From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #218 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, August 19 2007 Volume 13 : Number 218 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: MySpace is what you make of it ["Xenu's Sister" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:11:37 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: MySpace is what you make of it - --- birdie wrote: > Yes, with Happy - I don't know if having a form (on myspace) for people > to join say - this mailing list - would be a good thing or a bad. I've seen such forms on other artists' pages, and I've even used them to sign up, but I don't want one for ecto because first, it's not *Happy's* mailing list, it's a fan list. Second, it's not devoted entirely to Happy. People have come and gone because the list has so little Happy content (I'm one of them, but I always come back because it is, after all, my home) so to have a direct sign-up link on the Happy MySpace page would almost be false advertising. As I said, there are plenty of links that will get people to an ecto sign-up info page, but you have to be somewhat dedicated to go to the trouble. I think that's a good thing. > Everybody is different and so are the sites and the kinds of people they > pull....and...some artists have part-time non-music jobs to support > themselves and are more into it for the music than anything else. That's been Happy's attitude for several years now. She rode the merry-go-round for a while, and it got some fans (some real fans too, like Robert Lovejoy), but not all that many, considering. I can't speak for her of course so none of my words have come from Happy's lips to your ears, but I get the genuine impression that she's quite content where she is. Find Me is coming in the future, and so is more music, but I can't imagine that she'll ever be the kind of ambitious go-getter that Amy respects and thinks is worth her time. It's just not in Happy's nature. She just wants to make music. If people love it, that's great! Getting the music to where people can find it is the problem, and that's where fans can come in. I sometimes feel like I'm all alone out there pushing Happy to more people, and I am SO the worst person in the world to be in this position. People get sick of me. I do wish more people would step in. > I tell everyone I know to think of a music career - in this day and age - > as having a lot of part-time jobs, and that you have to work as much of > them as you can....tour, It is too bad that Happy's never been interested in touring. > get music in TV/Film, God, I wish! 10 (11) brilliant albums full of all types of amazing music, unbelievable vocals and highly intelligent lyrical content, and no one's ever used anything for anything. Ever. It drives me insane. > An artists security is in their flexibility and how much they can get > themselves out there - venues, films, network sites, music stores, all > of it. True, which is why Happy's never had much security. Sigh. > To go from 300 plays a day on myspace to 70,000 - if you are an indie > unsigned artist - creates such a storm... > Um....it would drive someone like Happy totally crazy.....I am sure. Yep, I think it would. Regarding MySpace, I'm the one it would drive crazy. I have 9 pages of add requests waiting for me on Happy's main MySpace page. I can't imagine what it would be like to have dozens or hundreds of pages! People would have to just Click All, then Approve All just to get through them. With me, every page represents an individual because I see their pages individually. > as soon as you hit high in the myspace charts, you need smart wise > connected people to cope with what goes on. Thankfully, that's not something I have to worry about wrt Happy, since she'll never get anywhere near the MySpace charts, if only because *she* doesn't have a page on MySpace. There are 4 Happy Rhodes pages there and they're all (my) fan sites. No one gets to Happy via MySpace except through me (though I have forwarded messages to her, and she does often read the 'pre-approved by me' Comments). Of course, her music wouldn't appeal to MySpace either. In any case, she could certainly set up her own, official, page on MySpace, and is always more than welcome to take over /happyrhodes for her own use, but she never will. Damn, I just realized. As much as I anticipate Find Me, and as much as I hope it will get her some well-deserved attention (outside of MySpace) I just realized that if that were to happen, I'd be the one dealing with the "fallout" (not anything to do with MySpace charts, but the upswing in add requests). That's more than ok though, I'll deal with it when/if the time comes. > The biggest sharks come out. I can imagine, and I do sympathize. The delete function is so useful. > Alot of offers come in - most you may not want - the bullies and scam > artists arrive, too...and...if you know what you want and have the right > support and great connections....it can all be a good thing in the > end...but I can see for some indies, really on their own....could be a > complete nightmare. One of the great things about MySpace is that average people and other musicians can connect with actual artists, but I'm beginning to see that there is something to be said for the layer of protection a non-artist-run page (such as pages run by record companies/friends/management/fans) can give. Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:18:06 -0400 From: ciriwe@phobot.net Subject: Re: Happy's day job I've always wondered about that. Thanks, Vickie! (And thanks to Happy for being willing to share that.) On 8/18/07, Xenu's Sister wrote: > I had this in one of my other MySpace posts in regard to musicians > working day jobs, but I thought I should extract it and post it by > itself since it would interest some people who aren't interested > in the MySpace back and forth and aren't reading the posts. > > By the way, a trivia aside: Happy gave me permission to tell people > what her day job is lest folks think she's working at Burger King. > She hand-assembles pro-audio equipment for a company called Dangerous > Music, and she does it at her home, so she's not part of the 9-5 > world, dealing with shitty managers and office politics. She likes > her job, a lot. She's doing something interesting that other musicians > will benefit from. Chris thinks Dangerous should tout their "manufacturing > plant" in their advertising ("Hand-made by a real musician...and not > just ANY musician...!") > > Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:32:12 -0700 (PDT) From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: Happy's day job - --- ciriwe@phobot.net wrote: > I've always wondered about that. Thanks, Vickie! (And thanks to Happy > for being willing to share that.) You're welcome! I've always wanted to tell people but wouldn't without Happy's permission. I think it's really interesting. Her recent trip to Paris (where she wanted to meet with fans but I sadly couldn't find any) was to attend a trade show as a representative for Dangerous Music Equipment. V ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #218 ***************************