Brian Bergeron

…but I’ve been spending a lot of time on OurStage.com this week because my interest is peaked because of an opportunity to open for Matt Nathanson (*fingers crossed*) and it’s become apparent to me that 90% of the music on there is amateurish and well…bad. I hate to put it this way because, hey it’s art, and who am I to judge and we’re all doing our best, etc. etc. but I want to become more active on the site (spend time judging and making myself an authority on the site) but it’s difficult because out of the Sort 4 judging (listen to 4 songs and rank them–a new feature on the site), three of them are usually unlistenable.

It makes building up a far-reaching fan base (which I think they’re trying to do…pretty successfully) really difficult if a lot of the music is difficult to listen to.

So, why don’t I just say screw Our Stage and give up on the site. No way. They are providing a great opportunity for independent artists and are less than 2 years old and have tons of room for growth. On paper, it’s a wonderful idea–they add new features constantly, have great prizes, and I’ve all ready been given the opportunity to play the Paradise, won $500, and my friends Cahill have won $5000 and a slot at Earthfest back in May. I’m not trying to bite the hand that feed. I think I’m ultimately trying to be able to categorize the shortcomings of the site so I can fire off a constructive letter so they can improve the site.

As it stands now, there is just too much amateur music. The motto of the site is, “Let the fans decide”, which is idealistic and wonderful but ANYONE can submit music so the majority of entries in the male singer-songwriter channel are home recordings by cliched, unseasoned songwriters. This makes me come off as being real pretentious, which I’m trying not to be. IN FACT, I’m sure people have listened to my music and have thought, “Man, this guy sucks”, which is fine and good, it’s a subjective site but trying to look at it objectively, some of these people have no clue or plan for their own career and are cluttering up the marketplace for people who are working hard to make a real lasting impression.

Do I think I’m going to be a ‘break out’ because of Our Stage? NO. I do, however, see a valuable opportunity for artists and I want to make sure the artists that succeed are as deserving as possible. They’ve made some strides to off-set spam voting, which I applaud them for. If a band is lucky enough (and I say lucky because it’s not always about the quality of the music in the early goings) to rise above the clutter and make it into the Top-20, I’m sure they tell all their friends to vote for them and vote against the competition (I can admit, that has been my strategy in the past and have talked to other artists who have done the same) but now there are voter rankings or levels or effectiveness of the judges and due to their computer algorithms, your vote will count for less…Huzzah! There are still ways that people try to off set the program though, I’m sure. I haven’t tried this and don’t plan on it but it would involve voting up the bad songs to vote down the other good songs and continue to vote for the songs that you enjoy…It’s a mess and is probably some of the reason that some very poor songs rise to the top…or…

…maybe I’m just a terrible judge of talent!

It’s a delicate and difficult science and I don’t know where it’s going. I guess at this point I’m just trying to co-exist with it. I’m going to continue to try and work with them because I think they’re a great site that is battling their deficiencies. It bums me out that they’re in direct competition with Sonicbids, another globally important local music company (go Boston-area!), and I don’t think that both sites will come out unscathed because of this little war. Sonicbids only has market share to lose, and I see them trying to make things work but unfortunately, Our Stage is free and Sonicbids isn’t and for that reason, people will move to Our Stage and clutter it up like crazy. Maybe what is bad fiscally for Sonicbids is good for the artist. Maybe they won’t have 500 submissions for every college shows…My gripes with Sonicbids, (which is a great company!) however, is for another post…

Yeesh. One long rant I know.

I think what I’m saying is that OurStage needs SOME sort of screening process. How? I have no idea. But I’m not getting paid for this sort of thing. Even if setting up an account costs some money (I don’t know if that’s part of their long-term plan) but it’ll keep some of the amateur competition from signing up on a whim. I think those that will pay for the service have the belief that their music is worth making an investment to get out there and it will strengthen the quality of competition. Even something like Garageband does by having to judge a number of songs or paying for an entry credit before submitting, will discourage some of the clutter and will give Our Stage more of an authoritative name in the industry, because their marketing team does a FANTASTIC job.

What a can of worms.