OS Community Team's Blog
September 2008
And you say you want to upload here to OurStage but you can’t figure it out? No problem! Here’s how to do it:
First, make sure you’re signed into OurStage as an artist (if you’re signed in as a fan, no worries, you will just have to fill out a form just before you start).
So, the first thing you will want to do is click the ‘Upload’ link at the top of the page, found between ‘Judge’ and ‘Prizes’ links. For those of you who are not already on an artist account, fill out the form and then keep following the instructions here.
Once you’re there, hit the neat little blue button that looks like this:
The first thing you’ll see is the tab for uploading your file. There are a few guidelines and such that you will want to read to make sure you upload the right type of file. Once you’re sure you have the right type of file to upload, click the big pink button sticking out at you, and find the file. Once you have selected the file, a little window will pop up showing you the completion percentage of your upload. Be patient, because sometimes this can take a while, depending on the file size. When it’s done, the window will let you know, and you’re set to move to the next step.
The next step is where you enter the information about your video, such as artist name, song name, and general information. For those of you who are entering into the NeverShoutNever! cover competition, this would be your name, the NeverShoutNever! song you’re covering, and a few words you’d like to say about it. Make this nice and neat, because professionalism can go a long way. Spelling, capitalization, punctuation, the works. It all helps a little. Once you’re satisfied with what you’ve entered, it’s time for step three.
The third step is where you pick the cover art for your video. This too is really important. You’re free to choose what you like, but something of good resolution and quality is your best bet. Relevance to you and/or the video is also a good thing to keep in mind. Once you’re happy with your choice, feel free to move on to the next step.
This is the last, and perhaps most important step: entering your video into competition. There’s a nice little drop down menu to choose a channel, then you simply have to hit ‘Enter’ once you decide on a channel. Sometimes there are also special promotional channels you can enter into, and they’re listed above the drop down menu I just mentioned, and here’s what the whole thing could look like:
So, now that you know how, go enter some of your awesome videos!
August 2008
Yeah, so we noticed there has been some confusion about the new feature we added that gives people achievements for being “predictors”.
This is basically a way for us to give the people who judge some props, since they’re important around here too (not just the artists).
So you have some funny badges that look sort of like this:
There’s a fancy FAQ description of these you can see if you click them, but I’m gonna make it short and sweet. THe gold, silver, and bronze badges are the site-wide “best predictor” prizes. If you win one of these babies it means you were one of the top three predictors on the site for the month you won it! Pretty awesome, huh? The orange ones are given out to the people who are the top predictor for each channel, but they’re not given out for every channel.
So, get out there and judge!
OH! WAIT! Before you go, I suppose I should give you tips on how to go about getting one of these sweet badges. Judging consistently and often are two good things to do. Also, the less you contradict yourself, the better off you will be (most likely, anyway, because if you’re really bad at predicting you’ll be helping your cause by contradicting yourself).
Word on the streets is that you want to host your own PartyLine. Well, it’s not so hard. We’re really glad you’re interested, though. It’s a great way to share music and photos with other OurStage members, and chat with them too!
So, to get started, you want to make sure that you have something you can play, and something you can show people. You should have a play list created for you PartyLine, or just choose one of the ones you already have, including the ones that are already there such as music recommendations and music favorites. After you have a play list in order, make sure you have some photos in your gallery, since these will show as a slideshow in your PartyLine.
Once you’ve prepared these things, you’re ready to make your PartyLine! To do this, go into your profile, and in the upper right of your bio block there should be a little button that says: “Create a PartyLine”. You will be taken to a page that asks you to enter info about your PartyLine.
After you’ve come up with a great name and description, go ahead and create the PartyLine. You should see a lot of stuff here in the PartyLine interface. Specifically, a media player, a slideshow, your picture, the members of the PartyLine, and the chat window itself. Some of these things are fairly self-explanatory, such are your picture, but the player and controls can be a little tricky.
The player in the PartyLine has changed from the format you see when judging or on someone’s Fan Club. Now you can choose the play list to be played, to favorite a song, and you can even choose what song you want to be played from any give play list.
The photo gallery is fairly easy to control. You have three buttons: next, pause, and previous, and these control your slideshow how you might expect. They forward to the next photo, pause/play the slideshow, and go to the previous photo, respectively.
Now that you know the basics, try it out a little! Get used to the interface, and put on a great PartyLine!
July 2008
Marketplace – Posting a gig tutorial (Venue)
You can post a new gig right from the front page of your marketplace clicking the button “Post a new gig”
OR you can do it from the “My Gigs” page using the “Add gig” button.
Both will take you to the same form.
There’s a lot of space to add all the information someone might want to know abut the gig on this form, and all the specifics to go along with that. As always, the more specific info you can put in there, the better. The first section of the page will be the basic info, and will be what the artist will see when they are browsing for gigs. Make sure you have the correct info here, and that your gig is being well advertised (no one wants to apply to a crappy gig).
The second section is more for how, when, and who can apply for the gig.
The third section has to be activated, if you choose to do so. This third section allows you to promote your gig to our entire community on your profile..
Here’s what the sections might look like when finished:
After you have filled out all of the sections you want, you can choose now what to do with the event information you have. You can see what the event would look like if you posted it, or you can go ahead and just post it. You can also just save the information for later if you don’t feel like posting it at the moment, or scrap the whole thing. It’s up to you.
Once you have filled out and posted your gig, you can always go back and change it if you feel the need, or you can clone it and make another even that is the same exact thing. You can even just cancel the gig if something comes up.
How a Venue would go about booking an Artist: So, you’re a venue, and you have a gig planned, but have no one to play it? Well, that’s no good, but we can help you out. Here’s how you use our awesome new marketplace feature to find an artist/band that would be the perfect fit for you. First of all, go to the marketplace home page. It’s a pretty good place to start. Next, you’ll want to go to the “Artist Search” section, shown below.
Okay, here’s where the search gets fun. You now have a bunch of filters you can use to search through the acts here on OurStage. These filters are right on the left side of the page. The one at the top is for searching for artists by name, it’s pretty self explanatory, and will serve you the most purpose if you already know of an artist you are looking for, but can’t quite remember the name. The next filters are going to be your best friends, however. First up is the channel filter, where you can select what channels, or genres, of artists you are looking for. Below that is the distance filter. Depending on your gig location and how far away you want artists to come from, you can go ahead and fill in that info. Lastly, you have three checkboxes that mark things that you require that the OurStage acts have in their profile/EPK. Here’s what a filled out search filter list could look like (chances are yours will look a lot different because of your needs):
After you are satisfied with the filters you have set up, you can go ahead and hit “Search”. After this, you might have to wait a sec, but you should end up with some artists in your list (depending on how strict your filters re it could be a lot or a little). With any luck, you will come up with a decent amount of acts. With the search filters I had entered in the above picture, here’s what the top of my search results looked like:
It would be a good idea to get familiar with looking at these entries. Notice how the second entry on my list has next to his picture. These indicate that he has music and pictures, respectively, in his EPK. Some other notable things to look at are his Mojo (read more about this at our <a href = “http://www.ourstage.com/about/faqs”>FAQ), his number of fans, and his highest ranking in whatever channel he is in. From this page, you can click on an artist’s name, and it will take you straight to their EPK, and you can check out how well they have filled it out, and whether the contents impress you or not. If you feel the need, you can contact the artist (bottom left corner of the first tab in their EPK) expressing interest in the artist, and mention to them the gig you would like them to play. Once you have done that, you can either find more artist to fill more spots you have, or you could just play the waiting game until you get a reply. For the most part, one of two things will happen. The artist could message you, letting you know they are not interested in the offer, or they could apply to play the gig (the better of the two choices for you). Depending on how this goes will dictate the next move that you should take. You can either search for more acts, or finish signing this act to a gig.
To finish signing this act, make sure they have applied to your gig (we have a tutorial for that in this blog, if they’re confused as to how to apply to a gig, direct them there). Once they have applied to the gig, you have to accept their application. First of all, you will want to back to see your gigs. That’s here:
From here, you should find the gig that your act signed up for (you might also notice there are other gigs that have notifications near them. Near the right side of the screen, it will show you how many new applications you have for each gig, if it has none, there will be no notification. So, click on the name of the gig you want to check on (the one in which the act you’re trying to book applied for). Here’s what your gig list could look like when you get a few applications:
When you click on the name, it will take you to a page where you can accept (or book) any acts that have applied to that particular gig as well as filter through those list with the search terms on the left side of the screen. Once you have booked an act fro the gig, it will show at the top, in the “booked” block. Now, there are a few things to point out in the list of acts that have applied.
On the left side are some buttons that I have not described to you yet. The pink asterisk is to mark an act as “not new” meaning that they will no longer be considered in the count for new acts that have applied for the gig. This is best used when you have checked an act out, but you are not ready to accept of deny them the gig
The second button here is the “View note” button, which is the small pencil below the pink asterisk. Clicking this will show you the note they filled out while applying for the gig.
As for the rest of the info here, it as already covered while we discussed finding acts you are interested in. When you decide to book an act, you can go ahead and click “book” on the right side of the screen. You will get a small confirmation bubble, and by clicking okay you confirm that you wish to book the act. Once you have booked them, you must wait for them to accept. Your work is done, assuming the act accepts, you have successfully booked an act for a gig!
Now, I have a few more words on booking acts. The first way I described to you about finding acts is not the only way. You can also browse through the artist listings on your Marketplace main page.
There are three general sorting categories here, most fans, most booked, and artists closest to [you]. These are fairly self-explanatory, but to avoid confusion we will give them a quick run-down. Sorting by “most fans” will show the artists with the most fans t the top of list (descending order). Sorting by “Most booked” is similar, by sorts by the number of gigs that the acts have booked. The last category, “Artists close to [you]”, shows you acts that are close to where your venue is located. There are links to each act’s fan club and EPK listed here (if they have them) and a link t contact them. You can also get to their profile by clicking on their name.
That’s about it for booking an artist. Good luck finding the right act for your gigs!