My dear friend and musical partner in crime, Matt, has been locking himself in his room for days. I couldn’t find any way to get him to come out! Finally, I had a friend of ours plant a webcam in his room to find out what in the world he’s been doing with himself. Our findings were shocking… take a look.
Red Alert! Mayday!
Well, this isn’t originally a Clapton song, but he does perform it a lot! “Before You Accuse Me” is a classic Bo Diddley tune, and I recently performed it with Soundscape Soul (my band with good friend Matt Aronson) at The Knitting Factory in New York City. I hope you all enjoy it!
Okay, I’m not REALLY on TV, but a friend of mine created a commercial spot for my band. Eli Poulin, who performed with my band in Austin, TX back in July, created a super cool commercial to help promote our music in the iTunes Music Store! Excuse me, for I’m still a little giddy after watching it for the 50th time! Check it out!
Super Cool!
In other news, my band is back in the Top 10 on FameCast.com for the 3rd straight season, and we’re hoping to get enough support to make it back to Austin for the 2nd straight season. If you haven’t yet, cast your vote for us on the Pop Stage, so we can perform for you during a Live Webcast that you can watch right there on your computer. To find our voting page, click here. All you need to do is create a fanatic/vote account, or log in to your current account (if you’ve already created one). Once you’re all logged on, head back to our voting page and click on the “Vote” button while our video is playing. If you cast your vote once a day, we’ll be sure to make it back to Austin for another show!
Send this blogger back to Texas!
Approaching the final leg of it’s Third Season, FameCast.com has been slowly becoming a player in online competitions for musicians, performers, dancers, filmmakers, and animation artists. It’s popularity has matched it’s rival-like site, MusicNation. The main difference between the two was the process of voting. MusicNation allowed artists and fans to vote for their favorite artists once per day during each competition’s season. FameCast, however, only allowed artists and fans to cast one vote per round for each contestant throughout a season.
This past October, FameCast changed its ways, and allowed its users to cast one vote per day for each artist they choose to vote for. Instantly, site traffic saw a major increase, and advertisers seemingly started to pop up all over the website. Once can only imagine the kind of Advertisment Revenue this has created for FameCast.
Daily Site Stats as of 11/2/07 for FameCast.com
Full stats can be found here
But just last night, the rankings had suddenly changed on one of FameCast’s ‘stages’, and a negative buzz is starting to fly around artists and fans on the site. Most of the buzz is coming from those who were directly affected by the loss of what FameCast calls “illegitimate votes”. Artists had dropped from a range of 10-17 ranks by around 6:00pm Eastern. Fans have start to bombard the forums looking for answers, and questioning FameCast’s own legitimacy. Part of FameCast’s current response states:
“…Please remember that if an Artist’s rank drops, this does not necessarily mean that the Artist has been falsifying votes, but that he or she may have received illegitimate votes from another source.”
In the end, is it completely fair for an artist to have no real control over their final ranking? Maybe not. But there are two questions I can think of that should be asked from both sides of the table. On the Fan/Artist side, will this issue be something that can be fixed in the future, thus eliminating the lack of trust this might create? On the side of FameCast, does the current “Audit Committee” method need to be changed, and is it going to directly affect the relationship between Site Traffic and Ad Revenue?
Personally, I’ve been involved in FameCast since its first Season. My band, Soundscape Soul performed in their Season 2 Finals. I’ve seen many positive results from our presence on the website. But we were one of the artists affected by the recent “Vote Audit” and therefore was taken out of the running on one stage, while having no options to fix the situation before it was done. We are still on another stage and planning on launching promotion campaigns for the next round, but I would rather see this current issue resolved and laid to rest.
What do you think about the recent “Vote Auditing” that just took place on FameCast? Do you think there’s a link between that and the need for Site Traffic? Will this affect that need? Sound off!
FameCast.com has thrown my band, Soundscape Soul, for a loop (and for the 3rd straight Season). Thanks to everybody’s support, we’ve kept up a #1 Ranking on the Pop Stage and have made it into the Top 10. On the Singer/Songwriter Stage, we had maintained a #3 Ranking. For some reason, we were knocked down to 20th while the voting was closed and therefore missed the cut into the Top 10 on that stage. FameCast has issued a response to the drop in rank by sending me this email:
“Hi Josh,
I apologize for the confusion regarding the drop; the Audit Committee had their work cut out for them. As always, votes deemed illegitimate were removed and the ranks changed accordingly. I assure you that your shift was the direct result of such action.
Thank you”
Please, if you have the time, visit this Forum on FameCast.com, login to or create your account, and post your feelings on what has happened and what you feel should be done to fix the “Vote Auditing” system. Your opinion matters, and can make a difference. You can also leave a comment here. If we can rack up enough comments here, I’ll go ahead and forward all of your suggestions and comments directly to FameCast.
What’s done is done, and our focus returns to the competition. Despite being knocked out of the Singer/Songwriter Stage, we’re still alive on the Pop Stage, and that’s where we’ll need your support the most! Our submission into the Pop Stage (since this new round must feature a new video) is a clip of us performing the first song we had ever written: “Her Song”. We performed this song at the Triad Theater in New York City back in March of 2006. I hope you all enjoy it, and can head over to FameCast.com to vote for the video. Voting will begin on Tuesday, November 6th at 9:00pm Eastern and last until Tuesday, November 20th at 12:00pm Eastern. Thanks again everyone, and enjoy this clip!
Soundscape Soul – “Her Song”
Soundscape Soul is getting closer to making it back to Austin, TX for the second straight season in FameCast.com’s Fenom Competition! With your daily votes, they could also be making site history, being the first artist/performer in the site’s history to be voted into 3 consecutive Top 5 appearances.
Please click below and Digg this story. Remember to vote for Soundscape Soul on both Pop and Singer/Songwriter Stages!
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