Happy Commons Holidays!
Happy Commons Holidays! First, i would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been with me on this site throughout the year. With close to 150,000 page views I am astonished at how many people are really following my efforts to bring more exposure to the many artists and label operators that toil away in obscurity to make this whole thing possible.
Thank you to the literally hundreds of artists that I have corresponded with throughout the year. Without your input and support this endeavor likely wouldn’t have come as far as it has. And thank you to all the label operators who have supported this work, and helped with promotion of the site Thanks to all of the artists and label operators that subjected themselves to my interviews. It was awesome getting to put something more out there than reviews which reflect just my opinions.
Now, on to a few announcements!
Holiday Schedule
As you might imagine with the holidays arriving I’ve thought about taking some time off. However, I won’t be taking too much time off from the site. I will be writing a few end of year type articles for the site, so keep a look out for them. However, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I will definitely be taking off.
For new articles, I have three end-of-year articles planned for December 29th through the 31st.
On New Years Eve and New Years Day I will be participating in the annual Hacker Public Radio Live stream event. Unlike last year I won’t be a host of the show, and I won’t be on the whole twenty-six hours. I haven’t really decided what my schedule is going to be for this year, but I expect I will be on at least five or six hours.
CerebralMix
Unlike the rest of the site, CerebralMix will not be going on hiatus this year. On the 28th I will be doing the audio version of my end of year music wrap-up on the OO Stream. The podcast version of that show will be made available on December 30th. On January 4th we will start on a new adventure: a year long adventure with James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Hopefully this will be a more interesting series than I have done before. I have a reading that was released on LibriVox, and we will be using that as the basis for the show, mixing segments from the audio book with music that may or may not relate to the text. (A hint: there is almost always a link, even if it is rather obscure and easily missed.)
In The New Year
So, I am making plans for the new year. Here’s a few of the things that I hope I’ll be accomplishing:
- Starting a newsletter. That’s something that should be up and running by New Years Eve.
- Doing promotions, giveaways and contests. I’ve hoarded a few prizes during the past year and will be announcing the first contest shortly after New Years.
- Changing up the content a bit. I will still be doing reviews, but I want to diversify into more areas: eBooks, AudioBooks, and videos / films.
- Bringing in guest writers: if you are interested in writing about something Creative Commons for the website pitch it to me. I’m open to anything that fits: news stories, reviews, interviews, features. (I’ll have more guidelines later, but for now include: theme / subject, category for the piece, and approximate length.)
- Adding an events calendar to the site. (I’ll be working on the current calendar so artists, labels, authors, etc. can submit events.)
And there are still more ideas, but those are the items I am focusing on now.
Again, I would like to thank all of the artists, label operators, and readers who have support the site all year. I’m really humbled by the growth that I have seen, and the support that I have felt.
Final comment: if you have sent me a review submission in the past two-three weeks, they haven’t been lost. I know I haven’t been very timely in responding to submissions, hopefully that is something that will get straightened out in the New Year. Also, if you are going to send me a submission, please use the Review Submission Form.
