euros and trying to get this for longer than Gayle's project was up. (and in fact are still only around the halfway mark at time of writing) Whilst it's obvious from some of the comments going around that some people are being put off by the fact the funding is in euros and not dollars, I'm still left wondering how much of a problem the "Sellaband Effect" is having. I've stated many times before that I won't even contemplate going near any project being funded on Sellaband while I'm still waiting for albums from the "old era" (which were due years ago), irrespective of who asks so it seems hard to say how many others are being put off by the mere fact Sellaband is involved and how many just aren't that interested in the range of incentives on offer (something I consider quite a poor selection in the first place).

Fox Amoore's project isn't currently up, but he does have the funding video recorded now and the title of the project appears to be "Come Find Me", so I'm expecting to see this appear soon - probably after he gets back from the mini tour of the USA he's currently on.

It will be interesting to see what Aly Cook does. She already dropped her budget from 40,000 to 25,000 euros a while back but there is less than a month to go before this project will fail for the second time to raise its budget in a year, and she still has over a third of the way to go. A change to somewhere around the 18K mark might see her through, but I'm not yet convinced anything higher will unless there really is a last minute rush.

On the discoveries side, Galia Arad is the main artist to grab my attention recently, though she could really do with a proper website than her current blog-style affair which attempts to cram the entire site on one page and hence takes a while to load as well as being a bit of an information overload (whilst in many cases explaining nothing e.g. what the heck is the "how to exploit your grandfather" set of links even about in the first place??).

As you can probably guess, I haven't really been looking for new artists in general this month but instead spent my limited time in a bit of a "Whatever Happened To...?" mode by checking up on some old familiar names. Bulletproof Messenger still seem to be procrastinating on their next album, and in fact seem to have pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth given the fact their website hasn't been updated in ages and there have been very few social media postings since their April Fool's joke that a new album was about to be released. Trail have also been very quiet this year since their post in January that they were listening to the final mix for the first track off their new album - I had been expecting to see some more information about this before. Radius are another one who seem to have done a disappearing act with the last information on their website (from months ago) seeming to suggest a search for a new bass player was underway. I'm particularly struck by the irony of their most recent tweet (which was posted on New Year's Day) "Happy New Year!!!! We'll be back on track in 2013!!!!"

The sites I've been looking at

Sellaband
It's been a while since I took an overall picture on how things are changing at Sellaband. The number of artists on the site appears to still be on a general downward trend, despite there still being at least two where both the "Active since" and "Last seen" dates are over a year old, one of which where both these dates are even both over 2 years old. Suffice it to say, Sellaband obviously still haven't fixed the problem which has been round for over a year now with some projects not being deleted even after they exceed their supposed 1 year of active life mentioned in the T&C.

Maybe that's about to change though? Sellaband have announced some forthcoming changes to their terms and conditions which could well result in artist profiles being deleted if the artist hasn't visited them in the past month. At the same time, it appears that a change on the believer side with believers needing to be active every 2 months or their profile will be deleted is also coming into effect at the same time. Which gets me to thinking... just how many believer profiles are there out there with just a few eurocents in them (basically hardly worth a withdrawal) and how much money would Sellaband therefore stand to gain by claiming all these unused funds? Enough to keep the site limping along for a few more months perhaps?

The number of artists on the site at time of writing has been dropping for a while now on its own. Whilst the current number of these is below 500 at time of writing, both the percentage and number of artists with at least 1% of their budget raised does appear to be increasing (having finally passed the 60 mark for the first time since I started checking), though the number on a "significant" percentage of budget raised does appear to be remaining fairly static - only a handful are over halfway to target and indeed only around 10 artists are currently over 25% of budget raised. The increase in 1% raised is at least partly due to most artists now signing up with much lower budgets than previously - the larger number of artists with 5000 euro or less budgets obviously makes it much easier to get 1% raised compared to the 50K budget of the original site concept. How much longer is the site going to limp along at this rate? Many would say it's already way past the date they were expecting it to fold for the second time.

But one interesting thing I recently discovered on the site is the "Artist Academy" pages obviously designed to help artists set up their Sellaband project, but I can't help but wonder how many artists actually even read them as you don't see any mention of them on the site until you actually hit the artist signup page. At which point it's probably too late as I can see way more people just filling in the signup boxes rather than clicking a link that goes away from the page to another site area entirely. Amongst the more interesting information on these pages is the statement that Sellaband sees the average believer donation as being around 20 euros, a project page needs to be viewed on average 208 times for every believer you get and that 42 is not only the answer to life, the universe and everything, but also the key to how many believers you need to succeed on Sellaband once you know your budget. Well worth a read but way more information is presented in this guide than the majority are going to bother with once they got as far as the signup form - it's pretty much the equivalent of people reading the instruction manual for their new appliance when they've already opened the box and got the appliance out. If Sellaband really want people to be reading these, they ought to make them do so before presenting them with a page of boxes about their project to fill in.

Patreon
The basic idea behind this website is that you agree to give an artist a tip every time they come up with a new piece of content. The minimum amount is $1 which gives you the ability to post on their wall and follow their updates, however if you decide you want to give a higher amount every time the artist produces a new piece of content, you'll get whatever extras that artist provides for each tier that the artist sets. For instance, one artist I looked at had a $3 and a $10 a tier where the $3 got you a download of the song as well and for the $10 you got the song download and a customised thankyou drawing.

In terms of how the payments work, it seems they currently only take payments using a system called Stipe, which appears to be a Paypal-a-like but something which I'd never heard of before, and hence it feels a bit restrictive if you were thinking of becoming a patron compared to other sites which take much more common options for payment. You don't get charged immediately that the artist creates the content, but instead get charged once a month based on all the content that all of the artists you support on the site have released that month. Patreon takes 5% of that to cover their own costs and the Stipe system eats up about another 3% in transaction charges. As a patron, if you're worried about getting a huge bill one month if artists go nuts producing content, you can apparently set a maximum amount that you'll pay out, however it's unclear from the T&C if you can then go back and buy the content you missed out on in a quieter month or whether you're forced to miss out on that entirely.

The site doesn't just support musicians, but also video producers, short film makers, bloggers and indeed anything along these lines that you can think of. But it's unclear just how many content creators are using the site at present as it's really only possible to see the list of featured artists on the home page before you're forced to resort to using the search function. Not great as a potential patron browsing to see who you might be interested in, but once again only really a site for those with people already interested in them rather than something you could use as a discovery tool. And for me that limits its potential and brings us back to the point that as an artist you could get a similar system set up on your own website for your existing fans and hence save yourself the 5% middleman. If this were more of a discovery tool that allowed you to more easily find and connect with new potential fans it would look much more attractive  - as you can't even use the site to talk to an artist until you've already agreed to tip them, I'm left failing to see how useful this could actually be.

And finally...
That's all for this post. Once again there's likely to be a longer than normal gap to the next post due to the house move taking up a lot of time over the next few months.

The crowdfunding update

If you already know about my rating system then skip on down to the next header, otherwise here's the lowdown.

The rating system
The rating system I use for this blog is somewhat unique. It's not a reflection of how much I like the music itself as much as it is of how far I am along the process of conversion from consumer to fan. So, over time you may well see some of these ratings go up if I mention an artist again. And indeed go down, as musical changes of direction or failure to keep my interest are just some of the reasons that may affect a rating.


Congratulations, you've made a temporary blip of interest on my radar. Now how are you going to keep it?


I've seen enough of you to recognise and remember you, but I'm undecided so I'm not really following you (yet). I may make a spur of the moment decision to check in on what you're up to once in a while, but even that's no guarantee. May also apply to artists I am aware of, but whose music I've decided I don't have enough interest in to want to pursue further based on what I've heard.


I'm liking what I hear in general, but I still wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I will be wandering past your site occasionally, and there is something like a 50% chance I'll be buying your next offering once I find out about it, providing I have the money available.


Now I am a fan, so the chances are I'll be past your site once every month or two at least. There's a 90%+ chance your next offering is already sold, and occasionally I might even be going for something more than the basic package (if you have one)


Reserved for very few, this is about as close to internet stalker as you can get. I am actively watching because I do not want to miss your next release date, tour in my area etc. etc. You may not always be aware of the fact I'm looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to, but trust me, I'm there on a weekly if not more like a daily basis. Depending on how you tend to release your information, I may well be signed to your mailing list as well.

Video of the month

As a music lover, one of my biggest sources of music outside of internet sites themselves is actually other (usually indie) musicians. And whilst I often find myself wading through a whole heap of stuff I just don't get on with, occasionally I run across an artist where most of what they point out turns out to fit extremely well with my music tastes. This month's video therefore comes as a result of one such recommendation. Enjoy "Hot Damn" by Ivy Levan whose debut EP has recently been released.

Who I've been looking at

In my travels this month looking for artists, the vast majority seem to have come with attached crowdfunding stories.

First on the list has got to be updates on the items I'm currently waiting on. The biggest update seems to be from Cubworld who made the first track from his album available for download - Sellaband believers in his second project should check their dashboards for the free download (if they didn't get the email) as the track is already released. Much like "Rocked Out" from his first album, "Life is Music" has turned out to be pretty much a grower on me and with what I've previously heard of  "Shaka Laka" on his website,  I'm now interested to see whether the rest of the album can manage to grab me where the first pretty much failed. The second single from the album is supposed to be released this month with the full album release due in July. Fingers crossed this is one overdue project I can finally cross off the list soon.

Elsewhere on the overdue list, there's been no update from Vertical Horizon for nearly 3 months now. Whilst I know there is no such thing as a fixed length of time for mastering an album, this still seems rather a long time for this stage of the process - I was expecting to hear it was back by now and that maybe physical production and/or artwork was basically all that was left holding things up. Meanwhile, whilst the dates on the articles on Lori Greco's website homepage have changed, the articles themselves are still the same ones I read back in March. So no new news on this seemingly non-existent album which has been "coming soon" for nearly 4 years now. But news on her Twitter page about how excited she is to have submitted 6 new songs to a songwriting competition. Go figure what's going on here, because I obviously got lost a while back.

In better news the Poets of the Fall DVD is looking on target for its projected August release (though it's still too early to tell whether it will make it on time or not) and is slowly creeping towards 250% funded on Pledge Music even though somewhat more than half of the incentive levels have sold out completely and at least one more is getting low on numbers.

In terms of other projects which I'm not funding (yet) but am keeping an eye on the following interesting list of things has popped up.

The fund for Daniel Ward Murphy's second album on Fundrazr hasn't moved in months but I recently spotted something on his Facebook page which says he is considering private funding and asking if anyone knows anyone out there who might be interested. So much for his open letter claiming crowdfunding as the last roll of the dice but rather chalk another one up for what I see as the "artist's soul" and its inability to let go of music. I'll be keeping a watch out to see if this story has any more twists and turns and he does manage to get another album out or not.

Civilized Tears finally set up their video funding project on Sellaband, although you won't find this under the main listings but rather it is one of the new style pledge-a-like pages. But in typical Sellaband facepalm-inducing fashion the project page itself is open to being misinterpreted as it initially states the project is to fund a video for their song "Stars", when in actual fact (as you'll find further through the description) a poll is running on their Facebook page to decide whether the video should be for "Stars" or "Antidote". And despite pointing this howler out to Tim on Twitter, (yes I bet you've guessed what I'm about to say) the project page still has this conflicting information on it. Add to that the fact the links on the project page lead to a Facebook login prompt rather than allowing you to see the Facebook content (even though this is visible if you navigate to it on Facebook itself irrespective of whether you have an account or not) and it's not the kind of page to fill you with confidence if you were looking at it wondering whether or not to fund an artist.

One to watch for some time in July is going to be Fox Amoore attempting to take his first foray into crowdfunding in order to try and raise enough money to record an album at Abbey Road studios. Given the already good quality of his home releases, I'll be interested to see just how much this can add to his cinematic style if he can make it work - the result ought to be an amazing sounding release. I've been watching him get to grips with the preparations for this by asking his fans what they'd like to see as incentive levels and for general feedback on the project and the last I saw he was making preparations to film the funding video. I've seen a couple of different funding platforms mentioned but I'm not yet sure which one he's settled on. Watch this space to see where it actually appears.

Gayle Skidmore is on Kickstarter with a very short funding project for marketing a new album. As with her Sellaband one, this once again comes with a colouring book for some of the incentive levels. But you'll have to be fast as there's only a couple of weeks to fund it.

Moving away from the crowdfunding side of things, I seem to be undergoing a bit of a music explosion at the moment based on the absolute flood of artists that have caught my attention for the first time in the past few weeks. Most notable of these seems to be Fiction 20 Down (also known as f20d) who should really be something I run away screaming from given (as I've stated many times before) I don't like rap. But whether it's their more melodic style fused with reggae and rock or whether it's something else entirely, somehow they not only manage to get away with it, but in actual fact have a couple of songs I actually quite like. Whilst there are others which do fit the expected "can't stand", I expect I might find the further odd track I like popping up from time to time so will probably keep an occasional eye on them. You can currently download their latest EP for free in exchange for an email address via their website.

If you like drinking as well as music then Ali Spagnola could be well up your street. She is currently touring  her 2012 album which is based on a drinking game. The "Power Hour" experience basically consists of 60 one minute songs with the idea that you take a shot of beer every time the song changes. Obviously it depends on the size of your shot glass, but if you were in the UK that's roughly 3 pints of beer in an hour. As well as being able to experience this as a live concert, she also sells her album on a USB stick built into a shot glass for those who prefer to get drunk with their mates at home. There's also quite a story involving the 3 year legal battle over this album and concert which you can read on her own website. If you like art as well as music, then she's also making and sending paintings all over the world for free (though with a current backlog she encourages you to donate to move further up the queue given she's made over 1900 already) so there's plenty of things of (unusual) interest to find on her website.

Reverbnation provided a find in the form of Stirling from Australia. This seems to be (mostly) a family affair given the surname of most of the band members. The rather haunting track "Mind Control" is the one that initially got my attention, although there's something about the piano in "Writing's on the Wall" which has a definite ability to get stuck in your head.

Alexandria Maillot is another artist that I got pointed towards as a result of following another artist on Twitter. You can download her EP from Bandcamp on a "pay what you want" basis. For me the stand out track is "Just Another Girl" but the whole of the 7 track EP is well worth a listen.

Most interesting of artists that followed me on Twitter recently has got to be Space March whose retro electronic sound should definitely be up your street if you were fans of 80s acts such as Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys or Erasure etc. One of the more unusual tracks is a version of the classical music track by Grieg "In the Hall of the Mountain King" with added lyrics. But it must be said that whilst I like the music, this is another artist where the videos are making me cringe. If you were thinking of heading off to check them out, don't say I didn't warn you.

Somehow between all the crowdfunding artists and new artists, I did manage to fall over a couple of old faces that didn't fit into either of these categories. Firstly Cavali Jay is moving to Dubai with the aim of trying to get his music to take off in the Middle East and use that region as a launch pad for getting heard in the rest of the world. If it succeeds this will be a rather unusual direction for music to come from seeing as the vast majority still seems to come via the UK, USA, Germany, Australia or Japan and he's actually moving from the UK.

GD Allan looks like he's putting together a new CD which appears to be called "Beats and Pieces" if I've been following the breadcrumb trail round the internet correctly. It seems he is remixing some of the tracks he posted while he was on Sellaband as part of this as well as including some music from more recent times. He seems to be mostly using Soundcloud for posting tracks at the moment and recently managed to grab me with a song called "River Runs Dry" which is the first song of his in ages to properly do so - in fact since "Bitter Pill".

The sites I've been looking at

Soundcloud
If you hadn't noticed it yet, you should have seen I've now got a soundcloud playlist over on the right of this blog which contains music I've recently discovered (irrespective of whether it's recently released or something I only just picked up on) and am enjoying a lot. I'm aiming to keep the playtime around a half hour in length, so expect the featured songs on here to start changing as I find more music that catches my interest.

Underground Music FM
If you liked thesixtyone before their redesign of a number of years ago, I'd describe this site as the best replacement I've seen so far. Whilst it lacks community features for listeners, it follows a similar principle of artists being able to upload as little or as much of their music at once in the hopes of getting it trending on the site. This is the site I originally found Fiction 20 Down on, but like thesixtyone it can require a lot of work to find the diamonds you like in amongst the rough that you don't. Particularly due to the lack of real community features. And whilst there is a blog featuring artists on the site it is set up in such a way that it feels like a whole separate site rather than part of the site you're listening to music on. I'm not sure how much I'll land up using it to find music as a result because it seems to eat up too much time just to find even one artist you like.

Adsy.me
Remember the site called Slowbizz which was aimed at getting a network of music lovers to set up house concerts? Well I went to have a look and see how things were going there as there hadn't been any updates in ages, only to find the site redirected to something called adsy.me. After a bit of research I discovered that the Slowbizz site owner had undergone a "pivot". Or to put it in English, it looks like he has completely ditched the Slowbizz idea because it wasn't working and come up with a completely unrelated idea instead. But because he doesn't want to lose web traffic, he's redirected all the Slowbizz links to his new site, despite the fact the new project has nothing to do with the old.

In actual fact the new project appears to be a way of letting people create simple mobile applications without needing to know any of the code that a programmer would normally need. Not something I'd normally cover in a music blog, but in this particular case it could turn out to be something of use for musicians to create their own apps for fans without needing a deep understanding of technology. It's worthwhile checking out the video in which he creates an app for The Boxer Rebellion to get an idea of just how easy this is. On the downside the system is currently only available to those.users with Apple products (e.g. an iPhone), although an Android version is in development which should give it a much wider mobile phone userbase. The other interesting point is that it seems the apps apparently are stored on the adsy.me site rather than being something made available in the app store your phone would normally link to. As a result it might be worth considering the site terms and conditions a lot more seriously than the humorous way they are presented before deciding whether this is something that would really be of interest. Personally I'm going to wait until the Android version comes out before taking a better look at how the whole thing works in practice.

And finally...
I'm hoping things are going to quieten down on the music front over the next couple of months as it looks like we'll be moving house at some point soon. There's no firm date set yet though, so hopefully I'll get at least one more post out before I need to worry about taking a break from this blog.