ProgArchives Awards

During the last months I've been thinking hard about what could be done to improve PA on a major scale. I'll leave a few thoughts here for debate.

My main idea is to develop a "PA Awards" concept, which would be a fun thing for us members, would bring more awareness for PA and would grow the sense of community (including the gain in new site/forum users). My idea was to start from the Collaborator's Top Albums and develop it further. As a first note, I don't think that multiplying this effort into genres (Collab's Top Symphonic Album, Collab's Top Post-Rock Album, etc); we have the PA charts for that, and they can be set for particular genres. I think we should invent totally new "awards".

Another preliminary note regards the evaluation. Who should evaluate? I can think of three variants: general vote (Collabs only or free vote), teams of external experts (the problem would be that I don't think independent experts would evaluate pro bono) and third, teams of PA experts (the problem would be there I don't think that we have on PA enough professionals in fields such as musical production, design, etc.).


Here are some ideas for "PA Awards":

Best Debut
Best Newcomers / Unsigned Band
Best Free Release
Best Cover Art
Best Video

A great thing about the first three ideas is that they would most likely be a great promotional tool for emerging talents, and it would put PA ahead in the "scouting" "business", also emphasizing the community factor. Also, all these four "awards" could be implemented as awards based on general vote (Collab only or not).

Would it be possible to have the expertize of independent professionals, I would be interested in "Awards" such as:

Best Production
Best Remaster
Best Packaging (both album art design and functional aspects)

These could be also evaluated by PA experts, but as I said, I ask myself if we should rely on our own resources. We are mostly fans, not pros. On the other hand, providing the independent experts with the releases to be evaluated would cost a lot. Maybe it could be done in two phases: a pre-selection by general vote and a final team evaluation.

As you can see, all these ideas are based on releases. I don't like the idea of putting bands or musicians per se for evaluation or for vote. But still, if the music magazines do it, so could we. We could have Awards for best guitar performance on a release, best drums, bass, keyboards, vocals & other misc. instruments, even best lyrics. I don't know what kind of evaluation would be adequate to this type of awards.

As much as I like it, I can't think of viable awards for live performance, because if the evaluation would be done be general vote then the results wouldn't be relevant, and it's impossible to gather a team of experts which have seen the same concerts.

Next: the PA Awards could be implemented with their own page in the site. There are many users who don't visit the forum and it would be a shame not to give the Awards the best exposure. They could have their own page with their own tab on the main menu, between the tabs for Guides, Members Login, Forums, Radios, Links and About. The content on page could be ordered by years, like on IMDB.

Also, personalized diplomas could be designed and mailed to the winners, which would be rather nice.

What do you think of these ideas? If you like them, please contribute with suggestions


Edited by harmonium.ro - March 30 2010 at 12:02

I like the general idea, and would rather all members be allowed to vote. I especially like the best Free Release idea since not only does that give more exposure to such artists, and may encourage some artists to share their work this way, but also because that way hopefully people will take the time to listen to a lot of what is available and the vote will be somewhat fairer.  The already known/ familiar too often wins competitions.

Perhaps we could set up some deals with bands, as has been done before, to stream their albums here -- so best streaming album for instance.

I'd also like a myspace category -- best music page at myspace.

I don't really like the idea of calling it best, but maybe Proggers Choice?

Another idea would be to have a special jury choose the albums, and it would be done in rounds.  Each team could choose two albums, the winner of that category would go on to the next round etc. Ideally, the band/artist would make music freely available for voters to hear.

I would want a best track award, and this would be done on the basis of freely available tracks (streaming or download tracks that the artists have made available).  To be eligible to vote one would agree to hearing the choices and rating each of them.

harmonium.ro wrote: Windhawk wrote: I have contributed to some discussions on a similar line already. My full support :-) Thanks for the support Olav! I am sure we can do this, and the progawards you posted recently show that such an idea can't fail in raising interest. Logan wrote: I like the general idea, and would rather all members be allowed to vote. I especially like the best Free Release idea since not only does that give more exposure to such artists, and may encourage some artists to share their work this way, but also because that way hopefully people will take the time to listen to a lot of what is available and the vote will be somewhat fairer.  The already known/ familiar too often wins competitions. Thanks, Greg, that's exactly what I had in mind! Logan wrote: I'd also like a myspace category -- best music page at myspace. Maybe a Best Band Website? MySpace is very limiting, the only possible option being to add more apps and other flash cr*p that makes browsing & computing slow down. A best band website award is a very good idea.  Since I use an almost decade old computer, I loather those myspace pages thaat are full of rich content that slow it down and often would seize my computer before I installed more ram (I still have to use my adblock and noscript to streamline the content).  And it looks bad, not to mention all the link content that is running.  I wasn't thinking of the layout at myspace, merely judging the streaming tracks themselves. Logan wrote: I would want a best track award, and this would be done on the basis of freely available tracks (streaming or download tracks that the artists have made available).  To be eligible to vote one would agree to hearing the choices and rating each of them. This is very complicated; I would be interested in a top of the best tracks of the previous year, but not also in an over-all top, leading to CttE or Echoes wining the poll. But it would take time to contact and persuade all the bands with new releases to provide a track for streaming on PA; many bands or their record companies are actually opposed to this practice.

Some artists have allowed full albums to be streamed at PA, but no, I wasn't thinking of an over-all top.  This would be limited to bands/ labels that have given permission to PA if here, or based on tracks they made available at myspace, soundclick, or at their websites. I like the idea of having a competition  between bands/ artists that have/ will have an agreement with PA -- something that will encourage direct involvement between the band and the site.  It would mean a lot of work contacting various band/ artists, but some would notice themselves.
I'm more interested in fostering an environment for greater exposure for lesser known artists than giving really well known bands more exposure. The top list is already there when it comes to overall album and band popularity.

If the bands/ labels are opposed to the practice then they needn't compete.

Anyway, there are a great number of categories we could consider, and I'd like shortlists (which would involve various steps), and well-defined parameters rather than best Prog album of all time type contests.

Very interesting idea, Alex

harmonium.ro wrote: This is very complicated; I would be interested in a top of the best tracks of the previous year, but not also in an over-all top, leading to CttE or Echoes wining the poll. But it would take time to contact and persuade all the bands with new releases to provide a track for streaming on PA; many bands or their record companies are actually opposed to this practice.

If it's a new band, you wouldn't need any special permission: just pick one that's on their Myspace or Youtube channel. Everybody has a Myspace with at least one free song these days, except for some of the legacy bands, but their releases grow smaller every year. We can worry about how to work in the new King Crimson album if it arrives.

Edited by Henry Plainview - April 08 2010 at 04:57

I think having awards in the catagories you all mentioned is a great idea

The Dutch Rock Progressive Page does something similar on a yearly basis.

http://www.dprp.net/dprpoll/2009/index.php

If this beast is to be summoned, I think that at least for the initial year, categories should be kept to a minimum, and as non-time consuming as possible.

We could easily get swamped in suggestions - I gather that we're still dealing with a market segment issuing close to 1000 albums a year worldwide.

So - 4 or 5 different categories for the first year, and possible expansion if the people working on the project feel it is within their capacity.

Right now my mind has settled on the following ones as a must:

Best album (by non-debutant)
Best debut album

Other possibilities:

Best instrumental album
Best cover art
Best production

Others should be catered for by a different group of people, if one wants to move forward with them I think.

Second team:
Best free release

Third team:
Best track

Fourth team:
Best website
Best MySpace

Fifth team:
Best video

This to ensure that the people participating manage to actually have the time to focus on a limited task, and pursue that to the best of their abilities.

Personally I think it may be a tad late to kick off this thingie now with 2010 in mind, depending on how much scope those interested would want to give it obviously.

Windhawk wrote: If this beast is to be summoned, I think that at least for the initial year, categories should be kept to a minimum, and as non-time consuming as possible. We could easily get swamped in suggestions - I gather that we're still dealing with a market segment issuing close to 1000 albums a year worldwide. So - 4 or 5 different categories for the first year, and possible expansion if the people working on the project feel it is within their capacity. Right now my mind has settled on the following ones as a must: Best album (by non-debutant) Best debut album Other possibilities: Best instrumental album Best cover art Best production Others should be catered for by a different group of people, if one wants to move forward with them I think. Second team: Best free release Third team: Best track Fourth team: Best website Best MySpace Fifth team: Best video This to ensure that the people participating manage to actually have the time to focus on a limited task, and pursue that to the best of their abilities. Personally I think it may be a tad late to kick off this thingie now with 2010 in mind, depending on how much scope those interested would want to give it obviously.

Good summary, you're thinking forward, I would see it like that:

1)Best album (non-debut)
2)Best debut album
3)Best instrumental album
4)Best cover art
5)Best free release

I think it won't be that bad, not 1000 albums, but when we stick the Prog genre (and albums that are here each year), we are close to 500 albums.

So basically we all support this idea, some of us made suggestions, but what next ?

^I wish!