Songcrafters... what can we do?

[Mike_S]

I thought maybe if we started a thread... where if anyone has any thoughts on what we can do to get Songcrafters busier or get new members on board... then we will have a central place to come to... what do folk think does anyone have any thoughts on how to reignite it? Maybe this thread will remain pretty dead too as its a difficult question, but I thought won't do any harm to try.

[Mike_S]

Are there any websites we can place banner ads - for free i guess - for folk to click through to Songcrafters to see what it's all about. I am happy to make the banners up if there was.

[alfstone]

Mike, sincerely I don't think we can do *something*. By my point of view it's a generational issue: just give a look at Songcrafters' members average age.

The music industry is in crisis, many less young people (respect to our generations...) enjoy learning to play any instrument and so on. And of course this global situation reflects on music web sites too, SC included. And it's something that began NOT today, NOR some months ago...just as an example, the music magazines I wrote on for several years (end of Nineties) closed ALL in 2006.

Alfredo

[Mike_S]

Maybe you are right Alfredo. it is difficult to know. 

[bruno]

Good thread. A discussion to be had.
I think we all need to try a bit harder (definitely me included), else it will wither away. I think people will come to a busy place, whereas people don't bother if it is a slow site.

One thing that would help, although I don't know if this is technically simple or difficult, would be if we could share a player onto social media - so we could publish songs on platforms like Facebook. That **may** help drive people to the site. I think that people are generally not so keen on click through URL's - but I could be wrong on that.

NB - if I know someone is into playing music - I do tell them about the site - and I think that helps, but we need regular posters and/or reviewers to keep the site active. Perhaps we need a 'latest on SG' new letter for inactive members or something like that .... just thinking aloud.

B

[Pete C]

One idea crossed my mind - our own Johnnyrobbo has a YouTube channel (John Robson Guitar) and he gets a good few thousand views on his videos. Wonder if he would give us a plug by putting our URL in his video descriptions and maybe doing a few home recording tutorials.  May get some younger members but even if we got an influx of older members it might help stir some interest.  Not seen much of John on here recently - maybe he might read this ?

[64Guitars]

I think what's missing is new recording gear. Songcrafters was at its peak of popularity when the Boss Micro BR was available. It was an inexpensive multitrack recorder which many people purchased. They were excited about their new recorder and eager to learn more about it and share the recordings they made with it. But the last recorder Boss released was the BR-80 and that was over 7 years ago! In the absence of any new recording gear, a lot of the excitement and enthusiasm has faded and people just aren't recording as much as they used to when their recording equipment was new and exciting.

Since most of us haven't been doing much recording lately, maybe we should try to revive the site by starting some interesting discussions instead. Or how about the Games board? Some of the topics there were a lot of fun. Maybe someone can think of a new game. Or maybe we can revive some of the old ones. I especially liked the Song Intros game. And it's a good excuse to record something that doesn't take a lot of time and effort. The Song Snippets game was fun too.

[Hilary]

When I click on the site I get the red triangle up which says not secure. I'm sure that puts a lot of potential new members off.

I also don't think the festers are helping - 7 people voted for the current fests and only 1 has contributed so far (last time I checked). Maybe as contriubtions are so low we could have the top 3 in each category and then at least there'd be something to spark someone's interest in the fests.

There's still a central core of us who contribute and comment - maybe we should collab with each other more and self generate some movement/interest on the site.

[Hilary]

I just wanted to say I'm still being inspired to write/record songs that I wouldn't be writing/recording if it weren't for Songcrafters, so I guess you get out of it what you want to and make of it what you will!

[alfstone]

I also don't think the festers are helping - 7 people voted for the current fests and only 1 has contributed so far (last time I checked). Maybe as contriubtions are so low we could have the top 3 in each category and then at least there'd be something to spark someone's interest in the fests.

I agree with Hilary, quite often the fests are too much "narrow", so why not give more options instead of two? I mean, there are months (like the current ones) where I know for sure I have absolutley nothing to say/play...
Alfredo