To all…
We’re making changes all the time to improve things. We just more than halved the page load speed, so our Google rank will improve once again. For the last age we’ve been putting together a number of improvements. For example:
One key thing for indie music is reaching an interested audience. The trouble is Songstuff is largely artist facing. Most indie OMD’s have the same issue. That means artists build fan lists from other artists, who are unlikely to be genuine fans. Indeed, most will never have listened to your music. It makes for large numbers of disengaged followers, giving you the impression that people just don’t like your music. Artists can be good supporters, most are not. If they encounter you as a listener, they can be like any fan. If they encounter you as an artist, there is a “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine… maybe” vibe.
So, here is just some of what we’ve been looking at so far to help get our boards more lively…
we’ve been repurposing Songstuff UK as SSUK, and created the Independent Music Stage (IMS). Both are intended to be fan facing.
We will maintain playlists that largely mix the best indie music with mainstream music (about 80:20) with the aims of:
1st we are creating an active music platform with great music, but importantly by promoting the playlists to mainstream and indie music fans we blur the lines and hopefully introduce fans to awesome music they might never have encountered otherwise.
2nd, the IMS provides an active outlet with a high quality target standard for Indie artists to aim for. Most playlists and opportunities are open to all indies. Some are open to Songstuff members only.
3rd we are targeting some high flying indies to become members of Songstuff.
4th we are adding a talk based podcast for Songstuff, and for SSUK.
5th we are drawing up some basic legal docs to enable us to protect artists and ourselves to do live streams including interviews, performances, workshops and more. These will be fan facing for IMS and artist facing for Songstuff.
6th We have created a media company incorporating a record label, publisher and PR, registered in Texas (Red Circle 7 - RC7) initially for staff to release recordings, but later to help artists release their music properly, based on a short term contract for label, publishing or PR (or all 3) or sub services eventually.
We have been creating products to aid indie artists and help fund the community properly. A few of these products will have a user community based directly here.
We have an intention of creating a few music blogs, recruiting writers, hosts, illustrators and video makers and creating an awesome media channel on the Independent Music Stage channel on YouTube and distributing podcasts via Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music and more.
We also plan direct community based events like workshops and challenges.
We will support fan products like merch and who knows maybe paid for streams, and access to advertising and more for artists to get their products out there.
We plan to also get Songwriters and performers out there, not just the artists. Helping raise the profile of songwriters and performers we hope will be an awesome add to our platform.
We are looking into interviewing mainstream artists as well as emerging indies, just like the playlists, we hope a mixed audience will really help indies.
We also hope to interview team members of bigger artists and organisations and get their take on recording, production, performance, release, distribution, management, PR, copyright and more…
Lastly (now) we plan to build community on each social and media platform, all connected to Songstuff or Songstuff UK.
Some of the above is in an advanced stage of implementation and others are still at the research stage. There’s more going on, but that gives you a flavour for our work level and ambition for Songstuff and our members. We’re in a great position to help Indies, and have a history of doing so. Still, lighting a fire under our own asses has helped us begin to transform our community into something we feel contributes, is relevant and will be sustainable.
So please, as you see us launch initiatives like the IMS, please follow, like and share our accounts, and playlists with your friends, fans and connections. A popular IMS is useful for all indies and music lovers, and that is pretty rare.
All of this will have corresponding community activity, here and on our social media portals. All should help make Songstuff lively, and supportive. Importantly, I hope to maintain the culture of the boards as a friendly, useful community.
Is this enough?
In all this, we need your support. Not just in promoting this place, but also in helping to shape our community into the kind of large community you would want it to be. We have clubs to facilitate sub areas that members can directly control, so that if you want to build a virtual, active music club, you can, or if you want to create a quiet corner, to talk with like minds, you can do that too.
So please, please, be active, get involved, enjoy your music. Help us to help you.
Love n stuff
John