john

Independent songwriters and music producers really miss out on the advantages gained by artists and songwriters through the songwriter and artist development activities within record labels and music publishers. Within these activities songwriters, performers, artists and even producers will gain experience making them into more rounded artists, songwriters etc. They may collaborate, through songwriting camps, workshops or songwriting dates, or similar. The immediate aim might be to write a song or songs, and record a working demo for the song, but exposure to working with other writers, or writing towards certain songwriting goals will stretch the writer. Through this they are likely to be exposed to new writing techniques and ideas, different perspectives and often a lot of experience from sometimes a number of songwriters at a time. While “songwriting by committee” might not be everyone’s choice as authentic songwriting, it is a great way to accelerate writing skills. The same is true for producers, dancing a whole bunch of creative activities that labels and publishers might want to add to their client’s skills. Indie have no such thing. While critique helps with this, it is mostly small, limited collaborations. Cue our challenges. We try to vary challenges, the skills being tested and developed, the level of collaboration involved, the level to which the challenge might be taken, the breadth and focus of the aims and goals. They intentionally stretch those who participate. Challenges are just that. A challenge. They are fun, but they can be quite broad reaching So come along, participate. Basic membership of Songstuff is free (currently, at the time of posting, all membership is free…. but we are soon introducing a paid subscription level on top of the free subscription) and challenge participation is free. In challenges you primarily compete against yourself. We do sometimes introduce an element of competition, for fun and low level reward. Prizes, if they are offered, are not what this is about. The more challenges you take part in, the more people we get to participate, the better… Songwriting Challenges We hope to see you there!

Thinking not just how good a singer they were, but their influence on who came after and their character and social presence as a whole package… in some cases it’s within specific genres. Others are broader reaching. I am reaching beyond personal taste too, think who created a lot of imitators. In no particular order: David Bowie Michael Jackson Whitney Houston Thom Yorke Kate Bush Amy Winehouse Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) Elvis Presley Robert Plant Otis Redding Prince Joe Cocker Karen Carpenter Janis Joplin Lady Gaga Adele Crosbie, Stills, Nash and Young (for their harmony work) Aretha Franklin Madonna (far, far, far, far, far from the greatest voice!) Jon Bon Jovi I almost included some rappers…. Another time maybe! I didn’t include Mariah Carey. Just because. It’s a bit random because exactly what is valued is highly subjective. Innit.

Interestingly we thought to trial mentorship on Songstuff.

That is exactly why we have critique forums! There are other available options. For example you could create a club just for your music and invite select members to be members. I only recommend this once you have built a relationship with those members and the community at large. You can also use the members only are to stop rough versions being seen by anyone interested. It is worth remembering that you post the content, you own the copyright, but posts on Songstuff give you 3rd party evidence to the creation of a song, and it being your idea. Posts are all time stamped.

It’s always a balance point. As a site it offers so much across a lot of areas. Sometimes people have been members for years and they haven’t used our article library or our massive music glossary. There’s a lot to explore. Every once and so often I rationalise the boards down, because we try new boards on member request, and it starts spreading activity too thin. I would also recommend users create an artist or songwriter blog on Songstuff. It’s free and they get pretty good traffic.

Thanks Steve! Fingers crossed. Thanks! I have a lot of recording to do! It took ages to put together. I have a bunch of stuff to sell. Amps, monitors, possibly an analog desk, a bunch of other things, but we’ll see.

I agree. I can help here and I know a few members have interests here. Let’s see what we can do. When the time is right maybe.

Thanks MisterB! Sadly we can’t monitor or control every conversation, and it would be a very stifled environment if we did. Internet communities are like any other community. People are people and all that implies. Forums in general used to be much, much busier. Pound for pound forums are still the best platform for in-industry conversations, you know, lyricist to composer, producer to musician etc. Feature wise they beat most social media hands down, because threaded discussions and topic categories are a great way to explore and connect. The trouble is, that just like the rest of the world, a lot of musicians and writers and producers moved over to Facebook, Twitter etc. As it turns out a lot of social media is great for reaching out, but it is all very much in the now in largely one large shared platform. What artists, producers etc don’t realise is that while they see the advantages in reaching new people, they struggle to do so AND they undermine themselves, all the time. Let me explain. Artists, musicians, writers etc tend to use their Twitter and Facebook as a big sharing space, getting feedback interacting with their fellow musicians on “in-progress” works. They share work before it is ready, to get feedback, oblivious to the fact that they also share that space with their listeners. In doing so they completely ruin any magic in what they do. From what I’ve seen they also talk marketing ideas, moan and complain about a lack of support, and dead contact lists… “I have 10,000 followers but made a release and got 200 plays” etc. The trouble is they present as amateur artists. They spam everyone with their music, confusing friends, family and acquaintances with fans and listeners. In short, they mix their front of house activities and back of house activities with their social activities and then wonder why it all goes wrong. As you mention, artists and musicians and writers are not perfect. When they encounter you as a potential fan they might treat you in that capacity. If they meet you as a fellow artist, that is how they see you and many interactions become quid pro quo. A conscious or subconscious tally. You illustrate it well with your complaint about other members complaining about your lack of contribution (more on that later). So when artists combine “build your follow list” with “artists will follow you if you follow them” they think quantity, not quality. These people are not fans and may never have heard your music. They do not react or otherwise behave like fans, because they encounter you as a fellow artist. That is a big part of why so many musicians have large but dead, non-responsive followings. There is an obvious cure. What artists, musicians etc NEED is to separate their industry talk (back of house) completely from social media, and within social media separate their personal/social accounts from their music front of house presence. If they are going to do that, they would be recommended to use forums for back of house, because it is in a location completely away from potential listeners and fans other than the low percentage of fellow artists who might become true fans. They then use their personal accounts to talk with friends and family. They use separate accounts (or artist pages) as Artist “front of house” accounts, where they talk to prospective listeners and existing fans. You might say, “Why not have a separate artist back of house account on Facebook or Twitter?” Well then both those accounts are in that same very public space and there is still potential for mix up. Add to that, Facebook and Twitter features don’t map to back of house needs very well. There is little to no advantage to writers and artists and producers in having back of house on Social media. Forums offer much better features. You might say “Have an artist account on Facebook and use groups for back of house stuff”. Most groups are still publicly viewable in a place where listeners and artists hang around and Facebook’s algorithm doesn’t care about front of house back of house issues. Add to that groups are like a single category forum board minus loads of features. They aren’t great. Point is, forums are much, much better for the behind the scenes, back of house stuff. If only they were busier, and that is where we can all help that situation. Just as people were lured away on false understanding, they can be lured back if we (collectively) educate them. Joining them simply gives us their problems. Social artist space is excellent for on stage, front of house stuff. Personal accounts remain ideal for family/friend/colleague interactions. On your lack of activity, quite right you get out what you put in… only amplified. If you put in below a threshold you get a poor response. If you consistently put in above that invisible threshold, your response grows and grows. That is the same on social media incidentally. It’s not some hidden Songstuff rules. We are just misled by family/friend activity on social media… they are very likely fans of you, but not necessarily of your music. The chances your grandma likes death metal are pretty low. Their activity masks and misleads your view on social media… and it screws with the social network AI algorithms too… making it very hard to make an impact, yet again another reason. If you are below that invisible threshold, the community spots it, and struggle to respond positively to your activity. As a simple transaction, if you post up work hoping other people are willing to put in effort you are not willing to put in, they keep an internal tally. Is their time worth less than yours? Are they any less busy than you? They became good at critique by doing it. Simple as that. That aside, learning critique skills majorly helps you as a writer, performer, engineer or producer. You are more deeply exposed to different mind sets, working processes, tools, mechanisms etc, all while having no ties to the work being discussed. That helps give you perspective without the complex entanglements that go with the work which are likely to prejudice your thought processes and decisions. Ie, as a writer we are attached to ideas, lines, messages, etc in part because we wrote them, and that prejudices our choices. By acting as a critique we exercise all the tools a writer uses to write or a producer uses to produce without that attachment. We get to build our skills away from our writing IN ADDITION to our writing, so we evolve as writers faster. The fact that you give critique does not mean you have all the answers. In fact usually you are just posing questions by your observations. You and they learn by discussion. You propose solutions and they are evaluated… and you are unburdened by having to make and live with the choices. Critique is a discussion. They and you are not all powerful lyrical, musical or production gods. You are giving and getting food for thought. Ultimately YOU also have to answer the question: why should someone else spend time on your project, your desires, if you are not willing to at least reciprocate? Every single one of us performed a first critique. Every one of us goes through feeling inadequate, feeling like they don’t have much if anything to contribute. My time is just as valuable as yours. To me, more so. Yet I still critique the work of others. But then I do so partly for them, partly for me. I stress again, critique doesn’t mean declare your judgement from on high, read these words and tremble. Ask questions. Seek to understand. In doing so the content creator has to think, explain, reason, justify etc. That helps them. Also by bringing up what is typical in your genre, they learn. In listening to their rationale, reason and approach you will learn. Creatively, learning from what happens in other genres and settings, plants seeds and germinates them. It gives people ideas like… ok if I mix that with this… that gives me something new and different. Cross pollination in action. That aside, there are many ways to contribute to a forum. It doesn’t just need to be critique. Participate in ways that go along with your work. So you are producing and releasing a new song. Write a blog series about it. Write forum posts to promote the blog posts. Embed images or videos in your posts, that can promote social accounts all while your experiences help others all for a relatively low input task. Working with others also helps find musical collaborators and promotion collaborators. Help each other. If you can find time to help 20 others along the way, maybe when your next release comes along you will find 20 people to help you get word out… if you ask. I would sum up saying that many writers and artists can be quite self-serving… if left to their own devices. Not all, or anywhere near it. Some are very giving. When engaged and encouraged many will see beyond simple self-interest. We win over opinions one person at a time. We can be the change we want to see. Honestly, that works. Nothing is handed to us on a silver platter. The world does not just fit around us at no cost. Our community is there to be shaped by participation. More activity breeds more activity. More activity also retains more members. Sure you can post somewhere and hopefully get comments, or you could get back patting or low info likes on social media, but it’s not really in-depth, not greatly useful. Just some food for thought. P.S. Sorry about the long reply, but you touched on several issues!

Thanks! Bloody hell, it just occurred to me, in about 18 months, Songstuff will be 25 years old! Eek!

Your mixing probably already encroaches on tasks that are really mastering steps. Let’s just say you don’t have to, but it’s wise to. If not by a professional, you can learn basics to improve some aspects, but it takes time and practice to build experience, plus some study to understand formats and requirements. If you don’t have the skills, in the short term at least, it is simply easier to get someone to master your track. The mastering process not only makes sure that your track sounds good, but that it will sound good on multiple playback platforms, when transmitted, when streamed etc. that there is balance between tracks on an album, or EP, that your song won’t be too loud or too quiet on a playlist, that it won’t be so far outwith norms that your track is destroyed by compression or unsympathetically boosted by automated tools used by some platforms to ensure your track meets their standard. They do more besides on an EQ front. For example dealing with RIAA compensation curve on consumer HiFi. All that said, it’s your tracks. If you don’t think they are worth all that, then who? Many artists do learn at least some of what goes into mastering and do that themselves. You would not be the first. Personally, I think it is worthwhile having a knowledgeable pair of ears giving your song the once over. That said it can take time to find a mastering Engineer you respect and trust.

It’s typical. Just I am happy with my home studio, I have to strip it down and move the whole fecking thing. Grrr. It had to be done so… just suck it up and get on with it, John. (Talking to myself in the 3rd person now too!) Moving house can be a stressful time for anyone, especially if you are a musician and have to rebuild your home recording studio. It can feel like a daunting task, but with a little bit of planning and effort, you can have your new studio up and running in no time. In this blog post, I will explain what you should do, to help guide you through the process of rebuilding your home recording studio after moving house. Moving Your Studio Packing Step 1: Label All Your Cables The first step in taking your home recording studio apart is to label your cables. This can be a pretty time-consuming process, but it is very worthwhile and will pay you back many times for that initial effort. I use a color scheme and naming convention. Remember to label power supplies to avoid a real headache later. Power distribution unit cables don’t need labelled. Everything else does! I recommend investing in some multi core cable. I generally used balanced cable to reduce noise but I have a couple of unbalanced multi cores too. Remember to label USB cables, HDMI, MIDI, network, even USB hubs if you have more than one. Step 2: Disconnect Cables and Pack Cables, Hubs, Power Supplies I packed actively used cables in separate boxes from your spare cables. Label what cables are in what box. It makes life much easier. I keep unused cables separated into type and stored in a plastic drawer tidy (audio), a box each for USB, MIDI and network cable, and I store multicores and power cable in an old laundry hamper (no laundry in it of course!) I also use a tool tidy with many compartments to store all connectors. Pack hubs, power supplies and miscellaneous electrical items. Mark on the outside of the box what is in it. Step 3: Pack Gear Where you can use original boxes and packing materials. If this is not possible, use larger boxes with lots of packing, and then some more. Where the original boxes are not used… mark on the box what is in it! Unpacking Step 1: Assess the Space The first step in rebuilding your home recording studio is to assess the space you have available. It is important to take measurements of the room to ensure that all of your equipment will fit comfortably. You should also take note of the room's acoustics and any soundproofing that may be required. Once you have assessed the space, you can begin to plan the layout of your studio. Consider the placement of your equipment, such as your computer, audio interface, and monitors, as well as any acoustic treatment you may need to install. Step 2: Unpack and Organize The next step is to unpack all of your music gear and organize it in the new space. This can be a time-consuming process, but it is important to take your time and make sure that everything is organized properly. Start by unpacking the essential items, such as your computer, audio interface, and monitors. Then, move on to unpacking your microphones, cables, and other accessories. It is important to keep all of your cables organized to avoid any confusion or frustration later on. Step 3: Set Up Your Equipment Once everything is unpacked and organized, it is time to set up your equipment. This can be a complex process, especially if you have a lot of gear. It is important to take your time and make sure that everything is connected properly. Start by connecting your audio interface to your computer and installing any necessary drivers. Then, connect your monitors and set them up in the correct position. Finally, connect your microphones, instruments, and any other gear you have. Step 4: Test and Troubleshoot After everything is set up, it is important to test your equipment and troubleshoot any issues that may arise. This can be a frustrating process, but it is essential to ensure that your studio is functioning properly. Start by testing your monitors and adjusting them as needed. Then, test your microphones and instruments to ensure that they are working properly. Finally, test your recording software and make any necessary adjustments to ensure that everything is working as it should be. Step 5: Install Acoustic Treatment Once your equipment is set up and functioning properly, it is time to install any necessary acoustic treatment. This can include sound-absorbing panels, bass traps, and diffusers. Acoustic treatment is essential to ensure that your recordings sound the best they can. It helps to reduce unwanted reflections and echoes, resulting in a more natural and balanced sound. Step 6: Organize Your Cables The final step in rebuilding your home recording studio is to organize your cables. This can be a time-consuming process, but it is important to keep your cables organized to avoid any confusion or frustration later on. Trying to track crosstalk issues can be a pain, so a bit of thought now can save you a lot of problems later! Start by labeling your cables and keeping them organized by type. Then, use cable ties or Velcro straps to keep them neat and tidy. Finally, consider using a cable management system to keep your cables organized and out of sight. Rebuilding your home recording studio after moving house can be a daunting task, but with a little bit of planning and effort, you can have your new studio up and running in no time. Remember to assess the space, unpack and organize, set up your equipment, test and troubleshoot, install acoustic treatment, and organize your cables. With these steps, you can create a functional and inspiring workspace for your music. Progress With My Studio Currently I am part way through this process (mid-step 3). I will be posting my progress. The space for my new studio is a bit smaller, and the room is pretty boxy with 2 windows and a large storage area at one end. Not entirely ideal but workable. There are just enough power sockets. The space will need some sound proofing, mainly dealing with those windows, but more to the point it will need some acoustic treatment in the form of bass traps, breaking up of the parallel surfaces. Sound proofing wise, there is little I can do. The most effective is by using speaker stands with the speakers sitting on thick acoustic foam to reduce the mechanical coupling that transmits so much sound, particularly bass frequencies. Luckily the deadening installed in the walls and door are pretty good, and the door is a tight fit with acoustic seal reducing much of the spill. Spill through the floor, ceiling and windows are a different matter. I have ordered some custom bass traps, plus angled, removable, deep baffles for the windows (by making them angled we break up the parallel surfaces). Two birds with one stone for the windows. Modern double glazing is a good start, but a reasonable acoustic design sees the window baffle become effective for sound proofing and in their contribution to room acoustics. By using perforated surface board we can make them tuned to the hot frequencies of this space, determined by the shape and dimensions of the room. The same goes for the other room baffles. I toyed with buying off the shelf traps but I can design and have custom baffles built that should be better if only because they are designed and built for this specific space. Cheaper too. Otherwise I might add some acoustic density foam plus boards for the corners. I want the room relatively bright, but not too bright, with a short natural reverb. Foam panels don’t do much at for sound proofing (reducing audio spill), but the 2” deep panels of acoustic foam are pretty useful for improving room acoustics as part of a broader acoustic treatment. I am limited on what I can do, but I can at least improve the room acoustics. I also plan on a moveable heavy baffle, on heavy castor wheels. That can be used to improve vocal isolation and to greatly break up the parallel surfaces in the room. There’s no rush on this. It can be built after the studio. The acoustic treatments are practical, not aesthetic. However, they are all moveable. Baffles can all be moved/removed (so I can get them fitted after I connect up the studio). Foam tiles will all be pinned or fitted with spray adhesive (don’t worry, my gear will be safe). And so moving day sees furniture arrive, boxes of gear, moving boxes and miles of cables. I am so glad I labelled all the important stuff, difficult stuff and as best as I could. Still, it’s a mess. Yes, I am that bearded old bald guy! Time flies when you run a music website. I started Songstuff when I was 33! Eek! And yes, two cups of tea on an equipment rack. Bad Moxey. So I started unpacking, putting equipment in place and beginning to connect up. I can run much of Songstuff from my iPad, and I use that for mobile draft recordings too, but I need to get one of my PCs up and running. I am also desperate to get my Nord Grand functioning so I can soothe my soul with some keyboard work while I get the rest going. Pretty soon I am at this stage: The live-streaming computer is partially set up. All microphones, stands and most guitars etc are outside the studio space. Power is generally routed. I have some cable management to install at stage 6 that will help. I use metal wire cages under the desks. That allows me to separate power, audio and control cables, with a little thought and some Velcro cable ties. Basically, power hangs underneath, attached by Velcro, audio in the cage, control attached to wire near where it connects to the desk. This will maintain about 10cm (4”) between cable groups. That’s all from me for now. Thanks for reading!

Good advice. I think it very much depends on why you create and distribute art. What he says chimes with me, but I think there are many people creating and distributing art of various kinds for different reasons. For example, there are many who start because of how the world sees them…. rather than having something to say. “To get girls”, “to be more interesting”, “to fit in” or “to be accepted”, “to explore”, “I wanted a new hobby”, “to be famous”, and “to be rich”. Also I would add that some do it to purely express themselves (needing to get something out), others do it to express themselves to other people (a need to communicate something to others). That last is not doing something for others, though it is often confused or mistakenly conflated with it.

I always find such challenges interesting in that they force the pace. I struggle with them though because though they provide benefit to the writer, they do so with a fairly arbitrary limitations. They seem a poor man’s artistic development. At the same time they feel like an important lesson I learned within a drawing/painting environment. The lesson had several teaching moments focused around one essential task. There was two big take aways. In essence the lesson was to replace expensive paper and art materials with newspapers and charcoal. Lesson one was to help the artist overcome the fear of making the wrong mark and potentially becoming frozen into inaction. Another potential negative from expensive paper and materials was that the hesitancy and undermining of confidence actually caused the problem that inaction was kind of preventing, ie causing errors. The exercise in full was to use inexpensive materials, pin up 20 sheets of newspaper onto a drawing board. The artist was then set very short periods to capture images in front of them, say 1 min to 5 mins absolute max. The artist has to draw quickly, trying to have the pen as an extension of the brain, connected directly to the eye and the mind’s eye. As soon as the time was up the page was ripped down, crumpled up and tossed. It was a great exercise for removing hesitancy, for improving hand-eye coordination, to remove rumination prevarication. Instead capture what the eye sees. It was also very useful for addressing artist issues with perspective and relative scale. Uktimately it helps you to not be so precious as an artist, writer, creative. It encourages the courage to make marks. It’s better to try and make a less than optimum mark than it is to deliver no mark because you are still standing, looking. These 30 in 30 style writes complicate it by not making the works disposable. They are also longer. Still, I imagine they are at least partly useful for stagnating musicians or writers to get passed inaction. Fun too. Ideally I think writers and artists need writer/artist development, encouraging them to try new ideas and techniques, over a wide range of skills and experience with the aim of improving songwriting, across different skill sets and experience to produce more rounded creatives able to draw on more depth and breadth and able to appreciate that inaction is often the enemy. I hop you enjoy it Steve. Do you have any personal goals relating to this? Is it just fun, or does it fit into your plans somehow?

This is the intro board. Members are more likely to just say hello and welcome you the boards here. Our critique boards have an expectation that everyone posting work looking for comments will first post comments on the work of others…. and people posting works elsewhere are either trying to get feedback without commenting on others work, OR they aren’t looking for feedback, just plays. My point is, they maybe haven’t been sure what your post was, and just left it and on this board at least, responded to more obvious introduction posts. That said, I think you did a great job with the remixes, including the video shot choices and your edits, which flow really well, keeping a sense of pace that matches really well with your music remix. Improvements wise… personally on the audio I would like to see you to be more adventurous and creative in your sound choices, giving your music a broader, more original sound. If you are capable of this quality of work, I would think you are more than capable of defining a sound and style that is uniquely and identifiably you. Your remixes are good, but I think miss that originality and unfettered creative expression. If you nail that too your music would go to the next level. Visually too, I think your edits, although great on some levels (shot choice, pace, base editing) you again hold back on your interpretation visually. You don’t add much in effects. You don’t add to the visuals with your own creativity, instead rearranging the original movie content, where it could do with that Oxy originality, the flavor that you bring to it, components that are uniquely you. This could be effects, reversing footage, transitions, overlays, titles…. To an Oxy visual format. This too would visually take your work to next level. What you have is very good, but you are painting within the lines still. You could do with adding much more of yourself, imo. Other questions I have would be: Do you write and release original music? Have you tried creating videos with your own footage? Doing both of these things with a drive to define your personal identity would make it easier to then bring that identity to your remixes. Don’t get me wrong, you would need to push yourself (as we all have to) to come up with a polished, original, inspired “you”, but I think it would be worth it. Another aspect of your remixes comes if you want to transition beyond “just for fun” would be the legality of your remixes. Do you have up front permission or do you just create your remixes and to hell with the consequences, I am no one, why would they bother with me? As you move forward growing your channel and content, the last thing you want is your channel losing content and YouTube likely shutting it down. Getting permission (or working only on pre-cleared film and music) is vital to that longer term growth. You may already have permissions, I don’t know, but you don’t seem to have statements that say this, so it would seem unlikely. That being the case, it is only so long before a publisher sees your videos or hears your remix and complains to YouTube or other video hosts, at which point you are likely to get closed down and that would be a great pity. I say all that because your work has potential, and I would hate to see a lot of hard work go down the drain. It’s not for me to beat you over the head, but if I didn’t mention this, I would not be being honest, useful or constructive. Sure I could just say “they’re good bro” and patted you on the back, but then I am just stroking your ego and ignoring the fact that there are some issues (as I see it) and a pat on the back only encourages you to stick your head further into the sand. Hopefully my comments are what you are looking for and you find them helpful, if not, no worries. It’s your music career, so your choices, your consequences. You don’t need to agree with everything or anything, but my job in critique is to highlight and introduce you to a different perspective so that you truly consider that viewpoint, nothing else. Cheers John

Hey Thomas! Welcome to Songstuff!

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Grinboi! It’s good to have you with us. This Introduction board is really for introducing yourself, and music links are cool as part of getting to know you, but we have a separate board for critique and members don’t usually comment on songs posted here. On the critique boars you are expected to contribute critiques of the music others up front (ie don’t wait for comments on your song before commenting on other people’s songs). I would recommend leaving as detailed and helpful comments as you can… the kind of comments your would want. Be honest but constructive.

Showcase is not meant to be used for critique, it’s for showcasing! It’s not a sub-board of the critique category. Being fair, the fault tends to be with the people leaving critique style comments on that board… and I’ve had more than a few members complaining about that kind of comment being left on a showcase topic. Imagine selling your house and someone stands at the door handing out leaflets pointing out all the faults and highlighting what you could have done better! Same deal. Artists just want people to say “that’s great” or “love it!” Etc. If you don’t like it or feel like commenting on things you see as faults… don’t reply. If they had a critique post for the song, post it there. Otherwise PM them or keep it to yourself! As for things other than songs, an interesting idea. You can showcase your lyrics there, but video, art, photos etc. would seem like a good idea too. Family vacation photos, baby photos and home DIY projects… can we not put that down as a special notification FAO Hobosage?

Hi Oxy Welcome to Songstuff. Do you have an end goal for your music or just for fun?

Hey Ren Gill (He of “Hi Ren”) and Sam Tompkins (The guy that shot the Hi Ren Video) doing one of their joint tracks from 4 years ago, Blind Eyed. I dove down the Ren rabbit hole a while ago now and keep finding amazing tracks. I’ve seen him rap, with some very fresh sounding bars, play brilliant guitar and sing on a full band cover of “ I shot the Sheriff”, collab with other singers and more. A skilled writer, performer, singer, rapper, Ren has had a lot of respect thrown his way. I knew Sam did a great job with his videos of Ren but I never realised Sam had such a great voice! Awesome. I do so love fully realised and expressed talent. Enjoy… Cheers John

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Jim! Good to meet you!

Hey Laurence Welcome to Songstuff! Nice to meet you. You could maybe look to Soundcloud as an audio host, although you have the choice of a few.

why coincidence? Have I missed something?

Hmmmm, it’s almost like you are courting controversy! Let’s see, an industry set up at a time when women working was frowned upon, and as it grew it kept woman out of the top jobs. There are far less women working in pop/rock industry over all. Less girls form bands to start with. Maybe they generally have more realistic dreams? Lol out of interest, women dominate the classical music scene, though some instruments, like concert piano, are still dominated by men. A lot of other genres are fed by rock, and rock bands are very dominated by men. There are some brilliant female musicians but they are swimming in a sea of men. By sheer weight of numbers they are hidden. And yet, take a look at the pop charts now… it is dominated by female singers. Maybe you could reframe your question… why do men need to hang on to the coat tails of women in order to get anywhere in music these days? Truth is there are some differences to the sexes, but like business, the best result is often with mixed gender set ups. True, it comes with its own problems, yet often it is worth the price. Men and women are just as creative, just as capable of excellence. Don’t be thinking that skewed results borne from a highly loaded industry are anything other than misleading. Genre has a massive bearing too. Let’s face it, the listeners to a lot of music genres are highly skewed nevermind the performers.

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Kevin! Dive in.

All good points. Just to be clear this topic isn’t a challenge. The example within it is only intended as an illustration. The idea is overall challenges, time periods, tasks, rewards will all change. While members may know a challenge is due they won’t know any of the details or even the challenge type. One point to highlight is the “spirit of the rules”. If gaming the system is suspected… then disqualification beckons. We do want to make it fair. We will be looking for suggestions of contests, anti-cheat methods, prizes etc. If for example copy/paste was an issue, then 500 word posts posted 2 minutes apart might be a give away. If people are prepared it certainly becomes a bit tougher. I like the idea of groups. Perhaps declared groups ie teams of 3 or 5 or 10, where you declare your team before the challenge is declared, then teams are frozen pre-go. Group points would then work. We can think on suitable prizes. I know the example prize is big, I was just spitballing potential reward components. Not that the size of reward wouldn’t happen, but the tasks might be different. Ideas for contest kinds would include 24 hour, weekly, 2 weekly and monthly tasks. It could be focused on topics, comments, posting so many times each day, each week, two weeks or month, it could include optional content or fixed content, optional tasks, fixed tasks, using site features, critique that the writer has to ‘like’, off-site tasks like social likes, comments, shares, including site promotion, even previous winner’s music promotion. The gloves are off. Oh and the challenges will happen on a dedicated challenge board.