Challenges on Bandcamp

[T.C. Elliott]

Some on-line friends post a songwriting/recording challenge and then release all the tracks on bandcamp for a pay what you want including free price. I know their projects get a few downloads, but it's probably not a huge amount.

First,  do you think this community would be interested in a challenge of a particular nature to then be put up as a free download as a way to bringing attention to this community and a way to easily get all the tracks submitted in one download? (And I guess a side question is do we want/need more attention to this community in this manner?)

The second is, the challenges that is already run here... is there a want/need to have those songs downloadable in another manner such as bandcamp?

I'm kind of imagining something like the Picasso Project, but with a more wide open challenge. For instance, the one my friends are currently running (and have been since Christmas) is a 'valentunes' challenge where anything remotely involving love or valentines is included.  The negative I see on the second question is that anything that is a cover would not be able to be included for copyright reasons. Only originals would work.

I'm not nearly as active as I once was, but I check in nearly daily and still love this community. If you think this idea is a bad one, please feel free to express yourself. I'm a big boy and can take it. I have thought about this for a while, but in the end I figure I'd rather post the idea in case someone found value in it rather than keep silent and assume the worst.

[OsCKilO]

I'm in.

[Hilary]

I've got no particular interest in the challenges TC (my err situation is unique though) but I am thinking about Bandcamp and would love to know more about what you think of it as a music site. As someone that's trying to be in the public eye, I'm really bad at having an online presence but I'm trying . . .

[T.C. Elliott]

Bandcamp is a great place to sell (or give away a limited number) of downloads of albums or tunes. I think the max free downloads are 200 a month. If you sell they take a small cut. I've gotten several albums I really enjoy from there, usually indie things. It's free to set up and you don't have to pay unless you want to give away more than 200 downloads a month (which is quite a bit for most of us.)

I also really like CDBaby for selling songs*. It's generally got more polished music on average (although there are great sounding albums on bandcamp, there is also crap.)  They can do both downloads and physical sales and for a fee they can get you on iTunes if that is your interest.

To host songs you might want to share I use reverbnation and soundcloud as well. I know some members here use alonetone and like it.  Personally, I think bandcamp is a bit more "official" than the rest, in that it seems to be more a selling site than a sharing site. Music tends to have more attention paid to the recording there than simply sharing the latest demo. But that's a generality not a rule.

*As a consumer. I will continue to give my music away to people who want it without bothering with paid download sites until I polish off a genuine effort at an album. Even then I'll probably give it away for free whenever possible.

[Hilary]

Oh that's interesting TC, thanks for the feedback. I'm not really looking to sell my stuff, I'm trying to get gigs. My comedy stuff is all performance based and doesn't record well without an audience to bounce off and I haven't got the capabilities for live recording at a gig. The limited stuff I have got recorded is mostly quirky, whimsy songs and really basic recordings (mostly I just press the red and play button and go) as for me it's all about the live performance.

I was trying to get a gig at a Festival (I'm not afraid of rejection!) and they said they only took Soundcloud or Bandcamp submissions which is why it came up.

I didn't like Reverbnation and don't like Alonetone much either. I think I'll steer well clear of Bandcamp for now!

Thanks

[T.C. Elliott]

Soundcloud is a good one to store tracks and share.  If it were me (and it isn't) I'd buy a little hand held recorder (I've got the Roland R-05, but there are a lot of options) and just do a recording of some live stuff. It doesn't have to be fancy.   Mine is NOT the clearest recording in the world, but if I transfer the WAV or MP3 file into Reaper and do a quick little polish job on it they aren't bad. Especially for live recordings.  It does take a bit of time to transfer etc, but it isn't very difficult if you have ever transferred files and renamed things before. Or cut up a big file into little files using Audacity or Reaper or another DAW.  If you go this route just name the tracks you post something like: Songname live at event name (or time) so that everyone knows it's a live recording (which would be obvious.)

Good luck on gigs..... and life in general. I think we could all use a little luck going our way.

[Hilary]

Thanks TC - I can in theory record live with the BR but I tried it when I first started gigging and my husband was useless - 5 gigs later (and I didn't have many gigs at that point) I still didn't have a decent recording. It is tricky, peaks when people laugh etc especially if it's near the BR.

The best bet is a video (which even my husband can manage) and upload to Youtube - I have them unlisted, then only people I send the link to can view the vid. If push came to shove, I could always rip the audio from one of the vids.

That's the action plan for now anyway