Starting
with this week’s voting (voting for the countdown released on 8.2.2013 and
onward), there will be some new rules going into place. The basic outline of
what is changing is that the longest a video can be on the countdown for is 12
consecutive weeks, or 12 weeks since the single is released, whichever comes
later. I wanted to write about this in a bit of detail to not just try and
curtail any anger or distaste that this may produce, but explain why, and why
even if your band is affected, this is for the best.
Visual Kei
Heaven is different than a lot of sites in that we are non-profit, and in fact,
have no incoming cash flow whatsoever. Actually, we pay out of our pockets for
the domain name, concert/convention tickets, etc. Many times, if someone wants
to review an album (for instance, Jeff’s recent review of Mejibray’s
“MESSIAH.bat”), they are buying the album anyways, or paying for it. If we
don’t pay for the album and we review it, we are provided a copy by the label
or artist.
Recently,
Visual Kei Heaven has been undergoing some internal changes, for instance, we
are now only going to post officially released music videos or PVs. We are
instituting changes such as this in order to develop a higher degree of
professionalism and become an even more trustworthy source for Visual Kei news,
reviews, and interviews. There aren’t a lot of Visual Kei sites that do reviews
right now, especially in an unbiased way like we do them here, and these
changes are to help make us a stronger site, and one that can better provide
the content you all want to see.
And this
brings me to the voting changes. The fact of the matter is, some videos stay on
the countdown forever, and there are reasons for this (fan pages of bands
sending viewers our way, bands developing large English language fan bases in
the West based on where they tour), but this isn’t helping those bands, or
others. When the countdown becomes predictable, people lose interest, and the
point of using it to promote your favorite band backfires.
But, what’s
really important to me is giving all bands a fair chance to be on the
countdown. I know that I personally have found new bands from assembling the
countdown based on votes you guys provide (two of my favorite “found” bands are
Ganglion and nil delete heads), but if people continue to vote only for the
most popular bands, the chance of new bands getting discovered plummets. People
comment every week that they have found a new band to listen to, but lately I
have been getting messages on the Facebook page and Twitter that people want to
see more variety and their new favorite indie band on the countdown.
Don’t
misunderstand – I love a lot of the bands that get huge votes and stay on the
countdown forever; go look up the “Top 30 Albums of 2012” articles I wrote last
year, and you will see Ace is pretty high up. I also have every DIAURA single
and album, and I have loved Kiryu forever, staying up until my eyes were
bloodshot with a friend to catch the livestream of their concert when everyone
thought they were disbanding (remember that?). It isn’t that I don’t love these
bands and don’t want to see them on the countdown, rather, it is that I want
all bands to have an equal chance. In an age where piracy is rampant beyond
belief, we need to support bands the best we can, and giving them all a chance
to have free promotion on the countdown is a great way.
So, I will
see you all on Sunday, and I hope you are prepared for the first mini-“Theme
Countdown” in a while. It might shock your senses. Thanks for understanding,
everyone. I have put this week's countdown below and the voting link is here.
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