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.
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.
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