and the prize for third place was, after all, GUMMY BEARS! lol omfg roflmao gummy bears! ahhhhh hahahahahah!

i guess what i'm trying to say is that it's no travesty that we don't have prizes to win anymore. heheheh

P.S. just to set the record straight Gummy Bears are the greatest food ever invented by man kind, right next to spray-can-squirt-cheeze and trisquits.

hows about this for an idea ....

instead of sending out prizes (which is expensive, causes you a lot of grief, and seems to be distorting the point of the whole website) why don't you just make some sort of certificate (a PDF or something) that you can email to the winner and the 2 runners up.  That means that they could either just keep it, or they could print it off and frame it, or whatever else they wanted to do.  Its very easy for you, absolutely free, and its not a prize thats worth enough money for people to care more about winning than taking part.

and the best thing about it is that people would still have the pride of winning - something to show for the achievement.

does that sound like a good idea to you?

I agree with your idea, only keep the faithful musicians. Like the idea about the certificates. Personally i would've thought just being in the hall of fame would be nice. In the coming months, i shold be receiving more money, and would be more than willing to donate to keep this site running.

I could care less about some stupid prize... I just want more feedback than my friends saying "I like it." Come now, be honest and nit picky...

Unless, of course, the prize is a record deal... now that's a prize!

I'm with Nivek you on this one.
Seriously though. What got me excited about this site is having increased and unbiased feedback. The idea that there was prize seemed a bit kids tv to me. Saying that I noted it as a plus. Who wouldn't?
Any way. I had a thought and I'm going to mail it to MUD personaly but it seems to fit here.

OK. The idea is that I create a compilation CD a month full of selected tracks posted/uploaded on this site. I would then send it to Zane Low at Radio 1 (National Government funded radio for the British Isles). The aim, obviously, to get bands coverage over here.
I'm figuring there will be legal steps we will have to take. I.e. I will need bands permission. I would get automatically anyway as I would always ask for Band background to supply the DJ with the relevant information, but I would need it writing or something like that. I would be willing to look up all the legal steps if we went ahead with this.
One problem I thought of is that the record would have to be on sale in the British Isles. Saying that we could set some thing up with the station. For that reason and a few others it is slightly far fetched but it stills seems like a good idea.
What do you think?

I think that's a good idea. I may be able to get some played over hear in a local radio station in NJ if enough people are interested. It might also be kinda cool if we did set up somethin for donations we could fund them towards maybe once a year getting together and doing a concert together in each country. I know this sounds weird too but I know a lot of places all up and down the east coast to do it and it would give bandamp a ton of exposure and maybe bring some more real "musicians" (did I spell that right? I failed spelling  ) into bandamp and that could help with the feedback and rating problem. I dunno if anyone else wants to do the radio station thingy or the concert idea thingy then i'd look into both too. What do you think mud? How about everyone else's opinion?

~ Erica ~

I'm all for air play....
But would I get a cut of sales? (As if I'd ever get the chance to be on a compilation)

I don't know about the concert idea, I don't really think my art is something that can be preformed live...(I wonder how the orb or someone like that does a live show)

well we'd have to see what the radio stations do and all their rules and stuff. if you want I could look into it. Maybe we could do something like the top 15 rated songs each month on the cd or something. Don't know of the orb but what kind of art is it? Do you do instrumentals or what? If you only play like one instrument or just sing, the rest of the instruments would be like on cd and you could play live along with it, or maybe someone would be willing to learn the chords and play along with you, we do have a ton of talented artists here at bandamp! 

I'm waiting for the PM back from MUD about the CD and the concert Idea would be awesome but we might not all be able to get to the places. Unless the idea was to get the people from each states to get together and do a concert that way. Ie, all the people from England have a concert in England, all the people from Texas (if there are any) have a concert in Texas etc etc.
All this would be quite big but if we pulled it off it would be very cool. Any way, I suppose we will all have to wait for the word from MUD.
My worry is he's already thought of these ideas and has found good reasons for not putting them to practice. Anyway, we'll see.

I'm a cheater, all the stuff I do is on the computer... though I'm sure, like you said, there are some musicians that can learn the chords, drum beats and even the keyboard arrangements that are in my tracks, then all I would have to do is fill in the rest... Maybe a band could form from that as well...

could also be a great learning experience for people to learn to play someone else's music. their style, arrangement, etc. I dunno i'd be willing to play keyboards. I'm gonna look into that radio station idea to see what the laws and restrictions are.

well I think I found a station in NJ that will play rock music and the blues. they said to make a compilation cd and send it to them. well if anyone's interested I suggest we get to work on it. Get back to me, okay?

i think both the radio idea and the 'tour' ideas are wonderful

i wish i could support it, but since i'm putting my life on hold in a little while and moving away, i won't be able to participate in a tour of sorts, unfortunately

but i'm a supporter!

If anybody wants their songs to maybe be heard on their local radio station or a certain station in an area then just feel free to ask because another radio station just got back to me. They refused but I knew they would since they were only classic rock but they gave me two recommendations. So if anyone's interested, get back so I can respond and not look like I'm ignoring them. It could be songs already on the site or just some song you recorded, whatever. Anyone with me? (echo....echo...echo...) feelin' kinda alone here guys. lol C'mon, we would need some volunteers to put there stuff on cd! No room for cold feet around here! lol

I'm down but I don't think my music fits the genre, does it? If any of the three here sound like something they'd play send it or maybe one here http://www.garageband.com/user/nivekgallacci/podcast/main...