Archive for the 'Indie Launchpad News' Category

As many regulars to Indie Launchpad (yes there are still some) will have noticed, content has been a little on the sparse side. When I started Indie Launchpad I had the best intentions in the world, with the simple task of finding what I thought was the best indie music and giving it an additional audience. Things started slow, but I have to say, I had so much fun. Every now and then I would find an artist that would blow me away, and many of them I am still listening to now, like Hollow Horse, Rinaldi Sings, The Weepies, Val Emmich, Tom Geiger, 3 Blind Mice, Passenger, Clever Bastards, to name but a few. However with success there is always a downside.

At the height of Indie Launchpad, I was receiving about 50 CD’s (remember those) and about 1,500 emails a week. The focus of Indie Launchpad was always to find great music. I wasn’t interested in hanging out to dry stuff I didn’t like, as for all music there is always an audience. I just wanted to show people the music I loved. So with so many CD’s coming in and so much email, much of which ended up coming from PR companies, it became harder and harder to focus in on the gems within. When something becomes hard work, it gets harder and harder to summon the strength to wade through the many, many emails and CDs to find that nugget within.

Forward wind a few years and I kept coming back to Indie Launchpad, trying to summon the energy to get things back on a more sound footing. Kind of hard, when there’s thousands of emails, waiting to be ploughed through. I kept going back, emptying the in-box and saying to myself “Yeah I’ll come back more frequently and try to go through the emails when they come in, but still the sheer volume was the problem”. So what now?

I’m going to try something new, like going back to the early days. I’m going to zero my in-box today and then try to check it every day. I’m going to un-submit from all of the mailing lists I seem to have found myself attached to, so hopefully I will get back to a more manageable, relevant in-box. This may take a while, but in the meantime if you’re still reading hear’s what you can do. Take a look through the archives of reviews already done. Take a listen to a couple of the podcasts. If you feel your music is a good fit and think it’s something I’d like, by all means send me an email, but be sure to put *REBOOT* in the subject head, this will allow me in the short term, to zero in on the bands and artists who have managed to take the time to ready this message. To everyone else, I’m hoping that these little measures will allow me to get back to finding amazing music and bringing it to a wider audience. To all of the people I have worked with in the past, I have to say a huge thank you and hope many of your understand he need to make some changes.

Here’s to 2021. Take care.

Colin

Went to my mailbox yesterday and there was a small package sitting there from the UK. I hadn’t ordered anything, so assumed it was some kind of promo stuff. Well slap me with a wet fish, it was actually a present from one of my listeners/readers. Not only had they designed a really cool mug, with the Indie Launchpad logo, but they’d also included the album covers of albums they’ve bought, because of Indie Launchpad. This makes me so happy, not just because I received an amazing gift, but also because it shows that Indie Launchpad is working. I have tons of great feedback from people buying tons of music because of Indie Launchpad. Lets hope 2010 is going to be a banner year.

Thank you to Ian, Amy, Adam and Christine, for the amazing gift and for believing in Indie Launchpad. It means a lot to me.

Just wanted to give an update on Indie Launchpad. As you’ve probably noticed, reviews have slowed to a trickle. I’ve been trying to get some done over the last few weeks, but with best intentions, the spare time has just not been forthcoming. Indie Launchpad has always been a labour of love for me, so first let me put your mind at rest, I am not going away, or shuttering the shop, as I have done with a few other web properties. Indie Launchpad will continue, as will the podcast, but I have to try to reorganise my life and find a way to plug Indie Launchpad back in again. With this in mind, I’m going to place the podcast on indefinite hiatus, while I try to put to bed a few other time drains and then think about how I can move everything forward.

On top of this, Google in it’s infinite wisdom, is playing silly buggers with Feedburner feeds, which this site uses, as does the podcast and I think I’d prefer to fiddle about in the background and make sure everything is running smoothly, before getting up a head of steam and potentially causing myself unnecessary headaches.

So what does this mean for people who have already submitted material to Indie Launchpad, well nothing. Your music is still in review rotation and I will get to it when I find some time to actually start listening again. While I am not actively contacting bands and artists, you are still more than welcome to approach me through the usual channels, and partners with whom I have a working relationship, may still continue to submit. Anyone contacting me for review, will be made aware of this post and will then be able to decide if they still want to submit.

So this is by no means a goodbye note. I just need to finally try to get my priorities in order and then I can focus on the things I truly love, with Indie Launchpad being very much a part of this.

Anyway I will cross post this on the main Indie Launchpad site and the Podcast site, just so I reach everybody. I’m not going to post any artificial dates or timelines, suffice to say it will be sooner rather than later. You’ll still probably find the odd review being posted here, so that should put your mind at rest, that I haven’t vanished off the face of the earth.

Thank you to all the artists and bands who have made Indie Launchpad a sheer joy. Not forgetting a very special thanks, to you, the reader, who hopefully has found many great bands and artists to purchase music from.

Here’s looking forward to a reinvigorated Indie Launchpad coming to a web browser near you soon.

Thanks, Colin

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any site updates, but wanted to let you know about a few changes happening here at Indie Launchpad. The number of CD’s submitted has skyrocket and while I’ve tried to keep on top of all the great music, it’s got to the stage where something has to give. While I love to wax lyrical about the merits of releases, realistically I just don’t have enough hours in the day. As from today, you will notice a greater frequency of reviews posted, but many of these will be of a shorter form, 2 or 3 paragraphs, rather than some of the more epic reviews, which I will save for the albums that attain the highest Indie Launchpad ratings.

The Indie Launchpad review site also serves as the content provider for the podcast, so not only are reviews posted, but a track from the release also features in the podcast. Sometimes, I’ve been snowed under, not able to post any reviews, and had to skip a podcast. Under the new arrangement this should no longer happen.

Please understand all music reviewed is listened to, sometimes many, many times, so reviews are never just thrown together to meet deadlines. My passion for music is as great, if not greater than when this site started. I’ve had the privilege to work with many great artists, bands, PR, marketing and record companies and value the relationships I’ve built up over the 3 years this site has existed.

Indie Launchpad was created to showcase the finest in independent music, and I like to think I’ve done a pretty good job so far. Please feel free to contact me, if you feel these smaller reviews are not long enough, or if you have any ideas for improvement.

Thank you stopping by, reading the reviews and purchasing the many albums you’ve let me know about. Here’s looking to the future.

Colin
Editor – Indie Launchpad

Hey All. Haven’t forgotten. Right at the last minute I decided to do a different show and am just waiting to hear back regarding permissions on some tracks. Hoping to release in the next day or so, with some cracking new music.

Colin

Welcome everyone to the new look and indeed functionally new Indie Launchpad. This site is no where finished, but I just couldn’t keep both the new and old sites updated in parallel.

The new site will now let you search all of the artists covered. The music genres are handled by categories, but I have only updated a few of the early releases, so not much shows up when you select a category. I’m hoping to have this completed in the next few weeks. In the meantime you can just enter the genre as a search and you should get back what you are after. There is a lot still to do and the overall look may change, but hopefully this new site is much more usable.

I’ll hopefully try to find a way to move over the old comments, when I get a chance.

As always your feedback is most welcome. Drop me an email at colin@indielaunchpad.com

There is an absolute ton of excellent music in the world, but relatively few good outlets. For several years, radios have been satisfied to pump out the same old stuff and people are getting sick of it, I certainly am.

In the last year, Podcasting has seen a huge explosion of awareness for many independent musicians, but for all the podcasts out there, there’s still a miniscule amount of the population actually listening to them.

IndieLaunchpad was launched to provide a place to showcase some of the talent that is around today. We’ll aim to bring you many different kinds of music and hopefully introduce you to bands and artists, you otherwise would never hear of.

Every band and artist featured on Indie Launchpad will have been individually reviewed and assesed. Although musical tastes are very subjective, we’ll at least give you our personal opinion, which over time will hopefully help make your own selections.