How would you improve your Vox SonyBMG experience?

First of all Freddy thanks for actually putting up the blog in this manner. It is something I am sure that a lot of artists will support. A suggestion box is a good start. I would like music to be readily available to listen to when I am on the artists page. I find it tedious when I want to listen to an artists music and I am actively searching and clicking and changing pages. User friendlier I would like. As an artist I have to say that I personally feel I have had enough exposure to the A and R people and cannot complain about the system. A how to get signed guide would be good as would how to get your songs published guide. Unless the label want to sign me, I dont really think it matters to me what someone would say about my music. I am looking forward to seeing the suggestions of other artists.

* Bev's point on top ten friends or artists is a good one. If they haven't posted for a while, you have to trawl through the neighbourghood.

* Agree with Rachel about the spammers. They are only interested in you being interested in them. Far too full of themselves.

It raises a point though - some are just plain arrogant but others just may not have developed the skill or vocabulary to give contructive feedback because they may not have been in a situation where they have had to do that before. 'Cool / ace / class / shite' surffice in a general situation but not for something like this maybe. Many on this discussion are good at giving feedback but for those who are not, some guidelines on this may be useful!

I had to develop my own responses when I began teaching creative writing so here's a few suggestions to get the ball rolling, You may add to or disagree with them as you will. Maybe some useful guidelines on feedback could be drawn up from the discussion.

* A basic class rule was that if you said you liked or disliked something you had to also say why. Make at least one point about why you thought it was good or bad.

Apart from a few arrogant people maybe most new artists are sensitive and need to build confidence as well as having a need to be given constructive feedback. It's possible to give constructive criticism without destroying peoples confidence or generally discouraging them. This could be done by -

* Saying what you like about the song first (usually you can find at least one positive point!) and then mention anything you think could be improved or changed. That shows a bit of respect for the artist and doesn't destroy someone (and I think opposite approach has been well illustrated in the situation between Bev and Dave!).

*As Bev sang Everybody thinks they're an expert and know best. Maybe one way around this is to make your responses more personal and tenative. That shows clearly you are not setting yourself up as an expert but responding as person in a more constructive way. eg instead of 'the chorus is dreadful' perhaps 'for me, the chorus just didn't work, not sure but maybe you need a stronger hook, I don't know". That allows them to think about your point clearly without wasting energy hating you for the comment.

For those who want to be more constructive, a guidline sheet / post might break things down a bit into areas and what can be looked for / commented on. This might be very useful to new artists / songwriters - then comments can be more focussed on say - structure / sound quality / melody / harmony / vocals / recording quality / marketablility etc. That approach might open up discussion in a more useful way.

* Also thinking about the intention of the work helps. The artist might help that consideration by saying something about the intention or their percieved market for the work. Again comments can be more focussed then. eg if some one uploads what they hope is a comedy song and you are not laughing - it's useful for them to know that. If everyone else say they rolled about the floor laughing then the artist can conclude that it worked - if not - back to the drawing board or start writing serious stuff!

I think it's also important for us all to remember that not all the music on Vox is aimed at A & R and just because it's not, doesn't mean it's just a hobby. Some are maybe artists in the non commercial sense of the word also. The great thing about Vox is that it is so diverse and rich (not just for music) if you look through the groups and a great place for inspiration therefore.

Hope some of this at least is useful and pertinent to the discussion Freddy.

One of the problems with vox there is to many artist's on here who are all fighting to be noticed and as an old saying goes to many cooks spoil the broth and the same thing is happening here by this I mean everyone is fighting each other to be noticed and to get signed up by sony so it's only natural there will be arguments and people trying to walk over others it's a dog eat dog world.

i wonder if it would be possible for vox to categorise our groups into areas that dont overlap, let me explain..... i host the group dumb blonde jokes..... having just posted three jokes ..... they take over my music page and i had two important blogs which i had wanted to stay at the top of the page..... i think it would be good if we could chose which blog to keep at the top of our page when people visit us........ or maybe there is a way already to do this that i dont know about.......

Is anyone else having problems with this page uploading properly when you go further down the page because all the comments are overlaping with each other so if other people are suffering the same problem then a good suggestion would be after 10 comments you click to go on to another page.