Why are there pictures of non-music related things in the homepage slideshow???

[The Blue Method]

Plants, the sky, pottery, traffic lights, people in math class, the street, a small boom box, a shed(unless its for metaphoric purposes, as in.....you need to shed (practice) your instrument - that's what they called it back in the day. Know your history LOL), clothes ads, a gutted building (from inside and apparently out), superheroes(unless thats your CD cover) are all things that shouldn't find their way on here. That's just me though. Maybe some pictures of people singing or...and I know this is a controversial idea, people playing instruments could dominate the slideshow instead of people posing. I don't know. Maybe that's just me.

[Ja-Tun]

Your point is a valid one, musicbuilder is a site that caters specifically to music and music related topics, events, professions and people. HOWEVER, there are a lot of diverse individuals that come together to support artists like us in the perpetuation, promotion and publicizing of our talents. Thus, if a photographer wants to use this space to showcase his/ her creative eye and portfolio beyond music, I have no problem supporting that. We are a well-rounded collective providing support and inspiration to others and I, as creator and moderator made the conscious decision not to curtail people's creative expression unless it is determined offensive by myself or other community members.

At the same time, I do agree that this is a topic specifc site and our community members should be mindful that this site is not intended to be another myspace. That's myspace's job. Please leave your personal photo album on your facebook/ myspace pages and be mindful that the people viewing your MB profile are people who are considering working with you. Thus, your profile is like your resume and this site is your perpetual interview. We bridge multiple music professions, genres, fans, artists and their support teams all in the name of one thing: MUSIC.

All of that to say, it is the members' responsibility to focus their content on this site and I won't stop you from putting up what you want but let's be more clear about communicating the reasons for our content with one another (and ourselves, if need be) and remember not to be offensive or I have no choice but to delete content in the best interests of our community.

Thank you all and Happy New Year!

~Ja-Tun~

[Professor Kim]

I'm one of the people you are referring to, Brian. I'm not a musician; I'm a writer and teacher. I train journalists, some of whom work the music beat. Some of those writers are also musicians. I teach videogame design, which includes working with musicians who create scores for games. I sometimes interview artists, or connect some of my friends in the industry to artists.
Some my pictures are with some of the celebrities with whom I've had the opportunity to interact. There are a couple that are for the amusement of people who know me here; I'll admit that. However, they also reflect my gemeration and sensibilities about music, and have something to do with the way I approach writing about about the subject. (The picture of me in hot pants is right after a Jackson Five concert, for example.)

Finally, I won't speak for Ja-Tun, but I think what she's created is a sandbox. You want to network with other bands? I've seen some here. Start a group. You want to have your work reviewed by other musicians? Ask for it. I'm only speaking for myself here, but it seems to me the space is what you make it.

Peace,
KP

[The Blue Method]

I think a picture taken with a great artist definitely deserves to be on here. I was just talking about some of the crazy stuff I seen, crazy to me anyway. Starting a group for bands is a great idea. As far as having my music reviewed...I don't really need another outlet for that. There are plenty reviews on the net already. That discussion was just to let people know that there was a site out there like that in case they were looking for one, not to navigate someone away from Musicbuilder by any means. Besides, I tried uploading music and I wasn't saavy enough to figure it out, so I took the songs down. I don't know an MP3 from a peanut. LOL!

[Professor Kim]

Points taken. Do you need help converting your audio files to .mp3? (I'm guessing that you have .wav files or one of the CD-compatible formats?)

[Project S.O.N.]

Hope this helps:

http://www.musicbuilder.org/profiles/blogs/mb-blog-builder-tips-how-to

P.S.O.N.