First of all, the why ...
I'm what many would consider middle-aged (apart from those who've met me, who agree I'm a child), I have no kids or wife to worry about, and I like to play as much as possible. I'm a full time member of one band, and take-on sub-work occasionally - but I tend to be pretty picky about that (probably too picky if truth be known). I (sadly) still have to maintain a day-job to pay the bills ... and if I'm honest to fund my drum addiction.
However, I'm just not busy enough.
I don't need to be doing music stuff every single day (although that would be nice!) but my current level of activity just isn't enough for me. I've decided I need at least another project, but finding the right one ... that's the tricky bit isn't it.
Now I'm (obviously!) a fan of the Interweb. That's not just because my day-job is in IT, but we all use Internet Services in our daily lives these days and love it. My personal life would be very difficult to manage if I lost my smartphone & tablets and many of us have come to expect to stream digital media to whatever device happens to be in front of us at the time. The thing is, I have a bit of a problem with the various musician/band placing sites we currently have out there.
They all feel a bit too much like Internet dating for my liking.
I know, I know. Plenty of people have found wonderful partners and even marriages on Internet dating websites, but although I've dabbled a little in the past, I've never been able to get past the fact it feels like a supermarket meat counter to me. You line-up all the criteria and BINGO you have a match, in fact you have hundreds of them! Never mind the fact that everyone (allegedly) lies their ass off when filling-out profiles. But how, on earth, can a basic algorithm to match one profile against another, replace a big chunk of the wonderful courtship paradigm that us humans have come-up with over the centuries?
I have to balance this with the fact that I have successfully found a band via the Interweb, and only months later we found a replacement guitarist for that same band. I still think this is the exception. In the months and years before and since I've never had a single profile, advert, email or private message from any of the sites (and I think I'm on them all) that has piqued my interest. Are they just doing it wrong? Or am I the one doing it wrong?
Maybe the answer is the same as it is for the dating industry. IF you can network personally with a high enough number of people, they will get to know you and you will do likewise. The likelihood of you finding the 'right' match sooner or later is pretty high. But like the dating sites, if you can't or won't actually get out there and meet a lot of people ... doing it on the web might be a distant second-best, but it's still better than not doing it at all.
Maybe.
;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment