OK!! lets discuss something

[boris]

mashup forums
have they had their day?
is facebook now becoming the best place for people to post mashups or possibly youtube?

discuss

[RebornIdentity]

The popularity of the mashup forums ebbs and flows over the year. It's been a quiet year on general for comments & chat though, and it they do seem painfully quiet at the moment - GYBO moreso than Mashstix. My own experience is that I don't get the hits from the forums that I used to, with Facebook and especially YouTube being a better place to pick up listeners. I still seem to get the same amount of listeners it just takes longer to reach them.

I think videos are more important than ever in picking up new listeners/fans. My most popular tracks have only really taken off once I've put a video out there. People seem to prefer to share a video with their friends/followers than an audio track.

It would be a shame if chat and feedback dries up completely on the forums though. I would hate to lost that sense of community.

[RockstarBruski]

I think it depends on the age of thte viewer / listener. younger people tend to view and listen to things on their iphones and smart phones and since I now have a smart phone youtube and facebook are easier to navigate than a typical website. Plus younger people tend to live more on social media and as Gav says they are willing to share videos with each other but I think it's because it's easier for them to share things on youtube than anything else plus it is a visual which people like.

With that all said people in general want convenience. I have people (mostly over 30) ask me all the time how they get my fitness mixes into their ipods, phones, mp3 players and when I tell them go to my website, download the zip file and extract the mp3 file and import it to your device they give me a blank stare like I'm from mars. I even put the step by step instructions on my website but I think they expect me to either hand them a cd or tell them they can click on a magic button on my website and it will put all my mixes into their iphone with one single click. BTW - these people rarely go on youtube but do a lot of facebook.

Bottom line, you have to make it as convenient as possible for people, you have to market differently to different ages. And with all that said personally I don't care too much about how many listers I have because mostly I do my mixes for fun and to play in the fitness clubs. I most of the times don't keep track of clicks or downloads.

Speaking of downloads and videos, I just finally downloaded all of Boris' 100+ videos in the last few days. Hopefully, my ISP doesn't send me a nastygram for downloading a boat load of GB in just a few days

[boris]

Speaking of downloads and videos, I just finally downloaded all of Boris' 100+ videos in the last few days. Hopefully, my ISP doesn't send me a nastygram for downloading a boat load of GB in just a few days

including the DVD? all 42 zip files

[boris]

interesting what reborn said about videos giving more downloads for the mp3 cos i've always thought a good video can raise more awareness of any piece of music not just a mashup, although having said that the video section of the mashstix forums really is a ghost town compared to the one at gybo where one of my vids will get more views in a day than mine here in a month sometimes. mind you the one at mashuptown when they had a forum before it got taken down was even worse
i've noticed recently even the mashup charts not getting so many viewers and you can tell by how long things stay in the top ten there. i'm not surprised that most folks actually post their videos with the mp3 post cos if they just stuck it in the video section it would be ignored.

you can tell it dead around here cos this thread only has 2 replys

i'll say more if more post their thoughts

[G3RSt]

Well, I think when posting your stuff, you should use as many channels as possible. Like Boris just said - there's people who make vids that also post the mp3 to get more exposure. So you don't just do one thing or the other... do all of them.

In my case I find it hard to have to come up with a video for each track - plus I rather make songs than vids. So I usually end up using the cover art as video, and uploading that to YouTube. Other than that I promote a tune through my site, SoundCloud, Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter and post all of my stuff to three forums (Mashstix, GYBO, SoundUnsound) and to Mashupciti.

As for forums and communities - I think they will be around for quite some time. I admit that I am on a few FB community pages, but they tend to get cluttered quickly. The difference lies in the way fb is put together opposed to a forum. FB consists of little status updates that people can respond to - so there's no real structure if you are looking at a community page. A forum is a bit more organized - plus they give the possibility of mods and a unique look and feel.

But er... what was the question again?

G.

[boris]

can i just say at this point that my video site gets more hits coming from G3RSt's web site than any other site

[RebornIdentity]

Oops. Looks like I haven't been linking to your site at all, Boris. Please consider this oversight duly rectified.

[boris]

Oops. Looks like I haven't been linking to your site at all, Boris. Please consider this oversight duly rectified.

thank you
although i should in fairness point out i dont link to anyone
i will change that very soon cos my video site needs an overhaul now that bruski's been rumaging thru it recently i cant find anything anymore

oops i appear to have sent this thread off topic

[RebornIdentity]

Well, the point of the thread was to get some discussion going, I think, so at least it's active!

I think G3RSt has a point in using as many channels as possible to reach as big an audience as possible. I used to post everything on GYBO, MashStix, Sound Unsound, Acapellas4U, Soundcloud, Official.fm, Last.fm, my own site, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube when I had a proper video together. Nothing gets the hit count running faster though than a feature on a site eg the MashStix frontpage, Audioporn central etc.

I must admit I've got lazier with it of late and only post to a fraction of those sites. Even with all these options people still ask where they can download my mixes and don't realise how much I've done. A one-click, "Press here to download track to your iPod" option definitely seems to be what some people need. It's just not possibly to make things easy enough to suit everyone.