A thought of "self promotion" for all artists...

[86.]

Some very interesting points in this thread!

One thing that I've never really heard anyone talk about is ... quality of design/art on myspace. I know alot of you think that the music is the only important thing, screw the art, the artist/track names, bio, design, info, etc. But I think it's very important if your approaching other people/labels/djs that your myspace doesn't look like an eyesore or bland/boring/offensive.

The way I see it is: you wouldn't give something to someone in real life (hoping to impress them) if your looking scruffy and unkept. Just like how you guys mention not using CAPS in your messages, and approaching people in a professional manner, the same should apply to how you present your myspace. If you have tracks named as 'FUCK OFF PISSFLAP' or have huge images that stretch horizontally and make me scroll right just to get to your player, or a myspace that takes ages to load, or even a myspace that causes my browser to temporarily freeze due to all the flash videos embedded in it, than it's not really helping your cause!!

Ultimately your trying to sell a brand (you), your brand of music, your brand of talent. I've seen some some myspace designs that truly look like a 10 year old's made it, didn't entice to listen to the music, and certainly didnt entice me to come back to it again. I'm not saying the visuals have to be amazing, just something that's easy to read and use. Cos the first port of call for most people if they wanna find out more about an artist is their myspace. So it makes sense to present yourself properly and professionally if you wanna be taken seriously.

Ofcourse this all sounds like bullshit if you think music > everything else. But maybe it's worth thinking about ..

Nah you're 100% right there mate - BUT this does come down to knowing the trade of HTML/CSS coding, a lot of people use generators with their favourite colours (not saying I don't!) and some people call that "boring"

but I HATE when I go 'pon someones myspace and it has pictures of stupid things everywhere and loads of videos - it just makes you look like you're a bit of a bum who dun give a shit about much, which in hindsight means you don't care about your music and often makes me lock off the page instantly. (for the record this is all opinion, you might care about your music)

But it is key to have a clean, fast loading myspace with a nice little bio to read while you listen to the tracks, oh and a easily found ADD TO FRIENDS button! Fack I hate when people don't code their buttons right and it goes to the "Send message" page when you click add to friends

The bio thing is something I never really considered (foolishly, of course). It had to do with reading various artists (especially unknown) ones saying shit like:

"______ is set for stardom. His brilliant music has blessed the earth for the past 5 years and shows no sign of falling off. ______ is a true musical visionary, with powerful music that possesses enough emotion to bring tears to the eyes of hardened criminals.________ fanbase is extremely loyal; evident when he/she goes on continent wide tours, making the venue quite a remarkable and impressive site. _______ will be a name that all will remember for the next 25 years".

or

"_____________ is charging $350 for a beat (SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY). I've produced classic beats for the following 'next-to-blow' artists: P-Nut, Big Aswad, Mr. Johnson, Tiny Tiger, Young Killa, Murderous Crew, and Kurrrmitt the Frogg"

then there's ones like

"yo i be making music guuuuuuuuuuyyyyy"

I suppose I can't throw rocks. Definitely will think of something to put there that doesn't look like me sucking my own dick, but also not as small as 2 random sentences.

[vertex]

I usually post everything I do in the dubs section becuase I've worked hard on the tracks and it would be a waste for no one to hear them, rather than trying to get picked up and made huge.

It is a shame that people usually don't pay any attention unless you put [320] in the title somewhere. Examples being I've had tracks in the dubs section that have gone off the first page with maybe 1 or 2 replies, then I decide to give them out, put 320 in the title and get a bunch of replies.

That's just the nature of how things go around here unfortunately.

I'm gonna start upping tracks at 256kbps, just to piss people off!

[feasible_weasel]

its better to have 1 good tune,that turn out 10 crap ones,that do nothing..

[collige]

I usually post everything I do in the dubs section becuase I've worked hard on the tracks and it would be a waste for no one to hear them, rather than trying to get picked up and made huge.

It is a shame that people usually don't pay any attention unless you put [320] in the title somewhere. Examples being I've had tracks in the dubs section that have gone off the first page with maybe 1 or 2 replies, then I decide to give them out, put 320 in the title and get a bunch of replies.

That's just the nature of how things go around here unfortunately.

I'm gonna start upping tracks at 256kbps, just to piss people off!

Even better:
"FREE 128!!"

[shig]

the last tune I put on here I titled something like 'check out my new tune, feedback appreciated', and it was off the front page in like a day. So I bumped it and edited the title to say 'FILTHY NEW DUB BY SHIG' and I got four or five replies.

it just goes to show, it might not be appreciated by some but it works man. this thread just seems like a pet peeve thread in the guise of a helpful one; let the music do the talking. it would be nice if everyone was be modest and polite but lets face it in the real world (and i'm not saying I agree with it) louder, more assertive people tend to get noticed first, so if you couple that with goods that match the attitude then imo you're doing something right.

gotta agree with the guy talking about the pretentious bio's on myspace pages tho

[mondays child]

86 Position wrote "_____________ is charging $350 for a beat (SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY). I've produced classic beats for the following 'next-to-blow' artists: P-Nut, Big Aswad, Mr. Johnson, Tiny Tiger, Young Killa, Murderous Crew, and Kurrrmitt the Frogg"