Word-of-Mouth

[Sc'Eric (aka sc'Que)]

Sure, I'm always worried about shows dying, promoters losing money, bitching that people don't come out, events stopping, and being none-the-wiser.  But Brian's right: I'm more intersted in how people are finding out about these things!   

For example, I'm signed up for Jim Semoniks postings on MySpace, but they NEVER end up in my Yahoo mailbox.  I have to have the foresight to physically login to Myspace, goto DistortionProd's page and look in the events blog.  All this in addition to the mixed-bag tons of email and spam which I already receive (and can't keep up with) at my regular email address.  How inefficient is that???   And even if I remember to do that every two weeks, I'll probably still not have enough time because promoters so often don't mention an event until a week or so ahead. (In my line of work, that is not enough time to make arrangements.  You need almost a solid month to plan ahead, esp. for weekend shows.)  And none of this even takes into account the promoters I've never heard of!

As for a centralized events listing...

That was the prime reason I created the PAdarkAlternative Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PAdarkAlternative/):  

   so folks could join a (single?) mailing list that posted events all across the state, 

   where the calendar could be pre-set to email members (twice per event) 

   with a long list of scene-relevant links that operates basically as a scene resource wiki, all arranged alphabetically by region and interest.  

It was a massive undertaking that took over a year in my spare time to lay down the framework. ...Then, I came to the blunt realisation that events promoters (back then, esp. in the western half of the state... now statewide) don't bother to promote their events online.  

It just makes no sense to me.  With a single email, you can potentially reach hundreds of people--who specifically want to know about the kinds of events you're doing!  But instead, you'll waste time and money cutting down trees and hanging fliers all over one town (on bulletin-boards all filled with random fliers) in a library that maybe 3 intersted people will visit in a week.  

Those numbers just don't add up.   

~sc'eric 

ps. If someone else wants to try to breathe some life into PAdarkAlternative, I'm more than willing to share the work-in-progress.



pgh-goth-list-request at listless.org wrote:





Message: 7
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:35:09 -0500
From: "Brian J. Parker" 

Subject: Re: Vocal Gems

  
I don't think we're so much worried about the shows dying, as we are,
"how can *WE* make sure that we don't miss these mid-sized shows we
are interested in?"  What is this "somehow" where people are finding
out?  Just word of mouth, and we're too old to know the hipsters?



---------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:02:13 -0500
From: "j. eric townsend" 
Subject: Re: Word-Of-Mouth (was Re: Vocal Gems)


In Cali, some kind soul took on the task of sending out a weekly list of 
all upcoming concerts and clubs of interest to the greater 
goth/industrial scene.  I don't know if they were a promoter or just 
someone with a bit of free time, but it was a huge, huge help and we 
were sad to see them move away.








       
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