Hi Joanne!

The idea was Brian's, so he deserves the credit for the idea. Mike D. and I are working diligently to bring this to fruition, hopefully within a few weeks.



Big Jim...

Mike and I have discussed your suggestion about combining somewhat similar information about a particular subject into one post, thus reducing the number of questions down to a dozen or so. We both agree that it is good idea. However, we are going to leave the questions, more or less, as they currently are. The reason that we decided to do so is as follows: Many of the folks who are true newbies and/or have little or knowledge of the business per se may not know how to filter through a composite answer to find the specific information they are seeking. As rookies or folks with limited experience, they may or may not know the relationships of various subject matter and how to decipher the manner in which they work together. Thus we are going to keep them more as literal questions, rather than an all-inclusive discussion of a broad topic. It would probably be less confusing to the newbie as such. Please read on for a little more on the expereinced folks.

The more experienced folks would probably have no difficulty sifting through the information by broad topic, as you suggested, and putting it all together. But, the main thrust of this effort is to assist the newbie with a basic foundation of the music scene/business. I guess you could call it "Basic Training For New Songwriters & Performers".

Now, if Brian agrees, at a later time I could put together a different FAQ for the more experienced writer and performers using your suggestion. That would afford everyone an opportunity to use whichever approach works best for him/her. I would not mind doing that.

I wanted to let you know that we did discuss your suggestion and why we decided on the approach we are going to utilize. Again, I do think that your idea would be very effective for more expereinced music folks and would be a terrific reference source for them. Yes, there would be a fair amount of overlap in the information provided; but the organization and delivery of the information would be different. Plus, there could be more detailed information provided. Thanks again for your interest and taking time to express your thoughts on the matter.

Al