{blog} 2018 - looking back, dreaming ahead
Farewell Christmas, farewell 2017.
Looking Back
2018 marks my one month anniversary on Steemit, there or thereabouts. I've managed to achieve what I set out in my introduction post in terms of content. A mix of short and sweet highlights of the year in terms of albums, Spotify playlists, plus a few well received longer form musings from my mind. A little snapshot there, generally found in the #electronicmusic tag, which I've been making my home.
Last night was Jenga with the niblets.
Where Am I Going?
The electronic word mission is going to continue. I've already mapped out a few pieces in my mind, exclusive to Steemit, that I'm going to be crafting.
- A detailed blog post going into some of my favourite gaming OST moments in life.
- A piece on the decline of the commercial DJ mix.
- A look back on the resurgence of past maligned genres in recent years, with a slight history lesson slant.
- What it is like to be a journalist in electronic music. A bit of a "day in the life" piece.
- Some label and artist spotlights.
These should be fairly meaty in terms of consuming my time, but also hopefully rewarding in terms of providing you guys out there with something interesting to read!
With the new year break being over, my time writing for Inverted Audio is going to pick up again and I'll be cross posting my content from there. The review treadmill will be picking up with coverage for Ripperton's awesome ambient LP - great way to soothe your way back into the year - and James Zabiela's Balance mix - which very well may already be a contender for mix of the year.
The front cover for Ripperton's forthcoming album.
Significantly, I have a large piece in terms of cryptocurrency in terms of providing an earnings avenue for writers and musicians alike. It's going to go into Steemit - and there is a lot to talk about on just this one topic regarding vision and reality - Musicoin, plus a few forthcoming blockchains such as Akasha. I've got a lot of belief in this piece, I've put in a serious amount of hours getting under the skin of it, and I'm interested to see if it gets traction within the electronic music scene. We've just set up an invite Facebook group to get a bit closer to our audience, so I'll be doing some PR in there. Plus, if the piece really sinks in, maybe the editor would consider SMTs on our website!
What Am I Going To Get Back?
I'm going to set out a few aims about how to reward myself.
Step one - I want to get to that magic 500 SteemPower mark. I feel really gamified by this milestone and am religiously powering up like some sort of mad junkie. Yeah, I want to reward myself, but I also want to reward the community. I've been doing my bit bringing in the new users while following the @welcoming account. You'll also see me in comment threads dotted about, as I love a bit of interaction. I got stuck into @uglysweater 's Christmas Jumper competition, and then the subsequent callout on some deceitful participants that happened afterwards.
Step two - one of the main aims I have is to get myself a Surface Pro through my writing. I used to love piecing mixes together on Ableton. I'd spend months working on retail grade - in my humble opinion - mixes. All this came to an abrupt end when my gorgeous little dude stepped on my Macbook. So Surface Pro is where I want to go. Something full fat but light to use on the daily commute. There is a reward for Steemit though - once achieved, I'll kick off my fortyfortyfun mix series again, with the initial uploads coming via dSound. The fortyfortyfun mix series was designed to be quick to realise and take advantage of my hefty promo stack, so there is a wealth of content there for this wonderful place.
Step three - tied to the above, I need a few more machines to finish off my production studio. It'll be even more fun to make my own music and not just mix other peoples.
Step four - this is a bit of a nice to have as it is £££. I'd love to kick my debt mountain in the arse and pool some funds to go towards my October wedding. Pretty simple really. Me and my lovely will have a wonderful day, honeymoon, plus killing off the debt will allow a house move where my kiddies can have a bedroom each. It's a stretch, but we all have to have those dreams.
My beautiful lovely. #nofilter
So That's About It!
Thank you to all who have been engaging with me over the last month. @edje, @heymattsokol, @mammasitta, @uglyjumper, @cryptokrieg, @slacktmusic, @beautifulbullies, @exyle, @acidyo, @namiks - plus everyone else who has taken the time to hit an up arrow or write some words to me, apologies for any missed @'s. You're all appreciated. Onwards to 2018! With a nice session of tidying up after last night's festivities and giving my little meatball some attention.
The meatball.
Awesome, happy to see more electronic music content on here. I’m still a bit unsure how to approach Steemit, I make music but I generally don’t talk about it as much as a reviewer would. Any advice on that? It’s difficult to judge if there is any interest in production tutorials etc, especially considering that most information can be found online already.
Musicoin seems like an interesting concept, resonate.io is exciting as well, but is still in early alpha.
I’d love to do actual productions but I just don’t have the ability yet. I’ve seen a dedicated production channel on here through @toddjsmith1979 - and he seems to be doing really well on dTube.
I do reviews and just talking about music because it’s what I’ve done for absolutely years, like even on forums or anywhere where I can just yap away, so it’s a pretty easy gear to slip into!
Steemit always seems to appreciate original content and the community like to reward those putting the effort in. So if you plug away, you can make a niche.
Thinking about it, @heymattsokol is making a guide of how to get started on started on Steemit from a musicians perspective, so check out his feed for that. Also keep an eye on @qsounds. I’ve definitely found just getting mixed in with the people here helps build you up.
I guess it just takes time getting to know people, like on every other social network. Thanks for the pointers, these help a lot!
Absolutely. Just getting involved with people helped. While I talk strictly music on my blog, I’m always on others having a chat. As I say, @welcoming is a fantastic stream of new people to chat to, plus I haunt the Gaming tag and look out for new faces in #electronicmusic. The tag was empty before I started religiously adopting it, and it could really become a place to check as Steemit adoption gets more and more mainstream.