Equestrian Reverb, the new music promotion/hosting site!

[EQR_Austin]

Equestrian Reverb aims to promote those who are looking to get their music out there, without being overshadowed by those that already have a firm foothold in the music community. Along with a place to share music, we also provide a forum for Music, Website, and General discussion for our members to use. Our promotional animation does a great job of summing up what we're all about, and i'd recommend you give it a look if you're interested in finding out more about the website.

The site can be found here, http://eqreverb.com/, and I am more than willing to answer any further questions, via this post.

[itroitnyah]

Well you've obviously put a lot of effort into it, and it looks and sounds better than the Brony Media people who also started up a thing like this, but I doubt either of you will make it very far, although if I had to make a bet, EqR would make it farther. Overall, I still think that you won't get far, unless the forum part of your site jumps in popularity (which it may do that), just like every single promotional/label site for bronies has.

Good luck anyways.

[EQR_Austin]

Well you've obviously put a lot of effort into it, and it looks and sounds better than the Brony Media people who also started up a thing like this, but I doubt either of you will make it very far, although if I had to make a bet, EqR would make it farther. Overall, I still think that you won't get far, unless the forum part of your site jumps in popularity (which it may do that), just like every single promotional/label site for bronies has.

Good luck anyways.

The music we accept doesn't have to be pony specific (having to use lines or songs from the show), they can be "pony inspired" and still be accepted, giving us a broader audience, but i do appreciate the feedback.

[itroitnyah]

using lines from the show or being inspired by poniponi are pretty much the same thing. Your audience isn't actually much broader from BMs

[EQR_Austin]

using lines from the show or being inspired by poniponi are pretty much the same thing. Your audience isn't actually much broader from BMs

Keep in mind that EQR is still in it's beta phase, future plans for the site involve expanding to more planes of audio work (Voice Acting, Podcasts, etc.) Our site will also promote songs/albums that aren't pony related if they're uploaded by members of our site, allowing them to promote all of their finest works.

[Nine Volt]

Yes, yes, you're ambitious and that's a good thing, but we've seen too many brony-focused promotion groups (EKF, Monstercat, MiAmore, etc) come and go to not be cynical about them. Here's some questions, some borrowed from the likes of Freewave and the4thImpulse:

Do you have any support from actual musicians?
If so, from whom?
Does anyone over at Equestrian Reverb have any kind of musical experience?
What kind of judging system will you have?
Do the judges have experience with music as well?
Do at least 4 of them have a studio quality setup?
Do you have any prior experience in running any kind of organization like this?
How do you expect to draw bronies away from the successful promotion networks currently in existence (ie Equestria Daily, Saberspark's "Songs of the Month", EQ Beats, along with non-brony networks like Monstercat)?
Do you have a good studio setup? And no, that doesn't mean you have a pair of $50 headphones.
Are you selling the music you're promoting?
Are you just posting stuff that you or your friends like, or stuff that's good regardless of preference?
How do you expect to get promotion for your network?
What do you offer that's better or different from other networks?
What are the benefits of an artist to be on a label (a brony one, that is)?

I could probably go on, but I think you get the point. Here's a preemptive warning, courtesy of Navron. It's transposed from the recent Brony Media thread, so there might be some untrue statements but the thing as a whole still applies.

Please don't get defensive. The relatively harsh responses by some people are not necessarily directed at you personally, but rather at this entire idea of a brony music label/producer. It's been tried before, you say you're different, but from our perspective, every damn person who's tried has also said that they're different, or illustrated many reasons why they will succeed. No matter how you word it, you sound like every other attempted label in this area, and considering we're talking about contracts, real money, and potential legal issues that can impact our lives, trying to persuade us to have faith in you succeeding is not enough to get us interested, especially when it sounds the same as 4 others who have failed.

We're not harping on you, and I'm even sure most of us would actually want a good label or promoter to help musicians in the fandom, but we need REAL examples of your team showing that you know what you're doing, not "plans," of how you're going to do things. If you already have 10 artists, good on ya, but don't expect any from here unless you show some real progress with those 10.

[Freewave]

Wish this site well as the effort is there on the design. Sad thing is i saw the same efforts by http://pony.fm and i don't think that site has continued their initial momentum despite a better layout and a far superior forum (full of brony's who might actually LISTEN to that music). It still seems a better options to many of these new startup sites. Building sites in the "if you build it, they will come" philosophy is missing out that brony's who aren't musicians need to be the core audience hearing this music. You can load up a site with a ton of unknown and new artists and it will look like a bunch of amateur unknown brony music that people will likely want to avoid. Not trying to be harsh but if the audience and the quality of the music are not there the engine won't run.

[EQR_Austin]

Yes, yes, you're ambitious and that's a good thing, but we've seen too many brony-focused promotion groups (EKF, Monstercat, MiAmore, etc) come and go to not be cynical about them. Here's some questions, some borrowed from the likes of Freewave and the4thImpulse:

Do you have any support from actual musicians?
If so, from whom?
Does anyone over at Equestrian Reverb have any kind of musical experience?
What kind of judging system will you have?
Do the judges have experience with music as well?
Do at least 4 of them have a studio quality setup?
Do you have any prior experience in running any kind of organization like this?
How do you expect to draw bronies away from the successful promotion networks currently in existence (ie Equestria Daily, Saberspark's "Songs of the Month", EQ Beats, along with non-brony networks like Monstercat)?
Do you have a good studio setup? And no, that doesn't mean you have a pair of $50 headphones.
Are you selling the music you're promoting?
Are you just posting stuff that you or your friends like, or stuff that's good regardless of preference?
How do you expect to get promotion for your network?
What do you offer that's better or different from other networks?
What are the benefits of an artist to be on a label (a brony one, that is)?

I could probably go on, but I think you get the point. Here's a preemptive warning, courtesy of Navron. It's transposed from the recent Brony Media thread, so there might be some untrue statements but the thing as a whole still applies.

Please don't get defensive. The relatively harsh responses by some people are not necessarily directed at you personally, but rather at this entire idea of a brony music label/producer. It's been tried before, you say you're different, but from our perspective, every damn person who's tried has also said that they're different, or illustrated many reasons why they will succeed. No matter how you word it, you sound like every other attempted label in this area, and considering we're talking about contracts, real money, and potential legal issues that can impact our lives, trying to persuade us to have faith in you succeeding is not enough to get us interested, especially when it sounds the same as 4 others who have failed.

We're not harping on you, and I'm even sure most of us would actually want a good label or promoter to help musicians in the fandom, but we need REAL examples of your team showing that you know what you're doing, not "plans," of how you're going to do things. If you already have 10 artists, good on ya, but don't expect any from here unless you show some real progress with those 10.

Do you have any support from actual musicians?
If so, from whom?
We've had continued and growing support from musicians such as Slendermane, Blaze, Thyrai, Pipsqueek, Oblivia, and Wavestreaker, just to name a few.

Does anyone over at Equestrian Reverb have any kind of musical experience?
DJSeilo (The person who made our promotional music mix) is practicing music production and is planning on making his own music fairly soon.
What kind of judging system will you have?

Do the judges have experience with music as well?
Do at least 4 of them have a studio quality setup?
Do you have any prior experience in running any kind of organization like this?
For the majority of the team, this was their first time embarking on such a large project. We all had to start somewhere, and for a lot of

How do you expect to draw bronies away from the successful promotion networks currently in existence (ie Equestria Daily, Saberspark's "Songs of the Month", EQ Beats, along with non-brony networks like Monstercat)?

Do you have a good studio setup? And no, that doesn't mean you have a pair of $50 headphones.
I don't produce music.

Are you selling the music you're promoting?
We are not selling the creations of the artists, but of course they're free to on other sites such as bandcamp.

Are you just posting stuff that you or your friends like, or stuff that's good regardless of preference?
Anything that is generally seen as "good music" will be accepted.

How do you expect to get promotion for your network?
We've already put out a music mix and promotional animated, along with partnerships with other websites, and being guests on various pony related podcasts.

What do you offer that's better or different from other networks?
A more streamlined and user friendly website, direct access to forums for discussion, collaboration, and musical improvement, A well knit team that is active on the site, and always willing to go out of their way to help with any questions or concerns a user may have, just to name a few.

What are the benefits of an artist to be on a label (a brony one, that is)?
These people put a lot of effort into their works and it's a shame to see them not get the recognition that they deserve. We want the people that weren't in the fandom from day one to get their music noticed by a larger audience. We know that there is a lot of potential in these artists, and we want to show exactly that.

[EQR_Austin]

Wish this site well as the effort is there on the design. Sad thing is i saw the same efforts by http://pony.fm and i don't think that site has continued their initial momentum despite a better layout and a far superior forum (full of brony's who might actually LISTEN to that music). It still seems a better options to many of these new startup sites. Building sites in the "if you build it, they will come" philosophy is missing out that brony's who aren't musicians need to be the core audience hearing this music. You can load up a site with a ton of unknown and new artists and it will look like a bunch of amateur unknown brony music that people will likely want to avoid. Not trying to be harsh but if the audience and the quality of the music are not there the engine won't run.

We strive for the music posted to be of quality, and community events/competitions are in place to build a larger and more open user-base. The site is made so that those who are there just to listen, and discuss can freely do so (having a player bar that holds custom albums that you can fill with music from your favourite artists. Along with a forum so you can have open discussions with said musicians and other listeners).

[Nine Volt]

We've had continued and growing support from musicians such as Slendermane, Blaze, Thyrai, Pipsqueek, Oblivia, and Wavestreaker, just to name a few.

Unless these musicians have fanbases big enough to get you a lot of supporters, this doesn't mean much of anything. Unfortunately, they probably don't have big enough fanbases.

DJSeilo (The person who made our promotional music mix) is practicing music production and is planning on making his own music fairly soon.

That's not good enough to run a label. You need judges who know what they're doing, not someone who doesn't even make music yet. And you need more than one.

For the majority of the team, this was their first time embarking on such a large project. We all had to start somewhere, and for a lot of

So you're saying that none of the artists have a studio quality setup, and they have no experience? I'll let the words of 4th tell you something:

So many red flags going after reading that. Pease share, in great detail, everyone's personal experience in the industry and how that applies together position in 'Brony Media's' company. That is th only way I can begin to tust you (and every other attempt at this brony label thing).

I also have yet to find any real good benefits from being on a brony label. The big benefits of labels in real life are the employees experience, real world money, promotion, and touring funds (this is all to my understanding of labels and all really general).

I also currently work for a real life, electronic, label as a producer (as in helping artists produce better tacks, kinda a more hands on judge).

I know it says Brony Media but it still applies.

I'll ask it again because you didn't answer:
How do you expect to draw bronies away from the successful promotion networks currently in existence (ie Equestria Daily, Saberspark's "Songs of the Month", EQ Beats, along with non-brony networks like Monstercat)?

I don't produce music.

So you won't be critiquing then. Without a proper studio setup or even decent headphones you have no right to decide whether or not a song is well-produced or not. Spoilers: Beats are not good headphones.

Anything that is generally seen as "good music" will be accepted.

Please, tell me about your unbiased judging system. Do you have vocal musicians? Electronic musicians? Orchestral or acoustic ones?

We've already put out a music mix and promotional animated, along with partnerships with other websites, and being guests on various pony related podcasts.

Like...?

A more streamlined and user friendly website, direct access to forums for discussion, collaboration, and musical improvement, A well knit team that is active on the site, and always willing to go out of their way to help with any questions or concerns a user may have, just to name a few.

So you're stealing MLR's purpose now (aside from the well knit, active team thing)?
Why will this get you noticed over the many others that do this already?

[Conduit]

I'm sorry to say this, but 9-volt is right. You need musicians to judge music, there are just so many flaws that aren't obvious to the casual listener that judges need to pick up on. And if your looking to make a forum to host events and discussions on, one already exists, and your posting on it.

[the4thImpulse]

I really hate doing this, I know it sounds like we are all being jerks and hating on your good ideas but all these questions and more have to be asked and answered. Answering them is the quickest way to get most everyone here's support (if we all agree with what you are doing).

What are the benefits of an artist to be on a label (a brony one, that is)?
These people put a lot of effort into their works and it's a shame to see them not get the recognition that they deserve. We want the people that weren't in the fandom from day one to get their music noticed by a larger audience. We know that there is a lot of potential in these artists, and we want to show exactly that.

Now those are all good things, but everyone who has tried this has literally said the exact same thing "We, Want". Of course everyone wants these things, recognition, fans, people listening, people enjoying. The larger audience. What you need to show is how you are going to give us these things, having a great looking website is a good start so now you need to show us how you are going to get that traffic. How will you advertise this? Who would want this? Why will people want this? How will you show them its something they will want? What if they don't want this?

I am starting to think you should focus on getting the listeners attention rather the musicians at first, of course you need something to show but you more importantly need someone to listen.

[Nine Volt]

Your forum seems to be a redux of MLR, in that they're both brony and musician oriented forums and have essentially the same subforums.

[MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN]

is it just me or is itroitnyah our Buzz Killington lol holy smokes eeyore

Site already looks markedly superior to EQDmusic.

[ganondox]

is it just me or is itroitnyah our Buzz Killington lol holy smokes eeyore

Site already looks markedly superior to EQDmusic.

Like that's hard to do.

Anyway, EQDmusic does have one advantage of this, and that's called support. Unfortunately EQD is a powerful force and they decided to had to make their own crappy collective.

[Viricide Filly]

FILLY JUMPS IN AND MAKES AN APPEARANCE

I think I can take a gander as to what we'll be seeing from this channel/group.
Ahem.
Blaze, Blaze, Blaze, Blaze, Assertive Fluttershy, Blaze, Blaze, Blaze, Blaze and Blaze.
Up and coming my ass.

No but SERIOUSLY. Musicians like that are not up-and-coming they are in-your-face arrogant and already popular. Please try and find actually underground musicians for the love of god, that's what MiAmore was doing before we had to shut down (psst we're turning into a generic non-brony label)

I will lose hope for your channel every time I see a song by Blaze, and that's how it works with every channel I see. I don't mind Blaze, but when EKF and other "promotional media" started buttlicking his every song it gets VERY annoying and makes me VERY cynical towards new promotional channels.
Also, if you're gonna stick to brony music, STICK TO BRONY MUSIC. Again, EKF, like the utter dumbasses they are, named their channel "EKFdubstep" and haven't posted a dubstep song in ages, and they're also accepting non-brony music.

Please please PLEASE do not become another EKF or MonsterBronyMedia. While MBM was /alright/ and only featured artists once, it was still a bad parody. EKF featured shitty artists just because they sucked up, they featured Blaze like ten times, they got genres wrong, BANNED people for saying they got genres wrong etc.

Follow all that I have said and you'll work out just fine.

[itroitnyah]

Well, it has more potential than BM, mostly because it's more of a promotional blog, it looks nice, and forums always seem to be a magnet to people, and they're promoting themselves properly.

However, they also need unbiased judges to help critique and review tracks of all genres so that they aren't promoting purely what "Austin", as I guess this guy's name is, likes. They don't need to all have expensive studio setups and headphones, they really just need to know stuff about music and have a quality pair of speakers or headphones so that they can tell whether the songs they're looking at promoting are well made or not. They have potential.

But I still wouldn't be surprised if it didn't get far.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

the website seems decent enough, I'm willing to give this a go.

[ganondox]

However, they also need unbiased judges to help critique and review tracks of all genres so that they aren't promoting purely what "Austin", as I guess this guy's name is, likes. They don't need to all have expensive studio setups and headphones, they really just need to know stuff about music and have a quality pair of speakers or headphones so that they can tell whether the songs they're looking at promoting are well made or not. They have potential.

Well made is a bit more complicated than it sounds. Take a look at this: http://balloonparty.bandcamp.com/track/revolution-dash
Now tell me, is this song well made or not?

[itroitnyah]

Well, yeah, the song's well made, but I don't see how that applies to EqR, since it wasn't featured or posted about in the blog.

And if you're referring to the fact that Circuit has a lot of broken/cheap equipment, his equipment isn't "bad", it's not 100% ideal for music production, but he also has plenty of experience under his belt with music, so he knows what he is doing. Perhaps somebody who is as good as CF is and has a good sound system could find an error or two to point out, but this is getting off topic, and I have no idea why you even brought it up. I simply said that the judges for EqR should have a quality pair of headphones or speakers so that they can tell whether the song's they're promoting are well made or not. Please explain in further detail why you're asking me this.

[ganondox]

Well, yeah, the song's well made, but I don't see how that applies to EqR, since it wasn't featured or posted about in the blog.

And if you're referring to the fact that Circuit has a lot of broken/cheap equipment, his equipment isn't "bad", it's not 100% ideal for music production, but he also has plenty of experience under his belt with music, so he knows what he is doing. Perhaps somebody who is as good as CF is and has a good sound system could find an error or two to point out, but this is getting off topic, and I have no idea why you even brought it up. I simply said that the judges for EqR should have a quality pair of headphones or speakers so that they can tell whether the song's they're promoting are well made or not. Please explain in further detail why you're asking me this.

The point is that song is awful from a traditional mixing standpoint, but the way it's mixed is an element that adds to it. It doesn't sound the way it does because the equipment is bad, that was done on purpose. The point is you need to have people judging who can recognize that without getting caught up in the normal mixing criteria in order to judge what is a well made or not well made song.

[itroitnyah]

No, the mixing on the song is well done because that's the way he intended it, in the older speaker/radio style. I never said that the mixing is bad. Both you and I recognized it as a good mix, only an idiot who didn't realize that was the style of the song based on the vocals would think it wasn't a good mix.

[S.P.P]

We're all being quick to say this won't go far without this and without that, but nobody is putting themselves forward ..
I'd like to help out to be honest, because I do want to see something happen here. EQR_Austin, shoot me a PM.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I'm with Pyre, I think this has some potential!

[caprixsnare]

Sounds like a fairly good idea