NxEW Reloaded: What Has Changed And Why

In case you haven't noticed yet we've done a bit of renovating at NxEW.ca. It's not as clean and streamlined as it was but NxEW is a content heavy web site and the goal was to make it easier to find the things you are looking for and to keep up with the things you are interested in.

Previously the front page simply listed the most recent posts, and it still does. The problem was that those posts would frequently disappear within a week so if you hadn't checked in awhile you missed stuff. So we've added some sections like reviews, interviews, and tour dates - these will show reviews and interviews we've done and reviews and interviews we've talked about that you might want to check out.

We've also added a section called Elsewhere that lists recent articles from some of our favorite Canadian music blogs. Although only a few from each category are shown on the front page each has it's own page that goes back quite awhile and there are now a number of different feeds you can subscribe to so you can get the stuff you want the way you want it.

We've also added a Spotlight Artist feature. Every week a different artist will be featured in the hope of shining a light on someone we like and think you should be aware of.

We have not built in an archive section, because we can't build one that works very well with the way our site is set up. NxEW is run through Blogger and Blogger limits us to just 100 contributors per blog - so we have multiple blogs that are all collected together into our feed. So an archive would only show the articles from that particular blog and not all of them - what we do have though is a site specific google search (see the right hand column) so if you just type in what you are looking for it will give you any and all mentions of that topic on the site.

Another thing we have not done is build regional feeds - doing that would go against the very idea that NxEW was founded on: The goal is to have contributors from all over and for everyone to be aware of what is going on everywhere - so our contributors from Saskatchewan (or Manitoba, or Nova Scotia etc) can share the things they are excited about with the country. Regional feeds would allow people in Toronto, or Montreal, etc., to go back to naval gazing, reading only the stuff that is about them in particular. So we could build regional feeds, but we won't.

So again, quickly, what we currently have:

About: The obligitory about us page

Join Us: Where we try to talk you into becoming a contributor to the blog

Who We Are: Brief bios of our many, many contributors.

Links: Other stuff on the internet that you should check out

Mixtape Podcast: NxEW's own podcast where we STFU and play music

Promote NXEW: Where we encourage you to help promote the site

Awards - a small section for now but this is where we'll list all of our awards like the Shadow Polaris and the Album Hall of Fame

Reviews: The latest reviews by us and others that we like

InterviewsThe latest interviews by us and others that we like

Vinyl: The latest info on what is being released on vinyl

Video - the latest video, live and otherwise.

Tour Dates - see who is on tour and where they are going.

Free Stuff - The latest free stuff, samplers, MP3s, albums and free shows

Podcasts - we talk about podcasts alot - not just our own, but many that are done by others. This will keep you up to date - there are also lists available of the CBC Radio 3 Sessions, Radio 3 TV, CBC Radio's Bandwidth, Soundcheck from the National Post and Colin Medley and, of course, our own Mixtape Podcast.

Elsewhere - The latest stuff from our favorite Canadian music blogs (other than our own.)

I Heart Radio - with details on how to get over a hundred channels of free, independent and mostly commercial free radio on your computers media player.

And a long list of Feeds that we offer - which allows you to subscribe to absolutely everything and/or subsets on information.

We'll keep doing our best to keep making it all bigger and better for you.

Cheers!

What Are Your Favorite Canadian Music Blogs?

We've been discussing some changes to NxEW.ca and shortly I'll begin implementing those changes. I won't give you all the details right now but one of the new sections of the site will be a collection of the latest posts from other Canadian music blogs. So, this isn't going to be a contest or a poll, no voting or short lists but I thought I'd throw the question out there and ask - "Other than NxEW.ca what are the Canadian music blogs that you like and would like to see included in that new section?"

Please get your suggestions in in whatever way works best for you - Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, [email protected] or just leave a comment below.

The Onion Helps to Remind Us What We Shouldn't Be

A great article in the Onion pointed out by CBC Radio 3 boss Steve Pratt entitled "Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8". Obviously, this is satire - that's what the onion does. I won't comment on it's fairness or lack there of in taking jabs at Pitchfork but I liked the article not only because it was funny but because it nicely encapsulates the kinds of things I try to avoid with NxEW. Jut to give you a quick taste of the Onion piece:

"Schreiber's semi-favorable review, which begins in earnest after a six-paragraph preamble comprising a long list of baroquely rendered, seemingly unrelated anecdotes peppered with obscure references, summarizes music as a "solid but uninspired effort."

"Coming in at an exhausting 7,000 years long, music is weighed down by a few too many mid- tempo tunes, most notably 'Liebesträume No. 3 in A flat' by Franz Liszt and 'Closing Time' by '90s alt-rock group Semisonic," Schreiber wrote. "In the end, though music can be brilliant at times, the whole medium comes off as derivative of Pavement.""

When starting NxEW I was very aware of the criticisms leveled at a certain faction of the 'music intelligencia'. There is a certain modern school of music fans/critics that says that anything you've ever heard of sucks, that looks for things to criticize, and where 'derivative of' is a huge slam. The people that use 1,000 words to describe a 3 minute song and that likes music that 'you're probably never heard of because it's pretty obscure' (but that won't tell you what it is or encourage you to listen to it because if you like it it means that they can't anymore. This attitude is, to put it bluntly, b.s. posing that isn't good for music and really isn't meant to be.

By contrast I, and so far to my experience the other NxEW writers - want you to like the music we do. If it's 'pretty obscure' we want it to be less obscure. We want people out buying albums and going to shows. We don't look down on people because of what they like (even if we don't agree). We're here to tell you about music we like and we hope that, at least sometimes, you like it too. There are obviously alot of words that go into the site but we don't try to confuse you or write an essay about the song when we could just play the song and let you decide for yourself.

This is the ideal anyway and if you ever catch us deviating from it: If we start coming off like pretentious, self important, superior assholes please call us on it. Creating music is difficult and complex - listening to music should be simple and fun.

p.s. everything isn't derivative of pavement, but everything is derivative of something or several things. People who create music are influenced by what they hear and enjoy and elements of what they enjoy will make it's way into their music. Anything else would be unnatural.

How NxEW.ca Can Help Your (Canadian music releated) Organization

If you work in the area of Canadian music - a radio station, record label, venue, etc., etc., - NxEW wants to work with you.

One of our key philosophies, since inception, has been that we don't have competitors, or enemies we're willing to work with anyone who has the best interests of Canadian music at heart. We're not here to 'beat' anyone - we just want to provide the best information on Canadian music that we can.

Many, perhaps most, of our contributors have other projects - bands, radio shows, blogs of their own etc., Some of them even cross post - putting the same information on our site and on their own blog and we're fine with that. We don't care very much about 'exclusives'. If you'll notice we even have a bit in the side bar about it being ok to reprint anything we publish elsewhere. We're more about applying the power of the collective to a music site. With all of the various web sites and blogs out there we're trying to create a single source where people can find a wealth of information about a great number of bands and events from across the country.

Now to the point - what we can do for you and/or what you can do for us: You can become a special correspondent for NxEW.ca. I've made this offer already to several organizations and so far most of them don't seem to know how to react. Traditional thinking holds that your people should be contributing information to your own site. However, in doing this you're only getting information to people who already know about you, or regularly visit your site and not those who don't. In other words it doesn't grow your audience. So, let me explain a little: We get press releases or email inquiries daily. Usually far too many for us to actually cover it all. We've already tossed out the conflict of interest rules - so if you'd like to write up your own stuff: hi-light things that are coming up, or things that have recently happened, things you think our readers should be aware of you are welcome to do that. It's the best way of making sure the information you think is important gets to our readers. It doesn't mean that our writers won't cover your stuff - it just means that you can be assured that all of the stuff that you think is important gets out there.

In other words it's the proverbial win/win - for us it means that the our site is more complete and informative. For you it means that more people know about what you are doing - the bands playing your venue, your labels new releases or tours, special events or shows coming up on your radio station etc.,

The only rules (we have very few) can be found on the same sheet we've set up for our other contributors at nxew.ca/join.html.

If you are interested in discussing any of this just ask - [email protected].

Help Us Fix NxEW.ca

It's not broken, as far as I know (though opinions to the contrary are welcome) however there has been some discussion about creating a few separate sections on the site for things like reviews, event notices and tour dates, interviews, featured artists, podcasts (already exists) and a special section for vinyl news and reviews. Doing all of this, or even a large part of it, will require something of a redesign so....

What would you like to see NxEW do, or do differently, or not do at all? What should and shouldn't be fixed? What should be added or taken away? What am I not asking that you have a good answer to?

Beyond that, I'd like to mention yet again that we are wide open to new contributors. I've said from the beginning that if we're not covering the music you like or not covering it well enough it's not our fault it's yours. We have an open door policy and a set of rules that wouldn't exist at all if they were any more lax - to summarize the basic editorial policy is anarchy (just keep it Canadian and don't get us sued) - there are no deadlines, no assignments, no style guide, no real editorial policy, no minimums or maximums, and no conflict of interest rules. You write what you want about anything you want when you have time.

We are also not in competition with anyone if you like Canadian music we're willing to work with you - if you'd like to be a 'correspondent' and tell our readers about upcoming events, special things going on etc., at your campus, community or public radio station, for your particular show, for your online or other publication, venue, label, etc.. etc., just drop an email to [email protected].

You can drink our kool aid, we make good kool aid! NxEW loves you. Please join us and/or tell us how to do better. Feel free to comment on this post, drop us an email, talk to us on Facebook or on Twitter @NxEW - if we do a revamp it will be awhile before we do another so tell us what we need to know.

Coming Soon on NxEW

A couple of things coming up on NxEW.ca that readers should be aware of. Tomorrow our Shadow Polaris poll will be over and the winner will be announced. Shortly after that we'll launch something a little different. It will be a new poll, and it will be based on artistic merit. You will be nominating and then voting on the best Canadian albums of all time. So sort of like Polaris but here's the catch. Nominated albums have to be at least 5 years old so for this first, introductory run only albums that came out in 2004 or before will be eligible. That means that the 'flavor of the month' won't take this one. Having an album that is popular at the moment won't get you anywhere. It has to be an album that, at least 5 years later, people are still saying 'yeah, that was a great album. I still listen to it.' - which is a little harder to measure up to. It also means that the albums nominated will be up against everything produced from the dawn of recorded music to 2004. Nominations will be open soon (not yet, wait for it, think about it.)

The other thing that is coming up is city guides - Our contributors, with the help of you all, are going to come up to guides to the cities that they live in. These will include things like - hot local bands, great local venues, places to eat and stay while you're in the city, sites and shops you might want to take in, web sites that give good info on what's going on locally etc., etc., Each will also include (if all goes right, a free sampler (mp3s) from local bands you should check out. So - yet another thing for you to ponder - the call for info on this will go out soon as well. We also have a good partner for this (I think) that will help provide national and even international exposure for these city guides.

Stay tuned. Our second six months are going to be pretty f'in cool.

NxEW.ca Turns None and a Half

I have long thought that Canadian music was under-appreciated in Canada. Whatever the wonderful readers of this blog may think 80-90% of Canada has never heard of any of Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire, the New Pornographers, Joel Plaskett or the Weakerthans (much less anyone else). Feist is doing a little better but only after a few Grammy nominations. Meanwhile the world is increasingly recognizing Canada as a unending garden of musical talent. Canada currently sells one album abroad for every one we import and in terms of overall dollars our music business come second only to the United States in the English speaking world. Record labels from the U.S. and the U.K. are signing Canadian acts right and left and Gene Simmons (of KISS) is currently trying to start a new record label comprised entirely of Canadian artists.

I made various efforts to make this point but, while things have certainly improved, I still didn't feel that it was good enough. With the wealth of musical talent in this country it should be all over the airwaves, Canadian radio stations should be struggling to find space for international artists and even Canadian television should be showing regular concerts, videos and interviews. A night should never go by that there aren't Canadian musical guests on shows like the Hour.

Even the Canadian Music media isn't quite good enough. Much of it is still obsessed with artists from outside of Canada and most of it is concentrated in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - all great cities to be sure, but far from being the whole story.

A little over 6 months ago, during the Canadian Music Fest, I decided it was time to stop trying to convince the existing media and do something. I remember Canadian Music Fest / Canadian Music Week in particular because it was this year that I finally figured out that Canadian Music Week actually makes Toronto less Canadian than it usually is when it comes to music.

So, I asked myself what I could do instead of criticizing the media and the answer was NxEW.ca - which is exactly six months old today. The idea is simple - to create a group blog that is open to Canadian music lovers from everywhere. If people from all over the country will share their thoughts on bands they like, music they like, shows they've seen etc., and enough people do it we will have a good overview of the Canadian music scene - all of it. As opposed to being concentrated in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver NxEW.ca currently has 135 contributors in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, Winnipeg, Sackville, St. John's, Guelph, London, Windsor, Peterborough, Banff, Lethbridge, Charlottetown, Regina, Saskatoon and a few dozen other Canadian cities plus people in New York, Boston and Los Angeles watching for Canadian bands on tour.

We have, in our first six months, served up nearly 1,200 blog posts on hundreds of Canadian artists and albums and have had 63,000 unique visitors to the site. We have 2,032 people following us on Twitter (that's just 22 people shy of CBC Sports) and 1,573 friends (not fans) on Facebook and almost 500 people subscribe to the site via RSS or Email. All of this has been accomplished without spending any money. To date we've paid for web hosting and domain registration and that's it - we've spend no money on promotions or advertising.

There are bigger and better things in the works for the next six months. Please help us grow by telling a few friends and if you love music join us!

NxEW.ca at Three Months

Yesterday (Saturday, June 20, 2009) NxEW.ca turned 3 months old. Of course yesterday was also the biggest day of the North by North East music festival (because I'm in Toronto) that means I am playing catch up. Starting a few weeks before the festival began I was deluged with email and requests pertaining to the festival. I still have alot of email to wade through and several hours of video to check.

One thing the festival reinforced for me though was the need for NxEW.ca. First there was just the abundant amount of great Canadian music. So much that I couldn't possibly make it to everything that I wanted to. Second there was a conversation with a friend from out of town. She told me that she found it frustrating that her local music rags spent most of their time covering Toronto and Montreal bands. I told her that the Toronto music rags seemed to devote most of their time to bands from the states. I don't hold anything against these magazines or websites, they are business and have to do what they have to do to make money, it is clear though that no one involved in the Canadian music community (on any level) feels that Canadian music (from anywhere) gets enough attention. The folks at CBC Radio 3 obviously do a spectacular job, but because of budget constraints they are limited to a few dozen people located largely in a few cities - so they can't do it all alone.

At the moment NxEW has over 100 writers, covering 31 Canadian cities and people in New York, Los Angeles and Northern Michican watching for Canadian bands on tour. (There are also a few more potential contributors I need to get back to who were caught in the music fest delay I mentioned.) Our contributors include fans, journalists, journalism students, musicians, photographers, radio hosts, bloggers, podcasters, promoters, managers, people who work for labels. Some people do reviews and interviews, some write up news stories and tour dates, some relate personal experiences and some simply link back to important posts on their own sites (outside of NxEW.ca). All of them though do this out of the love of music. This isn't anyone's 'job.'

In our three months of harnessing the love of music and the power of the collective we have had over 27,000 'unique visitors' and according to Alexa.com we've outpaced many older and more established music sites. In terms of social media there are nearly 500 people in our Facebook group, more than 700 buddies on Myspace and nearly 1,700 on Twitter - not a bad start for a new site with no budget and only word of mouth advertising!

In future I'll save the birthday posts for big ones and keep the progress reports 'in house' but if there is any part of Canadian music that you think needs to be covered better, any city that is being ignored, or if you just want to throw your .02 in with everyone else join us and be a part of a community that is about Canadian music for and by people who love music.

Anyone Want to Help Create a 911 Service for Musicians?

One of the goals of NxEW has been to have people everywhere, in every town, ideally at every show, all over the country and beyond. This can be useful beyond just covering music, when bands are on the road they are frequently not in brand new well maintained vehicles. There are sometimes going to places where they don't know a soul, or at least going through places where they don't know a soul and don't know the area.

So, although I haven't worked out all of the details yet, this post is the official announcement of a new program. It will basically serve as roadside assistance / 9-1-1 for bands and touring musicians. The idea is to put together a directory (though not one that is publicly viewable) of music fans, musicians, music industry types all over the country and (by working with other music blogs/sites) around the world. Access to the directory will be limited to a handful of people and it will ONLY be used when a situation arises. (It will not be used as a mailing list to plug shows, tours, albums or bands.)

So, for example, if a band

- Has their van break down in Medicine Hat
- Is trying to find a place to do a show in Des Moines
- Needs to find a place to crash in Birmingham
- Get lost on the way to a show in Regina
- Need a safe place to park a van in New York
- Needs someone to put up a few posters for a show in Chapel Hill
- Needs to know where to get a new set of Bass strings in Sudbury

We have people, on the ground and ready to lend a hand - they can send an email, or a text message, or make a phone call to one of the directory operators and be put in touch with locals who are sympathetic and ready to help.

If you'd like to be 'in' the directory fire some contact info to [email protected] and I'll keep your info on file until we're ready to go, what I'm really looking for right now though are people who want to help refine the idea and figure out how to make it work properly - inside and outside of Canada.

Podcast Formats Fixed

When we first started the Mixtape Podcast we got all high tech and put it out in M4A format (AAC/MP4) which let us put cover art and links as well as embed the tracklist within the file. The problem is that we started hearing from more and more people who couldn't listen at work, or who couldn't play the files on their non-apple MP4 players. We didn't want to deprive people of their ability to waste company time listening to Canadian indie bands so..... it's fixed. The podcast is now available in either M4A or standard MP3 format. It's also now being stored on archive.org for server space/bandwidth issues.

Have at them: click here for a full list of the podcast episodes to date.

Some Thoughts on NxEW.ca at 10 Weeks

It's been ten weeks since NxEW started. As I remember I decided it would be a good idea on a Monday and launched it that Friday. Now (as of this moment) we have 92 contributors, in 29 cities, in 10 provinces and the Yukon and we are very near 500 posts.

It was created because of a huge gap in the coverage of Canadian music. Yes, big important things happen in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax but important things happen all over the country so we want to have people all over the country. This isn't really the fault of existing publications - it's generally very expensive to have people everywhere. Our people write out of enthusiasm, not go get rich. It's kind of a national music zine.

There was also a gap in that many Canadian music publications acknowledge what goes on in Canada but are really obsessed with what goes out outside of Canada. For those of you not paying attention I'll let you in on a few secrets.

Broken Social Scene is better than Radiohead

the Weakerthans are better than U2

Holy Fuck is better than Nine Inch Nails

Cadence Weapon is better than Kanye West

Fifty Cent isn't a third as good as Buck 65

(I could do about a hundred such comparisons)

The best era ever in Canadian music is right now - it started about ten years ago and shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Nickleback and Celine Dion would not make a list of the top 100 Canadian artists, nor the top 200 or the top 300.

The only reason anyone thinks otherwise is the size of marketing budgets.

If your music (or arts) publication does not reflect these realities, your people are just punching a clock, not paying attention and unlike the having people everywhere part, it is your fault.

Fortunately we live in an age when starting a publication to address gaps in the media isn't (as NxEW has demonstrated) difficult or expensive.

When we started out we had only one basic rule "don't do anything that will get us sued." Since then the following "guidlines" have emerged, though we still have few hard and fast rules.

- Anarchy is still the editorial policy: No assignments, no deadlines, no editors. Everyone writes what they want about what they want when they have time.

- We're not in it for the money. We hope that someday there will be enough for a small staff to organize and coordinate but to date we have no money and any early money will be dumped back in to promotion.

- When in doubt do what is right for music (for the artists and the fans.)

- We don't 'compete' with others. There are other music sites but we don't try to 'beat' them. We'll frequently link to other sites if they have good stuff. As long as we're rowing in the same direction then we're on the same team.

- We've tossed out the rules on 'conflict of interest' because we're not electing political leaders, or selling stock, or really selling anything, so who cares?

- People are encouraged to write about what they like, rather than what they don't. There is alot of good music out there, so why devote any part of your life to music you don't like?

- People generally only cover things they wanted to do anyway - no one is sent to shows that they didn't want to go to, no one is asked to review albums if it isn't something they were interested in before hand, which makes it all way more honest. (We're not sending paid journalists who are really into jazz to cover punk shows, we're not forcing people to go cover shows that they had no interest in to begin with.)

So far this approach has been tremendously successful. I won't give out numbers yet - until we have an accurate three month average to work from but according to Alexa.com we've already soared past all but the largest Canadian music sites (at least in terms of our popularity within Canada.)

We hope to continue to grow and expand in the months and years to come. To continue to do this though we still need the support of the Canadian music community. We need fans, musicians, promoters and others to write about the music they love. Even if there are people already writing in your city, come on board. We hope, eventually, to have someone at nearly every show, in nearly every city. To do that is going to take alot of people. We also need musicians and publicists to donate stuff to the podcast and to stay in touch so that we know what you're up to and can set up interviews, reviews, etc.,

NxEW is a site for Canadian music lovers and Canadian music creators and Canada will get out of it what people are willing to put in, so please - whoever and wherever you are: pitch in where you can.

Help Promote NxEW.ca

NxEW.ca started from nothing but an idea, and (so far at least) is still running on that idea and the work of our volunteers. We have no budget for marketing or promotions. So if you like the blog and the idea behind it please help spread the word. We have some ready to print fliers as well as a collection of graphics and widgets that you can use to help us get the word out about the site and draw more contributors, artists and readers into the fold. I'll add the page to the menu bar above in the near future, but for now just visit http://www.nxew.ca/promote or click on the image below.

Conflict of Interest Does Not Apply at NxEW

I've explained this and discussed it with contributors, and potential contributors to the blog before but I thought I'd throw it out there generally - in part so I can link back to it when people ask.

There are people who don't want to contribute to the NxEW, or limit what they contribute because of conflict of interest. But 'conflict of interest' doesn't apply here. It's not something we're worried about.

Back in the old days people started newspapers, and then some people started papers and magazines that focused on more specific areas. So music magazines were born. These magazines though still considered themselves to be journalistic in nature. So, they would avoid conflict of interest (having someone review a friend's band etc.). Those were also the days when the media was separate - you hoped that magazines and newspapers and radio shows wanted to interview you and review your album but all you could do was hope. Those days are gone, if you have a myspace, a facebook, a blog, a twitter etc., then you are already taking matters into your own hands. There are still such papers, magazines and web sites around. This is not one of them.

Even the concept of conflict of interest, when applied to music, is a bit silly. Conflict of interest rules came up in journalism circles primarily because of business and politics. If a person was running for political office you wouldn't want him, or his brother editing the local paper. Likewise you wouldn't want someone who sold stocks writing the business column.

With music though the worst that is going to happen is someone is going to buy a CD that it turns out they don't like, or go to a show that they aren't that impressed with. So what? That happens anyway. I'm sure most of us have gone to shows or bought music that we didn't like based on the recommendation of 'serious journalists'.

NxEW was created as a place where the music community could come together and share ideas and information. If you are in a band, there's a good chance you have good information about that band. So, NxEW welcomes anyone who is involved, on any level, in the Canadian music community - musicians, promoters, managers, publicists, audio technicians, producers, journalists, DJs, fans, etc.,

We don't expect you to review your own album, but if you want to write about the process of making it and where certain songs came from - that's awesome info. Please share! Likewise if you want to talk about your tour, favorite places to play, things that happen on the road, your experiences at certain venues - also awesome information.

To date, we have more than 70 contributors, from 24 Canadian cities (and a few in the U.S.). Our contributors include Paul Banwatt (Woodhands, Rural Alberta Advangage, We're Scared), Mike Dawsom (Library Voices, Young Soul Records),  Daps Duo (April and Dan of Hooded Fang, Tonka and Puma, Hut), Patterson Hodgson (Olenka and the Autumn Lovers), Scott Birke (Craft Economy), Naomi Kavka (the Arbitraries), and Gareth Willimas (Lonely Hunters). 

Alongside musicians we have journalists and journalism students, people who run their own music blogs, broadcasting students, university radio people, photographers, and other fans of Canadian music. 

We are a community, not a company and we exist because we love Canadian music and want to share our enthusiasm - we have different takes, likes and dislikes but we're not objective and detached, and no one is counting on us to help them make serious financial decisions, medical decisions or political decisions. If you buy a CD because we said it was good and you don't like it - very sorry about that but we probably still like it. We do know what 'conflict of interest' means, we've just decided it doesn't apply here.

Who's Who on NxEW Twitter

If you follow NxEW on Twitter (and really, why wouldn't you?), you may have noticed that lately the updates have been ending with a couple of letters in parentheses, like (JB) or (sk). This isn't some crazy new Twitter lingo, it's just our way of indicating which particular author is responsible for each individual tweet. You see, the NxEW Twitter account was just opened up to a number of authors in order to keep it more up-to-date, so everyone involved has been assigned a short signature. This should mean that someone is on the NxEW Twitter page far more often, allowing us to tweet about events as they happen, carry on conversations with our fellow twitter-ers, and post links to interesting news about the Canadian music scene that doesn't necessarily warrant a full blog post. Direct messages are still going to be handled by our fearless leader, Justin Beach, but the rest of it is going to be shared-- just look for the signature. You can see who's who on the Twitter page, and for your convenience I've posted the list below with links to author bios and personal Twitter accounts, where available.

AofA = AlexofAnders, @AlexofAnders
AD = Aidan Denison

AK = ak17, @ak_17

BL = Brenda Lee, @kn0ttyn3rb

DB = Dave B, @BuckyKatt
DY = David Yazbeck, @ThursdayBlend
GLH = Chagota, @chagota
JB = Justin Beach, @justinsb

JS = Jadester, @jadedphotos

KO = Konger

SK = Steve Krysak, @stevekrysak

TB3 = John Teeter, @john_teeter

Who Should Write For NxEW.ca

NxEW is an attempt to bring together Canada's various local and regional music communities to share information with one another and the world. Most sources of music related news and information are concentrated in a few major cities, or provide only local news and information for local people. Many of the national sources are also, although Canadian, apparently more interested in non-Canadian artists. NxEW hopes to break that mold in a variety of ways.

First of all we want all of Canada's regions, big cities and small towns represented. So far we're not doing badly - Not everyone has submitted a bio for the page yet but we have over 100 writers representing more than 30 cities in 10 provinces and 1 territory. We also have Canadian music lovers watching for tours in northern Michigan, Los Angeles and New York city. That is not nearly enough though. Even in large cities like Toronto and Vancouver where we already have several people we still want more, the large the city the more people are needed to keep an eye on everything.

Second of all we are a news organization but not a journalistic organization. The writers here contribute out of enthusiasm. Alot of the contributors know some of the people they write about. Some of the contributors are in bands themselves. We're fine with that. Conflict of interest doesn't really play into it. The closer you are to the music the better the information you will have. We're not selling stock or electing governments - if you're writing about your own band, or your friend's band, or the band you manage that's cool.

Third, there are probably 1,000 music blogs (or blogs that frequently talk about music) in Canada plus just about every band and solo artist has their own blog (sometimes more than one). No one can possibly keep up with them all. So we're trying to create one stop shopping - a site about Canadian music that includes national stuff as well as local stuff. So people in Vancouver know what's going on in Halifax and people in Ottawa know what's going on in Guelph and all of this is shared with people well beyond Canada.

NxEW.ca was born on March 20, 2009 - since that time (just over 3 months) the site has seen over 650 posts and over 25,000 'unique visitors' to the site. The Facebook Group has over 450 members, the Myspace page has over 700 friends and the Twitter account has almost 1700 followers.

So, to sum up:

Who Should Write for NxEW.ca

People who are passionate about Canadian music and want to share that passion with other music lovers across Canada and around the world as well as people in their local community.

NxEW has almost no rules. There are no assignments (no one tells you who or what to write about), no deadlines (no one tells you when to write), no editors (no one tells you what to say), no minimums or maximums - you write what you want, about what you want, when you have time. There are no 'standards and practices' and no style guide the only rule is don't do anything that is going to get us sued. (For example don't copy and paste someone else's article in it's entirety - quoting it is fine though and don't post people's music without their permission.)

As I've said bands, djs, music journalists, promoters, managers, etc., are all welcome. In addition to music bloggers, journalists, university radio volunteers, promoters and fans some of the people who currently write for, or have signed up to write for NxEW include Paul Banwatt (Woodhands, Rural Alberta Advantage, We're Scared), Daps Duo (April and Dan of Hooded Fang, Tonka and Puma, Hut), Patterson Hodgson (Olenka and the Autumn Lovers), Michael Dawson (Library Voices), Scott Birke (Craft Economy), Naomi Kavka (the Arbitraries), and Gareth Willimas (Lonely Hunters).

Who Shouldn't Write for NxEW.ca

First of all people who are overly negative, if you like a handful of bands or a certain style of music exclusively and want to bash and ridicule everything else, we don't need you. You're welcome to share your thoughts about the music you love, but spare us the hate, we're not haters here.

Also, if you're in a band you are welcome to join us, but if your band is all you know and you want to post daily updates about every show, every rehearsal and every personal anecdote about your band and the people in it - that's probably overkill. If, on the other hand you want to post occasionally about your band and/or reflections on the music industry, info about other bands and performers you know and work with, then come on board. We'd love to have you.

Finally, people who are looking for jobs or want to get rich. At the moment NxEW has no revenue, we can't pay you - we hope to and plan to change that and eventually have money, we have smart people with good ideas but we're not there yet. So for now think of it as a hobby - something you do for fun and to share your passion for music, it's not a job.

If after reading all of this you think you might be one of us, please drop me a note at [email protected] and I'll hook you up to the blog and the secret Google group that serves as our office.

NxEW Podcast Coming (Looking for Music)

Very soon I'm going to launch the NxEW Mixtape podcast (the playlist for the first one is nearly done).

The podcast will be 60 minutes of music with absolutely no talking, no commentary at all, just music. The playlist as well as links to the band etc., will be available on the page where people download it. The podcast will also be available via torrent (to save on bandwidth). When downloaded via Torrent it will come in a zip file which will include a page of information on the bands included (links etc). To make sure that the info goes with the podcast it will not be available on iTunes.

I already have permission for some music, and will be using the Podsafe Network for some but I'd like to hear from Canadian bands, labels and managers who would like their music considered for the podcast also. I don't want to make anyone mad by including them, although I'll surely make some people mad by not including them. If you'd like to have music considered please get in touch at beach.justin[at]gmail.com

The idea with this particular podcast is not to break new stuff, or even necessarily to introduce people to new music (though hopefully there will be some of that) - it's just going to be about stuff I like that fits together well. So, if you're interested give me a shout and/or pass this message along.

NxEW: Google Group

Just in case you didn't get the message on Facebook there is now a Google Group for NxEW contributors.

Membership in the group is not mandatory but most administrative/technical stuff will now go there. It is also a place where people can ask questions, get suggestions, etc., It is a private group not because there are any secrets, just to help keep out spammers so if feel free to sign up, or not.

The Way Things Look

A few people have commented on the way the site looks, some of them have been positive, some have been negative. The thing is I am not, nor have I ever pretended to be a graphic designer. I also have no money with which to hire a graphic designer. So, if graphic design is your thing and you're willing to work just for the sake of making the web a more aesthetically pleasing place - let me know. (Bearing in mind that the important thing about this site is the information, and the music - so we're going for attractive minimalism here.)

the NxEW Awards?

I've been thinking that maybe NxEW should do it's own awards, not now but nearly a year from now - with the winners being announced on the same day as the Junos. Now, operating on no budget (for the time being anyway) I don't know that we could do a 'ceremony' or even if we can hand out much of anything in terms of 'awards' but at the very least we can make a statement about who deserves recognition for 2009.

So for now I'm just kinda throwing it out there. What categories should there be, how should nominations be done? How should awards be decided? Comment here or on the Facebook Group!

Tweet Tweet!

Just to let everyone know @NxEW is now on Twitter it is there with the help of TwitterFeed which means that everything posted on the blog will automatically (within an hour or so) show be tweeted. Sweet!

State of the Blog

So, we're one week in. At this point we have over 40 writers from all over the country - though there are still big holes (No one at all yet from Alberta or the Territories).

I still need Bios from alot of people (hint).

I've also found a way around Bloggers limit of 100 contributors so there is now no limit at all on how many people we can have so keep spreading the word.

If anyone out there is thinking about jumping in but there is already someone from your city - come aboard. It doesn't matter. The more diversity we get the better.

In other news, a very high up friend at CBC Radio said the other day that he'd never seen a group blog take off as fast as this one. He's right and not just in terms of posts (this will be #61 in the first week) but in terms of traffic. In our first week of existence we've had over 1,200 unique visitors and not just Canadian visitors. In fact only about 55% of our visitors have come from Canada. About 20 % have come from the US, a trickle from Europe and the UK and ... for whatever reason almost a quarter of our traffic is coming from Japan.

Keep at it everyone. For a first week, with no advertising we're kicking some butt.

(forgive the momentary departure from CanCon)

Another Note For Writers: MP3's

Hi all, this is really a note for current and potential writers for the blog. First - get me your bios if you haven't already. I want to make sure to give credit where it's due and I want to make sure I know everyone's geography so I know what areas of the country are covered and to what degree.

But this is really about MP3s and (rather than email it) I thought I'd put it up on the blog for everyone to see.

First there are lots of ways to embed music on the site. The really easy way is here but if you have questions just ask.

The important part is this: Don't post MP3s unless the artist says it's ok. Usually the artist doesn't mind, but ask. It's their stuff, it's up to them whether to let you share it or not - literally just send them an email. Most of them, most of the time will get you an answer pretty quickly and I'm happy to help you upload to the site or whatever you want to do.

There is a ton of stuff at http://publicbroadcasting.ca/download/ that you can use freely. There is also, occasionally, live stuff at archive.org you can use. YouTube is obviously safe and (as far as I know) you can link freely to the Radio 3 Sessions but if you really like the new single from the Burning Hell - ask before you post even if you see it posted somewhere else. It's just basic respect.

Oh and this only applies to MP3s that people can download. If it's streaming - like a Radio 3 playlist or Last FM etc., this doesn't apply.

Tips for NxEW Writers

For those of you who are going to write for the blog, don't forget to get me a bio for the Who We Are page.

As for the rest:

How to write: However you like. If you're a trained seasoned writer write the way you've been taught to. If you've never written anything, write in whatever way seems natural. Pretend you're emailing a friend about something and then post it. I'm not particular about style.

What to write: Whatever you like. Write about things you care about, it will show. You don't have to stick to local stuff. The idea here is not to have people only write about their local scene but by having 'boots (or sneakers or whatever) on the ground' in as many locations as possible we can do a better job of not missing stuff.

When to write: As often as you have time. There's no money in this (yet) so there's no pressure.

Media: It's a music blog, if you can stick in music, or video, or pix etc., do it.

Tech support: If you have questions about HTML or other webby things just ask.

Other stuff: If you have questions about anything I haven't covered ask about that too.

Welcome to North by East West

Nothing too long on this, the blog will become what it becomes but the basic idea goes something like this:

Canada is a very musical country. There are literally thousands of bands and musical performers and, as of last week, each and every Canadian has been a member of Broken Social Scene for at least a month (except Stephen Harper).

Canada's major centers are full of music, but so are most of Canada's smaller communities. Sadly most of Canada's music press is located in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. At NxEW the hope is to bring together people from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as dozens of other Canadian cities to talk about music - what's going on nationally and what's going on locally.

I've been told by some that they hate the logo and by others that they love it. I'm not a graphic designer so feel free to weigh in and let me know what you think, or design a better one. Anyone is welcome at any point to suggest changes to the site.

The invites will go out in the next few minutes to the other people who have expressed an interest in contributing. If you don't get one and you want to contribute to NxEW give me a shout at beach.justin[at]gmail.com.