New Track: UN12
Jan 22, 2009 tracks
I’m still mulling over what I think of albums and collections in the context of modern music distribution, but in the meantime, here’s a little noodle that’s not currently part of any specific project and probably won’t wind up on any of the other channels:
UN12: (download)
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I hope you enjoy it!
Jan 13, 2009 Uncategorized
In a thread on USENET, it was suggested that I would probably know what an artist was supposed to do when trying to create their artistic entity on Facebook. Facebook, for those of you who don’t use it, is very focused on establishing your identity as a real person, and does not follow the anonymizing and obfuscatory traditions of many more online-focused social networking sites. Thus, if in real life you are Gordon Smith but you perform as The Great Gordino, Facebook will generally do its best to disallow you from being The Great Gordino on their site — they would really prefer that you be Gordon Smith.
So as an artist, what are you to do? Well, what you’re supposed to do is to make an account for yourself as an everyday individual and then make a “Page”. The Page is the entity for your artist persona or group (in the case of, say, a band or an acting troupe). You can then associate your individual account with your artist page if you wish, or you don’t have to. People can’t add the artist page as a friend, but they can become a “Fan”.
Okay, so I knew that this was essentially how it worked, but I’d never actually done it, so I wasn’t sure what was involved. Did it cost money? How did you go about it? In investigating this, I went ahead and made a Ramp page.
I’ve made a few pages before. I have artist pages on Jamendo and The Sixty One, and of course, I have this site. Every time I’m faced with this immense feeling of ennui when asked to describe myself, to describe Ramp and what Ramp is, to talk about why Jane Anybody should care. Does this get easy for anyone? Are there people out there who relish this sort of thing? Furthermore, what exactly *should* I be saying? I have no idea.
Now I have the page mostly made, with a lot of rough edges. I should add some more photos, but I’m not sure what to add. I don’t think anybody has any decent photos of the one live show I did play and my “studio”, visually, looks a lot like a computer desk but with nicer speakers. I’m uploading some media. There are “to buy” link spots available, which I’m just directing at this site, since all the music here is free.
In a lot of ways, the sense of directionlessness that I’m feeling about this Facebook page is something I’ve been feeling about this blog and a lot of other sites. I love making music, but the “putting it out there for others,” part seems to really have its ups and downs. There’s a strong sense of, “Is there anybody listening?” to it, and I get discouraged on this front easily. I often find myself standing in the shower wondering what all of this contributes to the world.
Anyway, if you have any thoughts or input, I’d love to hear it. And heck, if you’re on Facebook, I’ll probably publish the page shortly, so feel free to become a “Fan” there if you like.