darkstarline's Blog

Excellent post, although personally speaking I hate the term 'sell-out'. It gets thrown around a lot at some of more pretentious indie places I visit over here, and I understand the origins of the belief there - nobody wants to be spoon-fed and nannyed by any sort of government/regularatory body. It comprimises people's individuality and I HATE that.

 However, what I don't understand is when people use it as an excuse for things. What is the point in discovering a great band making great music and then effectively flipping them off when they get signed, for instance? I appreciate that a lot of bands are under record companies' thumbs about what to make and how to play it but that is not a blanket rule. The same is could be said of anything - clothes, shops, websites, Myspace/Facebook: if you still enjoy using it, and it is still a valuable resource, why stop? I agree that they are smug buggers but unfortunately people like that exist - there's no getting around that.

 For new bands especially, at the moment at least, these portals are still the cheapest and easiest way of getting heard, and as for those impartial journalists among us, we ust have to know that we won't sacrifice our beliefs and our likes no matter how mainstream or otherwise! Variety is the spice of life, and all that, but it doesn't mean we have to be totally different to all others all of the time, does it? If finding awesome new music means myspace and that makes me a sellout, so be it! I'm happy ^_^I do agree with X though, you guys should get players up on here and see what happens.

(Also, the main alternative to capitalism is communism, which is an excellent theory, but human nature will not allow it to work. History attests this - I'll stick with city stockbrokers!)

Well, X... I think it's already started in a way...

I've never really been one for the social networking sites. I think I may have even stated that here a while back when you guys almost made me sign up for a twitter :0 I'm one of the very few people I know who doesn't use any of those sites. Don't get me wrong I'm not here on a pedastal proclaiming that I'm right and that no one should use them. I guess I'm just not a person who really needs to stay in contact with everyone I went to high school or college with. I keep in touch with my friends via phone, email, etc.. I figure that if they weren't important enough for me to get an email or a phone number then I don't really need to keep in touch with them anyway.

I think the reason most bands use myspace is because there really isn't too many alternatives as a free way to get their music heard by people. I think when myspace started, bands saw an easy way to become known. Nowadays I think the music portion of myspace is really whats keeping it going. I don't really have any research or numbers to back this point up but most of the people I know don't even use myspace as a social networking tool. I think facebook has kind of taken over the market share in that regard.

 That's why I prefer sites like last.fm or purevolume, or any site thats dedicated more to music. I really can't stand the music part of myspace, the music player takes forever to load, and there is way too much useless dribble that just clutters the pages up. I still see an opportunity for some new site that allows bands to upload music and get their name out there. I think that if done right, something like this could really help a lot of bands, and also music fans discover new music.

Musicemissions is a good start to discovering new music and allowing bands to reach out to fans, I just think it's missing the one thing you really need, and that is the music itself. You can come here and discover some new bands that you might not have previously known, but you still have to go to an external site or source to listen to it.I don't think it would be as easy as just allowing bands to upload music to this site, because that would involve some major changes to how you guys are running the site, and I don't think that's really how you intended the site to be used in the first place. I think something new has to come out.

I'm trying to get into webdesign and I think if I actually do, this is something I could see myself trying to develop. It would be tough at first to get bands to upload to a relatively unknown site, but I think after enough bands got on board and you had enough users who frequented the site, it would grow exponentially.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just kind of a dream I have, haha. Oh by the way, I'm far from being "right-sided" or conservative. So if in the off chance I do come out with the next big site, no worries about having to support something that goes against your beliefs.

lmao at Dennis... yeah maybe so heh? lol

   Hay, I don't do much reality tv, but I do have my weakpoints, and Chef Ramsay is one of em. Take that back Scanland!!! Just playing actually...Truth is, we're all guilty of it somehow, some way. Somewhere, they have or will find something that catches that little spark in our brains.  Its in our nature to look at horrifying scenes on the news with humility.  Some of us avoid it for purity...Its natural for us Obama supporters to get mad and Obama opponents to clap when Yahoo reports parents are angry Obama wants to brainwash our children.  Or a chupacabra is found...

 Our brains are being filled one at a time and we're forming addictions of different aspects.  While in a way I agree with your statement about musicemissions to a certain degree, I think it's all up to the people and their self value on the social network.  IF everyone comes around to talk about Indie music, this site retains its value.  If this site turns to drama to sell pages, then we have issues. But I'd like to see indie bands flock to network here, form supergroups that will never be forgotten.  I'd like to see the sun shine on an indepedently run opinion of what has become a very unlimited industry.

Brian, you must delete our MySpace account. lol

I totally agree with this though. I find mass media to still be abundant. Why do we have to hear about things like Britney Spears and Kate & Jon all the time? Seriously, let's deal with some of the issues, not make issues out of some people's everyday lives. Reality TV is awful as well. What happened to good programming and well written scripts? I'm tired of hearing Gordon Ramsay yelling at chef wannabes, or people backstabbing each other just to win a million bucks. Darkstarline, you bring another good issue to the table, what about social media? Are we all whoring ourselves on places like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter? The problem is we'd like to be on just one medium but we can't find that place. There isn't a common ground. What if Google creates the best social platform, should we all flock to it? No, because then it would be Google in charge. At least they aren't really in charge of media. It scares me when a company like News Corp and Murdoch have so much control. I don't have an answer, only some more thoughts. I don't think Music Emissions is the answer either because if EVERYONE came to this site, we'd control the masses. I don't know. Thanks for a headful of issues though.  

very well said... most social networking sites have a smugness about their dominance. Not being one of those sites is our pride.

 hstigod,

Thanks for the link. I find very intresting that so many independent artist do not seem to look realize that My Space is owned by News Corp. I also find it intresting that Myspace and Facebook have such lack of respect for the users that add value to them.

We park our cars in the same garage my friend...For a long time, all I wanted was to be a mainstream reporter. But regardless of who you write for, your opinion is already written due to corporate influencing..It sucks, cause for a while I believe I could be the exception to the rule.  Alas, I will not 'cause mainstream media is spoon fed... Have you seen Zeitgeist?  great documentary...