Everywhere I go I see Music artists that are looking for Reviews of their Music. I have tried to review music myself, thinking that I could review any style(genre), but I cant. What if we set up a review panel, a group of 5 or 6 people each reviewing the styles(genres) that they like. Hopefully we could cover most genre's among the 6 member review panel. All reviews would be signed indie artist review panel, not by any one member. This would help in the anonymity of the reviewers from the panel. We should be fair in the reviews. As an Indie artist I respect the indie artist.
I would hope we would have good caliber writers.
just some ideas
Pathros
Hey pathros it's nice to see you bud. Now there you go being logical again. I thought we talked about that. hehe J/K 8) Hope things are going well in your corner of the world.
Hey, I'd love to see that happen, but don't have the time to organize it myself right now.
If anyone would like to step up and organize something with stable membership, and a good plan of action, I'd be willing to review the idea/plan and drop my input say yay/nay, etc.
[b]quote[/b]
[b]stable membership, and a good plan of action[/b]
This is the most important part for me, [b]"stable membership, and a good plan of action"[/b]
If there were a Nowhere- e-musicZine, each issue would have a "Review Panel" section. The "Review Panel" section would review a few full length CD's
(full CD's, not singles) per Nowhere Radio Ezine issue.
If an artist wants to use the review on their own web site, they can as long as they reference the "Review Panel Nowhereradio Music e-zine".
If the zine is interesting people will read it.
Pathros
Okay, now how would we go about gathering the reviewers?
And what's the criteria in which the reviewers would follow to gather/review reviewee's?
We would need to decide how many genres or classifications we should cover. I also think the CD's that we review should come up to some visual and fidelity values.
Pathros
There is 16 core genres as a standard.
Fidelity I agree with, but visual, no... It's about the music, not how fancy the musician can doctor up a jewel case.
Hell, I know some excellent musicians with crappy taste in visual art...
I think the "whole package" of the indie artist's media is important. I also want them to do some work for me.
i.e. Name and length of song, credits, year released, and contact information(plus web address). If I'm going to add their CD to my own CD collection, I don't want to have to label it myself. I would also like to see what the Band/solo artist is sending to the public when the public orders a CD.
[b]Yes it's about the music[/b], but the rest(the whole package)is very important. If I'm going to feature their CD, it would be nice to have a decent image to use for their "CD Cover"
Pathros
I'd leave that up to the individual reviewer, but would advise against it, simply because the majority of mediums at our disposal (for getting the music heard) don't involve image at all. It's also one of the things I've fought against in the industry...
Name of the song, band, etc., sure, that's a given, but not visual, because it can be 'heard' too, as in spoken word, and not something to be graded on ;)
It's handy to have a nice looking image to attract attention, but shouldn't be a factor in a review... I wouldn't give an artist a good review if they looked great, but stunk as far as musical talent... Hell, I'm sure you've had that convo about Britney Spears!
Anywho, so how do you propose to answer these questions?
[quote]Okay, now how would we go about gathering the reviewers?
And what's the criteria in which the reviewers would follow to gather/review reviewee's? [/quote]
I think we could find reviewers of each genre very easily. We have all met music artists over the years, as well as non-artists(for lack of a better word). Many of these people, if we asked them to, would write a review once or twice a month(maybe one every three months). Since "reviewers" are not always reliable, the "Review Panel" may have to consist of 10 to 15 reviewers. We may disagree, but I think we can't review every cd or mp3 that is sent to us. I think the artists should have a body of work(at least 6 or more pieces). If the reviewer finds a independent artist that they want to review, they can solicit a CD from the Band/Artist and write a review. Since the people who will be reading these reviews have a short attention span, there should be links in the review that will stream the artists/band's mp3.
We should decide what criteria(s) we are going to use when we review artists. Maybe, we should put together a "very very informal outline" of what we want in the review. The reviews should be at least 100 plus words. Each reviewer MUST be knowledgeable of the style of music they are reviewing.
Just some thoughts, I'm not married to any one point. Any plan of action needs discussion.
Pathros
Okay, hunt out some possibly interested parties and hash it out here, I've got to do some serious maintenance on the servers etc.
We'll say that in one months time (end of May) we'll put the panel into action, that should be a fair amount of time to hash things out properly.
Start hunting!
Any ducks yet pathros?
I could easily go out among the people I know to get "reviewers". I was thinking that someone else
(in addition to Waldo) would be interested.
The only way to make independent music credible to the unknowing fan, is to have as much information
about some of the good up and coming independent bands and artists as possible. Most of the short reviews that other artists give each other are not up to snuff. I read the reviews(bands reviewing other bands) on other BB, and they either love or hate your band.
This type of review is good for a quick thrill, but would not be something that a band or artist would want to include in a bio, or press release, or a promotional package . My feelings are, the more things that are going on, the more of a buzz a web site can get.
If people feel that they can get a professional review,
they will come back more often(maybe).
Pathros
I agree, but I myself have had to stop reviewing people for lack of time, keeping everything running here is close to a full time job, plus I have a list of about 40 more features that people have requested and look like good ideas that I have to work on.
So if anyone else out there wants to step up to the plate and volunteer their experience and think they can drop a professional review every now and then, speak up now.
I've gotta agree there giving a more indepth and professional review is an art in itself. A real love of music as well as a good knowledge of particular genres is important and all of us doing what we are doing (making music) we should have plenty of the love.
But saying that you only have to look at the threads over on the IUMA board to know what an emotive subject reviewing can be.
One idea might be if we managed to put together some form of group it could work as a sort of "roundtable" where the reviewing panel listened to a bunch of songs every so often and gave individual feelings on the each one.
So artist would submit say 3 of their best tunes to be reviewed, a playlist or rather a review list would be agreed on from those submitted. The panel would then download the review list put together their own thoughts on each song and submit these initially to the other reviewers (maybe via an e-mail chain).
Then a page dedicated to the review list and the reviews could be put up with links to the music, artists and a discussion area where the reviews could be discussed. Maybe the panel could vote on the best song of the month or whatever, with some form of prize going to the winning artist/s.
Just a thought
Mani
Sounds good to me Mani.
I think the best form of communication would be a hidden section on this forum... That way everything is in one spot that can be checked out by any of the panel, gone back over, etc...
It also ensures that nobody in the panel gets missed.
I like the prize idea, now we would need to hunt down some more music hardware companies that are willing to hand out prizes... I already have one custom Song Guitar to give away (Worth over $1600USD), I'd probably give that to artist of the year. We just need a bunch more little stuff for contests like this, mics, adaptor kits, supplies, etc..
But first, we'd have to assemble the panel... Still looking for volunteers!
W.
Hidden section, great idea and yes prizes are a great incentive.
:P Still thinking
Mani
:o BUMP
[img]http://websmileys.bei.t-online.de/schild43.gif[/img]
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jeza