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| Why Positive Music (Posi) is not a genre at CD Baby |
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Just making this a bulletin board post because I've had to answer this question about 10 times in the past year, and each time it takes 20 minutes to write, so to save future hours of typing, here we go:
QUESTION : "Why doesn't CD Baby add a separate genre for Positive Music (aka Posi)?"
ANSWER:
1. When we last overhauled the CD Baby genres 9 months ago, it took probably 100 of hours of work. We had 5 diverse people researching every possible sub-genre of music, searching for any possible sub-niche of music that might need its own separate genre. No reference to Positive Music was found in all of that research. We gathered them all together then updated the database, then had to re-categorize each of the 200,000 albums inside CD Baby to be in its new most-appropriate genre. In short : IT'S A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF WORK, and we will only do it every few years.
2. Because we are a distributor to over 100 different companies now, every time we change our genre tree, we need to re-map the software that converts our genres to their genres. Then we need to ask them to accomodate the changes, because some map ours on their site. This took another 20-30 hours.
3. Because of the self-filing genre system at CD Baby, if everyone doesn't understand a genre, it's going to be filled with people who wrongly think they fit this genre. The best (worst?) example is our "Out and Proud" genre : http://cdbaby.com/style/217 - requested years ago by many gay artists, I'm psyched we have it, but every day about 10-20 artists who are "kick ass damn proud to be an American" (but not at all gay) unknowingly put themselves into that genre. I'm sure this would happen with Positive Music, too. This is also why I refuse to create an "Alternative Music" genre. Too misunderstood to the point of becoming meaningless.
4. Creating a separate genre page HURTS SALES. Read that twice and please really understand it. For years our Latin artists complained that they were listed under World. I strongly believed that was the best place for it ("World" meaning "all location-based genres") - but when the complaints grew daily and turned into threats I finally said fine - OK - I'll take the 50 hours of work (a few solid days of work) just to completely overhaul our genres to add Latin as a genre. Unfortunately, now, a year later, when you look at our sales chart, ALL of our Latin artists' sales FELL since that split-off from World. Here's my prediction why : if you are generally interested in international music (from places you're not from), you click around World and find a bunch of music you like, including Latin. But no longer. Now there are no Latin artists in World, and the only way to find them is to stop browsing World and go specifically browse Latin. Sucks that it hurt sales, but I undertstand why.
Next time we updates genres at CD Baby will probably be 2010. If Positive Music is a well-known genre that customers come looking for and is clearly understood by most artists (won't be confused for "positively kick-ass" or "positively 100% rock-n-roll" or "I'm positive my shit's gonna blow up huge once the public hears it!") - then maybe we'll add it in 2010, as long as you understand that might hurt your sales once you are found in Positive Music instead of your current (and more-browsed) genre.
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Makes perfect sense to me. I just went through the same mind-numbing exercise in creating www.musowiki.net, though I went the other way: through my hands up and kept it to 15 genres - the rest is just toooo complicated ...
Keep up the good work and clear thinking, Derek!
Cheers,
Huge
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| by
on Wednesday April 30 2008 @ 03:21PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Derek,
When you quoted people as saying "I'm positive my shit's gonna blow up huge once the public hears it!") I almost fell out of my chair that Is the funniest thing I have ever read, I am laughing so hard as I type this, so true, people are like that, hahaha never go backward, always forward!!!
You have the best way of explaining things Derek.
Man that's funny -Xerxeese
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Thanks for taking the time to address this Derek.
Kiki
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You forgot:
Folk
R&B
Blues
Rock
and.........
:) just kidding.
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AND YOU FORGOT JUST PLAIN OL POSITIVE ...
HOW CAN THAT BE A SUBJECT AS TO SHOULD IT BE THERE...SINCE IM TH EONLY ONE THAT SAYS IT SHOULD ,,,THEN IM TH ELEADER IN THIS POSITIVE MUSIC MOVEMENT ...IT STAYS ,,,IT BELONGS...AND I PERFORM IT" ....ITS REAL
IVE SAVED A LOT OF YOUTH WITH THE POSITIVE STYL E OF HIPHOPP..WHAT YALL RATHER GANGSTA RAP ????....yeaa thats what yall want death and destruction for the black/ brown man...
JAY-Z SNOOP 50 CENT
JUST BECAUSE YOU CANT RESERCH IT(OSITIVE MUSIC) DONT MEAN IT AINT THERE...DOES A TREE MAKE ASOUND WHEN IT FALLS AND NO ONES ROUND TO HEAR IT,,,,but i bet whats under neath it feels it fall dont it""'
go see and hear the worlds only(BY CD BABYS OWN ADMITTENCE) POSITIVE MUSIC ...I DO IT FOR THE INNER CITY YOUTH ,,AND DERICKS NEM SELLING THE CD' SINGLES I DID FOR SEPT 11TH
OH YEA I WON TH EASCAP AWARD IN 2005C AND IN 2006 ...FOR GUESS WHAT ...POSITIVE MUSIC....AM I THE WORLDS ONLY????
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ALL THAT AND NO POSITIVE...DEVIL LIKES THAT
SEE HOW THAT WORKS...
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Thanks for that informative post Derek. Makes lots of sense.
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Genres are meaningless labels that are only useful in organizing record store shelves.
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... a particular kind or kinds of music - then you can avoid them through knowing what genre something is in.
I know people who hate both kinds of music: country AND western! :P
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Your focus on the issue is as always perfect Derek. I threw my hands up long ago after trying to "create" a new genre for myself. I have better things to do, like compose. On a deeper note, posi would have to be a sub-genre of Gospel, and maybe some other spirit lifting styles.
I gotta hand it to you though, onward!
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...punk sub-genre "posi-core"... :|
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In addition to running the label I used to run stores selling records and CDs in London England (y'all remember those places).
Putting stock into genres was a nightmare - even we listened in store
Best moment was when a dear lady came in and wanted to buy a present - something punk she suggested was what she wanted and in the end went out happily with the latest Art Garfunkel album
What price genre? Bring back salesmanship!
PS in the end we had to classifications
GOOD and EVEN BETTER
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