Brian Bergeron

…Haha
So, apparently, my blog yesterday did not fall on deaf ears. Yesterday became the busiest day on this blog ever and this sudden popularity surge was due in part to the regulars (thanks Katie and Jeff for commenting, and I’m sure Jim, for reading) as well as a number of Our Stage folks. I was worried that my post would be met with a negative reception from the people at Our Stage but luckily, the few who emailed or commented had positive things to say as well as responses and praise.

Thanks, I’m blushing.

So, where do we go from here? Well, for my personal update on trying to score an opening slot for my favorite songwriter, Matt Nathanson, I’ve climbed up to the number 2 slot on the male singer-songwriter channel (out of almost 500 entries!), and I’ve been networking with artists and fans to try and increase my friend and fan count (to show I’m worth it). I wish I had noticed earlier that they also are looking at the pop and rock channels because I haven’t entered anything into those competitions (until last night, when I threw “Anna” in there to see if it will stick, but I don’t think there’s enough time to climb through the rankings). I’m most worried about the sound quality of “Tell My Story” because it’s over a year old and we’re working on the new album, which sounds 100x better but “Tell My Story” is a great song with a pretty good recording so I hope the song will shine through.

For the friends and fans who read the blog and haven’t done it yet, join OurStage.com (it’s free and easy!), and join our fan club, add us as friends, and comment on our profile! Great. We can hang out…Sort of…online.

*/this ends the self-pimping portion of our program*

Because I’ve been more or less consumed with this Our Stage ‘issue’ over the last few days (don’t worry, I have a life outside of Our Stage, though the damn Sox lost last night…anyways), I’ve been thinking, what else can they do? I have a few ideas, and I’m sure it’s stuff they’ve all thought of but I’m curious what you all think of these ideas. They borrow from other sites but hey, welcome to the music industry:

1. Charge a fee to submit or have members judge or screen a number of songs/videos before being able to post entries (a’la Garageband). Our Stage is basically 5000x better than Garageband but GB has a pretty cool concept, where people can either buy a song credit to join the competition, or judge a number of pairings before being awarded a credit. GB has their judges not only pick their preferred song but provide critiques, which help the artists with their craft. I’m sure many people may find that technique unnecessary, but I was able to get some valuable tips about my song writing.

One of OurStage’s core competencies I’m sure is that it’s free (duh…which everyone likes) but like I said before, now that they have a proven record of awarding awesome prizes to deserving artists (of varying degrees) I think they can get away with charging a submission or membership fee which will: a.) weed out artists not willing to invest in their career–like I alluded to yesterday–and b.) allow for a bigger prize pool and expansion. Of course, I’m not bull-headed enough to think that there won’t be backlash if they start charging but if they can break it in slowly (have promotional deals and periods) then I think they can make it work. Plus, if they continue to break artists and these artists gain a track record, then people can’t argue with the results. Lastly, if anyone still doesn’t agree with that, they can personally send people my way and I will kick them in the shins.

2. Have a limited shelf-life for entries–Another idea taken from Garageband. After a while, if a song doesn’t advance in the competition, it’s competitive life is over. This will help shorten up the life of some song entries and for people who do well with one song over an over (myself included…”Tell My Story” has been very good to me…and I’m looking at those knuckleheads from Cahill. If “Honesty” wins one more award, I swear to God…jk). This will keep the songs cropping up in channels fresh and it’ll work out songs that…er…suck…AND, it’ll encourage participation because people will have to attain these credits to stay active.

Yeesh, the more I think about it, Garageband is pretty sweet but they don’t offer the perks that Our Stage has (slamming prizes and festival opportunities) so check mate Our Stage.

3. Different tiers of voting–Our Stage sort of does that with the quarter/semi/and the finals but I kind of feel that there’s not enough. Gather.com ran this competition called First Tracks back in March, which was basically a waste of my time (see old blog entries back in March) but they had four rounds and here’s the kicker, one of the rounds was by a panel of ‘celebrity judges’. I know the whole idea is ‘let the fans decide’ but people aren’t smart enough to think for themselves, they need smarter people to decide. I’m just kidding but the idea of having some sort of safety hatch (i.e. someone qualified) can help work out some of the flukey entries that inevitably do well every month.

Even if that doesn’t fly, the idea of having more rounds of voting I think is one that should be considered. Work with me for a second…

At the beginning of the month, X songs are entered in the Pop channel. After a week of voting, Y songs move onto the second tier of voting. That doesn’t mean that the remaining songs are eliminated. It means that the songs that remained stay in the pool with additional songs that have been entered over the course of the week. There’s like a trickle down effect where there is a continuous stream of the best songs going down to the second and third tier then ultimately the quarter finals, etc. etc. Like my friend Katie commented yesterday, in the Sort 4, three out of 4 songs are ‘unlistenable’, but if we can isolate the ones that are better earlier only, we can have them move on without exactly eliminating the ones that score poorly early in the competition. The ones that remain in the first tier might ultimately move on, become a sort of wild cards and win the world series like the Sox in 2004 (they will be the Mark Bellhorn of Our Stage, if you will).

I don’t know how many tiers there would be before the quarters or what kind of computer programming would go into that but that’s why I’m not on the payroll…I’m literally thinking out loud.

**Pause–I can’t believe this entry is this long. I’m sitting at my car dealership waiting for an oil change and I have nothing better to do…I do have a life. In fact, I have two entries coming up soon, once this OurStage stuff is resolved. I saw Jackson Browne last night (last minute and FREE. Thanks Steve Belleville) and I made a new video for You Tube but I need to get a DV cable to edit it). Anyways, we’re almost done. Bless you if you’ve made it this far.**

4. Screen out a number of entries that want to be in a competition–I don’t know what that number would be (10% is just throwing a number out there) and if it would be done by Our Stage (staff or intern) or judging fans, but there should be a certain quality of song that is allowed to be entered into these competitions. Even if you can take 10-15% of the riff-raff out of there, then it’ll make the judging for the rounds better for the lay fan of Our Stage.

The more I sit and think about it, the more I like the idea of people having to comment on songs as they judge them. The obvious worry is that people will be idiots about it but lack of thoughtful judging (by having people randomly judge the quality of reviews) can effect the judger rating or whatever. Yikes, Garageband, you’ve done it again. If done correctly, unseasoned and seasoned artists alike can get comments about their work that can be valuable to increasing the quality of music out there! 

What a utopia!

I don’t know what kind of proprietorship that GB has to their ideas but if they don’t…They have a great model to re-consider. Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all.

I’m going to start seeing what other Our Stage members think because I’m sure a lot of people won’t agree with a word I say and I’m curious as to WHY.

That’s all I’ve got. I do have other work to do. I do have a life guys…Jeesh.