February 1st 2009 Hatchet Day

Well as I said in last "proper" hatchet day blog there are going to be a few changes from now on. Here's hoping you like them.

Results from last month
Well actually this time around this section would probably be better called "Results since I last did a hatchet day blog", because there's been quite a few things happen during December and January.

Guy Barnes reappeared the same day I started writing my last blog and changed some info on his profile for the first time in over 6 months. Also reappearing on the scene in December was an artist called Slap of Sound that I used to own parts in but who met my hatchet after disappearing - if you remember the Spellbox song that was written about my artist list, you'll know they were one of the ones mentioned in that. Sasha Vella seems to have returned and is now going under the name Sasha and Sam. You'll find more than one new song on her profile, now that she's officially partnered musically with Sam. Incidentally, Kristy J is another returner, who some of you may remember is one of the "Phil Tweed" production list.

Coldplayers actually contacted me, because they saw what I'd written about them in my December blog, they didn't know how to delete their profile and they didn't want to do anything bad, so they asked me how they could delete it. So I'd just like to say at this point that if you are an artist that wants to delete your profile then you have to email info@sellaband.com. That's what I told them and hey presto a couple of days later the profile was gone, proving that this information obviously isn't prominent/easily accessible enough on the Sellaband website and also seemingly proving that I'm a more effective way to get a straight answer than contacting Sellaband themselves with the same question. Maybe I ought to start charging Sellaband for giving out info like this on their behalf? ;)

This month's gainers and losers
Well I had hoped this section could get retitled, but it seems there's still some time to wait before Sellaband start dealing with inactive artists so I've decided to deal with these for a couple more months yet.

First on the list to go have been Lone Pine as they haven't been seen for nearly a year now, and I also removed Lucia Barreto as it seems she's become yet another of those who have cleared out their profile but it's still there. I've also removed Promethic as it's stating on their profile "Promethic are no more".

The parts reclaimed have gone to a rather diverse set of artists. Finite State Machines, Meg and Mark and Rustie Blue are the recipients. Country doesn't normally get a look in on Sellaband, but are there any Shania Twain fans out there? Rustie Blue may well be one for you if so.

I'm not actually marking anyone else for potential deletion next month. Unless you do a "clean out the profile", vanish for a long period of time (say 6 months plus without a login), manage to forget to thank me or notify believers you're leaving, then it's unlikely I'll be removing any more parts before the Sellaband deadline on the CDs is up. So let's see how busy this section is next month.

New investments
I've bought parts in just 2 artists and these both earlier in the month. Unfortunately the vibes I was getting even before buying them look to be proving true.

Fables Last Stand only have the one song up on their profile, but if you wander off to their Myspace page you'll find a lot more to listen to. In fact having listened to what they've got up over there, I'm actually slightly surprised JohanV hasn't bought a part in them as I know our tastes in rock overlap. Maybe that access to the backend has something to do with it, because even the aura given off by the profile is one that makes an established believer like me think it has only been started to promote their new album, rather than for the purposes of raising 50K for their next one. A real shame that there's still no mention of Sellaband on their website, or anything except the banner on their Myspace (what about a bulletin or blog entry explaining it to your fans guys?! I'm in the UK so I know that banner on its own will mean nothing to the average person over here). The fact they've also got an album coming out would also be an ideal way to start off promotion for raising 50K on Sellaband, but I fear this one is going to turn out to be just an album promotion profile, despite the fact I think they've genuinely got the calibre of music to really make it on here if they'd only take a proper interest. Or to put it another way, I think this is easily the best band I've heard sign up on Sellaband for quite a while based on what I've heard of their music, but I haven't seen anything of them yet despite the fact the profile starter has logged in in the past couple of days.

The other artist I believed in, tAIT, are even worse as there isn't even anything about Sellaband on their Myspace profile. And yes they've also got an album coming out in early 2009. Yet another case where there's something really promising that's (so far) exhibiting all the signs of being merely an album promotion profile.

It's quite disheartening as a believer to run into a profile where you really love the music and then it turns out to be nothing but a promotion, rather than a genuine attempt to raise 50K. And yes, this behaviour can put people off of becoming believers in the first place, because it's impossible to tell what an artist's real intentions on Sellaband are. I'm not sure there's any way to effectively stop this, but it really bothers me when it happens because I know there are artists on Sellaband genuinely wanting to raise 50K. It would be so easy just to wander past and ignore any new profile announcing the imminent launch of an album, but the thought that there might be someone who's genuinely thought it through and is using the album they just made to act as the launchpad to get them started or move them forward in budget on Sellaband is something that leads me to give artists like these a shot if I like the music. And yes, there is also always the potential for the "clueless", which is one of the reasons I came up with the video idea I've mentioned in a previous blog post.

Watching
It's been a pretty chaotic couple of months with things happening with artists all over the place. It's been so bad that I'll be here for about a week if I try to tell you everything I'm watching at the moment, so you're only going to get some of the more interesting or important ones this time around.

After a busy Christmas I finally got back to my Myspace profile after a gap of 2-3 weeks in visiting it to find a message in my inbox there from an artist that had signed up on Sellaband over Christmas. Straight Forward asked me what I thought their potential in the Sellaband universe was. Well I responded to them over there with what I think, but why not visit their profile and offer your own opinion on that question? I'm undecided on them musically, but they seem to have brought a few new people with them which is much more than most seem to manage.

Bands in the Arenafest competition are something I'm watching at the moment. I'm not a fan of some of the voting practices going on at the moment, but I've actually started drafting a blog post which covers both this and some other things about the community which are bothering me. I've been accused in the past of writing self-fulfilling prophecies, so I'm wondering about continuing to watch this voting round until it's over before I say what's on my mind or whether to follow the "publish and be damned" route. Although for the record, I don't believe in self-fulfilling prophecies - you can prove a prophecy is true, but I don't believe you can prove that it is self-fulfilling. No prizes for guessing who I'm voting for at the moment by the way.

I'm watching the latest album releases on Sellaband quite carefully to see if the early action continues, given that you already know I rate some of these quite highly. After things being fairly static for quite a while in terms of money coming in from Sellaband, I was pleasantly surprised to see my first cent from Francis Rodino's less than a day after it was released and with one Bulletproof Messenger album sold just as quickly it's been a great start for me. Particularly when you add another 60 cents in commission from people buying/downloading from these 2 artists via my profile, so thankyou very much whoever you are for that. I also love the cover of Angie Arsenault's album, and will be looking forward to the listening session for that on 5th February.

In terms of new artists, I have been rather surprised that the "usual suspects" who are keen on female artists don't seem to have been near Janesville Dolls yet. Though with them stuck on the magic zero dollars, I've a feeling that even this mention isn't likely to get them any further forward on its own. And given that Pine Divine are stating on their profile they've only started in 2009, I'm impressed with what they've put up on their profile so far, but again maybe their current budget of zero dollars isn't therefore that surprising.

Video of the month
One of the things I have on my profile is a video from an artist outside of Sellaband to give people a better idea of what kind of music I like. As I'm noticing an increasing number of Sellaband artists following what I have to say on this blog, and I realised I've been updating the video on my profile very irregularly, I decided to start this new section in order to make sure I update that video once a month. So if you are wanting to get a better feel for whether I'm likely to like your music enough to want to buy a part, this is the section to be following to find out what kinds of music I'm into.

This also gives me the chance to say a little bit about the choice in question each month, rather than just the simple few words I usually have on my profile telling you what it is.

So for this first selection, let me send you away from my love of rock and introduce you to a singer/songwriter who is local to me called Simon Scardanelli. There is a chance you've heard of him before in some dim and distant past, because he did have a brief stint of fame in the late 1980s under a different name as part of a duo. I'll let you discover for yourself who that duo was, but for now visit my profile to enjoy his first attempt at video editing for his song "Alien State of Mind". I'm also going to send you in the direction of his Myspace page which should give you an introduction to his diversity of material and interesting lyrics. I'll dedicate "It's Only Life" from that to Mawa as I think he'll enjoy it - a song which incidentally was written at least in part as a result of Simon's own experiences with the music industry. (warning for the sensitive of ears - it does contain a swear word, but I expect me stating that fact is enough encouragement for some to listen in itself!).

Sixpack Stories
I've had some hard choices recently in the Sixpack. Last time I left you, I'd been voting for Kane Sole. I couldn't quite decide between The GoStation and The DayOf the week both were available so landed up voting for both (just not on the same day - I genuinely do have only one profile on Sellaband). Second Person got my vote the first week they were available, though it was a tough decision to choose them over MDATA, but the following week was probably the toughest choice I've had to make in a Sixpack so far and I landed up leaving them in their second week to vote for Radius. Any of the artists in that particular Sixpack would have been able to count on my vote in a normal week, but when they all come at once like that it really is hard to decide. I continued with Radius and it looks like they got caught by timezones in their second week as they were ahead on the last day before Bonnie overtook them when their part of the world woke up.

Sellaband
Well the good news is that Sellaband has finally fixed the speed problems. The bad news is that it's taken so long I'm now suffering from a severe lack of motivation with respect to doing anything much at all on Sellaband at the moment. I've listed up a number of things I want to do (think of it as a list of New Year resolutions if you want) but a combination of the ever increasing believer fatigue, plus the fact I can see no real progress forward by Sellaband itself makes me wonder whether it's even worth it. And let's clarify that one stage further by saying that for all I know Sellaband may be moving things forward, but there's nothing visible happening.

I wrote an article on believing for the community section of the news on Sellaband in order to try and show people what I think (as a believer) is so special about this place and hopefully tempt more people into believing as a result. But it's still sat on my computer. A combination of various things exploding on Sellaband (e.g. the 0 parts/0 believers debate over Arenafest) plus the fact I went back and re-read the article I wrote way back for edition 11 of the Tribune made me realise that the timing of the article is wrong - the community as it stands today is not ready for what I have to say because it can't even be effective at taking the first steps required. The worrying thing is that I don't see the community manager doing the job I think they ought to be doing - at the moment I'd say Danny is making a better job of it, despite a couple of comments that were always going to land him in some hot water with artists. Remember that draft post I mentioned above? Well it's relevant here too.

So whilst I'm feeling like I'm taking more interest in Sellaband than Sellaband is in itself, the list below (in no particular order) remains pretty much untouched - I have other things I can do with my time so I want to feel that how I use it is worthwhile. I'm therefore not sure how to get the motivation back to start on this list without some kind of positive actions (rather than something that turns out to be just another set of hype after you wait around ages for it) from Sellaband themselves happening first. Even writing this blog is hard for me at the moment.

1. Multi-lingual video project to answer common questions of both believers and artists and introduce them to Sellaband, help them sign up etc.

2. Get back to taking the level of interest in artist profiles that I used to have right at the start, by leaving comments regularly on all levels of artists - e.g. both those new on Sellaband and those who have been on my belief list a while.

3. Take more of an active interest in, and/or get more involved in some of the projects of others on Sellaband (e.g. Collaboration Project and some of the things Jayne and/or Netvalar have been trying to start off)

4. Reviews both on and off Sellaband. I have been horribly slack in writing things about the Sellaband albums and about writing a review for artists I believe in that would show up on their Sellaband page.

5. Picking up on active artists by mentioning them in my blog earlier. Alex Ganassini gave up on his Sellaband quest the same month I had decided to write about him in my next hatchet day post, and I had been planning to write about Liza Lee in this one. Just two of the cases where I feel I should have said something about their artist profile, but seemingly didn't get there in time.

That's all for this month, particularly given that I'm already at least a day late in publishing it. Hopefully the next thing you'll see is that draft post I've been mentioning, but if the next thing you see is next month's hatchet day posting, then I think it will be pretty safe to assume the believer fatigue really does have a hold of me that's going to be pretty impossible to shake.