samcousins's Blog

Samuel C, Male, 32, ME, US
“

I'm the Technical Director at the St Lawrence Arts & Community Center.

I'm also a computer guy. I build or repair computers and do some web design.

Some other places to find me:

http://www.samuelcousins.com/
Member For: 5 months, 3 weeks
Posts: 13
Top Post By samcousins (most thumbs up):

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Recent Posts by samcousins:

Re: New Member Introduction - Who are you?

November 9, 2008 by samcousins

Hi, I'm the other, beard-free, Sam. I did the SEO section of the web 101 seminar.

I'm one of those guys who does a bit of everything.

My real job is computer support for Criterium Engineers - I support all of our 60+ affiliate offices and build/administer their websites.

I also do a bit of consulting on the side, for all sorts of clients, from computer repair to helping develop web strategies.

I volunteer as the Technical Director at the St Lawrence Arts & Community Center, on the top of Munjoy Hill. If you're ever up to a concert there, you'll probably see me in the booth. I've been involved in local music since I was a teenager, running events with Maine Arts (for those who remember them).

And, of course, I'm a photographer, which is how most PMF people know me. Check me out on flickr.

For me, the PMF is about community building. Artists and musicians bring a certain amount of life to an area. And by improving that, we make the area a little bit better place to live. And I like it here.

Herb Ivy, when talking about radio promo, said "It's all about the song."  I would instead say that it's all about the experience. (I would point out KISS as a perfect example of this.)  For my part as a photog, when someone sees one of my photos, it's nice to hear "Wow", but I'd rather hear "Man, I wish I'd been there!"

My only bit of advice is: Don't try to do everything at once.  Try to do too much at once, and you'll just get frustrated and give up. I've built enough failed websites to learn that lesson. There are no secret formulas or magic bullets. Take on one thing at a time and build up.

Re: username Change??

November 9, 2008 by samcousins

since this is your first post, i'd just start a new account.

obviously, that won't work for everyone. (and is not really a good solution)

I would prefer that the forum showed real names rather than usernames, then this wouldn't be an issue...

Re: Networking Page

October 27, 2008 by samcousins

Okay, I've been running this around a little in my mind. I want to back-track on this whole thing a little bit.

I'm thinking that there are already a bunch of services available to us that we're not fully taking advantage of. Here are a few things:

First: go to the Maine Arts Commission artist database and add yourself, if you're not in there already. (It's for all artists, not just musicians.) Add it to your list of things to update. Businesses looking for artists or musicians are more likely to go there long before they go to myspace or facebook.

Second thought: if you have a website, keep a page about things you're looking for, even if it's just a temporary "help wanted" page. I've got a page that appears on my website sometimes when I'm looking for something hard to find. You should also add that info into your myspace/facebook/sonicbids/whatever page.  If it's not there, people won't find it.

If I was looking to find work, I would probably type something like "sound engineer portland maine help wanted" into google, and see what comes up.  Having your own person classified page will get traffic - because classifieds are for things that people specifically search for.

We'll cover a bit of this at the web promotion seminar (Nov 5). Remember, more people will find you through google than anything else. Even if they're only finding your myspace/facebook page, most will get there through google.

Third. To jump to the wiki topic: I'm pretty certain that Wikipedia is not the answer. Its user base is too broad; while we would need something more local-specific. I don't want to discuss the politics of Wikipedia, but leave it at this: I think that if you created a bunch of band-specific pages for Portland bands, all those pages would be queued for deletion because you're not famous enough.  Wikipedia doesn't like self-promotion, and those folks will go out of their way to stamp it out.

Now, creating our own local wiki isn't a terrible idea, but it may not be the best option.  A wiki is really meant to be a semi-static reference site. You put up an article, and then tweak it as better information becomes available.

So, let's talk about this after the web-promo seminar. I want to see what other people have to say about the whole thing. I think a lot of interesting stuff will get said.

In the mean time, make a list. Three parts: what you want/need (e.g. find a guitarist for your band), what are you doing now, if anything (e.g. posting ads on craigslist), and how it works/doesn't work for you (e.g. only got two responses to the ad). Let's find out what really isn't working before we dive into something new.

Re: Networking Page

October 26, 2008 by samcousins

This is not a bad idea. I'm not sure a wiki is best, but it would be a better format than this particular forum...

There may be a program/website/etc that already does exactly this. I'd rather not re-invent the wheel. I'll see what I can find out and report back.

Re: BaROCK the VOTE October 10 at The Asylum

October 13, 2008 by samcousins

A little bit of shameless self-promotion. Here are my photos from the event: http://flickr.com/photos/samuelcousins/sets/72157607926453165/show/

As for a musician's PAC, there's a lot of groups out there already, but that's a can of worms for another thread...

The Indie Band Survival Guide

September 30, 2008 by samcousins

Has anyone read this yet? It's a book called "The Indie Band Survival Guide". I've ordered a copy from amazon and will post a review. From what I've heard so far, it's a great resource.

Start with the BoingBoing.net article: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/29/indie-band-survival.html

The book's website is here: http://indiebandsurvivalguide.com/

Amazon link: The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual for the Do-It-Yourself Musician

If you hover over this link, it should pop up a little window with item details... If it doesn't, just click through to get to Amazon. Check the reviews BEFORE you buy!

One of these days, I'll put up a page on my website with all these things I find...

Creative Conversations - resources for artists

September 24, 2008 by samcousins

I went to a Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance (PACA) event earlier this evening. Adam Ayan was on the panel.

The session was called "Creative Communications: The Business of Art"

It was about resources that were available to artists - all artists, not just musicians. Though, almost all of it applies across the board.

These are two website you should bookmark.

First, obviously is PACA - www.portlandarts.org

On PACA's website, look to the left for the "Resources" link. They have a big list of useful websites and organizations. Some I was familiar with, but there are a few that I saw which I will have to check out later. I'm not going to reproduce it here, but it's worth looking at. Direct link

The second is the Maine Arts Commission - www.mainearts.com

They have a ridiculous amount of information on their websites. They have event listings, a database of artists, mailing lists, programs and seminars, and even grant opportunities.

The discussion will be broadcast on the community channel. I'm not sure when. I'll find out and post it later. I think there will be a summary forthcoming on the PACA site too.

Re: Poll: What topic would you most like to see addressed in our next educational workshop series?

September 24, 2008 by samcousins

As a late addition to this...

This idea stems from a discussion at a PACA event (which I'll post about separately).

I would like to see something directly for the fans. How can I, joe beer-drinker, be a better fan.

I want to get more of ______________ from my music. How do I share my taste of [obscure-music-type] with people who like similar stuff? How do I give feed-back to a band? Why I should write a letter to the editor.

The fan wants a certain something from the music scene. What can we tell the fan that will help him/her better communicate their wants/needs to us. How to be more than just another guy at the bar show.

Re: MySpace vs Website??

September 11, 2008 by samcousins

MySpace is web training wheels. You can get a bunch of info up quickly and go. Eventually, you need to go to a real website so that you can do more.

But I do agree with Sam - the big problem with having your own website is upkeep. If you're going one, you need to make sure it's regularly updated.

As we've discussed before, there are a lot of things that would be nice to have online - press kits, tech sheets, etc.

Even with all that said, many major musicians have only one-page websites or no website at all.

Re: Why don't more bands and artists take advantage of RSS feeds?

September 9, 2008 by samcousins

And you'd be right, I think.

Re: Why don't more bands and artists take advantage of RSS feeds?

September 7, 2008 by samcousins

RSS has a history of issues which have prevented it from being adopted widely. At one point there were nine different versions of RSS, and none of them were compatible with each other. Interesting story for geeks (e.g. me), but probably boring for everyone else. Wikipedia link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss#History.

Even though all that has since settled out, there are still some technical issues. Basically, RSS takes a bit of know-how to set-up, and not many web hosts provide support for it.

In the end, the work/reward ratio is generally not enough for most people.

Anyhow, in the grand scheme of things, there are a lot of basic items that bands should set up before they worry about RSS feeds - like having a website that isn't just a MySpace page. But this is a topic of conversation that should have its own thread.

Re: Why don't more bands and artists take advantage of RSS feeds?

September 7, 2008 by samcousins

I've been using iLike.com to track bands - it has plugins for Facebook and for MySpace. And it notifies me when a band has scheduled a show in the nearby area (which anywhere in New England for me).

Re: The best place to sell lightly used gear...

August 17, 2008 by samcousins

Craigslist can work too.

But with any online site, you need to be careful. "Please expedite to Nigeria" etc...

My bad ebay experience: I recently tried to sell a laptop on ebay. And that turned out to be impossible. It was 10 scammers for every real bidder.

You'll get more money selling directly to another person than you'll get selling to a shop. but selling to a shop.

On the other hand, if I've been looking for a used piece of equipment, I have better luck asking around. Usually a friend-of-a-fried is trying to get rid of whatever I'm looking for and willing to let it go for cheap.