(no subject)
Jan. 2nd, 2007 02:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shermaramaIt took a bit of effort to look back over the year and remember it all; it wasn't what you'd call routine. I'd almost forgotten already that the first five months of it were mostly spent going 'aaagh, degree' in various ways, and then the next two or three going 'aagh, sort out this mess and get a better job' and the next one and a half going 'aagh, I'm moving to London', on account of the last three being spent getting the hang of that, in various ways. Here's a set of questions that I first saw in skorpionuk's journal, though, which were good for prompting odd things to come back, and a more general who-are-you sort of thing, I suppose by way of record. Goodbye 2006; 2007 is going to be different again and it's all good, mate.
skorpionuk's journal, though, which were good for prompting odd things to come back, and a more general who-are-you sort of thing, I suppose by way of record. Goodbye 2006; 2007 is going to be different again and it's all good, mate.[1.] What did you do in 2006 that you have never done before? Finished a degree, lived in London, been right to the north coast of Scotland, been on a day trip to France, started a PhD, helped put on a public exhibition (of design work including mine), built a radio-controlled airship (okay, it didn't work very well), got my birth parents and one of my sisters to meet my adopted dad and stepmum, at the same time as both of them meeting my partner (at my graduation), met my partner's parents (at his), been up to Hollingbury hill fort at night to see the stars, been to a shopping centre where ground level at one side is seven storeys higher than at the other (in Shrewsbury), got codeine on prescription (woo), sold something on ebay (my ancient Amstrad), been unable to get on a 130-people-capacity bus because it's rammed full already even though it's five in the morning (a 25, unsurprisingly), I dunno, all sorts of things.
[2.] Did you keep all of last years resolutions? I don't think I made any.
[3.] Have you any resolutions for next year? I can never really be arsed with them.
[4.] What countries did you visit? Scotland, France, Belgium. The last two both on the day trip.
[5.] What would you like to have in 2007 that you didn't have in 2006? Hmm. A spot playing bass in a band, better demos for my bands (must *do* something about arranging recordings)... someone willing to go to random gigs and clubs and other events with me? Wayne or Ness were often up for that in Brighton but I haven't worked out who to call in London yet.
[6.] What date in 2006 will remain etched in your memory? Everything that might have been a candidate I realised I'd have to go and look up to get it exact, so none.
[7.] What was your biggest achievement of the year? I think getting out of the comfort-zone in Brighton, in the long-term, which included going part-time at work and eventually moving to London.
[8.] What was your biggest failure? Probably some pulling attempts, and not doing nearly as much house-decorating as I wanted.
[9.] Did you suffer any illness or injury? Huh. Something grim that I shan't specify in March/April that left me bed-ridden and squealing in pain for about two weeks. I remember looking back to a fourteen mile walk I did in February, done on the spur of the moment, and thinking how unreal it seemed. Now I walk long random distances and think back to thinking back and am grateful.
[10.] What was the best thing you bought? I can't think of many significant things I bought this year, the things I've used most this year were ones I already owned. The oddest thing I bought was probably a hundred metre roll of 1mil mylar, for a bargain price by the kilo.
[11.] Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? There are doubtless some people that made me hopping mad at the time, and the top suspects are grown women acting like spoiled children, but I'm basically cheerful and soon forget these things.
[12.] Where did most of your money go? Rent and bills and tuition fees, I didn't spend any serious amount on anything else this year. Going to northern Scotland cost me less than one month's council tax. *shrug*.
[13.] What did you get really really really excited about? Going part-time on my job, the whole idea of getting away with talking my way onto a PhD, and going to see the Eagles Of Death Metal.
[14.] What songs will always remind you of 2006? Anything by the Eagles of Death Metal, and Please Please Yourself by Public Enterprise.
[15.] Compared to this time last year are you :
[A] Fatter or thinner? About the same
[B] Happier or sadder? Dunno. No level change, I don't think, but a different make-up to it.
[C] Richer or poorer? I'm not really sure, it's been financially complex.
[16.] What do you wish you'd done more of? Swimming in the sea, while I still could in Brighton.
[17.] What do you wish you'd done less of? Being ill.
[18.] How will you be spending Christmas? With my bloke, his ex, their kid and her husband. It was fun and involved huge amounts of food and drink. The lad is seven and just the right age to enjoy Christmas.
[19.] Which LJ users did you meet for the first time?ali_anarres, asw909, blue_mai, boyofbadgers, compilerbitch, doseybat, ewtikins, feanelwa, fluffymark, girloclock, hairyears, hazyjayne, martinlitmus, purplegril, ruudboy, timeplease, x_mass - these are just the ones on my flist, there are a whole bunch of others and more of them would have been friended if I was any cop at remembering people's usernames.
[20.] Did you fall in love in 2006? No.
[21.] How many one night stands? None, though some rare one-off nights with people I already knew.
[22] What was your favourite TV show? Umm, I watched almost every episode of Due South. It was on at a good time for eating tea.
[23.] Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I'm not much of a one for holding grudges; people irritate me, I avoid them, I'm not irritated by them any more, problem solved. I have a nagging suspicion that I've met people that don't like me this year, though, which I don't like the feeling of and don't know how to fix.
[24.] What was/were the best books you read? A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving, the course textbook for the Alternative and Renewable Energy module which was great.. I didn't read for leisure as much as I normally might this year, and a lot of it was stuff I'd already read, for a mental rest.
[25.] What was your greatest musical discovery? Eagles of Death Metal and Public Enterprise. Still.
[26.] What did you want and get? A degree?
[27.] What did you want and not get? Specifically, Banksy's Wall and Piece. Generally, for anyone to buy me books. The only person who ever buys me books is Jon, generally ones he wants me to read, and that's fine, or my birth mother, who gets me the new hardback Pratchett if a present-giving occasion co-incides with their availability, as if new Pratchett books deserved spending some ludicrous amount on a hardback copy of, but it still amazes me that despite being willing to be pleased with just about any non-fiction book on any of a huge variety of subjects, or fiction books of a considerable assortment too (honourable mention for ghoti for a book called The Coma that she gave me last Christmas, which I liked), no-one ever buys me books. *sniffs* I mean my sister got me WHSmith tokens this year which I could spend on books, but only on the sort of books that WHSmith has in and at brand new prices, whereas given twenty quid and an interesting second-hand bookshop, for example, I could come away with far better value for money, and so could anyone else interested in getting me a present I'd treasure for the cost of pocket-change. Do I just not look like a book person or something? Oh well, one of life's imponderables.
[28.] What was your favourite film this year? I think the only one I saw in a cinema was Pan's Labyrinth. It was ace, though.
[29.] What did you do on your birthday and how old were you? I was 30; I probably did college work. I'm not sure I was yet well enough to drink or stand for too long by the end of April and the deadlines were looming.
[30.] What one thing would have made your year more satisfying? *squints* I'm not sure I could pick one thing.
[31.] How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Mostly khaki, orange or blue.
[32.] What kept you sane? Playing the drums. I did some gigs and practices that were stupidly close to academic deadlines but it really helps to just switch your brain to something manual and inescapably present for a while.
[33.] Which celebrity did you fancy the most? Josh Homme, not least in "I want to do that/I want that" confusion.
[34.] Which political issue stirred you the most? None, oh well.
[35.] Who did you miss? Tom, now I don't live with him any more, and James, even though I never do anything about that.
[36.] Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year? It's very rare that people are interested in telling you about what you want to know.
[37.] Quote a song lyric that sums up your year... Can't. I don't think I take lyrics that personally.
1. Do you believe in god? Really not. It's an interesting philosophical concept but it seems transparently obvious to me that it's an entirely human idea. It's a viewpoint to stand and look from, and if you want to stand and look from there I respect your undertaking, but I get worried by people who think religious ideology is literally true.
2. Did you ever lie to your mother? Yes. Nothing drastic, though.
3. Do you like cake? Mm, cake.
4. Do you have trouble falling asleep? I'm about the opposite of insomniac. I sleep easily and deeply. Sorry.
5. What is your favourite colour? Not certain I've got one, but I like the orange/red spectrum. Possibly tomato red.
6. Are you afraid of certain noises? The Martian Death Ray noise from War of the Worlds, thanks to an incident involving a long journey, a very early morning and a bad hangover.
7. If you were an object, what would you be? Er. A huge ship, with musical engines like the ones that Robbie Coltrane danced to in that documentary series he did.
8. Do you eat too much? Occasionally. The rest of the time I just eat a lot.
9. Are you politically active? Only compared to doing nothing at all. I have done a smidgeon of stuff for the Green Party in Brighton, and I have written to my MP and Tony Blair, I even vote in local council elections.
10. Do you feel aggressive sometimes? Not very often, though people sometimes think I'm being aggressive when I think I'm just being normal. It's a disadvantage of being large.
11. Are you nervous? Not particularly. In situations where people are nervous, I'll often be one of the least affected.
12. If you were an animal, what would you be? How about an ostrich? Being able to run forty miles an hour, having feathers and a weird flexible neck, all sounds like fun to me.
13. Are you afraid of losing control? Hmm. It's not my favourite thing in most contexts, but then there are times when it's fantastic. So, only when I'm not deliberately casting it away.
14. Do you suffer from headaches? Very rarely indeed, it's usually a sign of something badly wrong. Hangovers just make me queasy, not headachey.
15. Do you wear blue jeans in the office? Occasionally. It's not a formal office, I'm a student, but they're mainly worn for gigs and going out because the ones I have are a flattering cut but have irritating tiny pockets.
16. Do you like flowers? Well, they're all right. I prefer ones that smell interesting, like night-scented stocks.
17. Are you afraid of water? No.
18. Do you sometimes wish you were another person? *squints* Only in a daydream, curious kind of way.
19. Do you masturbate? Yes.
20. Did you believe in Santa Claus? I'm unsure, but it seems unlikely.
21. Have you ever killed an animal on purpose? Nothing above insects, and those only if I've got some pressing reason to. Ones that are getting in the way get trapped and put outside. At the same time, since I eat meat I'm responsible for animal death, but I'd like to think that if someone challenged me to blow the pig's brains out myself, I would. I'm not sentimental about animals, but still uninclined to top them for the hell of it.
22. Are you afraid of hurting someone? I used not be, and that got me into trouble. If you're small and you hit a big person it's seen as, I dunno, plucky, but if you're big and hit a small person you're automatically an evil bully, no matter how much verbal or physical attack you took first. Aged about 12 or so, I learnt to bypass any recourse to the physical as it never solved anything and always made the whole thing my fault. I did this so successfully that fights have happened around me and it's never occurred to me to join in physically, I just end up shouting. I tried being a bouncer once and was very bad at it, as a result.
23. Did you ever dismiss somebody? If we're talking work, no, I've always been a minion.
24. Have you ever dreamt that you could fly? Daydreaming-wise, certainly. Uncontrolled-dream-wise, probably though no one time stands out. My dreams generally involve large, unusual buildings, walking or travelling in and around them and lots of people. I may have dreamt flying up the outside of a building, but probably in some sort of lane or tube arrangement as being generally the way people got to the top of the building.
25. Are you afraid of fire? No.
26. Do you like music? Pfft. Sometimes it makes me clangingly angry, actually, but only because of fools doing stupid things with something that should be so good.
27. Did you ever get water in your nose? Yes.
28. Are you afraid of spiders? No.
29. Have you ever had sex with a person you didn't know? Yes. You find out all sorts of things you didn't know about someone that way, even if you thought you knew them before. And then sometimes these are the things you find out first.
30. Do you like reality shows? Can't stand them. (I retainskorpionuk'sunimprovable answer)
[2.] Did you keep all of last years resolutions? I don't think I made any.
[3.] Have you any resolutions for next year? I can never really be arsed with them.
[4.] What countries did you visit? Scotland, France, Belgium. The last two both on the day trip.
[5.] What would you like to have in 2007 that you didn't have in 2006? Hmm. A spot playing bass in a band, better demos for my bands (must *do* something about arranging recordings)... someone willing to go to random gigs and clubs and other events with me? Wayne or Ness were often up for that in Brighton but I haven't worked out who to call in London yet.
[6.] What date in 2006 will remain etched in your memory? Everything that might have been a candidate I realised I'd have to go and look up to get it exact, so none.
[7.] What was your biggest achievement of the year? I think getting out of the comfort-zone in Brighton, in the long-term, which included going part-time at work and eventually moving to London.
[8.] What was your biggest failure? Probably some pulling attempts, and not doing nearly as much house-decorating as I wanted.
[9.] Did you suffer any illness or injury? Huh. Something grim that I shan't specify in March/April that left me bed-ridden and squealing in pain for about two weeks. I remember looking back to a fourteen mile walk I did in February, done on the spur of the moment, and thinking how unreal it seemed. Now I walk long random distances and think back to thinking back and am grateful.
[10.] What was the best thing you bought? I can't think of many significant things I bought this year, the things I've used most this year were ones I already owned. The oddest thing I bought was probably a hundred metre roll of 1mil mylar, for a bargain price by the kilo.
[11.] Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? There are doubtless some people that made me hopping mad at the time, and the top suspects are grown women acting like spoiled children, but I'm basically cheerful and soon forget these things.
[12.] Where did most of your money go? Rent and bills and tuition fees, I didn't spend any serious amount on anything else this year. Going to northern Scotland cost me less than one month's council tax. *shrug*.
[13.] What did you get really really really excited about? Going part-time on my job, the whole idea of getting away with talking my way onto a PhD, and going to see the Eagles Of Death Metal.
[14.] What songs will always remind you of 2006? Anything by the Eagles of Death Metal, and Please Please Yourself by Public Enterprise.
[15.] Compared to this time last year are you :
[A] Fatter or thinner? About the same
[B] Happier or sadder? Dunno. No level change, I don't think, but a different make-up to it.
[C] Richer or poorer? I'm not really sure, it's been financially complex.
[16.] What do you wish you'd done more of? Swimming in the sea, while I still could in Brighton.
[17.] What do you wish you'd done less of? Being ill.
[18.] How will you be spending Christmas? With my bloke, his ex, their kid and her husband. It was fun and involved huge amounts of food and drink. The lad is seven and just the right age to enjoy Christmas.
[19.] Which LJ users did you meet for the first time?
ali_anarres, asw909, blue_mai, boyofbadgers, compilerbitch, doseybat, ewtikins, feanelwa, fluffymark, girloclock, hairyears, hazyjayne, martinlitmus, purplegril, ruudboy, timeplease, x_mass - these are just the ones on my flist, there are a whole bunch of others and more of them would have been friended if I was any cop at remembering people's usernames. [20.] Did you fall in love in 2006? No.
[21.] How many one night stands? None, though some rare one-off nights with people I already knew.
[22] What was your favourite TV show? Umm, I watched almost every episode of Due South. It was on at a good time for eating tea.
[23.] Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I'm not much of a one for holding grudges; people irritate me, I avoid them, I'm not irritated by them any more, problem solved. I have a nagging suspicion that I've met people that don't like me this year, though, which I don't like the feeling of and don't know how to fix.
[24.] What was/were the best books you read? A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving, the course textbook for the Alternative and Renewable Energy module which was great.. I didn't read for leisure as much as I normally might this year, and a lot of it was stuff I'd already read, for a mental rest.
[25.] What was your greatest musical discovery? Eagles of Death Metal and Public Enterprise. Still.
[26.] What did you want and get? A degree?
[27.] What did you want and not get? Specifically, Banksy's Wall and Piece. Generally, for anyone to buy me books. The only person who ever buys me books is Jon, generally ones he wants me to read, and that's fine, or my birth mother, who gets me the new hardback Pratchett if a present-giving occasion co-incides with their availability, as if new Pratchett books deserved spending some ludicrous amount on a hardback copy of, but it still amazes me that despite being willing to be pleased with just about any non-fiction book on any of a huge variety of subjects, or fiction books of a considerable assortment too (honourable mention for ghoti for a book called The Coma that she gave me last Christmas, which I liked), no-one ever buys me books. *sniffs* I mean my sister got me WHSmith tokens this year which I could spend on books, but only on the sort of books that WHSmith has in and at brand new prices, whereas given twenty quid and an interesting second-hand bookshop, for example, I could come away with far better value for money, and so could anyone else interested in getting me a present I'd treasure for the cost of pocket-change. Do I just not look like a book person or something? Oh well, one of life's imponderables.
[28.] What was your favourite film this year? I think the only one I saw in a cinema was Pan's Labyrinth. It was ace, though.
[29.] What did you do on your birthday and how old were you? I was 30; I probably did college work. I'm not sure I was yet well enough to drink or stand for too long by the end of April and the deadlines were looming.
[30.] What one thing would have made your year more satisfying? *squints* I'm not sure I could pick one thing.
[31.] How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Mostly khaki, orange or blue.
[32.] What kept you sane? Playing the drums. I did some gigs and practices that were stupidly close to academic deadlines but it really helps to just switch your brain to something manual and inescapably present for a while.
[33.] Which celebrity did you fancy the most? Josh Homme, not least in "I want to do that/I want that" confusion.
[34.] Which political issue stirred you the most? None, oh well.
[35.] Who did you miss? Tom, now I don't live with him any more, and James, even though I never do anything about that.
[36.] Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year? It's very rare that people are interested in telling you about what you want to know.
[37.] Quote a song lyric that sums up your year... Can't. I don't think I take lyrics that personally.
1. Do you believe in god? Really not. It's an interesting philosophical concept but it seems transparently obvious to me that it's an entirely human idea. It's a viewpoint to stand and look from, and if you want to stand and look from there I respect your undertaking, but I get worried by people who think religious ideology is literally true.
2. Did you ever lie to your mother? Yes. Nothing drastic, though.
3. Do you like cake? Mm, cake.
4. Do you have trouble falling asleep? I'm about the opposite of insomniac. I sleep easily and deeply. Sorry.
5. What is your favourite colour? Not certain I've got one, but I like the orange/red spectrum. Possibly tomato red.
6. Are you afraid of certain noises? The Martian Death Ray noise from War of the Worlds, thanks to an incident involving a long journey, a very early morning and a bad hangover.
7. If you were an object, what would you be? Er. A huge ship, with musical engines like the ones that Robbie Coltrane danced to in that documentary series he did.
8. Do you eat too much? Occasionally. The rest of the time I just eat a lot.
9. Are you politically active? Only compared to doing nothing at all. I have done a smidgeon of stuff for the Green Party in Brighton, and I have written to my MP and Tony Blair, I even vote in local council elections.
10. Do you feel aggressive sometimes? Not very often, though people sometimes think I'm being aggressive when I think I'm just being normal. It's a disadvantage of being large.
11. Are you nervous? Not particularly. In situations where people are nervous, I'll often be one of the least affected.
12. If you were an animal, what would you be? How about an ostrich? Being able to run forty miles an hour, having feathers and a weird flexible neck, all sounds like fun to me.
13. Are you afraid of losing control? Hmm. It's not my favourite thing in most contexts, but then there are times when it's fantastic. So, only when I'm not deliberately casting it away.
14. Do you suffer from headaches? Very rarely indeed, it's usually a sign of something badly wrong. Hangovers just make me queasy, not headachey.
15. Do you wear blue jeans in the office? Occasionally. It's not a formal office, I'm a student, but they're mainly worn for gigs and going out because the ones I have are a flattering cut but have irritating tiny pockets.
16. Do you like flowers? Well, they're all right. I prefer ones that smell interesting, like night-scented stocks.
17. Are you afraid of water? No.
18. Do you sometimes wish you were another person? *squints* Only in a daydream, curious kind of way.
19. Do you masturbate? Yes.
20. Did you believe in Santa Claus? I'm unsure, but it seems unlikely.
21. Have you ever killed an animal on purpose? Nothing above insects, and those only if I've got some pressing reason to. Ones that are getting in the way get trapped and put outside. At the same time, since I eat meat I'm responsible for animal death, but I'd like to think that if someone challenged me to blow the pig's brains out myself, I would. I'm not sentimental about animals, but still uninclined to top them for the hell of it.
22. Are you afraid of hurting someone? I used not be, and that got me into trouble. If you're small and you hit a big person it's seen as, I dunno, plucky, but if you're big and hit a small person you're automatically an evil bully, no matter how much verbal or physical attack you took first. Aged about 12 or so, I learnt to bypass any recourse to the physical as it never solved anything and always made the whole thing my fault. I did this so successfully that fights have happened around me and it's never occurred to me to join in physically, I just end up shouting. I tried being a bouncer once and was very bad at it, as a result.
23. Did you ever dismiss somebody? If we're talking work, no, I've always been a minion.
24. Have you ever dreamt that you could fly? Daydreaming-wise, certainly. Uncontrolled-dream-wise, probably though no one time stands out. My dreams generally involve large, unusual buildings, walking or travelling in and around them and lots of people. I may have dreamt flying up the outside of a building, but probably in some sort of lane or tube arrangement as being generally the way people got to the top of the building.
25. Are you afraid of fire? No.
26. Do you like music? Pfft. Sometimes it makes me clangingly angry, actually, but only because of fools doing stupid things with something that should be so good.
27. Did you ever get water in your nose? Yes.
28. Are you afraid of spiders? No.
29. Have you ever had sex with a person you didn't know? Yes. You find out all sorts of things you didn't know about someone that way, even if you thought you knew them before. And then sometimes these are the things you find out first.
30. Do you like reality shows? Can't stand them. (I retain
skorpionuk'sunimprovable answer)![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 10:33 am (UTC)This is the blog for the project (http://www.yourmusichouse.com), there's a syndicated feed too, here (http://syndicated.livejournal.com/yourmusichouse/profile). Please also see this poll (http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=894173), although a lot of it won't make sense without reading back to get a good idea of WTF I'm talking about.
Potted summary:
-mp3s free for download, with the option of purchasing an audio CD (with higher-quality sound). A CD wouldn't have to be one album from the same artist - one could pick-and-mix tracks.
-sheet music free for download, with the option of purchasing a high-quality printed hardcopy.
This project means I am going to have to turn into a music geek fairly quickly, so I am definitely interested in going to gigs with you in London.
Apologies for enthusiastic spamming.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:06 am (UTC)Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 12:55 pm (UTC)It sounds like an interesting project, but I think I'm skeptical about being able to sell CDs. At the level of most unsigned bands, the limit on the quality is to do with the skill in the engineering and mixing and the band themselves, not what the sample-rate numbers say. It's like, you could give me a fabulous expensive multi-megapixel digital SLR camera, and a professional photographer a battered old 35mm film camera; if you then sold poster-sized versions of the photos, the professional's officially low-res ones would sell far more than my efforts. High numerical quality isn't the same as better - it's much easier to get a song to sound good pumping through a cheap beat-box than it is to get it sound good on a top hi-fi system... But maybe I misunderstand what sort of market you're going for.
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 01:14 pm (UTC)At the level of most unsigned bands, the limit on the quality is to do with the skill in the engineering and mixing and the band themselves, not what the sample-rate numbers say.
This is one of the pitfalls I need to avoid. One way to avoid it is by having reasonable-quality bands. Another way is to try to get as much knowledge of recording/mixing/etc as I can, myself, and another way is to get independent record labels in on it if at all possible (for example, if a band wanted to release something under CC license and make it available on our website, they might well go to an independent recording company for the actual recording bit).
Part of the market is simply that people like having a CD instead of a file in certain situations, part of it is that many people who listen to free music would like to make some contribution to the artist even if they don't actually buy a CD (and yes I plan to make this possible).
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 01:51 pm (UTC)From my experience I can say that recording really is a black art and that I'm a long way off good at it, even if not terrible. Mixing is even worse; even if you do the recording yourself, it's worth passing it on to someone more experienced to mix it, or at least to master it afterwards. But the people who are good at this charge money and there you are back working in the same market as every other record label.
From a band point of view, I think this would just operate as one more in a wide array of ways to promote the recordings they've done. There's already CDBaby and other distribution sites, every band ever now has a myspace and the best route of all tends to remain going round after the gig and getting people to buy your demos on the spot. Is this going to attempt to be a business, at all, or a hobby thing? It's an expensive hobby, is all...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 01:52 pm (UTC)Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 02:25 pm (UTC)Yes. This is what I want it to be.
CDBaby is okay-ish but if I want a CD with 2 tracks from each of 6 different albums, I can't have that without buying the entire CD. The site I want to create would offer that. Myspace drives me up the fucking wall and I know a lot of people who are simply not going to trawl through it for new music. I want people to be able to fill out a form, send me their CD and sell individual tracks or CDs on the site. I want to keep costs fairly low for contributing artists. I also want to provide a high-quality product. These two things are at odds with one another... I have the same problem with sheet music, where I want to use Lilypond for notesetting and engraving because it is hands-down the best engraving program I've ever seen, but most people are going to hand me something made on Sibelius or Finale or something, and I don't know whether to charge a fee for a sheet music upgrade or if I do, whether to charge the contributing artist or the consumer who wants their prettily-typeset music. I don't want to have the entire site cluttered up with loads of adverts, either, but it is looking like the odd one or two may be necessary to close some of the gaps in income.
Is this going to attempt to be a business, at all, or a hobby thing? It's an expensive hobby, is all...
I'll be very, very happy if it pays for itself. I have to do a project for my fourth-year, and thought of this.
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 03:00 pm (UTC)On the subject of charging, speaking as a band user again, if you told me you were going to charge me to upload my music I just wouldn't bother. *shrug*
I have no clue about the sheet music, no-one I've ever worked with in a band nor any of the bands I regularly play with use sheet music. I can sort of read it eventually and haltingly but it's just not the musical currency of my sort of bands at all. Who writes it that you'd be expecting to use this, can I ask?
And finally "I'll be very, very happy if it pays for itself. I have to do a project for my fourth-year, and thought of this." - aha, so it has to be up and done inside about four months.. *grins* Fair enough. What's the course?
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 03:15 pm (UTC)See, I know people who would rather buy a CD with one or two tracks from each of several different artists than try to choose only one CD.
I don't intend to offer anything for sale that cannot be heard (in the case of audio) or viewed (in the case of sheet music) for free in its entirety. There doesn't have to be full cross-referencing of audio and sheet music, though, because that would be ridiculous.
Myspace is a pain to use but it's become so universal among bands you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it - I'm more at home trawling through that, usually via associations from people I know, than trying to pick which artist from a random unreferenced list to listen to.
I know that I'm going to have to do this, but I'd quite like it if not everyone else had to.
How are you expecting consumers to use your site?
I want them to be able to search by genre, artist and so on; I'd also like to get some sort of streaming radio set up. Possibly some sort of chat room or section for articles and reviews. Certainly band and composer profiles (with links to their webpage/myspace/whatever else if it is exists).
On the subject of charging, speaking as a band user again, if you told me you were going to charge me to upload my music I just wouldn't bother. *shrug*
This is fair enough, and for that reason I'd like to avoid charging. I certainly wouldn't charge just for an upload, but if I'm going to end up re-setting sheet music (likely) or recording or mixing (less likely; bands usually want to do this eventually anyway, and I lack experience) I may have to make a small (but hopefully competitive) charge for that.
Who writes it that you'd be expecting to use this, can I ask?
I do, and I can try to rustle up some more composers. It would certainly be useful for a number of performers who are looking for new music to have easy access to it. I know my horn teacher would be quite interested, for example.
- aha, so it has to be up and done inside about four months.. *grins* Fair enough. What's the course?
Not quite! I'm only in my third year now, so I've got a year and a half, rather than four months. But to get it working properly it's going to be a pretty huge project.
I'm doing a performance B. Mus at Trinity College of Music (http://www.tcm.ac.uk); I play the French horn. Also the piano but I'm not studying that there, I tried to do a double performance major several years ago but it was too much playing and not enough living.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:53 pm (UTC)The PhD-wangling was because my supervisor was looking for someone with an unusual combination of experience, in chemistry, physics, practical electronics and general designing and building stuff, and I happened to fit the bill very well. The first in the degree, thanks to the extra time I gained by going part-time at work, probably helped.
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 05:23 pm (UTC)Forgive me for automatically switching my design head on - the degree I just did had a lot of commercial and market stuff in it, working out who you're selling it to is a major part of the design itself these days - is that part of your project, making something justifiable and potentially viable, or is it just the undertaking of a large project? But the thing with the sheet music and composers, the number of people who compose sheet music must be tiny compared to the number of people who are in optimistic teenage pub bands, I think. But then again, there are already a large number of marketing tools available for the teenage pub bands and, I presume, fewer for composers and people doing more classical stuff. It might be worth making that a particular specialism and not bothering to try and get the myspace crowd; for myself, if I saw a site that offered sheet-music downloads I'd assume it wasn't for me and my band, so perhaps make it a new home for all those who'd be delighted by that - composers, acoustic singer-songwriters, the like.
For yourself and your music, if you were recording some of your own work, would that be you playing solo, or with accompanying instruments? Recording rock bands is hard work because everything has to be big, shiny, loud, and you have to get everything up to 99.9% without losing any of it. Classical or modern instrumental or jazz stuff is allowed to have space in it. Also recording rock bands, you have to do it with people that basically aren't that musically competent, can't work to a click track, never play the parts on their own, can't remember where they are in the song if they haven't got a guide track of lyrics in their headphones... whereas people like yourself and your horn teacher will be able to play on your own, drop in at any point through, all the things every engineer wishes rock bands could do. So though this is just a guess I imagine it's simpler to record and therefore much more realistic to record non-rock. Then again, there's a culture in rock bands of getting a 4-track, so people like me end up with the gear, but is there an equivalent in classical terms? Could it be that for those currently not part of the myspace bunch, offering a recording service is both easier than for rock bands, and more likely to appeal since they're less likely to be doing it for themselves?
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-02 07:48 pm (UTC)This is true to an extent. There are people with no colour sense who can probably play pretty good music. Can you give examples of particular myspace pages that communicate their style extremely well?
I do want to get some sort of social networking into it somehow, but it won't primarily be a social networking site. Perhaps each band could make recommendations in their profile page, or something.
Forgive me for automatically switching my design head on - the degree I just did had a lot of commercial and market stuff in it, working out who you're selling it to is a major part of the design itself these days - is that part of your project, making something justifiable and potentially viable, or is it just the undertaking of a large project?
Automatically switching your design head on is good, as far as I'm concerned. The more wrinkles I can iron out before I've started, the easier this is going to be, and you have a perspective that is extremely relevant.
For performers and composers I want the site to be a networking and promotion tool. For listeners... well, the listeners I want to target will be people who actually care about new music, whether that happens to be indie, punk, classical, jazz, or whatever. I'd like there to be some sense of community, because it's no good if people just turn up once and never come back. So... mailing lists, chat areas perhaps, and so on.
The project does not have to be successful but we do have to keep track of the amount of work we do and what work we do and all our costs and so on. We also must have a launch event; I was planning to do a launch event that consists of various horn music released under CC licence.
The staff at Trinty I'm working with have not heard of CC licensing; most people either seem to say, "Hey, that'll never work, people won't pay for something they can get for free," or "Hey, cool idea, I'll join as soon as you've done the setup." The former is simply not true - I supported myself busking on the London Underground for a year and a half, and people will pay for what they appreciate, if it's convenient. The latter is encouraging but not actually helpful.
But the thing with the sheet music and composers, the number of people who compose sheet music must be tiny compared to the number of people who are in optimistic teenage pub bands, I think.
I'd say it's probably about half, but that's a completely random guess.
As you say, there isn't a lot of already-there infrastructure for composers of sheet music.
I don't really want to limit the project to one type of music. I think that people who write sheet music, if they can find performers for it, would often be happy to put recordings up on the site as well; when you compose a huge variety of music and don't get to perform your own work too often, selling demo CDs after a gig isn't really viable. So yes, I think there is a good market for this in the "classical" world. But... well, I wouldn't turn away anyone just because they don't have sheet music, or because they don't fit with an existing genre.
For yourself and your music, if you were recording some of your own work, would that be you playing solo, or with accompanying instruments?
That really depends on the piece. I can hardly perform a choral work on my own, and recording choirs is difficult except for concert situations. Similarly, orchestral recording can be extremely difficult - where am I going to get an orchestra to begin with? But recording a piano solo or pieces for small ensemble is much easier.
Then again, there's a culture in rock bands of getting a 4-track, so people like me end up with the gear, but is there an equivalent in classical terms?
Not so much - or not that I'm aware. So yes... offering a recording service for some might be a good thing.
Perhaps "I will make recordings of live performances with the resources I have combined with any resources you have - you decide if you like the quality enough to stick it on a CD or website" would be a good policy?
Re: bands, recordings, and so on....
Date: 2007-01-04 08:58 pm (UTC)Not so much that their style gets communicated *extremely* well as that it's one more piece of information you get, in advance of actual reading or hearing, on how they go about their bandly doings; part of the first impressions. It requires that they can fidget with it themselves, for good or ill, though, rather than having a standard or modified-standard page. Examples:
http://www.myspace.com/noisettesuk - you can see straight away that it's been done by someone with some clue and that they want to show off their big list of tour dates. You know before you get down to the bit that says it that they're a signed band, and that it's probably rock of some sort because it's black and red, innit.
http://www.myspace.com/lovemy45 - Black with pink stars and not as slick, the stars make it hard to read actually but get the enthusiasm, oh look, it's a female-fronted punk band.
http://www.myspace.com/indianagregg - Pale pink with three artfully attractive pictures of this blonde lass immediately obvious, with big chunks of deep'n'meaningful text. Oh look, it's a singer/songwriter/Dido-wannabe.
Commercial potential etc.:
Cool, yes, so you've got to have something launchable, just wondering if you're going to have to justify why you've done it one way rather than another, though. Interesting point about people paying if it's convenient - this is the situation at gigs, I suppose, you've got change in your pocket and there's the band right in front of you to give the money to directly.
numbers and genres:
Hmm. I've just been trying to work out how to work out how many people can read sheet music / write their own compositions or the like and am getting nowhere, oh well.
I think the thing with genre is that while you might well be open to anyone, you'll have to do it carefully to stop people like me going "oh, they do stuff with classical and sheet music, that's not for my band". Not because I think that's wrong but because I don't think I'll get an audience for my band there. You wouldn't turn them away but they'd turn themselves away.
Recording:
Yep, pianos and small ensembles, that seems like a viable sort of proposition, as possibly does larger stuff recorded live. I think I'm just worried about the possiblities of offering this cheap.. If it's a cheap service there's a chance you'll get teenage pub bands wanting recordings; the recordings will be difficult to do and will sound bad because they don't know what they're doing, and when they hear them sounding bad there's a good chance they'll blame it on you, creating a waste of time all round. If you talk to bands and decide who you're going to try and record and I imagine the default is mostly going to have to be to not record - if you're in the fourth year of a degree you're not going to have two long days spare for recording and mixing of a demo that the band then decide they don't like, you know?
Have you got any space you could use for recording - rooms at the college or the like?
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 11:04 pm (UTC)Coolcool
Date: 2007-01-05 11:18 am (UTC)