JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum So Where Does Your Song Rank On Ourstage?

Tropic Of Candy Corn: Baack to #5 after falling from 3rd to 12th a few days ago.

A Strange And Different Wind: #107 New Age/World

Beyond Eternity: #184 Instrumental. This was originally in Guitar Instrumental and peaked at #37 there. OurStage moved it to Instrumental because it has a violin passage in it and it is very softly played on an acoustuc guitar.

The biggest heartburn I have with them moving it (I think it should have remained in Guitar Instrumental) is that when they moved a song, it goes into last position. I think it should go in the same relative position in the channel form which it was moved. Example...If I was #50 out of 100 entries in the channel from which it was moved, if the new channel into which it was moved has 200 entries, I should be entered in that new channel at #100...the same relative position. I think that would be most fair way to do it. The reviewers could then send it up or down as they saw fit. To go from #37 to to #374 because of an involuntary swith seems a bit unfair.

Overall, I enjoy my experience at OurStage and will not leave simply because of this. My music gets a ton of exposure, regardless of how it places in the "charts". That is enough reason to be there, as far as I am concerned. I have one song that already has had almost 4,000 plays. That's not bad....for free.



Scott Andrew: I think the situation you described (demo placing better than polished work) shows the power of the song over the power of production to the average listener. The typical listener just wants a good song. Short of really sloppy, production means little to the everyday listener. A reasonably well produced cut of a great song will almost always trump a polished cut of a song that may not be as innately strong. It's pretty much as Brian says "Does the song move you?", rather than are you impressed with the quality of the cut? Good luck!

Alan

I don't understand OurStage!

Dan

I've had a few of my songs moved as well, one was up to 12th in guitar solo, and then disappeared completely! It was removed as they believed that the solo should be a seperate part of the song, not the song itself...go figure.

Mark,

Yeah, it's pretty disappointing when you're going well in a genre and you get moved. My POV is if you are doing that well, the song must be getting a lot of favorable votes. If the folks like it that much in that genre, I question the validity of moving it because 2 or 3 folks flagged it. But, that said, I'm happy overall with OurStage. There is always going to be a thing or two we don't like about anything. Good luck.

I went into the quarter finals with "Tropic Of Candy Corn" placing 4th in Tropical. We'll see how it goes from here.

Alan

Congratulations Al and all who made the quartersfinals. I listened to Tropic of Candy Corn and enjoyed it. You've come up with some nifty titles.

Thanks, summeoyo!

Glad you like the title. I do about 75% - 80% instrumentals and it is becoming more and more difficult to generate new titles that sound at least semi-interesting. Of course, that title comes from Tropic Of Capricorn, where many of the islands are located.

Thanks again, appreciate it. I'm going to head over to Comerdy and see if you;re in the quarters. Till next time...

Alan

I made the quarterfinals in Male Singer-Songwriter, and WOW the voting just got really volatile. Just today my song bounced from #3, to #11, to #9 and now it's back up to #2!

Don't really care much about winning (although that would rock), I just hope it stays in the Top 10.

Al, I didn't make to quarters this month. I rose to 31 after a delayed entry - then fell. Big Busted Woman Flat Busted Broke was a Top 10 on Broadjam.
Scott, I connected with "Holding Back". Nice performance. I'd rate you above Howie Day.

summeoyo...

Crap...sorry to hear that! I have judged 12 "battles" in comedy and found few of them truly funny...a little quirky maybe, but not all that funny.

Scott...

Know what you mean! So far today I was #1 most of the morning, fell to #7 early afternoon, moved up to #5 for several hours and now I'm holding at #3. The interesting thing in the Tropical Channel, where my song is, is that the spread between the two songs being judged is very, very narrow. I have completed all 190 battles in that channel. Only 6 "battles" had a wider spread than 60 - 40. A HUGE, HUGE majority were in the 44 - 56 or 48 - 52 range. That's sure gonna cause a lot of fluctuation! I wonder of a majority of the channels are like that. Good luck to you!

Alan

Congrats to those doing well! We got to hang with one of the 5K dollar monthly winners (Cobalt) this week in Chicago.. they're an aggressive bunch really working their career.

Hopefully one of you gang can join them and make it 6 out of 7 monthly winners being JPF members.

Brian

My Song "Dear Grandma" is number 8 in the folk charts/competition!!

http://www.ourstage.com/music/channel/81-folk/KQLMTPWXEVMY-dear-grandma

Barry,

That's great! Here's wishing you continued success!
Alan

I got into the Quarterfinals in Comedy with "Dead Sexy", #7 right now, but it's been bouncing like a pingpong ball.

So did Everett and Greg Tamblyn.

Dear Grandma is at #8 in folk!! I kind of forgot this was out there...sorry if this is a double-post, but it doesn't seem to show after the first one.


http://www.ourstage.com/music/channel/81-folk/KQLMTPWXEVMY-dear-grandma

I'm tired of workin' was #6 steady in comedy for about a week, then #8, next day #14, today #10, bouncing like a ball. Tennessee Treasure in bluegrass reached a high of #7, then plunged to #15 and now #11. Enough to make you dizzy.

Well, after spending all night last night, and all day today solidly entrenched at #10 in Tropical, "Tropic Of Candy Corn" just moved into the #3 position in the Tropical Channel. We'll see what happens. Good luck to the rest of you!

Alan

This morning I am # 1 in comedy. WOW! I wonder for how long?

I guess I'll find out tomorrow if I survived to semifinals. I dropped to #9 in singer-songwriter today, but now it's back to #7. Oof.

I did some judging of my own this evening, and let me tell you: it's HARD. There are a LOT of really good tunes, and at some point it comes down to personal tastes, production values, etc. because the core songs are good across the board.

Once, I was trapped between a song that was obviously better, but I hated the style, and a song that was just okay, but more to my tastes stylistically. I grudgingly gave the first song a slightly better rating, but I wonder how many people (who aren't songwriters like me) would have done that.

Well, I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to know if I made the semi finals. I dropped from #5 to #11 today with "Tropic Of Candy Corn" in Tropical. In the past three dyas I have been everywhere from #1 to #15.

Alan

"Rainforest Majesty" is in the New Age/World semifinals!

#1 in comedy yesterday,#8 today, talk about a roller coaster ride. Weeeeeeee

i don't think i have uploaded anything there, i think i'm going to give it a try then?
there's a priscilla hernandez blank profile there but I did not create it, neither it's my e-mail
it's weird.

I don't know what to do
seems to exist a blank profile made under my name (so far i'm the only performing artist under my name though) and it's blank but thus it doesn't allow me to create, if you google my name or youtube, or myspace, or itunes and digital stores you'll find i'm the only singer (and actually with legally released staff) aside of being my real full name.
thus i'm not sure what to do, for me it doesn't make sense to create another user name that is not my artist name.
i wrote the contact there but so far I simply cannot join

Dang, #11 in Comedy....missed the quarterfinals by one!

Mark,

Me too! Fell to #11 several hours before the end of quarters. Too much fun, eh?

Alan

I made it to the semifinals and even got as high as #2 before dropping to #5 just before they froze everything for the finals. Ah well, Top 5 out of over 500 entries ain't bad I hope I did well enough to be seriously considered for the opening slot opportunity I was competing for.

In a way, I'm relieved it's over...

Made #8 in comedy, 14 in bluegrass.

Congrats to all of you who participated, whether you finished at the top or elsewhere. Why make music at all if you're not interested in having others hear it? They may not like it, or they may love it, but in the end, music is meant to be heard and Ourstage is a chance to have it out there. From there, anything can happen. It's not always easy to put yourself out there, so that alone is a victory for all who participate.

Brian

On OurStage's description of the Comedy genre on the Compete page it says:"If it isn't funny it won't stay on the channel for long." I wonder if OurStage has ever removed a song for not being funny on Comedy. There are some songs there that probably should be moved to other genres. The dilemma is that when a song is both not suitable for another genre and not funny, dare OurStage take the risk of removing them because they're not funny? And if they won't do it, why do they post the above-mentioned statement?

Funny is a wide perspective... there's few things everyone thinks is funny and few people who think everything is funny. Some people think Monty Python isn't remotely funny.. I disagree. Others think the 3 stooges are funny, not most women though. It also depends on your background, politics, ethnicity etc. The question is, how many people have to think it is funny for it to actually BE funny? I am not sure there's a way to gauge that fairly. Apparently the voters have felt some things are funnier than others and voted accordingly. I haven't agreed any of the months, but then I haven't found 10 actually funny songs at any point in time in any month. So it's in the the ear of the beholder I guess.

Brian

Maybe they should call it novelty as opposed to comedy. My song finished #8 last month, so far this month the same song is at the bottom of the heap.Go figure.

I actually told them it should be novelty anyway. Comedy is stand up spoken word comedy routines, but for whatever reason they want it to be called comedy. Novelty gives a much wider berth to what fits and what doesn't than Comedy.

Brian

I agree that the Comedy genre would be more accurately described as Novelty. I think most of the songs in that competition are novelty rather than comedy. There have been a few actual standup routines entered. What OurStage may want to do is to determine if they want to continue to allow "offensive" material. But there one would still have the same problem as in determining what is "funny". I've been to comedy open mics where there have been rules about obscene material. OurStage may need to write a standard as the vulgar material keeps on increasing. If they continue the "Anything Goes" path it may cause fewer neutral people, who just want to hear something funny, to go judge in the Comedy genre because they know that they'll be subjected to what they consider vulgar. I know I push the envelope myself. However the truly funny artist will acquire a discernment of how far one can go and still be in good taste. A lot of the competitors in the comedy genres are young, immature, and inexperienced in performing. And although many posts in Comedy are probably no more than a gag, guidelines may benefit any who are actually serious about pursuing a career in comedy.

I agree with Everett and Brian. Novelty is much more encompassing and probably is a better description of what has been entered there.

I also wish they would include a "Sountrack" channel or "Movie/TV Music" channel. I have a couple of songs that do not even remotely fit into any channel they have. They were written specifically as Soundtrack pieces. Everytime Ihave entered one, it has been moved 2 or 3 times because it didn't 'fit' the channel. Heck, even an "Other" channel might work.

Although there are a few things about OurStage that sometimes irk me, I think it has a lot to offer if you utilize it in the manner in which it was designed to be used. It's not everything to everybody...but what is?

Alan

Since my last post here about 8 songs dropped from the comedy competition. One had posted a pornographic cartoon of women performing cunnilingus with the song.
As far as a Soundtrack competition goes, I think one who writes that would be better off just sending their material to listings on TAXI, Broadjam, etc. The music for soundtracks would basically come from the Genres that already have competitions on OurStage. The only thing that may change that for me is if one wants to run competitions on clips from songs for TV, Commercials, etc. But how much of a draw for non-musicians would that be?

I'd like to see a Retro category.

I think the categories need tidying up in general. There are huge amounts of entries in some but others only have a few entries. All categories should attract a similar amount of entries and those categories that have large entries should be sub divided. Small categories could be incorporated together to make a uniform sized categories. I still see a huge diversity of styles appearing in the wrong categories.
I have entered songs in cover bands. I still see a lot of what appears to be original songs in that category. Perhaps cause it is relatively small in compariosn to others and people think they have a better chance entering in the smaller categories.
I still think some form of pre judging should take place to ensure quality and suitability for the category entered. Perhaps there should be a category for people who just want to post songs without them being entered into a competition would be the place for rejected songs.

I don't think size matters - of the Genre competition categories that is. They already have Indie Pop and Pop, Indie Rock and Rock, and other categories that could easily include crossovers from these genres. One difference "Indie" is supposed to make is that the songs are supposed to be "less Mainstream". The actual result is that the songs in the aforementioned categories do sound alike. They certainly could cross-over to the other and there would(or should) be no problem. There is always going to be disparities in the competitions if they go by genres. The more currently popular genres of music are just going to have more competitors than the more eclectic genres. The mistake would be to combine genres to match the number of competitors. That would bring unfair apples to oranges comparisons and be a headache for OurStage as to rearranging genre combinations in order to hit a target number of competitors. Yes there is the Finals - where out of necessity there is the apples to oranges comparison. But at some point it always comes to that anyway when judging music.

Are the songs in comedy suppose to be original? I saw "I'm my own grandpa" there, that goes back to Grandpa Jones's day.

Hi Everett I do not know if the songs are meant to be original. It seems that standup is included and not just songs. It would be an idea to give clarification on each category as to exactly what it is and what is allowed and what is not. Whilst some are obvious some are a bit vague as to what material exactly they are looking for. As I said before the whole thing needs a tidy up. It would not take much but it should be a priority rather than all the gizmos and incidentals they are introducing.

Big Jim,

I like 90% - 95% of what OurStage does and will continue to to participate unless something significant happens to change my mind. There are 2 or 3 major issues for me that I do not like. But, as I said before, they won't please everyone all the time.

All that said, I think your comment about doing some tidying up rather than coming up with catchy(?) gizmos is a very valid observation. However, I wonder if they do the "gizmo thing" because because the great majority of the participants...fans and perferomers alike...are much younger than you and me and they are attracted by the flash and glitz. Just a thought...perhaps that particular part of their approach is for marketing rather than functionality and efficiency of the process.

But, for the forseeable futre, I will be participating. have agood weekend, Jim.

Alan

Several hours ago my songs ranked as follows:

Tropic Of Candy Corn...Tropical Channel...#6 out of 87

Beyond Eternity...Instrumental Channel...#41 out of 315

Quiet Night...Beats & DJ Production Channel...#125 out of 276

They have to keep outsiders (i.e. non music industry) people coming to the site in huge numbers. It's not easy to get a million unique visitors to a site. That puts them in the top thousand sites in the world for traffic. I know that Daniel is focused on tweaking and improving constantly. He even emails me asking where a song should go and why. That's a lot of dedication. If you're over 50% happy with what they do, there's really no downside. There's things I would change too.. but none of us have to pay their bills and make the site work.

Brian

Hi Al I very much feel like you. It is a very good sight overall.
That said there is always room for improvment. It is up to us users to draw attention to areas that we think need tightened up or improved. If we all say nothing then nothing will ever get done to improve things. I look upon my comments and suggestions as positive ways to improve rather than negative criticisms.

I am currently at #2 in Comedy with "Up For Hanky Panky". KSPAZ radio, who had posted a thread here on JPF requesting material for comedy Internet radio, is featuring me on their homepage. Unfortunately, I experienced some technical problems when I tried to listen on Friday. They are only broadcasting Wed - Sun.

The one who posted this song has now changed the title to "geneology gone wild" and changed the picture too. I wonder what's up with that?

As of an hour ago:

Beyond Eternity #6 of 351 Instrumental Channel

Tropic Of Candy Corn #25 of 90 Tropical Channel

Quiet Night #191 of 252 DJ/Prod/Beats Channel


Tropic of Candy Corn has had a wild ride. In 48 hours it went from 4 to 37 to 17 to 25. Quiet Night has held steady, 10 - 20 places either side of 200. Beyond Eternity was holding very steady between 35 and 45 from day one; then, 2 days ago, it shot up to 5; it has been 4, 5 or 6 since.


Brian....

I wasn't trying to imply I was disgruntled with OurStage. Just the opposite. I have but one very significant complaint (which I politley explained to them in a courteous e-mail) and a couple of considerably less significant complaints.

Given the scope and sheer numbers of active participants on their site, I do not expect they would ever be able to please anyone 100%. As I mentioned, I am 90 - 95% happy with their venue. That's meant to be complimentary. I wasn't complaining.

Alan

Alan

I've entered one this month:

http://www.ourstage.com/entry/RSVHWHZSSRVV-mr-lincoln

Mr. Lincoln - it's currently #60 in Americana/Alt Country out of 329 entries.
(As of 2:45pm CDT 10/10/08)

It's also #2 in Iowa for that category and #6 in the Midwest.

It's kind of political but in a fairly non-partisan way - just imagining a conversation with the 4 presidents on Mt. Rushmore imagining what their takes on current events might be.

We're over a third of the way through the month. How is everyone doing?

Brian

#29 in folk. This is the third month. The previous two barely scrapped the halfway mark and were automatically reentered. Good to be in two digits. Ben

# 7 in Comedy, "Dead Sexy"
#65 in Indie Pop, "Better Believe"
#138 in Cover Bands, "Hey Bulldog"