Hi Charles,
You're right about the importance of feedback -- perspective is an easy thing
to lose for artists, because we tend to work alone, and for the most part there
are no absolute standards to tell us if we're on the right track or not. It is
essential to have good instincts and to follow them, but feedback from others
helps tell us if we're reaching others or not.
You're on the right track! Keep doing what you're doing!
That said, I think I have figured out a few things about how to receive
feedback here -- you probably know most of them, but here they are anyway:
1. Comment on the music of others, in a meaningfull way if possible. Short,
positive/constructive comments are fine too, but basically, it is more useful
to most of us to receive an honest, thoughtful comment, and they tend to
take a little time.
2. Give more comments than you get. I don't know the exact ratio, but you
may find that you're giving out at least two comments for every one you
receive, until more people get a chance to hear your music and become fans,
at which point things should even out a bit.
3. It's easy to keep track of this; on your "My Profile" page, it lists # of
comments ("Jam Comments) given, and thee # of comments received for each
song is given in parentheses in the "Hits" column. You have to add up the
numbers that correspond to each song to get a total. You can do the same
thing with votes. By definition, the # of comments given for the entire site
must be the same as the # of comments recieved, but, until a person
develops a following of some kind, you can expect to generate a lot more
comments than you get.
4. Particiapting in the forum threads is a way of becoming better known, but
I've never been sure of how much of that results in people becoming
interested in your music. I'm sure that SOME people may become curious
about the music of others though the forums, but I'm just not sure how
much.
5. Some people put a link to their latest submission in their signature file
(see "Signature" in your "Account Information" page). That makes it easy for
someone to check out your music if they feel so inclined. Some people aren't
fans of this, but I'm pretty sure most people don't mind, and I personally
think it's a great idea and have followed others' signature files many times to
check out their music.
6. Cultivate relationships. When you find an artist whose music you like, try
listening/commenting/voting on several of their tracks; it often results in the
artist becoming more interested in your music.
7. Submit no more than one song a week. This is something that someone
suggested to me early on, the rationale being that songs disappear from the
various "picks" listings on the left side of the screen after a week, and your
best chance of getting noticed occurs in the first week of posting. Also, if
you have more than one new song in a given week, it seems like many people
will listen to one but not the others.
8. Some people promote (aka "pimp") an occasional song in a Forum thread; I
think there's a category called "show your stuff," or something like that.
Again, some folks don't care for this, but there's really nothing wrong with it,
as long as the self-promoter shows a willingness to become involved in the
community.
None of this is scientific, they're just a bunch of observations, but others have
made them too, and they are in keeping with a general principle of life, which
is that you get out of something more or less what you put into it, but
sometimes you have to be patient.
Way too long, I know, but hopefully it'll help!
---
Visit <a style="color:blue;font-size:11px;" href="http://www.clarkross.ca">my website</a> for lots more free MP3s and scores.
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any comments about it from my fellow music makers.
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