Participation has been much higher in this site's relatively short past. It seems to be on a slow and steady decline. I just can't help wonder how long Justin will be willing to front the bill for a site with consistently slow growth and increasingly minimal participation. Could it be that "the thrill is gone"? (Apologies to the late BB King...) I mean there used to be quite a few sites like this back in the day. One by one they all vanished. At least two attempts to re-start Macjams were tried and died in a matter of months. I guess what I'm asking folks is JUST HOW BADLY DO WE WANT THIS?
I’ve logged into the site several times recently and often find that I’m the only active user when I check the “Who’s Here” section. The lack of engagement and support from the listed artists is quite discouraging. It makes me wonder whether most of the members here are simply listeners rather than active creators.
Unfortunately, I’m not optimistic about the platform’s future. Genuine music creation seems to be undervalued these days, and the growing reliance on AI-generated content is steadily eroding the creative foundation that once defined the music community.
It’s not just this platform facing these challenges — sites like ReverbNation and SoundCloud seem to be experiencing the same decline in engagement. The landscape for independent artists has changed dramatically.
I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to rely on music as a full-time career today. The traditional avenues for building exposure and community support have all but disappeared, leaving many genuine creators struggling to be seen and heard.
You know, this site was made to look and behave like the site we all knew and loved back in the day. But would this site even appeal to younger people now? I'm not so sure. I could redesign the site, but how? How would it need to look? What kind of features should it have? It seems like everyone wants to be "monetized" these days. Should there be a way of making some money on your tunes? Or, perhaps the problem isn't so much with the site design, but maybe people just aren't into writing and recording music like they used to. I just don't know. All that said, the site isn't going away any time soon, but it may move to cheaper hosting. If I do that, the site might be down for a few hours, and I'll give you notice in advance.
@Wyndsok@Garni@Dr_J you all ask the right questions ... But i guess no one has the answers. The whole landscape shifted so much since Icomp days. If you 'hope' to make money with music, it's easy to publish on streaming services (and hope is all they offer anyway...). But this site is something else. Feels much more like a local pub/music bar to me, with 'regulars' both listening and playing their tunes. Not so sure it's about younger generations being more active (are they ?). Maybe we can ('we' being the active members here) try to share more our songs more on social media... doesnt cost a penny and helps to spread the word. Gets a few more listens, and maybe helps to grow. Cheaper hosting is the way to go, Justin. As long as you can ... The main thing is : i hope you enjoy listening to each other as much as i do, genres and styles i would probably skip if not for this long-term music-relationship we created here. It's not common. Can we find this sort of feedback anywhere else ? I dont think so. It's precious.
" i hope you enjoy listening to each other as much as i do, genres and styles i would probably skip if not for this long-term music-relationship we created here. It's not common. Can we find this sort of feedback anywhere else ? I dont think so. It's precious"
I'm 64 years old-it physically costs me to play now,so why do it? I am and have always been a musician before all else. As @Dyl said this site is something else. I don't comment much- I am uncomfortable in the role of critic so do I have any value?-I suppose that would depend on how you quantify that.
As musicians we need to write,play and preserve all that is produced. A mediocre track may provide inspiration to those who can create a work of sublime beauty from it in the future-who knows.
I download everything I listen to-lest it is lost, this site allows me to do that as icomp did in the past.
We are all different and have very diverse talents-perhaps that is the beauty here, perhaps that is the point
Sites and apps with high participation for the younger generations can come and go very quickly (I guess sort of like malls and video game parlors were for the kids of the 80s). But musicians who find out about this place stick around. My participation here is off and on because my attention is pulled in many different directions daily (I'm sure that's quite common for most of us), but I either create something new or take time to work on my library of already existing material to bring things up to a level of quality I want and expect of myself today. When I have something I feel is worth posting, this is the only place I post original music (not generated stuff).
