New SAB - It can't be all bad surely?

[Utterly B Groovy]

OK, so everyone's (rightly!) beating them up about not being able to withdraw money whenever you feel like it, but it can't be all bad surely?

So, what do people see that they like?

I'll start as I'm already known for my rose-coloured t^Hspectacles!

First off, lets have a closer look at that Two Week clause:
Would it have discouraged the "Big Believers" from throwing such huge amounts at unknown Artists?
Maybe a side effect of this new rule will be Believers being a bit more sensible about the amounts they're willing to put in the pot? Sure, this may slow down the race to the target for the Artists, but if nSAB does spend money to market themselves, the idea, etc, maybe finally they can attract more Believers?
It will mean those putting money in are _definitely_ in it for the duration too. That's got to be a good thing.
[That said, I still don't like it!]

Utt

[danny]

I don't know as I can only visit the site whilst logged out

One thing that will change is that as an artist I would not believe in myself, unless I was willing to change the plan to the amount I was willing to put in - and lose 15% of that amount in the bargain.

In effect I think it'll mean lots of artists on low amounts not spending a lot of time on the site once they see they're not picked up. Lots of arguments about people not being able to retrieve money because they didn't read the T&C or point 4 of the 'How it works' very well.

And I expect a lot of people will just leave and check in once in a while to see if they've made enough to make a withdrawal worth their while.

As a UBG bonus it will get rid of most of the peckers I think

[thor]

Maybe on a working, well populated platform where believers could be be sure that an active artist will reach the goal in a reasonable period of time, the non-withdrawable clause would be less problematic.

Especially in the current situation when the state of Sellaband is uncertain, people are already warned by the bankruptcy and with dozens of artists leaving or getting further and further away from their goal, this paragraph is unacceptable for big believers - and especially for the one-artists-only believers (yes, the ones that were wanted by the new Sellaband concept, brought by the artists).

Sorry, I cannot see anything positive in it...

[Lucretia]

Well in theory it should slow down the rate of artists signing up which can only be good.

Artists with a track record of being independent know how hard it is to get and keep fans. If they or their fans don't like the look of the 2-week clause they know it will be suicidal to sign up. So artists should basically start to fall into one of two clear categories - the "wannabes" who think there is free money to be had and those who have done enough research to be able to pretty much guarantee their existing fanbase can cover the budget they want. The last thing an artist will want to do is get "stuck" (e.g. halfway) and then announce to their fans they're pulling out because they're going nowhere/they got signed etc. etc. because it won't do their reputation any good at all.

But I sincerely doubt you'll see many in that latter case.

How NewSAB intend to expand the believer base is really the key question here. Even at the moment I don't see artists with thousands of existing fans and that gap traditionally filled with Big Believers will essentially become a gap without them

[Utterly B Groovy]

Mar 2, 2010 16:48:09 GMT danny said:

As a UBG bonus it will get rid of most of the peckers I think

Apart from that last one they were mostly 'bad' things, which wasn't the point of the post. I'll chalk you up one for the loss of the peckers though, although they've seemed to hate the place for a very long time and still haven't been able to move towards the light!
Maybe this will be the final push they need to leave their own personal purgatory? Lets hope so eh!

Wot Lu said:
If the new bunch actually market the Sellaband Concept it may well draw in suitable numbers. Do they still have the connections to the Producers, Studios, etc?
If they don't market it then I really don't see why they bothered, though I'm thankful they did as I got my money out!

Utt

[berry71]

No, UBG, it can't be all bad but I decided to do the same you did. I pull out my pending money now because it's the only chance I get to do so. I am very sorry for the artists but I feel forced to do this.

[mawa]

I like the sweater of the new 'boss', think its kinda cute

[thor]

Oh, did I understand it right that UBG has moved towards the light by removing his parts? ;D In this case: Heartfelt congratulations!

And another very good thing: There have been too many artists on Sellaband. Now that so many are leaving, it's a healthy clean-up, don't you think?

[wyando]

It probably can't be all bad, for sure, why else should a company (or some companions) take over a bankruptcy SellaBand - they surely see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Only: Why don't they tell us how they gonna make SellaBand successful?
It can't be only by boosting the admin-fee to 15% and adding a new fee for buying parts, can it?
- What will be changed?
- How will it be changed?
- What about the artists currently in recording state?
- Where do they see what went wrong in the first place with the latest SellaBand version & team?
(- and for those with LimEd CDs in SAB HQ Stocks: what will happen with those CDs, which in fact belongs to their believers anyway?)

If those answers are convincingly and credible, I maybe can even live with that "no-withdrawal" clause...

[thor]

Very good questions, Wyando. I would gladly like to know the answers, too...

[li]

Of course it can't all be bad and I'm sure that the new owners don't have the intention to run SAB to the ground, so they will have a plan. As the new CEO stated in the TalentCast Interview, it was a 3 week process and this means that they probably are running behind with putting their plans in action and have concentrated on getting SAB back online as soon as possible, unfortunately with new T&C's that you are forced to accept if you want to have access to your profile, which is not legal.

For me the most important issue is that clear answers and explanations are given, even if I'm not going to like them ;-).

I've only been playing with revenues and shifting parts around for well over a year now and I'd be happy to continue to do this under the new owners, if they would do the legally right thing and allow the believers who don't agree to the T&C's access to their profiles. I don't care if it means that I'll be a registered "inactive", because this is in effect what I am ;-). I

I also believe that a Spring cleaning could be a good thing and not be faced with a heritage that becomes a burden.

[whaley]

I'm sure they have a plan and it might even be a good one, but I'm still waiting for a reply to my mail sent on the 26th of February and to the question I posed on this board. Haven't seen any replies to the bug reports (Get satisfaction aka support.sellaband.com) either

[xahmol]

Well, at this time the only thing I want is some answers, and Wyando's question is a very good one indeed.

At this moment I am still completely undecided yet. I feel very strongly opposed to the new T&C, but thinking pragmatically, I did not have much money invested anymore that I can retract anyway.

So I might still accept the new T&C just to sit it out with my present portfolio.

Only, ever investing again unless I am really sure an artist will reach target I probably will not do, so that will mean I will only invest in artists very far to target.

So what are the good things:
- I hope a lot of the completely clueless and chance less artists will leave SAB, making it more easy to find those artists that actually have a chance.
Problem is that I see somewhat the opposite happening: the good artists with a plan are leaving because they can not accept the new T&C as well (Esoteric Gender comes to mind as they were dear to me), while a lot of the clueless still only can thing in foolish optimism and are leaving;
- I assume the new owners have a plan to make SAB work. Something that oldSAB was sorely lacking.

[Lucretia]

Wyando's question is one of the things I have on my mind as well. Somehow the message of "hang with us it will all be sorted out really soon and things will be great" that is being given off rather than any real information sounds oddly familiar...

There's also the curious case that my husband sent an e-mail last week after the site came back up to ask some relevant questions and apart from the automated response has heard nothing since. Now OK, I can understand there being a high volume of mail at the moment, but it makes me wonder how many months it will take them to catch up if an e-mail were sent today, given e-mails from last week are still unanswered.

Add to this the number of schoolboy errors in the T&C that can be trapped by simple proofreading, irrespective of whether there are any inconsistencies within the legal wording and let's just say that so far the new owners aren't exactly making a good impression.

Well I guess there are still a few hours until the end of the working day in mainland Europe. Given there's a two week period for a decision of the new T&C, we're almost a week through it and I don't intend to wait until the eleventh hour, there's not very long left to influence my original gut feeling of what to do.

[xahmol]

Mar 3, 2010 12:07:24 GMT xahmol said:

Well, at this time the only thing I want is some answers, and Wyando's question is a very good one indeed.

At this moment I am still completely undecided yet. I feel very strongly opposed to the new T&C, but thinking pragmatically, I did not have much money invested anymore that I can retract anyway.

So I might still accept the new T&C just to sit it out with my present portfolio.

Only, ever investing again unless I am really sure an artist will reach target I probably will not do, so that will mean I will only invest in artists very far to target.

So what are the good things:
- I hope a lot of the completely clueless and chance less artists will leave SAB, making it more easy to find those artists that actually have a chance.
Problem is that I see somewhat the opposite happening: the good artists with a plan are leaving because they can not accept the new T&C as well (Esoteric Gender comes to mind as they were dear to me), while a lot of the clueless still only can think in foolish optimism and are staying.
- I assume the new owners have a plan to make SAB work. Something that oldSAB was sorely lacking.