k, yeah.  i was thinking the same thing about the names and such.  i didn't have much of the info, other than my own, so yeah, if you can send it to me, i'll certainly change it up

I'm so agree with your opinion :

I just think instead of puting nicu24 we should put their names and then in the middle part go like Age: Location: and then underneath that, the info about them and the song.

Btw, how can i get the CD while i'm in indonesia rite now? and is there sumthing that i can help?

hmm... interesting point   i suppose we can do some international shipping here.

hopefully i can cover some costs by myself 

i'm not sure about aaronmatthew.

i talked to DaveUK though.  We've got his "Random Rock" song set for the metal cd too.

i really wanna get PorcelainDoll to help out with her "China Doll" song, and possibly TessCrazy's "Be Aware" song.

so... just a thought... without naming names... certain musicians on this forum are better than certain other musicians on this forum... and certain posters on this forum have far better production values than certain other posters on this forum...

i for one... have to say that I have no interest in putting my music on this current CD... so you can be sure that I'm not saying this for "personal" reasons...

my point is that things like rating level and skill level and such should probably be taken into account when compiling the CD...

i do not think that production values should be as important when compiling the CD because there is a lot of great music with bad production - if we concentrate on production values then we will un-fairly end up limiting those who get onto the CD based on economic status rather than talent...

while i feel production values are important, and certainly for air play on the radio... the most important thing to consider is overall performance quality...

one thing to think about to yourself is: when a DJ listens to my song... realistically speaking, is he gonna play it?

the Radio Station might accept 3 full CD's worth of material from us and end up playing 2 songs on the air... lets be realistic is all I'm saying and lets be sure to send them the BEST material out of all the artists on bandamp... now, somewhat "un-fairly" this might actually end up being those folks who ended up in the Hall of Fame... dunno but it seems like a fairly good idea to me to make a compilation CD of the Hall of Fame...

the thing to realize is that this CD will represent BandAMP as a whole and we'll want to project the highest quality image to them in all respects, production and performance wise... even if we only send them a CD with songs from the best producers on this forum... IMO that would not be a bad thing because they would be VERY air-play worthy which means the DJ's would love them and if they got a lot of air-play, that is advertising and promotion for bandamp... which means advertising and promotion for all of YOU...

so the point is even if your song doesn't end up on the CD realize that whoever represents us on the CD is responsible for getting YOUR songs more traffic, more hits, more feedback, and thus more exposure here on the BandAMP forum and to ME, i dunno, call me crazy  but i think that's what this whole endeavor should be about... it should be about the site and the greatest good for all...

so if you don't make it onto the CD maybe don't feel bad: there are a lot of song posters here, someone's gonna have to be left out... not naming names, even consider evaluating your own musical performances and possibly allowing someone else to take your place in representing BandAMP...

in the state championship track meet the team isn't gonna just put up their fairly-good front runners... they wanna win the meet... and winning the meet is about the team not just each runner.

my suggestion is that we perhaps make simply two CD's

we also do not label any specific or particular Genre... that's the radio's job

We give them two CD's...

The Greatest Hits Album
and
The Indie Album

The greatest hits album has the best of the "Hall of Famers" and the professional production artists here and the artists with the absolute best performances... the people who we can all listen to and say that they are without a doubt "already there"

The indie album has the best of all of the independent solo and home studio artists
who have major talent and are up and coming but maybe are "still on the road"

I think also perhaps yet another vote should occur... we should maybe have the admins (and i'll stay out of it for now cuz it's my idea) pick what they think are the best songs in these two categories... and then we'll have a vote...  maybe we pick 20 songs for each album and the top 10 songs actually go on the album.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts... take them for what you will... and good luck on your project

i agree with entheon...ive been thinkin that since this whole things started, but was more concerned at the time if enough people would even be interested...which its taken a while for people to notice this, and we are starting to get more then enough response.

in my opinion, none of the songs going on atleast the "soft rock" album, including my own, have a shot at being played on the radio.  its just unrealistic.  most of the production isnt radio worthy, and a lot of the talent isnt either.  to criticise my own music and no one elses as to not offend anyone, im quite aware that my production levels are no where near anything radio worthy.  i just dont have the money for anything other then a 100 dollar mic and an average guitar etc etc.  so im pretty limited.  plus ive only been playin guitar for about 4-5 years as my main insturment was drums.  and my friend who sings on the track, that was his first time every singing for a recording.

so i agree that before this really goes any farther, everyone, especially those submitting songs, need to sit back and think for a little and be realistic about djs giving your songs airplay. 

we should definately have a voting system set up for songs to be sent out.  i like the idea of making a sort of "best of hall of fame" type cd to send.  but we need to be able to have them agree to putting their songs out before anything.  i like the idea of rating the people that wanna have their songs put on that arent in the hall of fame so that we can send the best ones out, and avoid being kinda unrealistic because deep down we all know that pretty much all the songs already entered dont have a shot at airplay. 

but we should definately get some sort of cds out no matter what, just to bring some promotion and more attention to the site, cuz we all love the feedback, and more is only better.

I do like the hall of fame idea, but I have been talking to at least 15 radio stations and they stated very clearly to me they didn't want the cd if it wasn't "exactly" what they wanted. Plus, I don't think it really matters how well the production goes or even "current" talent. I listen to a lot of songs and even though I don't think they're that great right now, I can see with a little help the artists could be great. Some radio stations will not just possibly be putting this on the radio, they will be sending the cd to their superiors in Atlanta and such. I think we really should try to get as many songs as we can on the cd and see what the radio stations think. Let them decide who is best fit for the radio.

Anyways, Tim I got a ton of info for ya and if you could be on AIM sometime I'll get it all to ya, k? L8r!

Erica

i take both sides of this issue, annoying as that is for me to say.

i think that the hall of fame idea is great, but as erica said, the radio stations don't wanna do ANY of the hassle of sorting through "crap" that isn't what they want.

i do wish to disagree with the comment about the fact that none of the "soft rock" songs have a chance.  i don't know if you mean style-wise or what, but i just wanna throw it out there that i disagree.  it's not the sort of music that you hear on most radio stations, i do agree, but that's because most radio stations are crap.  the ones we're looking for are ones that are willing to take a look at the "alternative" gendre, which happens to include a wide range of stuff, none of which you hear on the common "pop" radio stations.... mostly.  i hear alternative on the radio sometimes, but it's a rare and glorious day 

and i DO think that having a voting system is going to present a bit of a problem, though.  i know that we are all trying to be open minded about music, but i'm afraid we've already shown a difference in opinion about what is radio material.

please don't think that i'm thinking that each of the songs is a perfect gem.  that is not what i am saying.  but these radio stations know that we're "indie" artists.

i think that voting about it like a commitee is going to maybe push out some of the music that some people think was more worthy than other music.

for instance, some of the songs that go up on here are very well produced, but the "winning" one wasn't always my pick, obviously.  i'm just not sure we're going to be satisfying many people unless there's a winning set of songs per genre.  otherwise, i'm not sure we're going to be getting a REAL sampling of what's on here

unfortunately, genre-winning is going to present problems of it's own, for instance, what if we've only got a song or two per a certain genre?

but anyway, these are my thoughts.  i am an open book. just ask and i'll write what i'm thinking.

my comment about the "soft rock" songs nothaving a chance wasnt in reference to their style.  i know none of this is typical radio material.  the radio is awful.  i havent listened to the radio in 5 years.  i listen to music thats most likely not very common that you would never hear on the radio.

so my comment was about the level of songwritting ability.  no one so far in that genre, including myself, is very impressive looking at strictly songwritting ability (lyrical meaning, lyrical flow, combination of instruments with lyrics, originality, etc. etc...).  just think, if you have even one bad comment about your song, djs will see it, thats their job.  they will see every flaw in the music, they get paid for that.  so what every day music fans like us look past in our songs, djs wont.  if you want that pure indie feel and something completely different, then the radio station isnt the place to be sending songs.  youd have a better shot at sending them to indie labels. 

although i think this, i still think cds should be sent out for exposure.

and like entheon said, its not to make anyone feel less because maybe their songs to make it on, because its for the site.  its not necessarily for anyone on this site to become famous, but more to bring more of an audience to this site.  so in that prespective, everyones a winner.

just two things to re-iterate and put us back on track with what i really meant:

1) it's about the exposure for THIS SITE... not the exposure for solo artists on the radio and not the exposure for single musicians in Atlanta... besides, them music industry folks ain't no BS and if you think I can be mean when i review your stuff... ho hooo boy you ain't seen nothin yet... they'll pick you up and then drop you like a hot turd if your sh*t stinks and they won't be afraid to step on you in the process... if the "folks in Atlanta" hear about this thing... then the whole idea is to get them to COME TO THE SITE to find the new talent they're looking for, cuz that way EVERYONE get's a fair chance to be heard... every artist who puts their lives and their souls and their passions and emotions and deepest secrets into their work are just dying to get a chance to play their  stuff in front a mega record Exec... and if we don't get the "Atlanta folks" to come to the site... well... that's just sorta unfair... thusly we absolutely do want the best talent and the best production... and yes, i think a comitee deciding what this means is best... after all... it's the radio folks... even the monthly BandAMP battle is all about the popular vote... and if we think the radio is not then boy are we're kdiding ourselves... the unfortunate reality is that the radio, by it's nature, will probably like those winning songs that were'nt the best in our opinions... so!

the main point is we want to bring traffic to BandAMP so that we can get YOUR music heard... so please take a VERY harsh realistic look at your self and your music and your performanc and your production and decide whether you belong on the Hall of Fame CD or if you belong on the Indie CD or if maybe you don't belong on there at all... besides, consider that you are end up being one of the folks who gets left out - cuz there will be someone left out... you're gonna want that CD to bring traffic BACK TO THE SITE! i really can't stress this enough... that should be the main focus of this IMO... bringing traffic here to BandAMP not getting your song aired for 2 minutes non-prime time on some random tuesday on the radio when no one is probably gonna remember it.

i guarantee, if you end up being one of the persons left out... you'll be hoping to god that the people who get put on that CD are the f8ckin cream of the crop out of this site so that they reflect well on BandAMP and get your songs noticed...

2) as for the "soft rock" and all the BS like that... knock it off yall... as miss 'lady pointed out the radios are super freakin exactly specific on what they want... we need to tailor the CD's to their wants and needs. Hell if we created 15 DIFFERENT compilations... one for each station... i'm sure that would not be a bad idea... some stations are hard rock, some are pop, some are alt, some are oldies... you never know what they're gonna want... this is why i proposed an absolutely genre neutral system which HELPS THE RADIO STATIONS evaluate what's what... we've got the "high production value" CD and then the "independent" cd... that way it's super super easy for a station to understand where to place each song...

if we give them these two types of CD's then they'll UNDERSTAND that the "inde" artists CD is not about high production values and hopefully they'll listen to it looking at the potential of the artists rather than the nit picky production values...

in the reverse, when they listen to the "hall of fame" cd, they'll realize that the production values are going to be no issue, and they'll be able to focus on which songs are actually good for them to play and which ones they like and whatever...

remember... we can give them the whole bandamp collection... but they're gonna choose what they're gonna choose and even if we gave them the whole bandamp collection... in fact, especially if we gave them the whole bandamp collection... they'd have to be a LOT more critical and we'd end up with a lot of hurt feelings in the end, i guarantee it... if we give them CD's with the absolute best peeps on here then it makes their jobs easy... lets not turn this into another American Idol... but lets remember that now that we're dealing with radio stations and that these radio stations are dealing with us... that in fact, we have actually stepped into the dark side and we ACTUALLY HAVE turned ourselves into exactly this sort of a contest, at least to a certain extent... if you've ever watched the show then you've seen many a hopeful young singer run off the stage in tears...

again... to re-cap for those who are hard of hearing

THIS IS ABOUT BRINGING PEOPLE TO BANDAMP to get YOU heard... so
1) give them the absolute best
2) give them what they want

yes sometimes this means sacrificing the song that we, as musicians, all know is the better song for the sake of popularity... usually the song i hear on the radio is the one i like least off the album i buy come three months down the road... that's the way the radio works... so...

lets get real folks... that's all i'm sayin... try to get rid of all your biases... drop all your BS...

and lets get real...

i don't mean to toss BS into the fan, by any means.

we certainly have the same goal, bringing people to bandamp.

i do agree that some sacrifices need to be made.  i'm not going to be anal about my own song.  i'm leaving the country in... 6 weeks from today.  i'm not expecting myself to become nationally known by any means, and so i have no motivation to just get my own name out there.  i certainly want the best for bandamp in the long run.  this place is great.  heylittlelady2005 and i have been trying to PM people who we thought had decent songs, that show their face often enough on bandamp for us to contact them.  obviously we've got some people that have better songs than others, in terms of quality and whatever.  now that we've got some others throwing pm's at US, the need for some voting-equivalent is becoming apparent.

here's what i propose we do:

let's start up new threads, one for each category of compilation we wanna do.  let's call it the "nomination" or something.  obviously we want the best of the best going out the radio.  i think that we should allow people to make posts with just the song name and artist.

for the time being, i say that anybody can nominate anybody else's song, since not a huge crowd on bandamp is aware of this project we're trying to front.

to fix that exposure problem right here in bandamp, i think maybe a mass email to the members explaining what's going on should be arranged.  not yet, but eventually, after the system of voting gets more stable.

anyway, a seperate thread for each compilation category.  people post their nomination.  this should include the artist name and song name, with a url to the review page.  that's it.  no repeat nominations, no extra "shoutout" on the post.  just make it short, sweet, and simple.

anyway, after the nomination ends, i think that there should be a seperate group of other people calling the shots about which songs are going to make the cut.  perhaps we can nominate some other bandamp members that we trust in order to make the judgements, in conjunction with the admins.  maybe we could get a trustworthy member for each compilation that we're shooting for, so that we can get some "native" opinions for each style of music.

this latter voting portion (not the nomination) might have to take place through a more devoted email correspondance, since i could see disasterific issues with PMs.

for the sake of pitching a rough outline of an idea, what does anybody think about that?

oh, and as for the threads i say we make, perhaps we could have the admins create a new section for this?  it may have to be regularly monitored so that those multiple posts don't show up and such.  and if we really do want to recompile this cd every 3 months or so, we'd have to have these threads auto-cleared for us after the nomination ends.

well, i'm not crazy about the idea of us "choosing" who's "good enough" for the cd, but I guess I really don't have much choice so we'll try to find the best we can. Whatever happens, I hope everyone knows what they're doing. But for how it could be done, I agree with Tim, that's probably best for a voting system.

i understand what you mean, but as this gets to be a bigger deal to the members, we're going to have to think of something.

our deadline for this cd is too close to try to implament this now.  i say that we just continue as we planned on before, and then in the mean time, we can try to prep this idea?

i think that our final line up (as it was proceeding before) for the alternative cd should be as follows...

nicu24 - All Because of You
TLS - Actually, 'Sorry' Wasn't the First Thing that Came to Mind
rayz - Here I Am
Chill - This is True Love
TessCrazy - Be Aware
PorcelainDoll - China Doll


i know we wanna use real names and whatever, but i couldn't remember all of them off the top of my head, and i'm lazy today.

does this sound agreable, at least for this cd?  to my knowledge, this was how the cd was about to continue before the voting idea came up.

as for the other metal, this is what i was aware of:

Atreideslegend - Glory
DaveUK - random rock

if i've left something out, please let me know so that i can try to accomodate.

Well Tim I got 3 additions for the soft rock cd. Chauvette's "Swept" & "Dancin' Shoes" and thetremulance's "Everything Falls At". Send me the track listing and i'll send the info. Thanks!

ooookay...

here's my next cut for what the inside of the cd thing will look like.  there's still some information missing, so it's not quite complete.

that... and the text size on the descriptions is a little small.  i'm brainstorming for some new ideas there.  i may just make the booklet a tri-folding thing instead of just a front/back deal.  that way there's some more space.

and ideas?  anyway, here's the image so far:

awesome! 2 thumbs up!