I've been uploading rock and country rock, and get quite a few positive reactions, but as soon as I upload a Reggae song, it's like the crickets are the only thing that can be heard, total silence.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me on the situation.
Describing something as Reggae can really put some people off. Some people perceive it as simplistic and monotonous before they have even listened to much of the genre or understood its history.
My approach to creating Reggae tracks is to avoid anything too basic. I like to go down the Jazz based Reggae route and I am inspired by the Jazz pianist Monty Alexander. I also like to create Reggae versions of well known songs or reinterpret Reggae classics. (Some Reggae tracks I originally posted on iComposition can be found on my SoundCloud page). Whether anyone actually listens to this stuff does not really matter much to me. Reggae is part of my being.
I love reggae but as i am a very whiter shade of pale and given the present attitude of the net I no longer record it although I have in the past. Funny that people are fine with a blonde ( now white) haired blue eyed man playing rock but if I do soul or reggae I get crucified for it-funny olde world :)
@Wyndsok I think this "scarce participation" is due to the noise they call today's music, ya know that (c)rap, trap, hiphop, trance, etc etc, and the real musicians of this world are fading out, and apart from us the new generations calling us "old fogies lol", none of the younger generations listen to real music anyway, and so unless these "old fogies" learn how to rap, and learn how to record hiphop, etc etc, there won't be any participation, but this so called "music of today" is born into, not learnt, if the youngsters of today were to be taught music, such as music theory, learning how to read music scores, and being taught how to play an instrument, they would just laugh and say "FY, I'll just rap, and all I have to do is get AI to produce the words, and I just talk those words to a drum beat." Youngsters today, don't know what "real" music is.
My daughter is a mezzo soprano, and sings with various orchestras, and my 2 sons play in their own metal band, even though they were classically trained on an acoustic guitars. I was classically trained on the piano, and played in various venues from playing classical music in an orchestra to rock bands, playing a synth. Now, that's! real music, these so called "musicians" of today, weren't taught anything, they just listen and say "I can do that", and attempt to teach themselves, they're only doing it in an attempt to get rich, without realizing that "real" music is felt, real musicians can create a huge range of music moods from bouncy and happy way down to sombre and tear jerking, and it all comes from the soul. Can rappers do that and really understand what they're doing?
Folk may call us snobs or elitists but I don't care.
In fact I think that's a lot of **** ...
While I have no training at all, I've always followed closely musicians who at least aspired to be virtuosos in their field.
Don't care much for the current scene. There was somewhat of a small renaissance in the 90s but it wasn't widespread and didn't last long. Only more recent band I listen to is "Flying Colors," but they're a supergroup made up of top drawer musicians who've been around awhile, and have all paid their dues.
My own music has its deepest roots in the English folk rock scene of the 60s and 70s. I listen to a lot of different styles (like blues and prog for example) but for the most part stick to what I do best.
I do think that there are also other reasons why participation is down.
A site like this doesn't work well unless participants are community minded. Folk who believe everything they produce is gold and engage in hit and run posting can be problematic. They believe everyone should listen to them but make little or no effort to listen to anyone else. They could be offering guidance, constructive critique, or encouragement to others, but it seems they only want to be heard.
Re critiques: At Macjams we had an incognito guy called Ichabod Pain. Folk would invite him to critique their tunes. He was a pro but was brutal. You knew that going in.
I occasionally engage in constructive critique, but in private. We all have our egos and in a community that needs to be respected.
I also suspect that differences in religious, philosophical, and political beliefs may be causing a problem, although I think that is rather shameful and immature. But to each their own I guess.
Hey man, thanks for an intelligent discussion thread! You rock sir!
@Wyndsok I've said it before in the chat and I will say it again- who would pay $200 a month to keep this going?-I would how about you? Or ten people $20 a month Or 100 people $2 you see where I'm Going
I agree with all these comments. I too would support a "reasonable" fee to keep this site active. But I feel the problem is that this site does not encourage collaborations. It is ok with musicians uploading their originals. Other sites make the goal to post tracks for collaboration and they are doing well because their "community" are amateurs (but very talnted musicians) that are "thirsty" to find a click of musicians that appeal to them, they form a musical relationship for communicating, helping each other and the tracks take off into the thousands. I like this site but I find myself not visiting often because it is mostly just to listen which is fine but does not draw musicians that do not have many gig opportunities and are starving to play with other musicians, like myself. I consider "elite" musicians that all your kids listen too and spend money to see them. I favor Jazz and I consider the "elite" those that record and tour often and make a living at it. "Elite" to me means they may not be the best musicians (most are Great nmusicians) but thay have that "it" factor to be popualar, sell,their product and make more than a modest living at it. My point is there are so many other musicians not "Elite", like myself, but we can create music with others and that is possible with some cool collaoration sites that exist. We can not change the music that is popular with the public. But you and I are not "listeners" only. We are musicians that have that playing bug and some (like me) could no longer play with others without on-line collaboration sites. It is fine for you and me to upoad just our originals and covers but in my humple opinion you are not appealing to a musican audience looking to collaborate.
@musaholic_Studios crickets can be heard in Reggae section, but it's also true for many others (try "Surf"...). Multiple factors can explain that, but as @Wyndsok and @Garni and others fine folks mentionned here, the main issue is the lack of active members. People that understand this site is a community and it only exists if we care for each other. And it's not that hard... Just spend little less time on 'social media' and little more here. It's much more fun, creative and cool. There's some real people, listening and leaving some words, when they can, if they want... But i guess it's too much to ask, maybe. There is more or less always the same 20-30 members that are supporting, listening and caring. Not enough ? Who knows ? Maybe it is ... Depends on what everyone want to achieve when they sign in on iBandstand. I think Justin is doing a fabulous job, spent a lot of time building and fixing, and deserves better... As Mike suggested, reasonable monthly fee ? Why not ?
I wholeheartedly agree with the implementation of a monthly fee. This revenue stream would be instrumental in covering expenses such as advertising.
The site’s continued viability hinges on the level of active participation.
It is uncertain how long the site can sustain itself if Justin is investing money to maintain it with minimal or no tangible return.
As previously suggested by @Dyl , it would be beneficial to disconnect from social media and redirect one’s time towards creative pursuits. Additionally, it is crucial to support fellow musicians who are also grappling with the challenges of gaining exposure, as many of us are experiencing.
@Garni I too would pay a reseonable monthly fee, but only if the site is really active, not with just members listening and posting, but full interactiveness, mostly through collaborations.
Does anyone remember the now defunct platform called 'Ohm Studio'? Without going into it's life history, for those that don't know what it was, 'Ohm Studio' was a collaboration platform, and when I say 'collaboration', I mean just that, you couldnt really do anything else with it but collaborate, even though it had a public chat room, the entire desktop app access was ONLY via membership. When you first open the app and sign in, the first thing you see is the global chat, a list of online members and the project area, as seen by this image:
Starting a new project opens the built in DAW which is literally comparable to any other DAW with full editing, and this is where it gets interesting, it has some built in VST's, effects and instruments, but the DAW can also use any VST's already installed on your PC, but unless the other party also has the same VST's the sounds would not be heard so it was not unusual to 'freeze' the track(s), but anyway, first you record your tracks as you would with any DAW, then you publish them as a single track to the project webpage, then there is where you copy the URL, and post it to the global chat requesting collaboration, so now someone clicks that link, goes to the project page, hears the mix, then clicks another link inside the project page that opens their Ohm Studio to that project, now, you have yourself and one other in the project, now if both of you are online, then you will see each other in the private project chat, then the other person lays down his/her track, but as soon as they hit that track record, the other person will see that track highlighted in red, you won't be able to hear anything until the other person has finished, then once the track returns to black, you can hit the play button, and so on.
'Ohm Studio' had two memberships, free and paid, the free version was limited in the amount of projects and the format of the exported project as only MP3, but the paid version was unlimited project and exporting in lossless WAV, etc etc, I had the paid version, and me and many other members were churning out mixes like there was no tomorrow.
NOW, That!!!!!! is a true collaboration, there has never been anything like it since.
'Ohm Studio' was closed because the French delevopers over there in France, decided it was not monetary beneficial, IE it was wasn't making enough money for them, even though the company was still selling lots and lots of VSTi's and VST effects as single plugins. One of the Ohm Studio member's wanted to buy them out, but the dev's said 'No', and that was that.
I noticed that iBandstand has a 'Collaboration' section but it's hardy ever used, and the last post is from me way back 26 Sept 2024.
I have a max paid subscription for Proton mail which includes 550GB of storage, and I also set up winthin Proton Drive folders specifically for sharing stems and mixes, but unless something like 'Ohm Studio' comes along, web based collaboration sites just don't work.
