Too much to fit in a heading, so just have a look anyway.

nobody@vox.com(Indieboy) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:55:01 +0000

Hello,

Fox Cubs in Camden

Overall a fun-packed weekend, had a visit from the Foxcubs....well.... I went to see them first at the Purple Turtle on Saturday and they came over to Tommy's afterward. I was at Tommy's to see how the refurb had gone and I'm really impressed. The stage is great, as is the PA, house backline/kit and the new area around the back.

Fox Cubs

The gig was great, heard some new material that I was impressed with and I like the new direction the band seems to be taking.

If you're interested they're headlining my night on Saturday.

Final Lineup for Saturday Night

I'm getting this finalised today, one band couldn't make it and the venue manager has made room for one more slot, so that'll be five acts on.

I got loads and loads of responses to my appeal for acts, I've forwarded on a shortlist to the venue to help me decide. Thanks to all those who've contacted me.

It's Not Free :-(

As of Saturday I've found out that I'm not getting the venue for free as I have to hire backline and get an engineer in. I'd engineer myself but I'm going to be filming this aswell. Plus I'll be mingling :-). To cover costs I'm going to have to charge on the door but will keep it low as possible. I'm thinking £2 should do it. If there's any profit I'll stick it back to the bands or charity depending on what I agree with everyone. WIll let you know. It should only cost me about £85/90 to run.

Digital A&R Scouty Bods

I've had a big response to those wanting to do my job, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! IT'S MINE, ALL MINE I TELL YOU!!! Actually, a little help is always appreciated as the best acts I come accross are usually on the recommendation of someone. I'm getting a core group of UK based people who I'm going to meet a few times a month. I will be contacting the person who is co-ordinating this today so further details later this week hopefully.

Beyond that, I want to build a small, possibly international network of those interested scouting.

You have to be really really passionate about new music as self-motivation is the key. If you spend all your time and myspace and youtube checking new stuff out anyway this is the sort of person I'm after. Have you been into a band and 12 months later they're huge? Happened more than once? Again, those are the sort of folks I'm after. I'll set up a group accordingly.

The way to approach me on this is:

Send me a PM entitled - RE: Digital Scout

Include links to two bands you know or have approached that you think are truely amazing and exceptional (that's actually quite hard). 'Sell' them to me as to why they would make a good signing. This would be very difficult without actually speaking to the band. Aswell as the music, what they're working on, who they're working with, radio/media exposure, current sales activity etc all count towards the desireability of a potential signing.

A short bio of yourself (100 words of less) so I know what music-y background you have.

Collaborations

Over the weekend I wrote my proposal for what functionality/interactivity I'd like to see between Vox and LastFM which I'll be forwarding on shortly. Again, as I have no real idea what I'm talking about when it comes to the more technical issues, I need to find out what's possible, how it works etc etc. I will keep you up to speed as things happen. I hope to have more developments by the end of the week.

Overall

I'm thinking about making some quite big changes to the community now I've got what seems like a good direction to take from the suggestions made. Ideally, I want a general facelift of the blogs and they way they are currently used. A lot more people will be publishing via them in the new year, which will mean a lot more posts rather than it being used mostly as a channel of communication for submissions. I see the central A&R 'group' being tied to, or becoming, the central portal for all submissions, and first port of call for artists, with a page directly attached to that to publish A&R-group-specific information.

The new year should be really interesting as regards what happens with this as as long as it's kept driven by the motivations and input of the community, I don't think we can go far wrong. If we do, I'm sure it would be sortable anyway. :-)

Hope all is well with you.

--------------------------------------------

Gigs 26/11/2007

The Mattew Bennett are playing my hometown Stockport at The Venue. Starts at 8pm, maybe I'll ask my mum to go along.

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A&R, Development and I broke my card dammit

nobody@vox.com(Indieboy) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:52:47 +0100

Just sent off my new A&R list to the labels, will get onto them this afternoon and hassle them to see what they think. I treat the lists as almost my own personal best-of's. I will start publishing them once this platform has been running a year I think. I'm in with RCA tomorrow so will be able to show off my wares there aswell.

I was meant to go to the Fox Cub's gig last night but as it took me about an hour and a half to get home to drop my stuff off, and I couldn't get any cash out because of this...

23102007102.jpg

..I couldn't make it. Damn. I had to scrounge change from around my room to make it to work this morning.

It's such a hassle but it will probably stop me spending for a while which isn't a bad thing.

Anyhow. I've forwarded on the results from the discussions happening around the development of the A&R platform to my boss. I also mentioned to Ged the recent activity and he was pleased to hear of the input and has been having a look around I believe.

Rather than put a poll up, which is what I thought about doing in the first place. I'm simply going to investigate every option to see how feasable it is first then see if I'm in a position to implement them. If it's something fairly easy (like the new media player) then we might aswell just do it. The more complicated ideas, like co-branded nationwide gigs, may be a little harder to acheive. But I will have a look nonetheless.

Big apologies to the Fox Cubs, it all got a bit much once I got home. Will have to catch the next one. Did anyone go to the Claire Toomey gig? I'm curious to see what she is like live too.

Tonight Shortwave Fade are playing at the Charlotte in Leicester. They've been in the community a while and are worth checking out. I really like their track Stay As You Are, take a listen if you get time.

Hope all is well with you, keep on adding the gigs and as soon as I've glued my card back together I'll start getting out and about again.

Hope all is well with you.

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The Calendar Works! Next Steps

nobody@vox.com(Indieboy) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:55:17 +0100

Hello,

The Calendar has worked really well so far with several artists already contributing their gig details. I will be pushing this later today on the label blogs too. So fill in your details on the Calendar, this could prove useful for people who are wanting a night out too. Put up your night, and a link to your vox/myspace/etc so people can have a listen, and you may get yourself some passing trade. HAVE A LOOK

Ok, it may seem that things may have been a little quiet recently. That's because lots is being planned discussed behind the scenes. I'm still thinking of ways to expand and develop our digital online function. One thing I'm examining is different methods of expanding into the likes of myspace and facebook.

Currently people link to or from other platforms but I'm looking at ways to knit the different pages together using vox and build an artists digital identity. Rather than a bunch of different sites. This will probably be through various methods of linking/cross posting but I will keep you informed.

Also, I've been thinking a lot about the direction this should be taking. Currently, this platform has successfully replaced the method of demo submission. We're getting a steady stream of online submissions which are being listened to. The best of which are presented to the label A&R teams. However, I think there is possibly potential for greater interaction/functionalilty. What form this takes is pretty much up to the people who use it and what they want to see. So I thought about putting up some kind of poll like the below. Like everything else I do, these ideas are off the top of my head but doing something like this I hope will open up some discussion as to what artists may want from a platform such as this. Plus not all of the options may be totally feasable, but they're only worth investigation if people are interested. So what do you think?

Poll

1. Artist Service Model

This would be based around providing you with a series of tools and services to aid you in establishing/developing yourself as an artist. As a major label we have access to a number of cost effective resources including methods of distribution, manufacture, software/online development etc. These could be opened up further for the acts within the community and enable to you distribute and earn from your own blogs.

2. Independent Label Model

Essentially a seperate new label, working with Sony BMG and specialising in smaller deals/singles with the aim of distributing and developing the best of the new talent within the community. Potentially these would be short-term, simple '360' deals, working closely with the artist on both physical and digital products. These artist could either grow within the label, or 'upstream' to a major.

3. Digital Only Distributor

A more simplified version of model 1 for those not who simply want a quick, easy and inexpensive way of digitally distributing via online retailers. Connecting directly to their blog.

4. Maintain Current Focus

Keep this completely A&R-centric with no emphasis on artist development. Instead focusing on the development of A&R tools for artists/staff to effectively spot the new talent within the communty and communicate with them better.

5. Promotion Platform Model

Developing this to make it more effective as a promotional tool for your music in a similar method to myspace. This would include tools developed to cross link from other social platforms including myspace, Facebook etc. Develop viral media players which are easily syndicatable through other formats.

6. Artist Development Focus

To work in conjunction with a 3rd party company who specialises in the development of grass-roots talent with the aim of helping them become a more desirable investment for major labels. This would include distribution and advice.

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