WEEK 8 - Thoughts on "Getting Updates"

Hey folks,

I notice people have been asking me how to get updates when the Song A Week For A Year tracks go up online. When I upload the songs I post links to the bandcamp page on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as well as this blog. I also post the songs up on the soundcloud page. 

The thing is, obviously if you're not online when these links are being posted there's a good chance you're going to miss them. Sure you might remember to go check out any of those pages, any other time, but will you? 

These days, it's very easy to forget about websites that you know and love, unless you're being constantly bombarded with reminders. In a sea of social network links to articles, videos, memes and funny images we find ourselves simply clicking whatever comes our way and forget about everything else. 

Personally, I don't like that: I don't like that websites have to constantly post "content" in order to remind me that they exist. It becomes content for content's sake and often it's nakedly so which immediately puts me off returning to the site. 

There are about 4 or 5 websites that I like to get reminded about constantly. The rest of the web? Well, I'll take it as I find it.

Yes, I have bookmarks and I have a bookmarks bar on my browser. But for me, the very small number of sites that post content that I'm always looking to read - the sites that specialise in a subject I'm always interested in: I want to subscribe to them via email!

Sites like this, this and this, I'm subscribed to by email and I am very pleased that I get a daily feed of what's happening on those sites.

How do you all feel about this? Am I being too old fashioned? 

Many of the other sites I like to visit don't offer email subscription anymore. Sites like this and this. They do offer an "RSS feed", which is nearly just as good as getting an email as an RSS reader (like Google's) can sit right beside your email inbox.

The thing is, I've just never gotten into the habit of checking an RSS reader. Lazy maybe? To me, their streamlined version of the website content isn't really appealing, whenever the original website is only a click away. Also, in my RSS reader, there are hundreds of feeds: It's content overload. 

For me, the solution is simple (and effective): Email subscription!

Provided the website doesn't email more than once a day (or every time someone at the website scratches their nose) and provided I know the content is always going to be interesting to me: email subscription, straight to my inbox, is the my information vehicle of choice!

So, in answer to all the people asking me, how to get updates of my latest Song A Week For A Year songs, I can't recommend highly enough: 

Subscribe to S.A.W.F.A.Y updates by email.

It takes two shakes of a lamb's tail. Simply click here enter your email address, (the security text) and "Confirm subscription request".

Once you do that, you'll get this: 

"Please check your inbox for a verification message from “FeedBurner Email Subscriptions”, the service that delivers email subscriptions for Song A Week For A Year. You will need to click a link listed in this message to activate your subscription. If you dont see a confirmation e-mail in a reasonable amount of time please check your bulk/spam folder." 

And then you're all set. 

Of course, as I care about my music and want as many people as possible to listen to it, love it, share it and spread the word, it's in my interest to give you guys as many ways as possible to hear it, I will continue to post to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Blogger and Tumblr. This gives you all a number of choices as to how you want to keep up with the project: Some people use iPhones, so apparently they have issues with bandcamp. No probs! Soundcloud it up! Some people hate Facebook: No sweat! Follow my twitter feed / Google+ me / Subscribe to my blog updates! :) 

And of course, I hate spam and I hate overwhelming people with content that they never really signed up for in the first place, so you might notice, that with Song A Week For A Year, I usually do no more than 2 posts a week. 

Well anyway, I think I've covered everything. Thanks for reading. I'm always interested to hear how people experience the web and what is their preferred method of getting through all this media and information so please let me know! And you can always get a hold of me (through the above channels) with any bugs or problems. 

Cheers

Marty