well now that depends wether you want to join a site to get feedback... sites such as Myspace which seem to me to be nothing more than a mutual masturbation society... or wether you join a site to get decent free hosting with deep linking ALLOWED and itunes feeds etc.... in other words:
SOME sites are coded to force the users or their fans/freinds to visit the site or to use embedded players on their pages carrying adverts etc in order to listen to their music... because they rely on spamming people to death with adverts to make money -
On the other hand we've gone to extraordinary lengths to NOT carry adverts, pop-ups or banners; or interim "You will be forwarded after this message from our sponsor" pages, etc etc
Funnily enuff we were talking about this last night, me and a mate who plays bass in a band... he was talking about Myspace... that he'd visited the site to check it out etc, and he said; "No-one at Myspace is going to go to your gigs tho"
and that is that sadly... I know some other "We're all happy wappy 'mates' in cyberspace together" sites... endless 'buddy' stuff all day, people who dont know each other cringingly kissing each others asses all hoping they will somehow get more 'fans' by doing so... trying to coerce people to come to their gigs etc thru mutual online buddy-systems... then you go to a gig of one of these bands (which i've done, just to see if all the hype results in people at gigs).... does anyone comes to the gig?.... Nope.. no-one.
The biggest cringe I saw was some 'anti-terrorism' gig/event that was trying to be organised on one user-music site after the bombings in London.... we all care so much etc, and one band comes on and says "Yes, but if we pull this off, you'll get the chance to play in front of thousands of people, it should be worth supporting because of that!"
lol... ooooh.. so y'know, if a person is going to support a political agenda ONLy because they think it'll mean exposure for their band, that is quite sad.
I think there's a danger in people assuming that collecting 'web-mates' online is somehow going to help them get recognised... the fact is, those people are just themselves after the same thing, and round and round it goes.... and who wins in all this?.. ADVERTISERS... the corporates & their minions
meanwhile, those who do NOT spend all day and night online deperately trying to gain 'virtual fans' are NOT going out to get gigs... are NOT going out meet people for real.... are NOT getting their shit together in any other way.
if you beleive in that system, fine... I dont... and i think it's really sad that so-called musicians are all busy asskissing corporate advertising.
we already saw this before with the old mp3.com, it didnt get anyone recognised then and i dont beleive it will now with the new 'mp3.com' which is Myspace.
To give you an idea... the band I play in is at the top of the video chart on 2 large-ish sites, with great reviews; all the reviews say the band is awesome and "Why aren't you signed?" etc
does it mean anyone comes to gigs?.. nope!... Do I care about those sites or the fact the video is at the top of the charts?... nope!... Not because it's not nice to be appreciated, but because realisticaly OTHER work is required to get that band a deal... so I could spend 4 hours a day on music sites 'buddying people up' and all that, and I know people who actualy DO do that... they spend hours daily online maintaining relationships with cyberforums etc, and each hour they spend online is another hour they are NOT doing anything else to get the band going..
The trouble is frankly there is just TOO many bands out there, it's so easy to get a 'virtual band' together now... but the reality of doing gigs etc & actualy getting OUT of cyberspace is much harder.
So these 'virtual bands' turn up to gigs with no gear, do a crappy set to 20 mates who came from their college (4 'mates' for each member etc which means 4 GF's and each GF brings a mate who brings her BF etc etc)... they finish and they all piss off.
I remember being at one gig handing our flyers and I offer a flyer to this girl - "Oh no thanks", she says... "I only support this band"
lol... in other words "No i dont go to gigs and discover bands, I only go out to the gigs of my mate's band" - how fucking sad is that!?... and THAT is the reality of the new music fans, they want corp approved bands served up which are approved, they cant tell what they like, they dont go and see bands, they just choose from corp fodder: The Kieser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, etc etc,... otherwise, music doesnt exist for them.
So they play some gigs to mates while they are at college... then they leave college & start work and the reality kicks in, some people leave the band & that's that... something you do at college.... "be in a band".. fine, nothing wrong with that, but y'know...
As for dance-music... for every 20 people making bedroom tracks and spending all day & night online trying to garner 'fans', there is 16 year olds out there taking their CD to clubs and parties and raves, getting it played, doing PA's (if mebbe it is rap/hiphop/grime), pressing & distributing whites on-foot round shops and to deejays & mags etc. THEY are the ones who might break thru, not the ones sitting around online saying "Oh look I now have 57 freinds in my profile!!"..... and all those freinds are only on your page cos they want YOU to go to THEIR page.
I dunno, call me jaded
- lol but what the fuck is wrong with people these days that they cant get up and do their own thing.
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If you like we could implement a new deal, 'prizes for reviews' like on some of the corp sites... people do reviews to gain points ("What do points make?... PRIZES!!")...then they get server-space to allow them to post more songs
we just give you that space, end of.
I wouldnt mind adding in some sort of fun thing like getting prizes for cool reviews, but that would be to encourage young reviewers, rather than to gain webspace we already hand out... it'd be a laugh, nothing more, but we've got other pans in the fire to finish first before we can go out and find a sponsor. or even think about anything like that.
actualy if the truth be known, I only added that 'review' thing into artist pages here because we were approached by a 'marketting person' back in the summer who claimed they could raise a sponsor for the site, and they forwarded a business-plan to us.... we said "Well, if you can do it, do it", and we added the reviews thing for them... they flaked in the end as it goes, but whatever, I leftr it in just in case.
actualy I noticed some reviews added for some of the people at the top of the chart right now.... decent reviews too... so it does get used a bit
I guess you aren't communicating a desire to be reviewed very much mebbe 2ndMouse?.... I know your name from the site, but I dont recall you being here that long, and i dont recall lots of requests for reviews by you... But i dont think a good way to get people to review you is to pop up and complain you're not being reviewed
lemme just remind myself of your music 2ndMouse... hang on
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I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!