Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008...12:01 pm
What’s a Dope Point Worth? – Kristi’s first blog post.
Wassup DT peoples! DT kindly asked me if I’d write a few post on their blog, so here I am. I’m gonna be posting all sorts of stuff – interviews, 101s (promoting and beefing coming up!), having a look at some of the raw talent we got… you’ll see, but trust that I’m gonna approach it like I approach my music. I’m gonna try to keep it fresh, dig?
I’d planned a different post for my first one, but I’ve been reading the forum and a post by sarge11 here has been getting everyone all uptight, so I figured that I’d kick off with that, since it’s a conversation that won’t go away: WHAT ARE DOPE POINTS WORTH?
Go check out the forum thread to see what people are saying, but basically, Sarge is saying, if you’re good, why do you need to promote? Seems a fair comment really. But that just isn’t the way DT is these days. Look at the front page now – are you telling me this is the best on the site right now? Of course not. In fact, there are some heatrocks there but also some pretty lame frontpage efforts in my opinion. And at the same time, there are tracks that are just not getting much attention because people aren’t pushing them. At lot of people think they can just put something up on DT and the crowds will find them and show then the love they deserve. I feel more sorry for these people than the ones who pump out wack tracks all damn week but push it until they get heat. I’ve never once seen anyone get frontpage on the music alone – people put themselves there, and if you’ve doped a song that you don’t feel, you’re as guilty as anyone of putting wack music at the front.
Put it this way. If you took everyone in the world and lined them up for a 100 metre race, do you think the people with the ten best times would be the people running the 100m on the TV? I doubt it. Those runners in the Olympics are there because they’ve worked for it, but not just on the race track. It’s no different than with musicians and artists. If you wanna move on, you gotta make it happen, and your music is only gonna do half of the job.
A lot of people are kinda awkward about promoting, as if it’s selling your soul, but if you play your tracks to your brother, sister, friends… you’re promoting. And why do you play it to them? Because you want them to know you’re doing good things, you think they’ll enjoy it and because you want feedback. Now, to me, feedback is the real heart of the matter. Yeah, I love it when I get to the frontpage, but when I get 70 comments but only a couple of real bits of feedback, I just wanna knock heads together.
Dope points are free so I feel pretty generous about them – I’ll dope anything that I get any enjoyment out of or that I respect, so you’ve gotta work real hard NOT to get a dope point. So if they are free, what are they worth? To me, it’s kinda like money: money itself isn’t worth anything – it’s what you spend it on that is valuable. Dope points aren’t really worth anything, but if they get you the exposure you want, or realistically, the feedback you want, then they are valuable. OK, if you’re happy to spend hours on a track for only 10 people to play it, I can’t argue with that, but I gotta say, you’re missing out. There are tracks that have been listened to thousands of times. There are twenty thousand ears ready to hear your music – surely you wanna grab more than ten of them?
I know y’all have got pretty limited attention spans, so I’m gonna leave it there for now. I’ve got a whole load more to say about feedback, so that’s coming up in the next post… peace & pieces!
Popularity: 59% [?]
May 16th, 2010 at 5:56 am
Great weblog, very useful!
If you need to get this out to a wider viewers I’d counsel you try a press release.
There are lots of free press release providers available and I’m always happy to supply any advice on writing and management.
November 25th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Great post, thank you
April 24th, 2009 at 4:01 am
This topic is quite trendy on the Internet at the moment. What do you pay attention to when choosing what to write about?
August 24th, 2008 at 7:09 am
0oGood idea.5s I compleatly disagree with last post . zvk
паркетная доска 7x
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
in this country (the USA) people talk in Feet and not in meters (metres is how you spell it over there!)
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
THATS REAL AS IT GETS!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Promoting doesn’t have to mean Pushing… it can simply be Participating.
They key to promotion is people seeing your name. (mine is ArK47, btw) That’s it.
Most advertising is not necessarily about the message.. they just want you to see their brand. If you see it, you will remember it.
Same goes for DT.
The following are all POSITIVE ways to push YOUR NAME thought the site:
Make tracks.
Leave helpful comments on other people’s tracks and beats.
Write thought provoking forum posts.
Comment on the blog (just like me, ArK47).
Be online.
Start a crew.
Use the share player widget on your myspace profile or blog.
Put the banner links from the Street Team Page on your myspace profile.
Add a signature to your email address with a link to your profile.
If you do all of the above.. if you participate in a positive way, I guarantee that people will check out your music and give you some love.
my 2 cents.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
To a certain extent you have to premote. If you are a new and no one knows who you are itz the best way to be seen and heard. Alot of people are saying once they get a rep people will just come and check your shit out yeah that true but a lot of times you will still get looked over. ONE MAIN THING YOU HAVENT MENTIONS IS FOR FREESTYLES LIKE ME AND REALS WHO HAVE DROPPED LIKE 7-10 JOINTZ AT A TIME if we dont pick a few to premote than itz just to much music to expect someone to sift through. I know over the weekend I dropped 16 FREESTYLES do you really think anyone is gonna search throuh all of those even if all of em were dope. I dont think so and Ive got a dam fanbase(thx to all of yall)
AND YEAH YOUR RIGHT COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT WAY MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE POINTZ BECAUSE ITZ THE RESPECT FROM YOUR PEERS THAT REALLY KEEPS YOU GOING PEACE CALI 00NEGRO FLOWTRON IN THE BUILDING
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
INPHYNITE-’NUFF SAID…DA GENERAL AND I ARE PLANNING TO BRING FT!!! BACK 2 WHERE WE BELONG…THERE’S ALOT OF FT!!!(SELF-PROCLAIMED)MEMEBRS THAT ARE GONNA GET A REALITY CHECK…LEAVE HONEST COMMENTS,DONT USE MY PAGE 2 PROMOTE YOUR SHIT,DONT DOPE ME UP,CUZ U WANT POINTS IN RETURN–EARN THEM—IF I PROMOTE HOW MANY PEOPLE GOING TO SEE ME AS AN ANOOYING SPAMMER???THATS Y I DONT DO IT—THOSE OF YOU THAT YEARN 4 ATTEBTION,AND ARE EAGER TO MAKE FRONTPAGE—I FEEL YOUR PASSION—MY CHOICE(I DO HAVE A FREEDOM OF CHOICE)IS NOT TO DO SO—IM STILL NOT GONNA MAKE IT 2 THE FRONT PAGE—–I RATHER WORRY ABOUT GAINING RESPECT OF PEERS…AND BEING WHERE GRIP,IFTHEN,DON,AND MURDOC ARE @ NOW….ifNOTNOWthenWHEN????-FTNS!!!!