JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Ourstage judging?

Sorry about the late reply - just getting back to this thread.

There's a great quote by Henry Ford - He said if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said "a faster horse." I'm just saying that what you end up with (when using groupthink) is usaully whatever sounds most like what everyone is already listening to. And that frustrates me when I go to sites looking for new music that I'll like and the stuff at the top of the heap sounds like the stuff on the radio but not quite as good. And the better stuff is often down around #80 or so. Well, better in "my" opinion.

And actually, an elite panel WOULD do a better job of ranking music, in my opinion. Sometimes it's a good idea to have a Henry Ford. And you can only be on the panel if you like the artists I like. OK, I'm kidding about that part. But this is my take - in the past, the "filter" was the record companies and the radio stations, and we all complained, but it sort of worked. But the concept of groupthink doesn't work for me as a filtering mechanism, because the results, as I've said, sound just like whatever is popular.

Does the rankings of ourstage show you how a certain audience (ie whatever genre you choose) feels about your music? Yeah, it does, but as pointed out by many, the genres are too broad, and so you can't really target what you do, unless you happen to write stuff that sounds like what's already popular. I still think it's a neat site and I still think any chance to get your music heard is good.

I think there will be more sophisticated formulas out there, in time. Some sites analyze the music you have on your computer and what you listen to and then compare that with other site members and come up with suggestions for you... sort of like the amazon model, but more in depth. I'm interested in seeing how that will play out.