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.