Defining the vision

Let me share my vision

These are early days, but I already have my own vision of what Sellaband could be in future given the right amount of time and effort. I think Sellaband can be bigger than you imagine!

I'd like to think that every artist who records on here will have such a great memory of doing so, that they'll want to keep coming back again and again. If you are an artist who wants to control their own destiny, this could well be the place for you.

Because why stop at recording music? How about playing it as well?

I see so many artists with fans asking "When are you going to come and play in my country?". Imagine an established Sellaband artist with a list of venues for their tour. Countries they don't think they have the money to visit at that time but where they have fans. Could you prove them wrong and help them raise enough money for a tour date in return for your concert tickets and that elusive backstage pass?

Things are never quite that simple, but... Do you begin to see the power yet? The possibilities?

I am only a believer, but I believe the future may hold wondrous things.

Back in the early days of Sellaband, those words used to be all that greeted someone on a visit to my profile information. And whilst the information I put there has expanded, that quote is still buried in there too. It gives just the tiniest glimpse into what I saw as a potential future that Sellaband could provide, based on what I read on the site.

It was one of those "what if" moments that turns into a "but if that happens, then.." and which basically kept going to the point of "wow, did I really just conclude that?". The future of music, defined in less time than it has taken you to read this far. What I "saw" that day is something I've never explained to anyone else, usually by using the excuse "it would take too long". In many ways it's something I thought I would never go through the process of writing down, purely because it is that big and complicated (yet at the same time so simple really), but the "How to fix Sellaband" post started by Bulletproof Messenger on the Sellaband forum has convinced me the time is now right to go through in detail and share the route I went through the day I had that vision.

Can you see what I saw? I honestly don't know. Am I going to have the time patience and commitment to get all the way through the story? I don't know that either at this point, but I do know that if I don't start I'll never get finished anyway. So let's see how far I can get, and to that end you can now expect a series of posts with titles starting "The knifelady's vision" popping up at irregular intervals in this blog over the coming weeks. Let me tell you my story, and lets see how many I can convince (including myself) that Sellaband is (still) the right place to be...

June 1st 2009 hatchet day

So much for things going quiet as it gets to Summer. It's been an extremely busy month where I've spotted an awful lot happening, so hold onto your hats, this is going to be a long post. Fingers crossed I don't forget anything - I'm half wishing I'd made a list!

Results from last month
First the obvious. Should that be a big hooray for Sellaband removing inactive artists or not? I've not quite decided. On the one hand I do want to throw a big thankyou to them out there for finally getting around to sorting the inactive artist problem, on the other I find myself considering whether a Dutch month is a different length to an English one. See, it's quite simple in the Sellaband Terms and Conditions. 6 months without logging in = deletion. Yet if you go back and look at the list of artists I flagged up in last month's blog, you'll find a grand total of one has actually been deleted, even though several have last seen dates prior to 1st December 2008 (what I would understand as 6 months ago) - in fact some are back in October 2008. So there's been a start, but I'm not convinced the problem is being taken care of, particularly as I haven't seen any further artists magically vanish from my flagged list since the original mass deletion was done. From what I can tell, it looks like the mass deletion got rid of all artists who logged in prior to October 2008. Fair enough at the time, but I've been expecting either the date discrepancy for the 6 month period to be made up (all artists with logins prior to 1st December to vanish on 6 month anniversary of new T&C), or another set of artists to disappear before I finished writing this entry (i.e. an automated monthly clearout but where a grace period exists when the 6 month deadline is up) and so far that hasn't happened. I'll be keeping an eye on this one over the next couple of months, but at the moment it feels like a job half done.

You'll remember in last month's post I mentioned Mysti's second profile MAYHEM as showing worrying symptoms. Well there may be an explanation for why it was (and is still) looking a bit bare. Here's what I've found out over the last month. It all starts because I finally got around to heading off to one of the live Monday webcasts, which had been alternating between just Mysti playing and Spellbox (i.e. Mysti and Mandocello). When I arrived, there was just Mysti on the guitar so I thought nothing of it as I'd got no idea whose turn it actually was that night. But on chatting to others there, I discovered that Mysti and Mando have fallen out and are no longer playing together. Mysti was due to fly out to Portugal for the Nearfield album recording just a few hours after the webcast I'd tuned into, so I didn't want to enquire at the time and I haven't had chance to discover any more since, as I believe she hasn't long come back. Long time users of the site will remember that the MAYHEM profile is the old Spellbox profile though, and that it was usually Mandocello who seemed to post from it, so I find myself wondering if this goes any way to explaining how we've landed up with a profile with no info and only the one song on it. I can only assure you that Mysti is still around and out there and hasn't vanished, and I'm pretty sure Ray Baisden will pop by my profile to let me know when her webcasts start running again if I don't spot them first if you want some extra confirmation of that.

I find it interesting that apart from the one comment left on my blog and a small comment in the "good old days" thread on the forum, nobody has mentioned Sellabration after what I wrote last month. Nobody asking on the forum, nothing from Sellaband.. hey did I see some tumbleweed just float past? Anyone who is awake out there will remember that Sellabration was announced in the Tribune on May 20th last year with the lineup announced on June 10th and tickets reservable from June 17th. Seems everyone is still too busy wondering about Arenafest to wonder about Sellaband's annual event. Given the timescales mentioned in the forum thread about Arenafest, we ought to be expecting an announcement imminently if artists are to confirm they can perform at Sellabration, or we'll be too close to that deadline as well. Hands up who remembers the special edition of the Tribune in July 2008 where JohanV gives answers to a whole series of questions including

Will Sellabration be an annual event? Can we look forward to it every year?

Time to go back and read his answer and then think about what I've previously said?

Finally, on the thankyous note, there were again a couple missing.

This month's gainers and losers
Quite a quiet month this time around. I've reclaimed one part from Marcel Luntungan as he hasn't been seen since 12th November 2008 now and Sellaband haven't deleted the profile. The part reclaimed went into Chupacabra. I get a feeling that if you're into the "fun" side of rock that the likes of Electric Eel Shock seem to thrive on, then Chupacabra ought to be an artist to consider.

I had been hoping there was going to be some more automated removal going on (as stated earlier), but it looks like next month's target list for removal unless they're seen before then, or get deleted consists of Bleeding Black, The Sundial Project and more from Marcel Luntungan.

New investments
It probably comes as no surprise that I immediately bought 5 parts in We Love The Underground on Brad's return earlier in the month. This is going to be a really tough route to 50K, if it can be managed, and probably the most important thing at the moment is to get more music up if he's to attract more believers in. I am worried however that the past history of arrivals/departures is going to put people off buying parts until a decent budget has been formed first. The more times you leave and come back, the harder it gets to convince people you are actually going to stick around and the more likely they'll wait until they consider you a "safe bet".

I've inflicted the curse of the knifelady on Michael George Band by buying the first part. Love the music, worried about the profile though as it has many of the "promo profile" signs about it. Here's hoping I can be wrong for a change and there is someone taking an interest, even if they haven't put up a main profile picture or fixed the "broken" song yet.

Alita's Curse are an interesting new signup, but don't seem to have attracted anyone in yet. Possibly not surprising, given the activity on their forum, but definitely worth a listen. I've dived in with a part, so we'll see what develops.

I've also bought a part in Nikki Murray who managed to hit my wishlist early in the month.

Watching
I got quite a shock from Talentscout's "protest song" competition. If you spotted the conversation I had with Catself, you'll know that I landed up voting for someone I wasn't expecting to. As a result, I'm now watching Laixa to try and discover if it was just a one-off, or whether I can find something in her music that I've missed before.

The cleanup of artists was a cue for me to go and take a look and see if anything was going to surface from the mire. And of course I wasn't disappointed in that regard. One of the first artists I removed parts from despite being very keen on their music is Winter Circle and the last seen date is, incredibly, 5th May 2009 despite the fact the page hasn't been updated since the day they signed up way back in 2006. It's a bit hard to believe there's no new material in the best part of 3 years, but I'll be watching to see if some does surface despite the odds seemingly being against it. It's also one of several profiles I've encountered where there seems to be someone still watching but the information on the profile hasn't been touched for a very long time. Looks like fuel for the argument some had about artists just turning up every few months without being really interested. I'll be re-visiting the murk more thoroughly as part of the "knifelady's return" (more on this later) to see whether I can find anything hidden down there

Reah Valente was going to make it onto my blog anyway this month, but it seems like there's been one of the fastest turn-arounds I've seen of any artist on this site so far. Just one week after joining it looks like the "clean out the profile" job has happened, which is a shame as I thought there was some potential there.

I've seen Boom Goes The Dynamite lurking around the forum again recently. For those who are unaware, this is the sideproject band that Scott from Bulletproof Messenger is in. They've only ever had the one track up despite a second being promised. Shame really as one track is always a promising start but never going to be enough to really tempt people in, even if they do love the main project. Wakey, wakey pick up the ball - a bit of action along with the BPM name could have had a lot more interest than just the $10 that's happened!

I have a soft spot for the underdog and Badboss has my attention as a result. I don't like rap or hip-hop as regulars will know, but I'm a firm believer that things like that shouldn't stop me from mentioning artists that I see out there trying to get attention for their music. He's got a hard job getting spotted in the mass due to the lack of regularly active believers who are into rap, but he mentions his music as a mixture of rap and pop, so is worth a visit if you want to try something a little different to your normal rap music. He seems to have gone a bit quiet towards the end of May though, so unlike the persistence M Harris is showing under equally difficult conditions, I am already wondering if he's thinking of giving it up as a bad job.

Kirt appears to be discontinuing Knaeckebroedt as he is asking people to transfer parts to his Kirt profile.

It also looks like Blair is quietly disappearing. The Average Person is one of those projects which is just so unusual, it's hard to see how it can succeed until there are several hundred thousand using the site on a regular basis. I believe he does have 5000 believers out there in the world somewhere, I'm just not sure they're going to turn up here any time soon. If you're into the really eclectic, this one is well worth a listen so I'd go catch it before you're too late.

Video of the month
My choice of video this month was also influenced by the conversation I had with Catself about our differing tastes in rock. She seems to think she listens to a more eclectic style of rock than me, but I'm not entirely sure that's the case, even though I do generally lean towards the mainstream. I've decided to bring you one of the more unusual artists in my collection as a result, and I'm willing to bet you've never heard of this one before. Iconcrash is an artist I originally came across when I was on my original voyage of discovery of Finnish music. Not quite rock, not quite electronic, not quite gothic, not quite industrial, quite an unusual mix in fact if you go through the material they have available. Every song I hear makes me think of a different artist and that makes it interesting in itself. It's grown from being a one-man project into a full blown band in the past 4 years and the second album is due to be released soon. The video I've chosen actually sounds more mainstream than the material from the first album, so I shall be interested to hear what the rest of the second album sounds like when it comes out. Enjoy "Strange, Strange Dark Star" playing on my profile now and check out the player on their website if you want to discover some of the more unusual.

Sixpack stories
Not that much to report this time around. Despite being one of the artists I was missing a thankyou from, I still voted for Headblow in both weeks they were up for the Sixpack. That's how much I like the music, but I am seriously thinking of implementing a new rule which states "If you're up for the Sixpack and I've owned a part for more than a week, then I'm not voting for you until that thankyou has come in". This is hardly the first time something like this has happened - maybe I ought to make it one of the last. What do you think? Should it be entirely about the music when I'm voting in the Sixpack, or should I take other things into account too?

I enjoyed watching the week that Resistor made artist of the week because it was one of the closest Sixpack weeks (if not the closest) I've seen. As I've said before, they're not my style, but I like the fact they've brought a number of people with them who seem to be very enthusiastic about them judging by the number of believers that stopped by my profile asking if I'd vote for them.

Nikki Murray got my vote in his second week and recently I've been voting for Exoluta.


Return of the knifelady
Yes, I normally talk about Sellaband in this part of my blog, but I've been preparing for the "return of the knifelady" this month. What's that I hear you cry? You didn't know I'd left? Well I haven't been anywhere as such, but those who remember the early days on the site will have seen someone an awful lot more active than I am at present. Like many others on the site I've faded into the background, but nowhere near as completely as most. I'm having a bit of time off after writing this blog, but this month sees the return of the knifelady of old. I don't know whether it's going to be for a limited timespan or not at this point - I guess we just have to see what the reaction is like.

The story is quite long, but basically I pretty much gave up on fighting through the "mud" on Sellaband because the inactive artists weren't being taken care of. That's the main reason why my activity slacked off, but there are quite a large number of reasons that have influenced why I'm now going to try going back to the knifelady I used to be.

Firstly, Sellaband have made some effort with the inactive artist problem that was the main driving force behind me sliding a bit more into the background. They've made an effort, so now I should make some too.

Secondly, and more importantly, believers shouldn't be content to sit back and wait for artists to come to them. It's a two-way process. There are artists out there who genuinely love feedback, even if you do sometimes have to wander through several acres of the unresponsive to find them. And a lot of the time, they don't want to force themselves on you, but will quite happily respond if you approach them. Casee Wilson gives the artist side of the equation in her blog, but just consider - when was the last time you wandered by a forum on an artist's website and saw a question along the lines of "Do the band ever post here?". Yes, there are believers who have had their fingers burnt through an encounter where someone pretending to be the artist has been replying to them and yes there are a lot of unresponsive profiles out there, but if you, as a music fan, are looking to interact directly with an artist, Sellaband is the place to do it. You get what you give here, so if you want that interaction, sometimes you have to be prepared to go and start the process yourself.

Being a believer is genuinely hard work if you believe in more than just a couple of artists though and sometimes I do wonder to what extent artists realise this. As an artist it's quite an easy job to send out the same message you sent to those your mailing list or copy the same "hey come listen to my music" message, but it's actually a lot harder to interact meaningfully as a believer.

Dear (insert artist name),
I came across your music on (insert sitename) and I think it's great. Please can you tell me where to download a copy of your music.

P.S. I loved your video/last gig/radio interview (delete as appropriate)

Interesting that you get the "spam message" from artists, but you don't generally get that equivalent I've posted above going back the other way, isn't it? Believers have to eat/work/sleep etc. too, so to wander off onto the Internet to find out whatever else you can about an artist whose music interests you and then contact them in a way which shows them you're genuinely interested, and then repeat that 2,5,10,20 or whatever times over is a horrendously time consuming process. It's no wonder the "silent majority" exist and pass by like ghosts in the night, often without the artist realising they've been there. If you're a genuine music lover rather than someone just fixated on one artist, there seriously aren't enough hours in the day. That's also the reason why many artists seem to get disappointed after the 50K, because the reality is that of the 1% who find you on Sellaband, only about 1% will buy parts and only about 1% of those that buy parts will probably get hooked enough on your music to want/have the time to actively help you promote your music. It doesn't mean the rest stop caring - many will still ghost along behind and support you by buying the next album in the chain that comes along or maybe turning up to the odd gig, but for the majority the time just doesn't exist to support you in the way you'd really like along with every other artist they also like (who will also be feeling the same way).

I think I am in a unique position amongst believers on Sellaband, as I don't know of anyone else that something like the following has happened to on this site. One of the current 50K artists produced an album to promote them on Sellaband and help them to raise the 50K. I am thanked in the credits of that album. It doesn't sound like anything special until you understand that I don't own any parts in the artist in question because I don't like their music and I hadn't even encountered them before I went to their profile on Sellaband. It's a genuinely incredible, humbling and amazing thought to realise that you've left that much of an impression and someone thinks that much of you, even though you don't like their music (and they know that). In many ways, it's the most special album created by a Sellaband artist that I own (and quite possibly ever will own), because I know the sentiment genuinely comes from the heart. I also know that the credit in the album wouldn't have happened if I'd just ghosted round the place like I've been doing for a while now.

So whilst other active believers seem to be slowly fading away, that's one example of why I'm going to be making an effort to get back to being the knifelady of old, despite the fact it is amazingly hard work. The quote from Francis Rodino's website blog "Love me, hate me, just don’t ignore me!" and something another artist once wrote to me "Sometimes it feels like nobody ever gets to hear our music" are both significant here. Sometimes the most important thing you can do for an artist is to let them know there is someone out there (or indeed still someone out there) rather than have them feeling like they're yelling into a vacuum. So instead of ghosting around and posting a selection of what I've been doing each month in this blog, you'll be seeing a lot more of me posting around on artists profiles and attempting to strike up conversations with artists both new and old alike as well as attempting to give you the roundup every month here as well. People like Mandyleigh would have been tempted to think I hadn't read the blog on her website and learnt about the 10 month publicity struggle she's had, because I didn't leave a comment on the post itself. There are so many cases like this where I've been a ghost and I haven't always made my presence known, so the artist probably thinks I've stopped caring when that's not the case. I may not be able to get everywhere on every day, but that doesn't mean I don't drop by once in a while. It's something I should communicate more, because it's important to artists for them to know they haven't been forgotten.

So I've said it already, but I'm therefore going to repeat it again. Music lovers say they want interaction with artists yet I don't see many of them on Sellaband actively looking for that interaction, despite the fact I'm convinced it's the place for it. If you as a believer want your own "special stories" to emerge, you have to be prepared to put the effort in. Maybe I have to show you what I mean by actually being that knifelady of old, but I'm still amazed that the majority of believers don't seem to have worked out for themselves what an amazing place Sellaband can be when you do take that much of an interest.

That's all for this month. Hopefully next month will be a shorter post (and hopefully actually published on time too!)

May 1st 2009 Hatchet Day

For those interested, I've now added a feedburner link to this blog, which means you should now be able to add it to any newsreader e.g. to your MyYahoo page. You'll find the big orange button just under my picture to the right.

Results from last month
If I thought things were bad in last month's post, it seems they've gone downhill a notch or two this month. The community idea I posted in the forum got a whopping 2 responses by PM, one of those from abroad. And the other wasn't exactly local either. A bit shocking really when you consider I've actually met more than one believer who lives within a few miles of my home address at more than one Sellaband event or gig. Add to that the fact that my favourite Sellaband artist decided to leave, despite having already gained over $10,000 in budget and things are starting to look more than a little worrying around here. And after a perfect record in my blog report last month on the thankyous, it was back to the old days as a couple of artists forgot this time around.

This month's gainers and losers
Windom were the only one of the artists threatened last month who actually showed up, so it's goodbye to Kellie Jaxson, Johane Exen and Off the Deep End. Parts reclaimed have gone to Bench Grinder (that one was overdue tbh), Chapter II and The GoStation

I'm having a "time out" again next month, on the basis that Sellaband should (finally) have the filter for inactive artists in place. Miss the deadline again and the knifelady will definitely be back to chucking some knives around seeing as I've now been on the case of this one since April 2007.

It should also come as no surprise that Phil Tweed regains my "spotlight artist" spot as a result of the departure of Skitzo Calypso.

Given the large number of parts returned from Skitzo Calypso's departure, and the T&C for believers. I've now done something I didn't originally plan and withdrawn some of those parts from the system rather than re-investing them in new artists. I don't believe in the quality of the vast majority of artists signing up each month, and many aren't bringing any new believers with them anyway. It's clear no artist will get anywhere now, unless they do bring some of their own fans, and I can only see money starting to pile up in my account as a result of the lack of believers on the site that are taking any real interest - too much money lands up going round in circles between artists and I'm not going to keep an "excessive" amount of money on the profile when economic conditions mean I can use it elsewhere. The lack of response to my community initiative was really the nail in the coffin that decided my course of action (and yes the investment policy on my profile has been updated to reflect what I'm now doing). Sellaband needs believers who will take an interest in the site and it needs them fast, but more about that later.

New investments
I bought a part in Headblow and TheLights during the month. In the second of these cases, it would appear the band is not only local, but pretty much on my back doorstep and unlike Voodoo Johnson, I hadn't actually heard of them before. As a result, I'm planning to go to the release party for their single later this month to try and get a better impression of them live.

I've also bought a part in The Stetz who had been on my wishlist for a while.

Watching
With the deadline for inactive artists approaching, it's been time to take a look round some of those people nobody ever really talks about, who are lurking round the place, whether regularly or irregularly.

WildRose disappeared for a long time but has been back a few times this year. She has posted 2 new tracks just recently. The first of these "Beautiful" will probably make you think gothic metal if you only listen to the intro, but it's worthwhile listening on because it's one of those tracks that has a lot of surprises in store as it switches through genres and to be honest makes me wonder how you'd actually class it as a result. "Welcome to my grey" is a much slower track and one for all you piano music lovers out there. She's still quite young and this only makes the music more impressive. One to watch if only she can have the devotion to make you watch her, and I would consider the music potential Sixpack material for sure.

Tricky@Trick has been here quite happily plying his trade since just after I joined the site. He's never received any attention, or even asked for it but he's one of those who have been there in the background producing new music on a regular basis and putting it up on his profile for people to listen to. I've seen him grow to $280 whilst being lost in the mist of inactive artists. Take a listen if you like your solo acoustic guitar and see what you think. I wouldn't say the tracks he has up are the strongest of those I've seen posted, but he's definitely worth a visit now and again to see what's new. Irrespective of whether you like the music or not, it's artists such as this, who just keep trying, that deserve attention and who ought to get more interest once the "not really interested" crowd are removed. I'm hoping to get a few surprises and discover some artists such as this that I've missed in the past. Some of whom might actually get $10 as a result.

At the other end of the scale I'm also watching some of those on my belief list who are getting perilously close to the 6 month deadline, but who aren't actually giving any information on their profile that they've gone.

Last seen date on Kristianna is 3rd December 2008. Whilst that's a couple of days after the new T&C came into force, she only has just over a month to put in an appearance before she would be over the 6 month clause.

Another one close to, but not quite in danger from the deadline is Jion who hasn't been seen since December 2nd 2008.

Last seen date on The Sundial Project is November 17th 2008 which does put them quite firmly in the drop zone.

One of those who has been surviving the hatchet for a while now is Elmore (not to be confused with Elmor btw) who haven't been seen since September 2008

Another hatchet survivor heading for removal is Bleeding Black with a last seen date in October 2008

One of the most surprising names on the list has to be Outrance, who now hasn't really been seen since he was up for the Sixpack. Last seen date is in November 2008.

Also last seen in November 2008 is Marcel Luntungan. I really enjoyed his set in Amsterdam in 2007, but it's likely I'll start reclaiming parts next month if he doesn't show up, irrespective of whether Sellaband do anything about inactive artists or not.

I had been planning to include Mysti's second profile MAYHEM in this list, as it hadn't been updated since December 4th, but it has been recently updated. However, there is still cause for concern here as it appears the info page has been removed and there is now only one song on the profile. Here's hoping it's only technical gremlins, but I'll still be watching this page over the next month as a result.

There are others on my belief list who haven't been seen this year, so don't worry I didn't miss them. I've purposely only mentioned those either before, or very close to the 1st December date the new T&C came into force.

Video of the month
Last month I gave you my first love in music. This month is the artist that really started off my exploration into rock and metal. Whilst remembered mostly for their cheesy videos, this is a live artist who really knew how to get the crowd's attention. So enjoy a live performance of "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister.

Sixpack Stories
Nothing much to report story wise in the Sixpack this time around. Acoustic Jim got my vote second time around. Artists have been quite obvious choices for me in general recently with Tarball, Broken Sun and TheLights all getting my vote fairly easily.

Sellaband
Where do we start here? I suppose the first place is not perhaps the most obvious one. Sellaband have actually been watching my latest attempt to galvanise the community into action with some interest. To my mind, we've kind of reached a point where if people aren't prepared to get together to go visit a gig, then what on earth would they be interested in doing as a community on a music based site? When I explained that I'd only had 2 responses, I was asked if I thought writing an article for the news section would help. I didn't exactly decline, but given the fact it would probably have only come out this coming Monday, plus I am no longer convinced there are enough believers (or potential believers if you prefer) who take more than a passing interest in the site, I didn't think it was that good an idea. If/when I see new people actually posting around the place I may reopen the idea of believers meeting to get to know each other and going to a gig, but it's clearly not going to work at the moment. As to the importance of Sellaband watching, well I'm not sure if this is supposed to be kept secret or not, but I think it's important to tell you one thing that came out of my correspondence. Sellaband have still not decided whether or not they are going to hold Sellabration in August this year. Whilst I don't know the full reasons for this (though I suspect the cost, plus the demise of Fabchannel are among them), what I do know is that part of the reason is related to the situation with believer activity. Early 2007 saw a big increase in believer activity on the site as a result of the performances at Paradiso, and I get the impression that it's mainly that active believer set that have gone, leaving just a few early pioneers like myself behind along with a load of people who never got involved with the site. So if I'm failing to draw any interest for my idea, I suspect it only adds fuel to any argument for Sellaband not to hold Sellabration. If there aren't many active believers left, who is there to be interested in turning up anyway for something that I know must cost a fortune to put on?

It's time people woke up round here. The "breaking story with AIOIA" as I write this blog just proves that. Whilst I'm not going to comment on the story itself, something that's come out of it already is very relevant here. Frank has a very valid point that believers on Sellaband are basically trusting what artists say when they put money into them because they've never met them. That act of "blind faith" needn't be so blind though if you could get the opportunity to see an artist play live, or you could trust the impressions of another believer who has seen them play live. This is why events such as Sellabration are important - they give the opportunity for believers to meet and start to form friendships, and they give the opportunity to both see and talk to artists that are on the site that you wouldn't normally get the chance to meet. And to be honest, you don't really get the opportunity for that kind of level of involvement once you get much past a pub-sized gig. That's the other reason I was looking at starting something both cheap and more regularly (mainly) for the UK with the hopes that believers in other countries would start something similar in their local areas too. A meeting once a year isn't enough to foster the growth of a believer community on Sellaband, and if that one meeting goes as well, well I think any chance of a community of real believers is doomed. We've been saying it for a long time now.... Sellaband needs real people to become real believers, not just some fake profile or something you visit once in a blue moon, so it's time all you real people out there should wake up, stand up and be counted.

Arenafest seems to have gone from being the holy grail that holds new believers to being touted as the demise for Sellaband. And yes, at the moment all the signs are that it's going to be yet another PR disaster, but at the moment I think it's more likely a case that Sellaband are in danger of getting their fingers burned at a time when they least need it, rather than being the cause of the problem themselves.

So all in all everything looks very insecure at the moment. With it increasingly looking like Arenafest doesn't hold the key to finding new believers, it's back to the artists themselves to bring them into an ever-growing suspicious community, becoming more reluctant to buy parts unless they see a significant number of other names first. The next two months are going to be very interesting.

That's all for this month. Drop by next month to find out if the inactive artist problem is being dealt with, and for the latest developments in some of the ongoing stories.

April 1st 2009 Hatchet Day

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke but a genuine hatchet day posting after what's been a difficult month in many ways.

Results from last month
Well I got a first for a change in the form of a thankyou from every artist I'd bought parts in. Of course as there were only 2 last month, that isn't saying a lot, but I suppose you've got to start somewhere.

The community idea I have is not forgotten, but rather has been on hold while I try and nail down some details. I realised that what I want to do could really do with some proper planning rather than just diving straight in at the first opportunity, so I've been working on the fine print whilst looking for another suitable date in a couple of months time. I'm hoping to get the proposal up on the forum in about a week's time when I've had time to track down the last couple of bits of information that will be required.

This month's gainers and losers
I've had another big cleanout of artists on the wish list this month and got rid of the vast majority who haven't been seen on Sellaband this year based on their "last seen" date

I've also removed my part from Worow as I've heard nothing more on whether there will be a replacement for the band. Acoustic Jim is the recipient of the reclaimed part.

So after a couple of months off any major hatchet removals, I've now got my eyes on the following artists for removal next month unless they show some signs of life between now and then. Windom, Kellie Jaxson, Johane Exen and Off the Deep End.

New investments
It seems my new investments have been made during the course of the month, rather than today for a change.

First off was Matthew Ebel, who becomes the first artist signed up since the new era started to get more than one part from me as I've now increased my belief in him to 5. In the same way as MOPI were one of the best discoveries of 2008 for me, this man has to be the best discovery of 2009 for me so far. I've only managed to catch one of his Tuesday night shows live so far, due to clock changes and other things (like me plain forgetting!) and I'm kicking myself for that, because I really think he is that good. With 79 other believers on board too, even though his budget is not far over $3000, he's also got one of the highest ratios of believers to money of those currently trying to raise 50K.

After a lot of thinking whether to stay put or not, I also decided to increase my belief in Slim Void to 5 parts before they hit the 50K. The decision was made easier, partly because both Rustie Blue and NOIR decided to leave Sellaband, so I had a couple of parts come back to my balance after their accounts were closed.

I also inflicted the "curse of the knifelady" on 2 new artists this month by buying the first part in them. Simon Chainsaw and Bliss. Like the music, but as you know I'm still waiting for an artist to break the curse and reach 50K.

So after all that lot happening earlier, I decided to put off buying any other parts today. I was thinking about a couple of artists on my wishlist, but I've a feeling they may land up winning next month instead as a result of some of those who are under threat of losing parts.

Watching
I'm watching a mix of artists for various reasons this month.

First up is the interesting pairing of Apple Eyes and Harrison Hope. The music is interesting in both cases but I also note that both artists signed up a couple of days apart and both have recently been featured on BBC6. Coincidence? Or is someone out there watching the site? I'll be interested to see if either can make any serious headway with the way Sellaband seems to be evolving.

Next up, we have Resistor, who are completely not my style at all, but who seem to have a few different people going round trying to tempt people to listen. Don't know about anyone else but I've had a couple of friend requests and also some messages from believers who believe only in this artist saying they think they might be right up my street and I should take a listen. So ten out of ten for persistence so far, but zero out of ten for doing your research into my musical tastes first. If you like the Prodigy, they might be well up your street for a listen though.

New artists of particular interest to me at the moment are Eden Burning and High Tolerance. Don't know if it's the fact I'm getting pickier, but I'm finding less and less artists at the moment that are managing to hold my attention long enough for them to even make it as far as my wishlist.

I'm also watching to see what happens with micgun. This is an artist that has been on my wishlist for a while, but currently there is no music on the profile. The profile was last updated a couple of weeks ago and the artist last seen yesterday, which means the warning flags are now starting to appear.

The Words seem to be back after having not done anything much about their profile since they signed up. They've been on my wishlist a while now, so I'll be interested to see if/how long it takes before they disappear again.

Grooveduke caught my interest through his interesting approach to Sellaband using his video blog. I'm not sure that evangelical approach is going to achieve converts though - well maybe it might in the USA, but it's more the kind of thing that sends me running screaming for cover. I haven't been able to watch the video the whole way through as a result as it's been more of a case of "pass the remote". Musically I'm undecided. He's right on the edges of what I would listen to, so it will probably take something pretty special to grab my interest and want to buy a part.

Video of the month
Whilst there are artists whose music you like and listen to, I think everyone has a "first love" - that artist or band that really got you hooked on music in the first place. This month's selection is mine. Howard Jones found fame in the town where I grew up, at the time I was growing up and has helped to shape the music I listen to today. The video I've chosen for you is a live performance from his 20th anniversary concert in 2003 - a concert in 4 parts and more than 3 hours in length. Enjoy "Pearl in the Shell" from the acoustic section of the concert. Performances from the electronic set, the retro set (with original equipment from 1983) and his performance with a full live band (all from the same concert) can also be viewed on his official youtube profile.

Sixpack Stories
Well after Matthew Ebel reaching the top of the Sixpack, I've had some rather intermittent voting patterns. I haven't often felt the "must vote daily" urge, something which seems to be compounded by what happened the week Caterpillars won the Sixpack.

In probably one of the most interesting stories I've had for you in this section for a while, I was basically presented with the choice of voting for my love of Finnish music (in the form of Essentia) or my love of classic rock in the form of new signup (and local band) Voodoo Johnson. I decided to go with who I perceived as the underdog in the voting, by voting for Essentia, but I also decided to watch and see what happened, rather than trying to stimulate any interest myself.

I'm given to understand from Sellaband that artists selected for the Sixpack competition receive an e-mail telling them of the fact. In retrospect, I should probably have posted something on the Essentia forums after the event to say "hey, why didn't you tell people to vote for you" and therefore test to see if that message did indeed get through, but the fact that neither the band themselves, nor any of their fans posted anything on their forum urging people to vote is definitely interesting. It kind of confirms my suspicion that Sellaband seems to be more of an online presence for them rather than something to actively chase. It also confirms the theory that a lot of people sign up to Sellaband to support "their" artist and basically don't really visit afterwards, seeing as I know which of their current believers are regular posters on their own forum.

I've been voting for Apple Eyes last week and so far also this week, though fairly intermittently as I said earlier rather than every day. It was a hard choice this week to pass by Acoustic Jim though, because there's just something about "Life Two Point Oh" that makes you want to listen more. So far things have been pretty quiet in both camps though, and that probably isn't going to tempt me to take Apple Eyes off my wishlist in a positive fashion any time soon, given the fact they've been in the Sixpack for 2 weeks now.

It feels a bit to me as if the Sixpack is getting a bit old and tired already, but I can also draw many parallels with what buying parts in artists is like on Sellaband to start with. There just seems this overall feeling of "Hey great music, but how interested are you really?" and I've a feeling that the vast majority of artists who are getting put up for the Sixpack vote are fitting into that area of it being "another place to advertise your music", rather than necessarily being hungry to raise the 50K and with any kind of existing fanbase.

Sellaband
In many respects it's been a month of chaos with believers leaving, whether quietly or not so quietly. And maybe the odd one coming back under a different guise yet again. We had a troll in the Slim Void countdown chat which has to be the first of any countdown chat I've seen, and I succeeded in missing the listening session for So What, which I think is a first for any artist I hold parts in.

Throughout the chaos though, one thing is most present in my mind and that is the fact that Sellaband is evolving. The era of the "Big Believer" is over... well at least until(or if, if you prefer) a "known" name signs up. My gut feeling tells me it's too soon for this to happen, because the replacement of "quantity of believers" just doesn't exist yet, nor does there seem to be anything happening to try and attract that volume in and keep them. Community initiatives can't succeed without a community, and with so many key figures leaving and seemingly nobody replacing them, it's beginning to feel like a believer "ghost town" out there. Can Sellaband survive this evolutionary nightmare? Will some of the more quality artists start leaving even before Arenafest? Will there even be an Arenafest? In my vision of Sellaband when I first signed up to the site, it cannot succeed without a believer community and I therefore now have an ever increasing feeling that this is make-or-break year for the site. Unlike others, I'm not packing my bags just yet, but rather am watching to see which way things head next. I've a feeling next month's hatchet day post could prove to be an interesting one as a result, so watch this space.

March 1st 2009 Hatchet Day

It's been a strange month all told. It seems my last blog post inadvertently caused the outbreak of a serious case of chaos and mayhem when part of it got quoted on Sellaband (but more about that later).

Results from last month
I don't know if you remember I mentioned Liza Lee? Well it seems some of her believers persuaded her to return just to provide a contact point. You'll find her new profile here. I'm kind of in two minds about behaviour such as this - on the one hand I completely understand the desire for artists to want to stay in touch with people and grow their fanbase, on the other, it's already hard enough trying to filter through all the artists on the site without those who have basically given up on the idea of raising 50K being there as well. I still think that the money side needs putting separate from the networking/grow fanbase side, rather than all artists being lumped together as the current situation just makes the average person even less likely to spend money until they see a decent fanbase appear first - there are just too many "dead"/promotion/friendship etc. profiles. Enticing people to buy early parts has to be a priority unless you're expecting the artists to bring all the people themselves. (and in that case why bother with a community based website for raising money in the first place!)

On the story of thankyous, it probably comes as no surprise that I still haven't received a visit from the 2 new investments I highlighted last month. And of those, I'm going to highlight Fables Last Stand in here once again, because whilst their profile has been visited in the last few days, I see there's still no mention of the fact they're through to the regional finals (to be held March 15th) of a music competition for one of the biggest, most important and longest running TV networks in the UK.(wikipedia link for all my non-UK readers) So if you read back to what I wrote in my blog last month about them, maybe you'll begin to understand why I'm currently hearing the sound of a ball being dropped. But by whom? I'll let you decide that for yourselves.

This month's gainers and losers
I've taken a time out on the parts removals this month because I haven't given the wishlist a real good spring clean for a while, so I've been going through paying particular attention to artists under $100 in budget who have been on there a while to see when they were last seen and have removed quite a few. Having looked at some of the ones I've left, I'll probably be having another spring clean on the wishlist next month too. I've also removed The Shivery from my wishlist as they've done the old "clean out the profile" job, but I see there are still people with parts in them, so maybe it's time to reclaim your money folks.

New investments
I've added parts to 2 new artists this month.

Voodoo Johnson are actually a local act to me and well in keeping with my tastes for rock. They've been played on Bruce Dickinson's radio show for the BBC in the UK (yes THE Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden for those who were wondering) and with a gig later this month just round the corner I suspect it's more than about time I went to see what they're really like live. One thing's for sure, it'll be a lot cheaper than travelling all the way down to London like I usually have to.

It's probably also no surprise that I've bought a part in Matthew Ebel. I could have been within the first couple of believers to get in there, but instead I stuck him on my wishlist and am kind of regretting the fact given how much budget he's picked up since. Then again, maybe it's a good thing that the knifelady curse starts at over $2,500 rather than the under $100 level I normally seem to manage. I'm hoping to catch his webcast one of these nights, but if my timezones are correct I worked out his next one of 6pm Boston time 3rd March is the equivalent of midnight Sellaband server time (11pm UK time on 3rd March) so I'll need to check I'm not doing anything the following morning!

Watching
My watching section this month is focussing mainly on those who signed up in the past month. With a small cash injection from album sales, I've been looking for interesting new people to listen to and perhaps throw a part towards.

I can hardly pass this section by without mentioning Peelander-Z who arrived in a blaze of colour at the beginning of the month. I have to admit I'm not sure how well they'll do from the current believer base on here. In my own case, putting on a show is one thing but having the music is another and whilst I think EES manage to walk that tightrope, I don't think Peelander-Z do the same. For me, the result is that I'm looking at something which looks like it might be more at home on childrens daytime TV than anything a serious music fan would listen to. I've got no doubt the Japanese love them and if you're into cult music then maybe this is one for you, but I don't think you'll persuade me to buy a part.

Another artist I'm watching but am unlikely to buy a part in myself is Dancing Lotus, because as you should know by now, I don't like rap (and yes that includes Maitreya, sorry! - apologies for the in-joke based on a comment from Whaley). However if you listen to these guys you'll find they are miles away from your average rap/hip-hop artist. Chuck the rap in a bucket with some rock, some classical music and anything else that takes your fancy and shake vigorously and what pops out is actually an interesting infusion, and (at least) I think a very fresh sound. The profile has a bit of a "hey I'm sitting here just to promote an artist" feel about it though, so I'll be interested to see how things develop. At least they've worked out how to leave a message on their own page.

But getting onto artists I am more interested in, Five Sorrows is an interesting new arrival. I'd particularly recommend this artist for a listen if you're into Nine Inch Nails, or you like some of the heavier stuff from Vegas Dragons.

Caterpillars have more of a Coldplay feel to them. I haven't quite made my mind up on them musically, but will definitely watch to see what happens as they're one of the few new artists I've seen recently trying actively to contact believers.

The Stetz seem to have made it into the Sixpack already. If you've listened to them already and are undecided I'd recommend you go back and keep listening. I personally have found their tracks to be more "growers" than something that automatically makes you want to leap in and give a part.

If you like something that little bit more eclectic then Vanband is worth a listen. Watch out for their track "The Infant" because it has about 30 seconds of silence after the initial spoken introduction before the track itself starts, so it would be easy to think the player is broken - make sure you wait for at least a minute! All their tracks are quite long and tend to change as they progress, so what you first hear isn't necessarily what you end up with.

I'm watching Matt Roberson. I don't mind a bit of Christian rock occasionally, but I'm also interested to see if the Sellaband site has a new problem. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, check the date on his blog tab, then check his last seen date. Unfortunately I didn't look at that blog tab before 1st so it's impossible to say if he was just suffering from a case of premonition or whether something is genuinely wrong. I'll be watching to see if something like this pops up elsewhere.

Finally there are a couple of "long-termers" I'm particularly watching. Firstly, if you missed their announcement, Sheet Metal are back with a new bassist, but it may be a while before they get around to putting new material up as Dreb has exams coming up. Secondly Slim Void seem to have started the final push to 50K having overtaken Radius recently in budget. Whilst it's not quite a final race just yet, if their current speed continues, we might well have them as a recording artist before my next hatchet day blog, so if you were still undecided whether to buy a part, now might just be the time to make up your mind.

Video of the month
Video of the month is of the first Finnish band I ran across while actually on the hunt for Finnish rock bands. L-60 have released 2 albums to date and are in the process of mixing number 3. The track I'm giving you is called "Love me" which appears as a bonus track on their second album but is actually the first time they did a video. Unfortunately their website isn't yet up to date with the latest info, but you can find that over at their Myspace profile instead. From the first sample on the Myspace player it sounds like their new material is going to be a bit heavier than their releases to date.

I was lucky enough to get hold of their first album thanks to a German fan who was able to order it from the one remaining source available online when it threw a wobbly at the fact my IP address was from the UK and not Germany. Thankfully you'll find their second album available digitally and samples from every track on that album available on their website, so go ahead and discover what I think is a very underrated band.

Sixpack stories
Despite my worries about tAIT I landed up voting for them in the Sellaband Sixpack after a hard choice between them and another artist I've been watching called SPiN. Interestingly both these artists have been seen on their own profiles recently, but neither have made any particular noise around to let people know they exist. Likewise the following week Fables Last Stand was my choice - I've already said plenty about them though, so no use repeating myself! Since then I've been voting for Matthew Ebel and as it's been a short month there isn't a lot more to say.

Sellaband
OK folks, has everyone gone completely mad? Seriously I knew the perspectives of some were getting a bit skewed, but I wasn't expecting quite the reaction that turned up as a result of netvalar posting a piece of my last hatchet day blog on the forum. People are getting way too wound up at the moment, making it impossible for anyone to say anything - it's no surprise the community manager is hiding behind the plants in the Sellaband office and probably wondering what to do. Wake up and tell me you also saw what I'm about to post in this section, or realise the dangers caused because you missed it. Yes there are problems out there, but let's get some reality back into the picture.

There's been a lot of talk about the Arenafest competition. In many ways I have to agree that Sellaband/Arenaworks should just have decided who they wanted to play from the off, but equally I can see the logic behind asking people to vote on artists in case there is someone with a whole heap of fans out there willing to back them. I know how hard it is from a believer perspective to get an idea of what an artist is really like, particularly when you're not even in the same country and therefore have very little chance of finding out what they're really like live and whether they really have 2 fans or 200. Despite the fact it seems to have largely been removed from the Sellaband site, believer is actually a very accurate term, because you're often putting your faith in the fact that what you hear/see online is pretty much as good as things are going to be in practice. Cutting through the hype and finding reality is a nigh-on impossible task and it's not just something believers have to do in a case like Arenafest - people like Sellaband HQ actually have to do it too.

So whilst people have been busily throwing stones at HQ about "fake profiles" and the voting therefore, how many of you actually noticed that one of the artists in the competition put out a bulletin which contained some very interesting information? Apparently the artist in question had been contacted by Sellaband and told they would be thrown out of the voting if the "multiple profile voting" that was going on continued. Obviously the miscreant(s) weren't the artist in question or there would have been no need for them to post the bulletin asking whoever it was to please stop what they were doing. I feel sorry for the artist in question, as I know they're one of the "working bands" who spend more time playing live than they do on Sellaband to start with, but I'm also glad something like this has happened because it's proof that Sellaband HQ are taking an interest, despite what others might think.

In many ways it's a real shame we can't see the actual numbers of people voting, but I'm inclined to think some of the wierd-looking voting has a lot to do with the fact that a) there are very few active believers so the "true believer" voting is spread rather thin and b) some of those in a) probably aren't even bothering to vote in the first place because they've made up their minds there's no point. i.e. I think it might actually be rather easy to get well up the voting table on relatively few votes.

Sellaband needs real believers in order to grow - I think anyone who has been around for any length of time recognises that statement is as true today as it was a couple of years ago. You only need to look at the total number of votes on the poll in the forum to decide what option on CDs people wanted to see just how small the number of real people taking a proper interest actually is. Whilst it's important to remember there are real concerns out there, it's also important not to actively scare people off. Believers can help to grow the site, but you can't do it by friends and family alone. You've got to cross the breach and start influencing strangers positively, rather than always sending out negative messages. Don't lie, but keep it real. Don't forget, even if Sellaband manages to attract people to take an interest, what those people actually see will influence their decision of whether to take any further part in the site. Believers can chase potential new believers away far easily than Sellaband itself ever can, irrespective of whether they mean to or not. Keep it in perspective people, if you actually want to see Sellaband succeed!

The community doesn't have the hang of working together yet to attract and/or keep people that become interested in the site. One person can start an initiative, but if they're the only one that takes part, there's no way it can succeed. I haven't worked out whether it's just the case of ideas that aren't appealing enough or whether the global nature means that people feel they're just spread too thin and the apathy sets in. Maybe the latest idea I have can change that, but I know that it's only going to work if people are prepared to give it a shot. I believe I've got something which can result in both active bands and new, interested, real believers. The way I think Sellaband should be. The first step is for me to create a poll on the forum to which I believe I know what the answer should be. The second is to propose the idea (assuming the expected answer comes back) and pray that the apathy doesn't take hold of the people I need for it to work. One thing's for sure, it won't succeed unless others actually take part. So watch the forum if I've got you intrigued, because I'm hoping for a first genuine shot at what I have in mind before my next hatchet day post.

That's all for this month. Here's hoping for some positive outcomes on some of the ongoing sagas before next month's post.

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.

Hello 2009, Goodbye 2008

At this time of year, I've traditionally listed the Sellaband artists and songs I've been enjoying the most over the past year. You'll find the old lists on one of my previous experiments with blogging here. Given that I've started this blog (and more importantly kept it going!), and also that I like to take a bit of a break from the hatchet over Christmas, I decided to put the 2008 lists in here instead and actually turn it into more of a proper blog post in the process by telling you a few stories and generally expanding the information rather than just presenting you with a list. So, the normal "hatchet day" post will be back on 1st February - this is just a one-off special.

But before I get into the good stuff, here's the answer to the question you've all been waiting for. Did Sellaband manage to meet the challenge to have a system in place to deal with inactive artists on 7th January (about a week after their own reported deadline of Jan 1st) and manage to win themselves 5 giftparts from me in the process? Sadly, the answer is no. Just one of the examples I've been keeping my eye on is here in the form of Lone Pine who were last seen back in March. I had been hoping Sellaband would save me the trouble of having to move this part, but it looks like this is just one of the targets for hatchet day on 1st February. And just for you to prove to yourself that there really is no change, go to the find artist page, search by budget and they'll still come up in the listings, so it isn't even a case of inactive profiles still being accessible but just hidden from view.

Favourite Sellaband artists
Never confuse the number of parts I have in an artist with how much I like that artist because there is no direct correlation. There are a number of factors influencing my parts, including the fact I'm awkward because I'm female so it's very easy for me to confuse people with what I'm really into as a result. If you want to know what I'm really liking, then these yearly lists are the best way to get a feel for my musical taste. So this is the definitive list of the 10 artists I've been liking most this year, with the main criteria for inclusion being that either you're new/have a new profile on the site, or you've posted new material for me to listen to during the year. And yes, some artists have shifted positions relative to each other in the listings for the previous year. This is generally an indication that I've had a wider range of material to listen to and they were close together in my list of likes to start with.

1. Skitzo Calypso
2. Phil Tweed
3. BulletProof Messenger
4. Francis Rodino
5. MOPI
6. Morris
7. Sheet Metal
8. Radius
9. The Jade Diary
10. Tarek Sidani

Seriously, it is VERY close outside the top 3 and I've got absolutely no idea what a 2009 list is going to look like as a result. I therefore have to make a special mention for Marc Supsic, Silverimage, Civilized Tears, Six Eyes Lost, Essentia and Conflict in the Sky as being particularly "near misses" for my list for one reason or another. The biggest news if you hadn't realised it already from my change in spotlight artist earlier in the year, is that Phil Tweed was finally knocked off his perch as my favourite Sellaband artist. In many ways it's amazing that he lasted as long as he did, given my fondness for rock, but it's a testament to the strength of his songwriting that he's been able to do so - and indeed that he's just managing to keep BPM in 3rd place. There have only been 2 artists on Sellaband to date where I've gone "I must absolutely have a piece of that" less than 30 seconds into the first song, and Skitzo Calypso become the second of these (BPM were the first). I'm particularly fond of the Niki Thunders stuff that Brad has done, but having heard a random selection of the Skitzo back catalog, I know they're currently headed in a musical direction I like the look of very much indeed. Francis Rodino moves up to 4th, mostly on the strength of his new album and MOPI become a somewhat surprising entry in 5th through being seriously way too catchy to ignore. I seem to be loving every track they're posting at the moment. Morris, Sheet Metal and Radius are all proving solid long-term likes, with Tarek Sidani and The Jade Diary being the other "newcomers" that particularly grabbed my attention.

Favourite Sellaband Songs
Given the amount of music on Sellaband, I've extended the list this year to my current 20 favourite songs. The only criteria here is a maximum of 1 track per artist and the fact the song had to be one of the three on the player when I wrote this blog. You can catch all of these songs and more of what I like if you listen to the playlist on my Sellaband page.

1. The Sickness of Dreams - Skitzo Calypso
2. Bring me to Life - BulletProof Messenger
3. Another Sky - Lawrence Collins
4. Who do you find - Morris
5. The Alphabet Song - Second Person
6. Open Her Eyes - Silverimage
7. Feel it down - MOPI
8. 7:30 plane - Matt Byers
9. Twenty To Life - Sheet Metal
10. The Universe is Burning - Marc Supsic
11. Love called me home - The Jade Diary
12. Julie Julie - Phil Tweed
13. Candy Whore - Six Eyes Lost
14. Prayer - Tarek Sidani
15. Passion - Essentia
16. Death Clock - Conflict in the Sky
17. Long Way Down - Guy Barnes
18. Next to Me - Radius
19. Uncomfortable Skin - Danny
20. Last Tear - Steel Temple

Special mention here for The Queen of Something New by Daniel-Ward Murphy which misses out due to being in his video section. This song would have been number 6 otherwise.

Dropped the ball
Here's my top list of artists on Sellaband that I think have real 50K potential in their music, yet they've pretty much disappeared into thin air and haven't been seen round Sellaband for absolutely ages. Check them out if you've missed them.
1. Matthew Clay
2. Matt Byers
3. Lawrence Collins
4. Guy Barnes

Argh I missed it!
This section is dedicated to songs by Sellaband artists that you may have missed when they were on the player that I think are particularly worthy of attention. Go pester an artist - who knows they may make both yours and my day by putting them back up for you to listen to!

I Wannit - Francis Rodino
Not only is this the song that got ME hooked on Francis, it also happens to be one of very few Sellaband songs that's had my husband going "Who's that?". If any track of Francis' has sure-fire hit written all over it, I reckon it's this one, yet I'd say the nature of the song means it would be difficult to get a live performance to live up to the recording - very hard to explain in a few words but think of it as a radio song if you will. The average SAB believer usually seems to go for one of the ones which probably translates better live, so it's interesting that my husband also immediately loved this song when he heard it when he can take or leave the rest of Francis' stuff. He spent a week during the summer playing it at full volume on constant repeat in the car and nearly made me sick to death of it as a result every time we went out.

Brave For Me - Wetwerks
This is probably the song I have both the biggest hopes and fears for with the new Wetwerks vocalist, as I mostly fell in love with Wetworks on the strength of this song, and I find myself wondering if this change is going to affect how I view it.

Bitter Pill - GD Allan
Whilst GD has gone down an electronic path with his new project Broken Sun, this track still represents the ultimate in GD Allan for me. You can still catch the video for it on the Sellaband Youtube channel and discover a side of him you may not have seen if you weren't here in the early days.

50K albums
What's my favourite of the 50K albums produced so far? Just a top 5 here as we don't have that many out yet. The main factor deciding the order is how much I like the tracks on an album and therefore how likely I'd have been to go out and buy it if I'd heard it first.

1. Arm Yourself - BulletProof Messenger
2. Circles and Squares - Francis Rodino
3. In Control - Nemesea
4. The Elements - Second Person
5. Until the Morning Light - Daniel Ward-Murphy

I've been lucky enough to hear the BPM album already in its entirety as mp3, even though it's not out yet, and I can say that if you've liked what they've had up on the player, their album is going to be right up your street, even though none of those songs are included. As a result, it just managed to shade Francis and his preview of Circles and Squares into second place. You might find some of my choices in this area quite surprising, but a lot of it really does come down to my musical taste. A lot of you are probably also wondering about the lack of inclusion of Vegas Dragons at this point. Whilst I think it's a much better, and certainly more consistent album compared to their previous ones, that also seems to be its problem because although I found a few "growers", I didn't find any particular track leaping out and saying "listen to me" as I have done on their previous albums.

Live Performance
Again top 5 of who I've enjoyed most performing live. Obviously there is some influence of whose music I like to start with and the number of times I've seen an artist live definitely helps, so I think you may find some surprises in my choices. To be eligible for this, I must have either been there to see you play live or seen a live web broadcast - videos just won't do.

1. Daniel Ward-Murphy
Like many people, I used to think that the quality of live performance was the ultimate decider in how good an artist actually is in practice. That theory got blown out the water when I went to the launch party for DWM's album. I now think there's something even better than going to see a live gig. You see, I happened to be staying overnight with Martin Nicholas, and he'd won a competition to attend DWM's soundcheck, so yours truly got to sneak in as well. So whilst for most people, live is still the best you're likely to get, if you ever DO get the opportunity to go to a soundcheck for an artist, take it. Even though my ears aren't as "production-sensitive" as many, it was still possible to pick out what's the artist and what's the sound guy tuning in and setting up the sound levels in the board, and you can learn an awful lot about the quality of both in the process without there being the usual distractions such as people talking that you'll find at a live gig. What particularly stood out for me in Dan's case were 2 particular things. First, you could shut your eyes and it was seriously like you were hearing his album. So many times in live performance, you can hear a definite difference compared to a recording, particularly in the sound of the vocals - this wasn't the case here. The second thing was when the sound guy asked for a particular style of playing for an instrument so he could determine the levels and the group of musicians had to pick up and play a song from somewhere in the middle. The timing of the lot was spot on to the extent you thought you'd just hit a button on the stereo to un-pause the track. Whilst DWMs music itself doesn't tend to be one of my real favourites, I have to give credit where credit is due and what I saw from that soundcheck opened my eyes to him in a way I perhaps haven't viewed him before. If you want real music with real musicians, go see him live, you won't be disappointed.

2. Mysti Mayhem
Having been online watching a number of the Spellbox live webcasts, I have to say I think you got short-changed at Sellabration 2008. Not because of the length of time Spellbox play in their webcasts, but rather because you missed out on Mysti playing 12-string guitar which is where I believe she really shows her talent.

3. Electric Eel Shock
Whilst I can't see them winning many prizes for their lyrics (well, at least we can they're easy to remember), it's hard not to get drawn into the show. This is a band to be enjoyed for its show even more than its music, so if you believe a show is an important part of live performance you won't go far wrong here.

4. Francis Rodino
For me Francis is still the king of gig improvisation. I'll probably get shot for using the word "busker" but it's the nearest single word I can use to describe what I'm seeing. For me his key strength is his ability to just pick up a guitar, go play anywhere and pretty much improvise something of a show around it. This was easily demonstrated by his street performance in Amsterdam in 2007.

5. Bulletproof Messenger
The single performance I've seen here can best be described as extremely solid, and being one of my favourites this is definitely an artist I want to see again just to prove to myself that they really are that good consistently.

Special mention goes to Sheet Metal for narrowly missing out in my top 5.

Disappointments of the year
You may not realise it but there are a few occasions where I've felt somewhat let down in 2008 because things have not been what I've come to expect.

1. Vegas Dragons listening session
With the amount of time Brian Taylor normally has for people, I was expecting this listening session to be something special. In fact, it became the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I felt so sorry for all those people who'd got up early, or rushed home from work just so they could listen to the album and talk to Brian, only to find he spent a total of about 5 minutes on the computer and instead spent the rest of the time with the people who'd turned up at the Sellaband offices for the party. A number of people online also drifted away as a result. Seriously Brian, what were you thinking? You had a load of people online who would only be around for just that one hour, and yet it seemed you'd rather spend that time with a group of people who'd presumably been around for some time before the session started and who would also presumably be around for some time after it finished. I'd liken the effect to waiting around in the rain after a gig having been told the artist would be out to sign autographs, only to find that when they do finally appear, they head straight for the tourbus and only sign for the lucky few who happen to be standing on the route there. Kudos to Phil Tweed who got up in the early hours of the morning and stayed online for the entire session - I actually felt quite sorry for him too, particularly as people kept asking where Brian was.

Whether something like this hasn't helped the listening sessions, but like many things on Sellaband it doesn't surprise me if they are being scrapped because they too have been downgraded and to my mind have lost a lot of their appeal as a result. Hands up who remembers the early listening sessions which were broadcast with webcam. There were problems with the technology e.g. which lead to Manda from Nemesea writing mesages on card and holding them up to the camera because there was no sound, but to a large degree that was part of the charm - you felt there was a real interaction and that has now gone. Think of Lily with her questionnaire about the songs and the fact you could actually see her jokingly threatening you with all kinds of doom if you didn't fill them in for her. If you weren't there in the early days, am I at least giving you an idea of the "special something" I think has been disappearing?

2. Francis Rodino at Sellabration 2008
I have absolutely no idea what this sounded like in the hall, but the live internet feed was absolutely terrible. Whether it was nerves, the recording sessions for his album taking a toll, too much alcohol (or lack of it) or just some bad sound work, I have no idea but he sounded awful. I'm also used to seeing Francis play on one of the "postage stamps" we like to call stages that exist in a lot of the pubs and clubs in the UK, and I often think that he ought to translate well to a larger stage with his energy, but on that score he looked a bit like a fish out of water too. I'd say the problem on that was the fixed microphone - on a really small stage there's nowhere to go and yet when Francis is the front man (rather than when he's playing with another artist such as Maitreya) you can see he really doesn't want to stay put. So this performance most definitely wasn't the Francis I know and love and it really makes me think he also ought to consider a setup where the microphone goes with him when he's performing on anything that's more than about 6ft wide, because I think that's going to better suit his style.

3. Sellaband
So let's give you that story I promised you in my last blog about why I think Sellaband is moving further away from the community and why I'm actually feeling somewhat upset and frustrated at the moment as a result. I've already mentioned in a previous blog post that I'm suffering from "believer fatigue", and there's been a lot of things floating round the forum for quite some time now, many of which I agree with at least in principle, but which also are the kinds of things which will set off real alarm bells in any potential new believers. My usual way out of this situation is to find something positive to do, in order to try and rebalance things. I still believe Sellaband is a very good deal if you're looking to buy an album - my views on a 1 part purchase haven't changed at all, even through the new era. I probably wouldn't even be here if they had! Things like the forum I set up before Sellaband had one of their own and even this blog have come about as a result of frustrations I've had in the past. Whilst I believe it's not good to hide problems and try and pretend they don't exist, I also believe it's possible to make things appear much worse than they actually are. In everything, I like to try wherever possible to look at both sides of the equation.

So back in September, I came up with an idea based on comments I'd been seeing round the forums, plus my own experiences and thoughts about Sellaband in order to try and solve some of the multilingual problems and promote artists at the same time. I won't go into specific details because that would take too long, but lets just say that the idea revolved around creating a series of videos. I spoke to Sellaband about it, because it was going to require some fake profiles that they would need to take care of after I was done with them and the response I got back was encouraging but basically along the lines of just "go ahead and do it". Fair enough. I've only edited one video before, and that was the Vegas Dragons 50K video (I haven't even shot one), so something like this is quite a challenge on its own for me without any unforseen problems getting in the way. That thought doesn't scare me though as pretty much everything I've ever done has been self-taught. I wouldn't claim to be an expert in anything - rather my skills seem to lie in getting a long way in a short space of time. If the idea is as good as I think it is, I know someone with better skills than me is going to come along and improve upon it once they've seen it and that's something I'm prefectly comfortable with.

Anyway, I was just starting to test out the technology when the alarm bells started ringing in the form of the "new era" banners on the website. Nobody at Sellaband had said anything about a major website change to me and what I was aiming to do relies very heavily on a nice stable, working website. I decided to put off recording until the "new era" arrived. I'm glad I listened to my own alarm bells because any work I might have done would have been useless. But if you've been following my blog, you'll know that the Sellaband website is still not working in a manner I would consider stable, and there's been no indication from Sellaband as to when it might be. Until the speed problem is fixed, I'm basically stuck with an idea I can't do anything about and it's getting me rather wound up, given that I originally had it 4 months ago and the fact the balance of good points vs. bad points that new people would see on visiting Sellaband seems to be getting steadily worse.

In those 4 months I haven't had one single enquiry from Sellaband as to how the project is going. I don't know whether they think I've forgotten about it, whether they have forgotten about it or whether they just don't care. Let's just say that if I was the community manager and was genuinely interested I'd have at least checked in by now to find out what's been going on.

Most people would have given in by now and just given up on the idea. Unfortunately I'm not most people, which is why I decided to let you folks know what's going on in the hopes that someone at Sellaband can actually be made to wake up and take an interest.

We've had discussions in the past about tools for believers to help them promote the site and unfortunately the most promising looking sources of those tools got snapped up by Sellaband to work for them and nothing useful has appeared since. Until Sellaband helps its community, its community cannot help Sellaband. Given the number of artists I believe in, it's more logical for me to do something to try and help people within the site, rather than wandering off on individual artist projects that may conflict for time. But I am starting to wonder whether I should just forget about Sellaband as a site and pick a few artists and concentrate on helping them with whatever they're up to instead. At least I know I'm dealing with interested people there.

And Finally...
Is it just me, or are my posts actually getting longer? Either way it's time to say thankyou to some of the people I never seem to get around to thanking before I go and give you a few new artists to listen to until my new posting. So thankyou to everyone who is following this blog, irrespective of whether you comment or not. I do read everything you leave for me, even though I have to admit I'm likely to be very lazy getting back to you with any kind of response. And a special thankyou to netvalar. I know you leave a lot of postings around on Sellaband with ideas that nobody ever seems to reply to. I for one appreciate them, though I rarely if ever reply. One day I hope some of it will combine to give me an idea I can work with, because it definitely has that potential.

My first part of the New Year has gone to Ian Bel. I'm also currently watching BIT, Tanja Dankner and SpiN as being interesting new artists. Let's see if I have more to say about any of those next month.