Year: 2009

Reasons to for Bands to Quit MySpace

Jeromey Balderrama

I ran across this great post a few days ago that I found to be very relevant as my band evaluates where devote on-line energy.  This brings up the elephant in the room that all bands need to discuss sooner or later.

>> 5 Reasons for Bands & Musicians to Quit MySpace

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It’s no secret that MySpace is on it’s way out.  The prominent rise of Facebook, coupled with our pain threshold for spam, flashing graphics and blaring noise has worn out MySpace’s welcome.  Long ago have I abandoned any meaningful time spent at the spent for my personal profile.  For my band’s profile, I still log into MySpace a few times per week, but the ROI has continued to decrease for our band and MySpace.

The biggest thing you can take away from the article is Reason #3:

Other bands are not your primary source of attendance

According to the statistics I’ve heard, there are roughly 8 million bands on MySpace, and you have 15,000 of them as friends! Unfortunately, those people are probably not buying your albums or attending your shows. While they may be good to do a show swap with, or bro down with for a tour some day-they’re not helping you pay the bills and put butts in your seats.

The 10% of users that are real people more than likely COMPLETELY ignore the “bulletins” that you can blast out to everyone. When was the last time you went to a show based on a bulletin you saw on MySpace? [Assault Blog]

I can’t tell you the last time I’ve interacted with an actual fan on MySpace.  Almost every interaction I have is with other bands, and the ones that aren’t bands are booking agents/venues – which is really only the valid communication that goes on for us on MySpace.  The collaboration is on MySpace is also a downside, because typically when these venues list you on their promotion, they link our MySpace, which isn’t our best web presence out there.

The article lists some great resources & alternatives to using MySpace.  We use some of them including Twitter and Last.Fm.  There was one omission which I think is starting to become unavoidable: Facebook.  While I agree that it’s always best to own your own content and presentation, along with the concession that Facebook is a little harder for brand outreach – but you need to be where people are at – which right now is Facebook.

Until then, I think we’re going to start to wean ourselves off of MySpace.  I don’t think we’ll ever stop posting music, pictures and show schedules there, but only because it doesn’t hurt to keep things updated for booking agents.  However, I think it’s time for bands to focus their energies elsewhere.

Five For Fighting Acoustic & Amazing

Jeromey Balderrama

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Last night Bethany and I went down to Denver to go see one of my favorite bands in an amazing acoustic set.  I wrote on Saturday on my excitement about seeing this show, and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

It’s such a treat to see singer/song-writers acoustically (or anyone acoustically for that matter), because they typically tell stories around their songs.  It’s amazing to hear what inspired them to write, what they see as the meaning behind their words.  John Ondrasik definitely delivered, elaborating on songs like “Freedom Never Cries”, “Tuesday”, and “Slice”.

The performances were raw and intimate – the atmosphere at the Soiled Dove made sure of that.  We had the perfect seats, at the end of a long table on their “Silver” level.  We were at the perfect height to see over the heads of the General Admission folks, and got a perfect direct view of the band.  I wish I could have posted better pictures than this one I took with my cell phone, but it seems like I was the only one – including the Soiled Dove -  that actually read the fine print on the ticket that said you couldn’t bring cameras in.  I’ve learned my lesson and will ignore the rules.

I think my “Top 5” concert list is due for a refresh, but as great as that show was I’m not sure if it’s going to break into that list.  The reason: the show wasn’t long enough.  While he definitely put on a good show, he was only on the stage for a little more than an hour.  There was an opening act – Angel Taylor – who was fantastic, so the evening was rounded out.  It was a bit of a blessing in disguise as we got back home at a decent time on a Sunday night, but a top 5 show has to be a little longer.

I can’t wait until the next time Five For Fighting passes through Denver.  I’ll definitely be there!

I did it!

Jeromey Balderrama

After 31 days of blogging I took a break yesterday, but I wanted to commemorate my small achievement in completing NaBloWriMo.  As I posted a month ago, I was going to attempt to blog at least once per day for the next month, and 37 posts later I made it!

I’m not going to lie: at the start of the month, it was a real chore to start blogging.  There were nights when I sitting in bed next to my sleeping wife as I was typing away, anxious to hit “Post” before 12am.  It was about the end of week 2 I finally caught my second wind and it became easier to block out time to blog.

Not all of my posts were must-reads, but some of my favorite ones over the month included:

I’ve really appreciated the experience, and hope that this will continue to ignite that blogging spark that I found when I started this blog back in May of 2005. Thank you for all of your support be reading my blog, and I hope that this was as fun for you as it was for me.

Pumped about Five for Fighting

Jeromey Balderrama

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Tomorrow night Bethany and I are headed down to the Soiled Dove Underground for an acoustic evening with Five For Fighting, one of my favorite artists.  As we thought about it, we realized that this will be the first concert we’ve been to since July of 2008.  This will be a great show to quench our concert thirst. Looking back at a post I wrote in 2005 (coincidentally this post was triggered by my first date with Bethany) that ranked my top concerts, the Five For Fighting acoustic evening ranked #2 in my top 5 concerts list.  I hate to quote myself, but it best summarizes why I’m excited about this show:

For those of you who haven’t heard Five For Fighting beyond "Superman" and "100 Years" – you’re really missing out.  John Ondrasik is definitely one of my favorite musicians of all time, and I had been in love with Five For Fighting for almost 2 years at that point.  So when I heard that he was having an acoustic show I jumped at the chance to get tickets (which weren’t selling very fast at all).  I roped a few of my friends from church to come down to the show.  My friend Fred and I ended up sitting in the 2nd row and we were like 8 feet away from John Ondrasik!   I had never been to the Blue Bird before, but it is TINY! – 150 people, max.  And he we were in an awesome intimate concert setting hearing all of these awesome songs and raw passion that John put into playing each of them.  He gave us a little bit of piano, a little bit of guitar and a lot of amazement.  I wasn’t sure how my friends were going to react to the show, but when we walked out they were blown away as well.  Then one of my friends asked me "How did you manage to get tickets to that?!?  To see someone acoustic and small as that – you have to know the band personally".  I still find it funny [Back in 2005]

It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to bring a camera (which is a real bummer), but I’ll definitely offer my thoughts after the show on Monday.

26,000 Scrobbled and counting

Jeromey Balderrama

Yesterday I eclipsed my 26,000 song that I Scrobbled on Last.fm.  A “Scrobble” is essentially a song play that was tracked by Last.fm. By keeping track what I listen to, Last.fm has put together some pretty interesting statistics of my music tastes, as well as recommended songs that I would like (a feature I really haven’t used too much).

I’ve always wanted to write a reflective post of my top 10 artists according to Last.fm but missed the boat on the 20,000th and 25,000th thousand Scrobbles, so I figured that 26,000 was a nice round number and would take the opportunity to do so.  Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite bands:

10. System of a Down (262 Plays) – Probably my favorite hard rock band – and I guess statistically-speaking, this is right. Top Album: Toxicity Top Songs: Chop Suey, Prison Song, B.Y.O.B., Hypnotize, Revenga

9. Fiction Plane (276 Plays) – I heard them open for the Police and have loved them ever since. Top Album: Left Side of the Brain Top Songs: Two Sisters, It’s A Lie, Death Machine, Running the Country, Presuppose

8. Gym Class Heroes 286 Plays) – The most surprising to me. I think it’s because I really like 2-3 tracks and have really overplayed them. Track #3 (29 plays) nearly doubles Track #4 (15 plays)  Top Album: As Cruel as School Children Top Songs: 4th Period: Clothes Off, Cupid’s Chokehold, Peace Sign/Index Down, 3rd Period: New Friend Request, Catch Me If You Can

7. O.A.R. (296 Plays) – O.A.R. is great music to unwind to.  I get in these moods where I’ll queue up a bunch of tracks on the playlist and let it rip. Top Album: All Sides. Top Track: War Song, Shattered, The Stranger, Something Coming Over, This Town

6. Five for Fighting (330 Plays) – One of my favorite bands, and I’m so excited that I’ll get to see John Ondrasik acoustically on Sunday!  Top Album: Two Lights. Top Songs: World, The Riddle, 100 Years, Something About You, Superman (It’s Not Easy)

5. Outkast (344 Plays) – Definitely my favorite rap group, I especially love the stuff that Andre 3000 does. Top Album: Speakeroxxx/The Love Below. Top Songs: Rosa Parks, Humble Mumble, Hey Ya!, Ms. Jackson, Spottieottiedopaliscious

4. Jimmy Eat World (345 Plays) – Probably tops my “Bands I haven’t seen live but really want to” list. Top Album: Bleed American. Top Songs: Here It Goes, Open Bar Reception, Big Casino, Sweetness, The Middle

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers (425 Plays) – Not much to say, just a great, solid band whose old and new stuff I enjoy. Top Album: Stadium Arcadium. Top Songs: Dani California, Under the Bridge, Show Me Your Soul, Readymade, Californication

2. Michael Franti & Spearhead (431 Plays) – A band that I have loved for years, and am glad that more people are finding out about them. Also the only band in this list where I’ve personally met the singer. Top Album: Stay Human Top Songs: One Step Closer to You, People in the Middle, A Little Bit of Riddim, Listener Supported, East to the West

and as if #1 was going to be any surprise.

#1 – Dave Matthews Band (1,255 Plays) -  Almost triples #2 on the list.  Considering how much effort I’ve put in to seeing them live, I should love to play them a lot. Top Album: Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King. Top Songs: Grey Street, #41, What Would You Say, Ants Marching, Funny the Way It Is

Note: I removed podcasts from my top 10 list.  There was one that fell under this list (ESPN at #2 – which is a family of podcasts).

I would highly recommend that if you’re a fan of music and would like to see what you’re listening to, that you give Last.fm a try.  We’ll see what happens when I approach 50,000 Scrobbles, and if my music taste changes much.  If you’re on Last.fm, I’d love for you to add my as a friend: RomeyInFC