SellaBands! Prepare for Glory!

Join Last.fm (User Guide)

2007-05-31T18:16:00.000+01:00

is a great Internet Radio service for discovering music that matches your taste. And at the same time you also promote the music you like, including music from SellaBands. Last.fm has over 15 million active users. (For more info see the Last.fm FAQ)

This guide will give step-by-step instructions on how to create a Last.fm account and discover and promote music. It will take about 15 minutes to complete.

Step 1: Join Last.fm
Open the following link in a new window: Join Last.fm
Pick a username and check if it's available (Click Check Availability).
Check the box to confirm that you agree with the Terms and conditions.
Then click Sign up and create your profile.

Step 2: Download and install Last.fm
You'll be redirected to the page where you should download the Last.fm application. Click Download Last.fm Now. (Alternative download page)
Check if the right platform is selected under Change platform: Microsoft Windows/Apple Mac then click Download now. Save the file to disk and open it. Then follow the instructions on the page.
(If Windows Firewall shows a popup to ask whether you want to keep blocking the LastFM program, you need to Unblock it. The program will only connect to the last.fm servers and won't accept incoming connection requests).

Step 3: Last.fm Setup
Click Next > to start the setup and then Log in.
Before you start the Music Player Detection you need to close all your music players, like Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes. Then click Next >. Then select the media players that you want to use for scrobbling and click Next >. It will install the plugins and then you can click Finish.

Step 4: Last.fm Settings
In case you do not only listen to music in your player, but also things like audio books or personal recordings, you might want to change the settings to prevent that the title information from these other files gets scrobbled and shown on your profile page. To do this you can set which folders contain music files that you want to enable to be scrobbled. (Audio won't be uploaded to the site only the text information of the audio file, like the artist name, album, track title, etc.)
In the Last.fm application that has opened go to Tools > Options... then select Scrobbling.

Then uncheck the folders that contain audio files that you don't want to be scrobbled, or only check the folders of your music library that you want to enable to be scrobbled (Like the 'iTunes Music' folder for example).
When you're done click Apply and then click OK.

Step 5: Test the player
To test if the settings are correct, open your music player, like iTunes and play a song. It should also be shown in the Last.fm program when you click the Now Playing tab. It will countdown to the track getting scrobbled. When it says that the track has been scrobbled you can go to next step. (If it doesn't scrobble check this page)

Step 6: Check your last.fm profile page
On the website click All done? Onwards! You will be redirected to your profile page. (If you had closed your browser, go to last.fm, log in and click on My profile page or your username) At the top of the Overview tab it should show Recently Listened Tracks with the track that you played in the previous step as a test (It might take a couple of minutes before it shows up). You can edit your profile, add a picture, a description, a link to your website, etc.

Step 7: Help out your SellaBands
Besides simply listening to the songs of the SellaBands you believe in on Last.fm or in your music player, you can also help by voting for pictures, adding to the bio, and most of all by expressing your love for the tracks that you love and those artists, albums and tracks, so that the songs will get airplay on the appropriate radio stations and playlists (like rock, indie, jazz, electronic, etc.). You can also recommend an artist to friends and groups you've joined, like the Sellaband Group (But do not SPAM of course, or you will get banned).

In the Last.fm SellaBand Group you can find a list of SellaBands on Last.fm.

Last.fm has some great features to discover new music and events in your region, so I suggest you check out the rest of the site and the features. You can create a playlist and put it on your blog, MySpace or FaceBook if you like.

Enjoy the music!

Prepare for YouTube!

2007-04-11T12:09:00.000+01:00

With you can share your videos with millions of people around the world. With your help we can give the SellaBands more visibility on YouTube. If you create a YouTube account you can help with this.

These step-by-step instructions on how you can do this will take just 3 minutes to complete.

Step 1: Join YouTube
Open this link in a new window: Join YouTube.
Fill in the registration form. Believers can use the Standard account type. Pick a username (the most common usernames are likely to be taken already). Fill in the rest of the fields. Then click Sign Up. If you then get the message at the top that the user name has already been taken, you need to pick another one and (re)enter your password and the verification code again and click Sign Up again.

Step 2: Registration Verification
You should have received an email from YouTube. Click on the link in the email to confirm your registration. You will be redirected to a YouTube page with the message: "Your email has been confirmed"

That's it, you can explore the site if you want (see the Help Center). Remember your username and password so you can login when it is time to support the SellaBands on YouTube. What you can do to help will be covered in the next post.

Prepare for Digging!

2007-04-04T23:17:00.000+01:00

With you can help promote and share news to the millions of Digg viewers with a single click (digging a story). You can tell them about and then they might join us...

These step-by-step instructions on how you can do this will take just 5 minutes to complete.

Step 1: Join Digg
Open this link in a new window: Join Digg.
Fill in the registration form. Pick a username and check if it is available. If not pick another one. Check the box to confirm that you agree with the Terms and Conditions. Then click Continue.

Step 2: Fill in your profile information
Fill in the profile information and click on Save. Then check your email.

Step 3: Registration Verification
Click on the link in the email you have received to confirm your registration:

(You will be redirected to a page where you can invite your friends to join Digg)

Step 4: Start digging!
Start using your account. Go to the Digg homepage and see what others like, and if you like it as well you can 'digg it!'. This is how it looks and how to use it:

I liked it so I voted as you can see:

You can explore the site and customize the topics you want to watch, in case you don't like all the geek stuff.

Step 5: Digg on SellaBand
You can expect to find 'digg it' buttons on SellaBand as well, like this:

Then you need to click digg it to make your vote count
(you might need to login first)

They can show up at any time, so be prepared!

Prepared...

for

Glory!

I am a Believer

2007-04-04T10:29:00.000+01:00

I am a Believer...