You’re right that my proposal might be a bit much for most people who just want to post their music and build a fan base.So we could take your structure and whoever wants to add more information to their submission is free to do so.
Maybe with an optional template that invites people to share more about their ideas behind the music, but if someone just wants to drop a link, that’s fine too.
Unfortunately, I have trouble finishing things, so I can’t contribute very much myself in terms of music, but I’ll be happy to join the conversation if someone shares their music here.
I’ve got an idea that tries to combine all these factors.
Imagine this category structure:
Music
Tracks
Albums
Artists
Now let’s focus on the main Music category and the Tracks subcategory.
The Tracks subcategory works with the system you propose: people submitting their tracks must come with a story. One track one topic. We offer a default template that people can follow or throw away an explain something about the track however they wish.
The Music main category includes two monthly topics where even a link without any information is accepted (conditions apply, see below):
Bitwig Music Radar - December 2021 - Anyone can post links to anything produced with Bitwig. They must be published during the month and there needs to be a reasonable indication that it has been produced with Bitwig.
Bitwish Music Compilation - December 2021 - Same as above, except that users submit their own works.
An opening topic explains what this is about and what you can do as a publisher of new entries and as a listener.
One track, one reply.
Listeners can , comment, and upvote each track (upvotes are limited)
If there is enough participation, at the end of the month we will have two topics filled with tracks, ranked by votes just for the fun of it.
This means that we have three levels for music submissions:
Radar is very casual and maybe even noisy, but it’s cool because we get quantity, and maybe people discover Bitwishj when they realize (or someone tells them) that someone has featured their last song.
Compilation is still very casual, but the creators are here, and therefore people may feel more encouraged to leave casual comments.
Tracks is more involved, is about conversations, exchanges, advice… a community of creators.
From there we’d jump to Albums and Artists, more involved, deeper connections.
I’m not quite sure I understand the structure you’re describing, but here are my suggestions based on how I understand it.
Music
Creators Circle
Made With Bitwig Montly
Artist Profiles
I’ll explain the purpose of each category below and I’m curious what everyone thinks about my suggestion.
Creators Circle
This is where we can get really cozy and talk about our music and motivations behind it. Hopefully, this will evolve into a safe space where new friendships will be formed and ideas brought to life.
Made With Bitwig Montly
I really like your idea of a monthly thread where people can post music made in Bitwig and vote for the music they like the most.
Although I don’t see why we’d need two different categories for posting tracks. Do you really expect such a large number of tracks made in Bitwig by people who aren’t in this community? Maybe start with one and split it up if it gets too crowded?
I think it can be really discouraging to come to a new place and see almost no activity, so I think it would be better to also merge Tracks and Albums until we start some real activity.
And the Album category will probably see even less submissions since people rarely create full albums anymore.
So I would suggest one thread per month were people can post whatever as long as it contains music made with Bitwig and was released that month, even if it’s just one part like in short films or commercials.
Artist Profiles
What type of discussion do you imagine for the Artist category? I mean promoting yourself is one thing, but this being such a small userbase (at least for now), I think it makes more sense to turn this into a place of mutual support and encouragement along our musical journeys.
Maybe we could talk about branding and building a fan base in way that’s true to the artistic vision and share resources that we found insightful or inspiring…
So yes, artists can share their profiles, but I would like this to be more than a place where you drop links and hope for the best.
You have very good points. I think we fully agree on the essence:
Easy compilation of tracks made with Bitwig.
Stories about tracks by their authors, evolving into conversations.
Conversations between creators, evolving into connections.
Agreed?
Let’s start with the creation of the “Music” category with one topic “Music made with Bitwig - December 2021” (names and locations can be changed later). Anyone can post links to tracks in this topic as long as they are from this month. People can post their own tracks, or they can post tracks they have found somewhere else. They can also upload the .bwproject file of their own tracks if they so wish.
And let’s see what is the response? Meanwhile, we can continue defining the other elements of this category.
We have got a first repertoire of tracks and some creators signing up (including a debut!) . Not bad for a start.
While I’ll keep being on the look for new tracks, I think we can start trying with the feedback.
The next step is to try own topics for tracks. I liked the idea of the optional template.
About albums, I believe they still have some life thanks to i.e. Bandcamp. I agree they are not that predominant. We can wait and see if we come across enough of them to treat them differently.
Something that may be interesting is that I believe that conversations that start in a big monthly topic can be spinned-off to their own track topics if their authors want to do so.
Imagine, you are an author, post a track, turns out that it generates a lot of interesting comments… ok, then you create a new topic with that track in the first post and some comments, and then a moderator can move the comments from the monthly topic to the track topic, where they will have a longer and more on-topic life.
This would be a natural way to promote conversations.
At the moment, I think we can just leave the discussions at the monthly topic. The only downside there is that you can’t reply to a specific comment, but you can @ people if it isn’t clear who you’re responding to.
The only downside I see with the monthly thread is that it can be difficult to tell if a track was posted by the artist or someone else.
What if people want to share music published before December 2021?
Yes, indeed. This was one of the things I wanted to address when proposing a “radar” (anything found out there) separate from a thread where creators share their own music. Both things have value, just different kind of value.
Right. I didn’t think why anyone would want to share old music
Okay. Then maybe you should go back to that?
If you use two (or more) sound packs, do you post it in both (all) threads then?
To be honest, I don’t really understand what your vision for this space is. Maybe this is all too complicated and everyone should just create a new thread if they want to post a song. This seems to work for other places.
The single thread is working for those who publish on the single thread, but… what about the rest? Maybe there are other formats that would encourage more people?
Also, in many cases the single thread is there only because they have been pushed by the rest of the forum/subreddit to a single thread, and you see now and then people willing to get more attention creating a topic for their new track/album.
What about this text as placeholder for whoever is going to create a new topic. We could have it on About the Music category as well:
Feature your music here! Any format and any style is welcome as long as it is made with Bitwig.
You can paste links to Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Youtube and other streaming services. If the link is alone in a single line, a player will be rendered automatically.
You can also upload your Bitwig project files (.bwproject), if you want others to check your work, recycle it, mix it. Please clarify the license of the file and the contents if you do so.
Tell us something about your music. For instance…
What was your motivation?
What details are you proud of?
Anything you struggled with?
Do you seek feedback about something specific?
After you publish your new topic, we encourage you to , upvote and comment on music shared by others. Contribute to make this a place of feedback, exchange and connections!
I think that’s a good format for the music category and I like your text for the “About the Music category” post.
Being able to upload mp3s here would be pretty cool, I think, if you want to discuss ideas or WIPs you’re not ready to publish yet. Although user uploads always pose a security risk, so I also understand if you decide against it
, comment, and upvote each track (upvotes are limited)
. Not bad for a start.
