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[Toma]

As indicated in the title I actually have 2 problems (bolded in the text below) I'd like to discuss/ get some input from you guys. Even though I dont really like to post the address here as some may think that this is a sly attempt to get a few site hits, I guess I have to because otherwise people experienced with blogging wont be able to give any feedback. The blog was started last week and I generally plan to update once a day.
Posted at the end of the OP.

The idea for my blog is basically to look for bands who put their albums online for free (Pay what you want) There are enough websites out there for getting infos on "regular" music and this is also the music being heard the most by many people, even though there is really awesome free stuff out there. I am not sure how long I can keep this up since good free music is pretty hard to find but I'd like to try at least.

First question:
Does anyone know of other resources than www.bandcamp.com for being able to search for free music? No streaming, no single songs. Downloadable, for free and at least EP's, rather LP's.

I know that there are bands giving away their music on individual websites (and I also take suggestions of them) but the best would be websites who list bands in an individual list like http://bandcamp.com/artists. I know that not all of the bands on there are for free, but thats the reason why I am searching through that I looked through about 1/8 at the moment, but there is a hell lot of stuff on there.

Second question:
I really would like some feedback on the design and usefullness of the blog. Any advice for regular blogging? Any website that may be interesting? Gadgets/Widgets/HTML-program that may enhance the use of the site?

This is my first blog and I know that I made, and probably still do, some mistakes. For example I began the website without any header since I didnt know that I could change that. Then I found the button for customizing the blog. I like it simple so I only changed a few colours, put in a header and changed the settings for the bar on the right side. The "Labels" Section on the right hand side was something I saw on a different blog 2 days ago and since it is VERY helpful for sorting the posts (for example only wanting to look at every entry in the genre of Rock) I tried intregrating that into the blog. I am looking for stuff like that

Furthermore I made some design choices, as for writing in german and english so that the blog will be readable by the rest of the world and a few people I know who arent as good in english. Another example would be the rating system. Most people like to know what they are up against at one glance, so it was kind of out of question to not do any rating , since I want to have many people on my website. I began with a rating scale out of 10 and changed it to out of 5 because I dont think I need to differentiate between the albums THAT much, only giving advice. Basically:
1 LP : Hope I never have to gave that as I am choosing the music
2 LP's: Interesting and has potential but quite a few problems, some may like it
3 LP's: LP's I think of as recommendable.
4 LP's: Good Stuff. Very recommended as it is pretty special but still has one or more flaw disturbing me.
5 LP's: Amazing stuff. Universal recommendation to everybody I know. Not available yet.

My share of advice for other bloggers: Something else which is quite interesting for me is "Google Analytics", which basically looks like this:

After integrating a code by Google for tracking purposes Google Analytics manages to recognize quite a few things and puts them into statistics. The most basic thing would probably be "Site Hits" or "Absolutely Unique Site Visitors", sortable by each day. If you want you can get information on not only which browser your viewers are using but even which version of that browser or where the visitors came from. Lots of information to improve any website and is basically "only" interesting for me.

Finally the website:
www.wasfuersohr.blogspot.com

I am perfectly aware that the commercially available music can be attained for free by illegal means and I dont want any discussion about that in this thread. I decided to review music which one can get for free legally. Period.

 

[Geneijin]

Sounds like something from this thread?

 

[Toma]

Sounds like something from this thread?

Well in general, yes. But the recommendations on these blogs all seem to cover "commercial" bands. Thanks for the thread hint anway. Will look through that later. But as I said I am rather looking for music which is put out to the world for free. Bandcamp.com cant be the only website where there is some quality free music to be found. And yes I tried googling "free music" Nothing of help either.

 

[whitehawk]

I really like the idea, and I'll probably be checking out your blog.

Do youtube artists count? I know of a certain artist that might fit in your blog. while he does sell his music on iTunes, he also has all of his songs on youtube (most pretty good quality).

Also there was a band that made a thread on GAF a while back when they were releasing their album. It was pay what you want, and it was 320kbps. I didn't really like the music that much, but others on GAF did.

edit: Ah, here it is: I come to Shanghai

 

[Toma]

I really like the idea, and I'll probably be checking out your blog.

Do youtube artists count? I know of a certain artist that might fit in your blog. while he does sell his music on iTunes, he also has all of his songs on youtube (most pretty good quality). [/URL]

Yay another viewer! :lol Glad that you like the idea. I thought that its pretty rare to get to know these bands as there are mostly no advertisements and just a few bands. I try not to discriminate too much between music genres but all kind of Indie Variations are definitely the highest quality bands I can find right now.
And regarding the artist.. hm actually I decided to choose bands and music which can be used for free as all the other music you would buy online. If there is some other stuff (youtube videos hooray!) then it gets mentioned positively and if enhancing the experience of listening to that music, maybe a better grade.
The idea is :
1. check the blog
2. listen to recommendations at least
3. think if its interesting (4.) or not (5.)
4. Download for free and play on your computer or on your mp3 player (or if its suits your fancy, only listen to it only if youre not feeling comfortable with downloading)
5. check back tomorrow.

Its probably just me but I really like being able to decide on my own where I am listening to that music.

Also there was a band that made a thread on GAF a while back when they were releasing their album. It was pay what you want, and it was 320kbps. I didn't really like the music that much, but others on GAF did.

edit: Ah, here it is: I come to Shanghai

Funnily enough this is the only recommendation I already got before creating this thread. But these are exactly the recommendations I am looking for.

 

[roosters93]

lol I forgot about Google Analytics.
Thanks for reminding me!

 

[gutshot]

Nice idea. I don't really know of any good bands for you to check out, but I know a thing or two about blogging and using Blogger.

One thing I would suggest is to differentiate between the English text and German text in your posts. On a quick scroll through of your blog I thought everything was in German since I only read the first few lines of each post and then scrolled to the next.

Also I would suggest getting a favicon. It helps distinguish your blog a little bit more and gives it a more professional feel.

I've found this site to be a good resource on customizing your blog using widgets and themes.

 

[Toma]

Nice idea. I don't really know of any good bands for you to check out, but I know a thing or two about blogging and using Blogger.

One thing I would suggest is to differentiate between the English text and German text in your posts. On a quick scroll through of your blog I thought everything was in German since I only read the first few lines of each post and then scrolled to the next.

Also I would suggest getting a favicon. It helps distinguish your blog a little bit more and gives it a more professional feel.

I've found this site to be a good resource on customizing your blog using widgets and themes.

Thanks, I'll definitely check that site out. Any quick suggestion on how to differentiate the text within one post? You are right that this is a problem and I havent thought of it yet as most of the readers up til now are mostly german. But I guess simply choosing a different font or whatever is not up to the task.

I added blue bars in the editorial just a moment ago:
http://wasfuersohr.blogspot.com/2009/10/wasfuersohrblogspotcom.html

Would integrating these into the other posts be of any help?

 

[gutshot]

I added blue bars in the editorial just a moment ago:
http://wasfuersohr.blogspot.com/2009/10/wasfuersohrblogspotcom.html

Would integrating these into the other posts be of any help?

That is better. I don't know about that color blue though, doesn't really go with the color theme of your blog. But you got the right idea, I think.

 

[Toma]

That is better. I don't know about that color blue though, doesn't really go with the color theme of your blog. But you got the right idea, I think.

Thanks again. Changed it to a more neutral color. Guess I simply have to try different variations.
Lets see how my favicon turns out. Hope I manage to create one, which atleast doesnt look like its been scribbled by a 5 year old. Pretty difficult to come up with an idea for that.

 

[Toma]

Changed the overall design a bit, regarding the "bars". Put in a new Info block at the top right which links at the first post with the explanation and everything.

Oh and I updated the favicon.

Thanks for the suggestions up to now

Oh and on a different note, the review for today is also online and very recommended if you like slower Indie-Pop.

Still looking for suggestions regarding free music

 

[Cosmic Bus]

Does anyone know of other resources than www.bandcamp.com for being able to search for free music?

The Free Music Archive has a lot of albums available from signed and unsigned folk, psyche, jazz, soul, and electronic artists.

 

[Toma]

The Free Music Archive has a lot of albums available from signed and unsigned folk, psyche, jazz, soul, and electronic artists.

Ah thanks! Awesome. Thats what I was looking for regarding the websites containing different albums. Thanks again!

 

[joelseph]

http://hypem.com/

What is it?
To put it simply, the Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We handpick a set of kickass music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery. This way, your odds of stumbling into awesome music or awesome blogs are high. Click here to read more about how we select blogs.

 

[Toma]

http://hypem.com/

What is it?
To put it simply, the Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We handpick a set of kickass music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery. This way, your odds of stumbling into awesome music or awesome blogs are high. Click here to read more about how we select blogs.

Thats useful. Guess I will have to look quite a bit until I will find some free LP's but good site nonetheless. I guess its a good sign if 3 out of 7 Bands I reviewed up until today havent been mentioned on there yet.

 

[joelseph]

Thats useful. Guess I will have to look quite a bit until I will find some free LP's but good site nonetheless. I guess its a good sign if 3 out of 7 Bands I reviewed up until today havent been mentioned on there yet.

I use the site for EDM, I have a feeling it is more geared towards that. Plenty of good indie bands fall under that umbrella though! =)

I know it sucks, but the best way to get free promos is use an RSS reader and just start collecting blog feeds. I block out a couple hours a weekend to go through my feed. Not only am I hunting for 320kbs promos but new sites to expand my blog list.