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.