From the German Alps -- I'm all about Music Interviews & Photography – & Sndbox Has Enabled me to Take Steemit to the Next Level.
About me
I was born, raised, and educated in America. From Alaska to Florida and points in between, I've lived all over. Now Germany is my home. Thanks to the Internet, from the unlikeliest of spots I have interviewed several of the most respected electric guitarists on the planet. I have a great relationship with AllAboutJazz, the Web's most popular jazz website, and I have my own site talking2musicians.
Coming to Steemit
I became aware of the Steemit platform when a few YouTube channels I watch were demonetized. Initially I joined Steemit in order to support them, but after checking out the blog I was quite impressed. Moreover, the idea of a self-perpetuating social media loop that rewards participants with crypto currency struck me as an idea whose time had come. However, after a month or so my enthusiasm waned, and I began to question if I should continue.
Experiment in Passivity
Rather than giving up, I decided to test the concept of a closed loop, and find out if I could survive simply by creating good content. I intended to use all my voting power within my own blog for those who appreciated my content. I did pretty much the opposite of all the tricks, tips, and schemes in the various YouTube videos about Steemit. I thought I might give it a year, but I quickly decided otherwise. Instead I set out to post good content for 30 days and see what happens.
Result
I discovered a had a small group of loyal friends on Steemit who themselves are producing quality posts. They were understanding, tremendously supportive and generous. Yet as I approached the end my 30 days I was thinking I would probably just fade off -- perhaps doing an occasional post every now and then.
Sndbox
My experiment turned out to be a success, but not as I had intended. A member of Sndbox, who is a musician, had checked out my posts and interacted with me about music. I had written about my hope that Steemit could eventually attract musical artists, and then my “self-sustaining loop theory” would be put to the test – basically a musical artist and fan base doing on Steemit what they already do on FB.
Just before I was ready to throw in the towel, I received an invitation to join Sndbox thanks to a nomination by the musician I mentioned above.
What is Sndbox?
Sndbox is a incubator program for creative contributors, practitioners, non-profits, start-ups and collectives. They give wise counsel, feedback, knowledge, and insight to help members realize their potential on Steemit. They are also knowledgeable about blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Sndbox is also a strong community within the Steemit community, dedicated to quality content, and improving the platform. So far I couldn't be happier, and I'm extremely impressed by the content of the other members.
My Sndbox Goals
Currently Steemit does not have the traffic necessary to publish my interviews or articles. Thus my immediate and intermediate goal is to adapt my content to fit the platform. That actually has some advantages, I can share segments of interviews and provide context – short articles for busy people. Or post musical breaks with comments and insights, and introduce talented and gifted musicians many people might not know. I will also continue to post about photography.
A photo I thought about using on Day 5 of my experiment, but stuck to music that day.
A longer range goal would be to encourage musical artists to join Steemit and bring their fanbase with them. At that point, the artists and their fans interacting on Steemit would a win-win-win situation, and that would open up new opportunities for photographers, music journalists, and others. For example, wouldn't you love to be able to buy music directly from your favorite artists by simply using your Steemit Wallet?
Photos & effects by @roused, plus screen captures of my site and my articles on AAJ
good post
Thanks Max!
Ich freue mich, dass du Unterstützung für die Verwirklichung deiner mittel- und langfristigen Ziele auf Steemit gefunden hast! :-)
Wünschen würde ich mir, dass du auch weiterhin - zumindest ab und zu - neue MusikerInnen vorstellst. Deine Beiträge waren nämlich immer sehr inspirierend für mich!
Danke liebe Vieanna. Musik ist und wird Nr. 1 bleiben :-)
Grandissimo Alan! Stai facendo un ottimo lavoro ;-)
Un grande abbraccio!
Lucas e Steemitri
P.S. sorry, today, in the early morning, my brain is not ready for english or german, so, I hope you can translate my "italian words" :-(
Hi Lucas! Mille grazie!!!
What can I say? I always believed in the power of quality content made by a passionate and friendly person, like you are. It was only a matter of time until someone (with whale-powers) would notice.
Hopefully your vision of a "self-sustaining loop" will become reality in the near future. Keep it up my friend!
Check your twitter notifications. Synchronicity never fails to amaze me.
Long live the loop!
Welcome aboard @roused :) We're thrilled to have you as part of our incubator community and look forward to collaborating with you.
Thank you @sndbox ! Likewise I am thrilled to be part of the sndbox community!
It would be great if more musicians would join and bring their crowds, so that a real community of interest would be created. A nice idea to see music directly bought through Steemit. For now at least it's already possible to preserve your music decentralized and create a buy button on your @dsound uploads , but the next step would be to let the music be bought within Steemit! Very nice post and congrats for becoming a @sndbox member! hopefully i get nominated soon ;-)
You're right, @dsound is a great thing. It is certainly possible to imagine some smaller labels finding their way to Steemit, and to begin selling music via Steemit -- anyway, that's my hope.
Thanks for you kind words. Good luck to you!
You experimented a lot, but Jazz is music for the soul, it would be good to write about it. Germany is pretty, but I think America is more challenging.
Up until 2015 I would have agreed with you about America being more challenging, now it seems like Germany and America are both facing some extreme challenges :-)
haha yes they are ;-) but if you are looking for jazz music europe and also germany(i.e Leverkusen) are a good hub for jazz musicians.