Downward Trajectory of Brony Music (New Blog Launch pg 3 on)

[HMage]

Skype chat is useless to save information, because in only one hour I had 900+ messages. I am never gonna read that so I left it.

[Conduit]

Skype is good for group discussion, and a horrible place for actual writing down of ideas. We need a editable google docs with everything that we have so far.

[Callenby]

I don't have Skype so I can't participate in chat. I'll indent my comments here and hopefully that won't make things super confusing.

My comments are also in italics because I'm unoriginal and it works well enough:

• Credited posts. Fine for people to see who is recommending the stuff that is getting posted. No more than that if we want this to be still mainly run by a staff that filters the content to an extent. More or less agree. We might organize things in a calendar anyway, so this would be an inevitable result of that.
  - Sounds good to me.
  
  
• Macro focus. ARTISTS, not just individual songs, from all areas who are making good stuff and are generally active. I think it's important to stress being active. Someone who makes great music but is ghost probably shouldn't get a spotlight, if only because it's kind of pointless if a spotlight boosts the following of someone who isn't making music, no?
  - I like the focus on the artists themselves. I think that that is a key point and something that could differentiate this blog from other places.
  
  
• Community Calender. Events, deadlines, hype/activity, releases, projects, albums, collaborations, etc. Definitely would be good to see music news in general; a lot of community albums on MLR remain unadvertised elsewhere.
  - A go-to place for music news (that is consistently updated) is also key, in my opinion.
  
  
• Toastbeard involvement. Artists from there, winners of competitions and their songs, themes and info for people interested. Reminders to tune in for the sync-listen. Weekly Toastbeard's never been my thing since it's built for instrumentalists, but all the same it took me a long time to figure out it existed, so it definitely needs promotion.
  - Never was involved in TB but I don't see how this could hurt.
  
  
• "Blast from the past?" (maybe a different name). Retired pony artists, where are they now. Monthly or Bi-Monthly Perhaps we could incorporate artists who left but are making a comeback as well? Musicians who haven't been active lately but have been putting together a big pony comeback, you know.
  - Not as sure about this. Might be best to focus on who is still active. We don't want to bite off more than we can chew, so if this does indeed happen then maybe it's best to wait before more foundational things are settled first.
  
  
• Spotlighting threads on MLR? I don't know, I think we should leave that for MLR entirely. I think this would be the better idea if we were using the MLR tumblr, but as it stands it's best to make FIMmusic its own thing.
  - Since this isn't MLR's Tumblr page it shouldn't try to be too reflective of MLR. Personally, a link in the sidebar would probably be enough.
  
  
• Interviews with community members small and large Bi-Monthly or slightly more Also, we're going to have to define what makes a "community member." Is it just making music? Or should we include people like "head of Bronypalooza"-type?
  - Interviews are crucial, in my opinion, as they are involved with the music scene in some key way. Long ones with detailed questions are far more interesting, at least to me.
  
  
• Heavily music focused, nothing off-topic or creates clutter We've discussed this on Skype, it's probably a good idea to do things like answering questions posed via the Tumblr Ask Box privately.
  - Agree. It should be focused on music.
  
  
• Behind-the-music (name it Pre-Fade?) with producers. Studios, methods, tutorials Bi-Monthly, might be grouped with interviews altogether This is one of those ideas that sounds good on paper but is a little difficult to exercise in practice. We can do master class content all we want, but what's going to make it different then them just uploading a video on their YouTube on how they create music? We're going to have to implement this idea in a unique way.
  - How about Decompressed? On the other hand, I'm not sure what we could do here that wouldn't end up being the same as the MLR music guide.
  
  
• Guest authors (for articles?), interviews (guest interviewers?), all levels of fandom?, conversations encouraged (maybe should be directed to MLR threads to avoid clutter) Perhaps we could have a "group review" of some songs, where we go down the list and have two, maybe three individual opinions on each song. One person is fine for most occasions, but if we have a big thing like Rainbow and Rooted it would be more solid critique to get more than just one opinion on it.
  - Not sure how well this would work in practice. What would and would not qualify for a group review? If this is going to happen then it probably should be more than just one person's opinion. At least three people, even if they only offer a couple of sentences.
  
  
• Remixes,Genres,Character Spotlights. I disagree, goes against macro-focus. Maybe "Best of Genre", but even that's a stretch imo" Agreed that "best of this type of song" would probably be out of place. All the same, it would be nice to have genre-specific compilations, I haven't really seen that idea before.
  - Compilations are good, if only to showcase the meta aspect of certain songs (e.g. Ocatvia usually gets classically-inspired music). Instead of "best of" it could just be a simple highlight.
  
  
• Link past lists? maybe not, let's keep things kind of fresh for the most part Mostly agreed. I still think it would be cool to look at albums and stuff that haven't had as much staying power as Balloon Party-type things, however, in the realm of older content that's faded from public memory.
  - I'm of two minds on this. I think it's good to be focused on what's happening now, but I also think there's plenty of past work that deserves more attention. I'm torn here.
  
  
• Call and response with fansites who share a common interest Not sure about "call and response," but talking with other fansites is probably a good idea. This blog goes nowhere without promotion.
  - Being active and working with other sites is really important. There are other sites and we should be supportive of one another.
  
  
• DJ Mixes. Can probably be grouped with artist content entirely, or at least be labeled differently, but maybe not separated. Discussion on this I recall a "pass it on" DJ compilation with several DJ's from the fandom, we could feature things like that if we wanted. It probably shouldn't be like "here's the Mixology from EFN this week," though.
  - I know nothing about DJing so I can't really comment on this.
  
  
• Convention talk from music standpoint (let's stay music focused, EQD/EFN already does convention coverage). Who's performing where and the like. As I briefly mentioned before, it would be nice to get insight from people working on setting the music up. The A/V heads, the guys in charge of organizing the concerts, etc. And yes, I think general convention coverage from FIMmusic wouldn't do much. Many other stations/networks have more resources and manpower, and it's folly to try to outdo them.
  - Agreed. Convention coverage is already done elsewhere, but hearing from the people involved with A/V might be cool.
  
  
• Brony Radio Station interviews and finding out about them can be grouped with interviewing altogether or slightly distinct. Discussion on this as well Interviews with radio stations is rather ironic, as the stations themselves usually do the interviewing. Definitely something worth looking at here.
  - Not sure about this. I'll defer to others' judgment.
  
  
• PMV recognition Depends on the PMV. I think we'd have to limit it to the point of custom animation for it, because there are sites that pmvtoday already geared toward this kind of thing. Only if the visual complements the music perfectly should this really be a thing, I think, and we'll need to focus on PMV makers more than individual videos if we want to retain the macro focus.
  - I think PMVs get enough coverage already. I do like the idea of highlighting ones that have tailor made animations to its song, however.
  
  
• NO ART. Let's keep this primarily music focused. IF any art, it should be limited to album covers, artists label designs, and things of that nature. Art can be useful for making a post header appealing. Obviously we're not going to have it as a regular thing, but we shouldn't resort to making posts completely bare of pictures simply because "it's not our aim."
  - Agreed. I have nothing to add here.
  
  
• NO COMMUNITY POLLS. EQD and the like already do lots of stuff like that. IF we do, link it to MLR or something that won't create clutter on the blog We've already talked about this on Skype, but community polls would be useful for determining what listeners want so we can improve the blog. If this is going to be geared towards listeners more than musicians, the people who run the blog cannot be behind a brick wall. Yes, asking "what instrument do you play" is probably unnecessary, but polls can be practical for gauging our audience.
  - Also agreed.

I was thinking some more about just what I could contribute to this and I think something like being an editor (or one of several) might be cool. Proofreading, that sort of thing. I don't know who or what is needed at this point, though, so just let me know.

[Conduit]

I think I'll try making some tutorials for some basics like setting up kontakt for multiple outputs w/ automation. Maybe a full walkthrough from start to finish of me making a song, or some library reviews later on.

The thing I'm not sure about is how beginner oriented the tutorials should be. Since this is primarily for the listeners I'm thinking it should be stuff to help interested people get started, and maybe show what we do just for those who are interested.

[Magnitude Zero]

• Credited posts. Fine for people to see who is recommending the stuff that is getting posted. No more than that if we want this to be still mainly run by a staff that filters the content to an extent.
  
  Sure!
  
  
• Macro focus. ARTISTS, not just individual songs, from all areas who are making good stuff and are generally active.
  
  I agree that the focus should be on artists rather than individual songs, but I see nothing wrong with featuring individual songs now and then if they're remarkable in some way - groundbreaking/unique, notable collabs, etc.
  
  
• Community Calender. Events, deadlines, hype/activity, releases, projects, albums, collaborations, etc.
  
  Definitely like the idea, though I'm not sure how that would translate to Tumblr.
  
  
• Toastbeard involvement. Artists from there, winners of competitions and their songs, themes and info for people interested. Reminders to tune in for the sync-listen. Weekly
  
  YES.
  
  
• "Blast from the past?" (maybe a different name). Retired pony artists, where are they now. Monthly or Bi-Monthly
  
  Not sure if this is strictly necessary as a consistent, scheduled thing. If the retired artist in question has been doing something notable, then we can totally do this, but otherwise I don't see the need.
  
  
• Spotlighting threads on MLR? I don't know, I think we should leave that for MLR entirely.
  
  Yeah, for the most part we should keep MLR on MLR.
  
  
• Interviews with community members small and large Bi-Monthly or slightly more
  
  Yeah, interviews are fun! Can coincide with album releases or something interesting the interviewee is doing in the community.
  
  
• Heavily music focused, nothing off-topic or creates clutter
  
  Yes, and also keep the blog drama-free. Long opinionated posts like Mumble's that is already on the blog should be kept out even if they're relevant to music and/or the community.
  
  
• Behind-the-music (name it Pre-Fade?) with producers. Studios, methods, tutorials Bi-Monthly, might be grouped with interviews altogether
  
  Sure, could be fun, though possibly not quite as interesting to non-musicians if it gets too technical.
  
  
• Guest authors (for articles?), interviews (guest interviewers?), all levels of fandom?, conversations encouraged (maybe should be directed to MLR threads to avoid clutter)
  
  Definitely. Especially if things start to get busy for the dedicated authors, freelance writers encourage community involvement.
  
  
• Remixes,Genres,Character Spotlights. I disagree, goes against macro-focus. Maybe "Best of Genre", but even that's a stretch imo"
  
  I don't see what's wrong with this. If it's worth spotlighting, we should spotlight it. Lists and countdowns and such are something the brony fandom really seem to love, and if we're trying to appeal to the listeners here...
  
  
• Link past lists? maybe not, let's keep things kind of fresh for the most part
  
  Yeah I don't see the point of this unless past lists somehow become relevant.
  
  
• Call and response with fansites who share a common interest
  
  Yes. Networking is something we're going to want to have figured out..
  
  
• DJ Mixes. Can probably be grouped with artist content entirely, or at least be labeled differently, but maybe not separated. Discussion on this
  
  I'm not personally a fan of DJ mixes so this is up to you guys.
  
  
• Convention talk from music standpoint (let's stay music focused, EQD/EFN already does convention coverage). Who's performing where and the like.
  
  I'd definitely like to show some appreciation for the behind-the-scenes sound guys at the very least. Highlighting remarkable performances is also an option.
  
  
• Brony Radio Station interviews and finding out about them can be grouped with interviewing altogether or slightly distinct. Discussion on this as well
  
  Not sure if there's a whole lot to talk about here as far as radio stations are concerned, though like I said, networking is gonna be pretty important so we might want to talk to the stations about that.
  
  
• PMV recognition
  
  PMVs are awesome and all but I'm not sure if they belong on the blog unless the songs they use are made by bronies.
  
  
• NO ART. Let's keep this primarily music focused. IF any art, it should be limited to album covers, artists label designs, and things of that nature.
  
  Agreed.
  
  
• NO COMMUNITY POLLS. EQD and the like already do lots of stuff like that. IF we do, link it to MLR or something that won't create clutter on the blog
  
  Someone else mentioned this but polls would be great for getting feedback and seeing what we're doing right and what we can improve.

My thoughts are underlined.

My main concern here is the tone in which we'll be presenting all this information. If I'm understanding this correctly then our main goal is to kindle some interest in our little music scene, so I'm sort of wary of coming off as "too professional", know what I mean? Celebration rather than promotion (I mentioned that a bit on Skype) of brony music. We want to get people excited about the music. So we can have intelligent, informed posts and reviews, but using mostly-casual language. Organized, yes - but more "party" than "business" if you catch my drift. I really seem to be struggling with words today so let me know if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

[A2Z]

Before I go back through a back-logged list of information that I need to compile and review for what we are all looking to have, maybe we should spend a little time thinking about how a weeks worth of this blog running will look like. A "schedule of events" as you will. How should we have events and content presented to the audience? Assuming that most people who subscribe to updates/ blog posts are going to be seeing this in their usual tumblr feed, I'm going to boldly say that we should NOT give someone who scrolls to the post a Wall-o-Text. I believe that to be unattractive on many different levels (feel free to argue with me if you disagree). Brevity is key here.

Format wise, an idea that LoreRD suggested (and I think some others did too), was seperating content release by Day of the Week. Here's a rough draft that he pitched to me: (feel free to leave comments on this structure please)

• Monday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Tuesday: Tutorial
  
• Wednesday: Interview (any kind)
  
• Thursday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Friday: MLR Newsletter
  
• Saturday: Toastbeard post
  
• Sunday: Artist spotlight
  
  (note: might switch around the saturday and sunday content since Toastbeard happens saturday evening)

Since music is going to be the main focus, we will obviously need to be posting some of the freshest content out there for the listeners enjoyment. This should come from the lesser known artists primarily since that is who we are helping out after all, but can come from all walks of the fandom. I had an idea about how to sort of "pipeline" this process of finding and reviewing the better content so we don't have a small group of people running around trying to find new music, be somewhat objective about it, review it honestly, and getting bogged down with a bunch of other tasks. That gets tiring quickly and isn't fun (at least I think it isn't fun). What my plan is looks a bit like this:

Compilers --> Prelisteners --> Organizers --> Reviewers --> Bloggers

-Compilers would go hunting out the new music and follow upcoming artists while also seeing what the lesser known artists are doing. They will then pick out a bunch of tracks they think are good to listen to. All the songs are gathered up and presented to prelisteners.

-Prelisteners (here is where it gets different) will be given maybe 5-10 tracks each depending. However, they will be listening "blindly", so to speak. All the prelisteners will be receiving are songs labeled "track1, track2", etc and all they have to do is vote (1 to 10 or something) on how much they liked it. They will then pass these songs onto the organizers.

-Organizers find the 3-4 best tracks in the groups by averaging out the ratings. Anything that has an honorable mention of some sort (like gets 7/10 but still doesn't make the cut because there were higher rated songs) will be presented in the next spotlight first. They might add some notes on what they thought of these decisions, maybe even cast in a vote as well, but their votes may have a little less weight or something. Still working on details on all this stuff. They will then work closely with the reviewers.

-Reviewers will essentially be the writers who have an average to exceptional knowledge on music quality. They might also have an under-weighted vote on what get's presented, don't know yet. They will basically highlight the finer points of the tracks, what makes them unique, exciting, etc. They will be giving a small written article that gives the points, but isn't so extensive that listeners forget this is for the listeners, not the musicians entirely. They then will pass it to the bloggers.

-Bloggers will be the editors and final-checkers of all the content before it gets released for the public consumption. They are also there to lightly oversee that everything is going smoothly as tracks and other content travel the path of the pipeline.

I know this seems bureaucratic, which itself has negative connotations, but it's a simple idea of compartmentalization that I think might have a good start with at least this frame of action in mind. This will hopefully keep everyone's workload relatively light, but enjoyable. Everyone interested, please feel free to pick apart any aspect of this. In fact, I encourage it. Let's have this be what everyone can agree on and be happy with.

P.S. The Blind-Listening System is designed to remove any bias on names. It would be ideal to not think, "Oh look, it's POPULAR ARTIST, therefore I already think this will be somewhat good" or to think, "Oh look, it's UNKNOWN ARTIST and I feel skeptical on their quality already".

Also I'm trying to keep up with everyone's suggestions and input, so bare with me and apologies if it seems I haven't seen what you posted, there's just a bunch to organize and keep in mind in such a short time

[A2Z]

Skype is good for group discussion, and a horrible place for actual writing down of ideas. We need a editable google docs with everything that we have so far.

I think this is the primary reason the Skype is there. Just throwing it out there, I've been writing down all the unique and interesting thoughts coming from the skype. I don't know how to work a Google Doc, but if you type in skype, I'll most likely be in there for most of this planning stages. I've been trying to compile all the stuff discussed in there and posting them here.

However, if anyone wants to setup a google doc, I can submit all the info I've gathered so far (and am still collecting)

[Freewave]

Thanks for all the replies FEEL FREE to add anyone who's recently volunteered to the chat in my absence (although please keep it on topic as i hate pages and pages of unrelated conversations)

I'd like to avoid a google doc unless we plan on making that "policy" that we refer to. I can't access google doc from work but i can do mlr and thats where majority of this talk should go. Skype is bets if we all gotta meet and do Q&A quickly in the eve or quickly check with each other for web design and other stuff.

So as tags for regular features we have.

Artist Focus
Artist Recommendations (generally we ask another musician abouot who they like)
Events
News
Albums
Compilations
Toastbeard
Rewind or Blast from the past (old stuff reposted)
Opinion
Guest Opinion
Guest Playlist
Conversation Peace (just an adlib on a name, ie discussions that are not shouting matches but that may occasionally be disagreements)
Polls (very rare but could point to one on mlr)
Interviews
Tutorials
Behind the Scenes (in the studio and more)
Radio Stations
Brony Music Sites (spotlight on another brony music site)
Brony Conventions
Where are they Now?
Playlist
Dj Mixes
Music Review (again this would have to be something pretty special or we become a track submittal place and thats not good). Prob a batch of tracks .
Genre Talk
Character Playlist
Music Lists

Lemme know if I'm missing anything i guess. We can give quirky names but that might not be the best idea if we want people to figure them out....I'd rather just say what it actually is.

We could definitely find a way for some people who listen to every track on MOTD to filter their favorites and we give those to a review team. I don't want to highlight the existing EQD spotlights unless people think that's a good idea. Those will likely already have a big enough spotlight vs those tracks lumped in through a motd mega post. I don't want to duplicate what EQD does. We can include tracks that might have been not even sent in or not included due to censorship or other reasons.

BMD generally posts a playlist of the EQD spotlights for the month and i can make sure to do that more punctually and post that and any Paleo Top 10 vid just to show that we are not totally ignoring the mainstream. If anything that may get some really good suggestions on what gems were missed from either.

[ph00tbag]

I definitely like the idea of a pipeline that is driven by "compilers." The thing I like the most is that the compilers are in their own way acting as listeners, but they're doing it from a much more ground-level perspective, where they're following artists that aren't necessarily at the tip of everyone's tongue.

[Magnitude Zero]

• Monday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Tuesday: Tutorial
  
• Wednesday: Interview (any kind)
  
• Thursday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Friday: MLR Newsletter
  
• Saturday: Toastbeard post
  
• Sunday: Artist spotlight
  
  (note: might switch around the saturday and sunday content since Toastbeard happens saturday evening)

I'm really glad this schedule exists because it's a fantastic starting place.

What's the deal with the music spotlights? Is it like a musician spotlight that includes multiple songs of the same musician? Or are we going to find new songs or just songs that we haven't posted before to spotlight, kind of like EqD's music spotlight but with a little review for each song by someone who knows what they're talking about? I'm kind of leaning towards the latter but I wanna hear what you guys think.

[Conduit]

• Monday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Tuesday: Tutorial
  
• Wednesday: Interview (any kind)
  
• Thursday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Friday: MLR Newsletter
  
• Saturday: Toastbeard post
  
• Sunday: Artist spotlight
  
  (note: might switch around the saturday and sunday content since Toastbeard happens saturday evening)

I'm really glad this schedule exists because it's a fantastic starting place.

What's the deal with the music spotlights? Is it like a musician spotlight that includes multiple songs of the same musician? Or are we going to find new songs or just songs that we haven't posted before to spotlight, kind of like EqD's music spotlight but with a little review for each song by someone who knows what they're talking about? I'm kind of leaning towards the latter but I wanna hear what you guys think.

I think we should have daily song posts, and then artist posts on the days like it says in the schedule. That way we keep daily interest and viewership up, while still leaving the detailed writing to certain days.

[ph00tbag]

I'd prefer it to be a thing where we present our top picks from the last week or so.

I think in general, given that we'd be doing pretty much seven tunes a week, we want to try to give as broad genre coverage as we can, too. I know most pony music falls under the electro house/dubstep description, but it will be important to be as representative as possible.

Either that, or have something of a daily thing where we provide insight into what fare can be found, organized by genre, so if a metalhead, upon perusing the spotlight, finds nothing to his liking, he can still drop by the site to get something fresh within the metal genre by going to that section.

[Ducks Unlimited]

-Organizers find the 3-4 best tracks in the groups by averaging out the ratings. Anything that has an honorable mention of some sort (like gets 7/10 but still doesn't make the cut because there were higher rated songs) will be presented in the next spotlight first. They might add some notes on what they thought of these decisions, maybe even cast in a vote as well, but their votes may have a little less weight or something. Still working on details on all this stuff. They will then work closely with the reviewers.

This is gonna pile up really quickly. I recommend just doing all the songs ranked 8+ or the Top 5 tracks (whichever comes second) and that's it. If you really want the rejected folks to have a second chance have the 6+ on waitlist and if there's not even enough tracks to have a Top 5 made of 7+, put the first on the list in the post. I think 3 songs might be a tad small, just 'cause there's a damn lot of music being released. That being said, we don't always need a magic number, posts can vary in size, we have that freedom (GodBlessAmerica)

_____________________________________________________


With the schedule, is this gonna be like "3pm - Posting time!" and then we post one thing and that's it for the day? What if like, We do the big thing that day, but every 3 hours or something we have a song on queue just to keep it the music flowing. That would then require replacing the "3-4 track MondayThursdays" to something else, maybe like a "Best of the Week" and another thing, I dunno. But we shouldn't just have one post a day. I was concerned when I was reading Freewave's original itinerary that the blog was gonna get super cluttered 'cause there's just so much stuff we were gonna post, but now it's the opposite problem.

Think about it

[ganondox]

Yeah I'm not a big fan of the leave the community > community continues following you model. If you're in the community and still making mlp music then that's great and you have our attention.

Though could someone still be part of the community without making mlp music? Like they still interact with the other mlp musicians and whatnot, but their music is no longer mlp focused.

[ClaviSound]

But we shouldn't just have one post a day. I was concerned when I was reading Freewave's original itinerary that the blog was gonna get super cluttered 'cause there's just so much stuff we were gonna post, but now it's the opposite problem.

We're actually gearing towards at least two per day at the moment, possibly three depending on who joins our staff in the interim between now and Season 4, which is our target date for launch. Remember that this blog is largely in its conceptual phase right now and a lot of what we're throwing around is just ideas people might want to see implemented before the foundation is set in stone. Once we solidify the basic structure of how the blog's going to run, we can focus on increasing the output.

Though could someone still be part of the community without making mlp music? Like they still interact with the other mlp musicians and whatnot, but their music is no longer mlp focused.

Hmm, I think we could possibly approach it the same way cons would. Would someone be asked to perform at a pony con? You could say yes to people like Alex S., and maybe dBPony, and that type of musician, but someone like, say, Swagberg would be a nono.

[ChocolateChicken]

A lot of the more popular and former pony musicians have moved away from making pony music and the fandom too. Whatever we do, we certainly should not try to get them to make more pony music or try to get them interested in the fandom again; that would just annoy them further, most likely, because they are extremely sensitive. I think the best think I suggest we do is continue to give support to any musicians who are still making great music - pony or non-pony - as well as newer musicians who also make great music - pony or non-pony.

I can list some great ones that are totally worth attention: Replacer, d.notive, Odyssey Eurobeat, PonyFireStone, Thorniair, General Mumble, BlackGryph0n (this dude is seriously the next Michael Jackson wow), JayB, and ToastWaffle come to mind. Most other musicians have either stopped making music all together or have recently been making really bad music in my opinion haha. Feel free to check these guys out and see if you like 'em!

[Freewave]

• Credited posts. Fine for people to see who is recommending the stuff that is getting posted. No more than that if we want this to be still mainly run by a staff that filters the content to an extent.
  
  Sure!
  
  
• Macro focus. ARTISTS, not just individual songs, from all areas who are making good stuff and are generally active.
  
  I agree that the focus should be on artists rather than individual songs, but I see nothing wrong with featuring individual songs now and then if they're remarkable in some way - groundbreaking/unique, notable collabs, etc.
  
  
• Community Calender. Events, deadlines, hype/activity, releases, projects, albums, collaborations, etc.
  
  Definitely like the idea, though I'm not sure how that would translate to Tumblr.
  
  
  ...............
  

My thoughts are underlined.

My main concern here is the tone in which we'll be presenting all this information. If I'm understanding this correctly then our main goal is to kindle some interest in our little music scene, so I'm sort of wary of coming off as "too professional", know what I mean? Celebration rather than promotion (I mentioned that a bit on Skype) of brony music. We want to get people excited about the music. So we can have intelligent, informed posts and reviews, but using mostly-casual language. Organized, yes - but more "party" than "business" if you catch my drift. I really seem to be struggling with words today so let me know if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Just wanna say I'm really agreeing with a LOT of EVERYONES points. I don't want the fact that i wasn't responding to be that i wasn't reading or agreeing with these ideas. They are solid.

A lot of the more popular and former pony musicians have moved away from making pony music and the fandom too. Whatever we do, we certainly should not try to get them to make more pony music or try to get them interested in the fandom again; that would just annoy them further, most likely, because they are extremely sensitive. I think the best think I suggest we do is continue to give support to any musicians who are still making great music - pony or non-pony - as well as newer musicians who also make great music - pony or non-pony.

I can list some great ones that are totally worth attention: Replacer, d.notive, Odyssey Eurobeat, PonyFireStone, Thorniair, General Mumble, BlackGryph0n (this dude is seriously the next Michael Jackson wow), JayB, and ToastWaffle come to mind. Most other musicians have either stopped making music all together or have recently been making really bad music in my opinion haha. Feel free to check these guys out and see if you like 'em!

Agree. This is where we can also make the focus important because this is a brony music blog and we should support those up there that still make mlp relevent music and look to them for interviews / referrals / etc so that we recognize their continued dedication to the community. Many aren't quite as big as those who left but they are the future.

• Monday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Tuesday: Tutorial
  
• Wednesday: Interview (any kind)
  
• Thursday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Friday: MLR Newsletter
  
• Saturday: Toastbeard post
  
• Sunday: Artist spotlight
  
  (note: might switch around the saturday and sunday content since Toastbeard happens saturday evening)

I'm really glad this schedule exists because it's a fantastic starting place.

What's the deal with the music spotlights? Is it like a musician spotlight that includes multiple songs of the same musician? Or are we going to find new songs or just songs that we haven't posted before to spotlight, kind of like EqD's music spotlight but with a little review for each song by someone who knows what they're talking about? I'm kind of leaning towards the latter but I wanna hear what you guys think.

Well BMD already has artist spotlights but can find a way to reblog or link that into Fimmusic. I do very much want BMD to be a sister site and vice versa. I'd love to find ways to link the two and have artist spotlights can carry over from BMD in some way.

I mentioned it in the skype chat but genre focused b-monthly or monthly spotlights for artists and songs from genres that someone specializes in: (Metal, Hip-Hop, Trance.... )would be great. That way someone becomes the official go to guy for that genre and can show what to check out and be who people seek out.

I like the idea of a regular schedule and queueing up posts to fit that which is very easy on a tumblr.
--------------

Before I go back through a back-logged list of information that I need to compile and review for what we are all looking to have, maybe we should spend a little time thinking about how a weeks worth of this blog running will look like. A "schedule of events" as you will. How should we have events and content presented to the audience? Assuming that most people who subscribe to updates/ blog posts are going to be seeing this in their usual tumblr feed, I'm going to boldly say that we should NOT give someone who scrolls to the post a Wall-o-Text. I believe that to be unattractive on many different levels (feel free to argue with me if you disagree). Brevity is key here.

Format wise, an idea that LoreRD suggested (and I think some others did too), was seperating content release by Day of the Week. Here's a rough draft that he pitched to me: (feel free to leave comments on this structure please)

• Monday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Tuesday: Tutorial
  
• Wednesday: Interview (any kind)
  
• Thursday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Friday: MLR Newsletter
  
• Saturday: Toastbeard post
  
• Sunday: Artist spotlight
  
  (note: might switch around the saturday and sunday content since Toastbeard happens saturday evening)

Since music is going to be the main focus, we will obviously need to be posting some of the freshest content out there for the listeners enjoyment. This should come from the lesser known artists primarily since that is who we are helping out after all, but can come from all walks of the fandom. I had an idea about how to sort of "pipeline" this process of finding and reviewing the better content so we don't have a small group of people running around trying to find new music, be somewhat objective about it, review it honestly, and getting bogged down with a bunch of other tasks. That gets tiring quickly and isn't fun (at least I think it isn't fun). What my plan is looks a bit like this:

Compilers --> Prelisteners --> Organizers --> Reviewers --> Bloggers

I like the idea of a pipeline but lets be very careful here. We've stayed away from doing what EQD does and duplicating the idea of our own pre-listeners as we'll be very busy with other aspects of this site and frankly EQD does all this already and to a massive audience. If we take the best of MOTD and spotlight it that's not a bad idea (some deserve full on spotlights but didnt) but then tracks are really getting spotlit almost 2 weeks after publishing....

I don't want us to be a site that people submit tracks to immediately (then we take the blame if we don't like them (like EQD)as we don't have the manpower or the pull. But if we do have people who actively listen anyway then they are the ones to make a filtering system POSSIBLE. Only problem is as people leave or run into time constraints this process will immediately begin having problems first. So let's think about if track spotlights (weekly) are something we want to tackle or if we want to go the artist / genre spotlight route coupled with musician recommendations. I'd like to do whatever we can realistically accomplish and more importantly in a way that's relevent to what people will want from us.

[ganondox]

Well BMD already has artist spotlights but can find a way to reblog or link that into Fimmusic. I do very much want BMD to be a sister site and vice versa. I'd love to find ways to link the two and have artist spotlights can carry over from BMD in some way.

Well BMD does have entries for all the artists, but that's sort of the problem in this regard, it has "all" the artists, not just a spotlighting. This would highlight specific artists who are thought of worth talking about, not just whoever decides to submit there info in whenever. That's the other thing, is the BMD entries are sort of new musician focused and are often outdated as time goes on. The BMD entries can be used as a starting point for artist spotlights, but should not be the actual spotlights. Anyway, I agree they should be sister sites.

[Freewave]

Well BMD already has artist spotlights but can find a way to reblog or link that into Fimmusic. I do very much want BMD to be a sister site and vice versa. I'd love to find ways to link the two and have artist spotlights can carry over from BMD in some way.

Well BMD does have entries for all the artists, but that's sort of the problem in this regard, it has "all" the artists, not just a spotlighting. This would highlight specific artists who are thought of worth talking about, not just whoever decides to submit there info in whenever. That's the other thing, is the BMD entries are sort of new musician focused and are often outdated as time goes on. The BMD entries can be used as a starting point for artist spotlights, but should not be the actual spotlights. Anyway, I agree they should be sister sites.

I often try to update BMD on sunday or monday (and can make that more of a punctual routine) so i can do a one post highlight of who got added, and link back to bmd as a weekly feature and reminder for tumblr.

BUT we can also clean off the dust of some older and out of date profiles. Get them current and post those as on the tumblr as an artist spotlight too. BMD has had a hard time keeping profiles current and this gives a chance to reach back out to them, highlight them again on tumblr and bmd, and keep that blog/directory current as well. We can add additional info on the tumblr with "what are they working on" or what are they listening to (brony music) that they like at the moment. ;)

[Freewave]

Also guys don't forget that we will relbog things that highlight groups of brony artists. Some content will be reblogs that we pass on and stuff created so that we can get is seen. In the end I think we'll see several posts a day between our regular features, news, and spotlights, and such. Staggering and queueing is definitely a great thing to keep in mind to use as well so its consistent but not cluttered.

[ExoBassTix]

Before I go back through a back-logged list of information that I need to compile and review for what we are all looking to have, maybe we should spend a little time thinking about how a weeks worth of this blog running will look like. A "schedule of events" as you will. How should we have events and content presented to the audience? Assuming that most people who subscribe to updates/ blog posts are going to be seeing this in their usual tumblr feed, I'm going to boldly say that we should NOT give someone who scrolls to the post a Wall-o-Text. I believe that to be unattractive on many different levels (feel free to argue with me if you disagree). Brevity is key here.

Format wise, an idea that LoreRD suggested (and I think some others did too), was seperating content release by Day of the Week. Here's a rough draft that he pitched to me: (feel free to leave comments on this structure please)

• Monday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Tuesday: Tutorial
  
• Wednesday: Interview (any kind)
  
• Thursday: Music spotlights, 3-4 tracks
  
• Friday: MLR Newsletter
  
• Saturday: Toastbeard post
  
• Sunday: Artist spotlight
  
  (note: might switch around the saturday and sunday content since Toastbeard happens saturday evening)

Since music is going to be the main focus, we will obviously need to be posting some of the freshest content out there for the listeners enjoyment. This should come from the lesser known artists primarily since that is who we are helping out after all, but can come from all walks of the fandom. I had an idea about how to sort of "pipeline" this process of finding and reviewing the better content so we don't have a small group of people running around trying to find new music, be somewhat objective about it, review it honestly, and getting bogged down with a bunch of other tasks. That gets tiring quickly and isn't fun (at least I think it isn't fun). What my plan is looks a bit like this:

Compilers --> Prelisteners --> Organizers --> Reviewers --> Bloggers

Some things that I want to say:

Is weekly tutorials realistic? Nevermind I re-thought it and it should be doable. I seemingly didn't realize different people can do tutorials xD

And I'm personally very much in favor of the pipeline. I don't know much about EqD thereby, as the place has never appealed to me. Too big and all (which could be a tip for the organization of this thing). So I don't know about stuff looking like that place or anything. But I agree to this concept of the pipeline in full.

[JSynth]

We need to be sure to keep a limit on our daily posts. If we have too many posts in one day people will unfollow.

[Freewave]

Agree^. Likewise I hate when a musician or artist's blog becomes FULL of ask responses. I'm likely to unsubscribe to Eurobeat soon just for that reason even though i like that he's active and responsive to people (which is actually a postitive and unusual trait in this community). It just becomes an annoying feed when its irrelvent to you and what you want to read.

I don't want us to be super annoyingly active, answering pm's publically, or reblogging or writing irrevlevent stories.

One further idea came to me recently that i may pursue. Many people have asked about making the blog more then just a tumblr and also post to a dedicated regular styled website. While i will want to go with a tumblr as it has social advantages we should take advantage of i will talk to my friend Feld0 and look into MLPForums and Poniverse as possible tie-ins and places that COULD web host a site. They get a lot of traffic from the brony public and are a very well designed. We could use their existing blog structure to capture features, see if he'd even entertain the idea of helping design a stand alone site for us, or a dedicated multimedia friendly subforum for the site. Dude is a genius with code, friendly, and hosts the pony.fm site which could use some help and support too. Worth seeing if we can help each other.

A pony.fm and eqbeats monthly spotlight (best tracks of the month according to their stats) could be a nice monthly guest feature with mutual exposure as well. Something to think about.

[ExoBassTix]

Agree^. Likewise I hate when a musician or artist's blog becomes FULL of ask responses. I'm likely to unsubscribe to Eurobeat soon just for that reason even though i like that he's active and responsive to people (which is actually a postitive and unusual trait in this community). It just becomes an annoying feed when its irrelvent to you and what you want to read.

I don't want us to be super annoyingly active, answering pm's publically, or reblogging or writing irrevlevent stories.

In Soundcloud, one could put reposts in a dedicated playlist instead of actually reposting. Could something similar be done here?

A pony.fm and eqbeats monthly spotlight (best tracks of the month according to their stats) could be a nice monthly guest feature with mutual exposure as well. Something to think about.

It isn't smart to be like "this is #1 in the stats so we feature it," as not all #1-rated tracks are actually good. People could even decide to get likes or something whem they realize they could do that and gain instant feature. Think about this as well

[Freewave]

Both Eq beats and pony.fm are small potatoes compared to soundcloud and bandcamp. We can worry about people rigging the system when we get to it but they are both mlp only hosting sites that we should endorse. Having them as partners who could assemble news for us rather than doing all the work is an important partnership. We need to get a good portion of our posts assembled from other sources to gain each other's trust and cooperation and just so we don't do EVERYTHING ourselves. Plus stats don't lie. We don't want to pick winners and losers as that's something that EQD does. A blog that partially runs itself as a well oiled machine is a good one. ;)

---------------------------------

Seeing a lot of talk of pre-listeners and asking people to submit directly to us in the skype group which is very much the opposite of what i was recommending and mimicking what EQD does. Please post any ideas you got on here please instead of going nuts on the skype and igoring the thread. Pretty please. :D