Jim Carlson dot Net

Somewhere in 2008, I along with a handful of friends joined Plurk. Essentially, Plurk is very similar to Twitter in that each message or link, can be up to 140 text characters in length.

What set Plurk apart was threaded conversations. If I Plurked, your response would be added below my Plurk, and a conversation thread would be born. This made keeping track of what was going on very easy — no hashtags, no @ replies, etc. If a conversation bores you, you can ‘mute’ it and stop receiving updates.

To incentivise people to use Plurk, an added feature (or pain) was added: Karma. The more you used the platform, the more Karma points you earned — which opened up icons and other functionality. The issue I had with Karma is if you lived ‘offline’ for a bit, you’d lose functionality — which seemed like punishment.

I, like many of my peers, eventually spent more time on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I let my Plurk account become inactive. Despite Plurk’s better technology (in my opinion), Twitter simply had more of my friends, more information, better business practicality and more community support (external apps). Think Beta vs VHS.

So why am I even writing about Plurk? Yesterday I received a Plurk invite on my Facebook wall. One of my friends Tweeted about it. There seems to be some resurgence going on here. I logged in today. Guess what? Many of my friends are still active. Silently, Plurk lives on. It was nice to see that this platform, and my friends (many who I do not have contact with on other social networks) are sill Plurking away.

The cool thing about Plurk is that it is not mainstream. My coworkers aren’t on Plurk (yet). Plurkers are social, but not in the business of using Plurk as a broadcast platform. There is less spam and more conversation. I hope that the recent buzz around Plurk brings attention to the platform, but I’m also hoping that the platform doesn’t lose its cool vibe.

I really don’t have the time to maintain ‘yet another social media platform’, don’t care about Karma, but I’m going to check in more often. If you are a Plurker, friend me up at: plurk.com/jimcarlson

Do you Plurk? Did you Plurk? What are your thoughts?

Reference: Plurk Wiki

I recently attended Martin Atkin’s : Band Tune Up at the Madison Media Institute in Madison, WI. As I mentioned in my previous article, Sharpening Your Music Skills, I’m a firm believer that musicians must educate themselves and take control of their career.

One of the most important lessons Martin stated was simple, “Stop blaming anyone for anything. Everything is your responsibility”.

I can’t tell you how many musicians I’ve heard complain about: The club stinks. They didn’t promote me properly. The audience was lame. My people didn’t show up. I need someone to sign me. Someday I will be discovered…

Find a better club. Promote yourself. Build your audience. Play for the 2 people who showed up as if they were the last 2 people on Earth. Record yourself. Sign you, to what? Be discovered? There are millions of bands on MySpace, Facebook and ReverbNation ‘waiting’ to be discovered. Create momentum for yourself, no one will do it for you.

Martin went on to say, “Nobody gives a f*%# about what is important to you, except you”. Read that again.

If you want to succeed in the music business or any business for that matter, learn all you can and take control of everything. It is your career on the line, and if you fail, there is always someone waiting to take your place.

Years ago when I was dreaming of a career as a successful musician, I attended a music seminar by the (now) late Shad O’Shea and purchased his book, “Just For the Record“. [I loaned the book to 'someone' and really wish I had it back.....] Shad pretty much covered everything I needed to know, from publishing to releasing an ‘album’, and thoroughly explained the in’s and out’s of the music industry.

Years later, I released my “Out of Fashion” CD by using the techniques he had taught me. To be fair, I was never a mega folk rock star, but I enjoyed modest success. And ‘for the record’, the marketing skills I used to promote myself actually led to my internet marketing career.

Why am I telling you this? Musicians who want to be successful need to be educated. In my two decades of performance, I have seen talented musicians fail because they didn’t take the time to understand how this business works. In contrast, I’ve seen moderately talented musicians (myself included) have pretty successful runs simply because they understood the music business.

A friend of mine invited me to Madison to see a free seminar called Band Tune Up by Martin Atkins on Saturday, November 13th. I can’t wait to attend. In preparation for my next CD, I want to make sure my skills are sharpened and the effort I put into the release is well worth the time.

As of this writing, there are still a few spots left. Fellow musicians, if you can attend this event (or another on Martin’s tour), surely you’ll increase your odds of success.

Like many cell phone users, I’m faced with a decision every night before going to sleep: Do I turn my phone off, set my ringer to silent (or vibrate), or leave the phone on?

Turning the phone off certainly helps one get an uninterrupted nights sleep…until you miss an essential call: a family emergency, some one in need of a friend, etc.

What I’d like to see is an app or a ring tone that allows certain numbers to ring through, while all others are rendered silent. Before bed, I’d simply turn my ringer to the ‘night’ setting.

For example, I could ‘allow’ calls from family, while ignoring customer calls from Australia, friends looking for me to grab my guitar @ 12:30 am and jam, etc…

Does anyone know of such an app? Anyone else see the value of such an app?

One of the interesting developments with mobile web browsing is the increasing number of iPod Touches I’ve seen in my travels.

For the unaware, the iPod Touch does just about everything the iPhone does….except offer cell service. As long as there’s WI-FI, a user can browse the internet, download apps and songs and check in on FourSquare or Facebook Places. Since WI-FI is available in many businesses (McDonalds, StarBucks, etc), coverage is widely available.

Since the latest version has a mic and two cameras, now you can now snap and upload photos, record video and communicate via FaceTime, Skype or similar VOIP service.

I know of at least three people who have ditched their smart phone for a ‘basic cell’ and use the iPod for their mobile web needs.

Right now, my smartphone contract is up, and I’m experimenting with my Touch. To be fair, the Touch delivers a far better internet experience than my Windows Mobile phone.

Can I survive with a Touch and a ‘dumb-phone’? The jury is out. Let me know if you’ve made the leap or why you wouldn’t even think of it.