| SkidMark
Independent Music Promotion is the net-based music (break-away) arm
of SkidMark Multimedia Productions - the original SkidMark web site.
The sites are wholely owned & written by "Skid" Mark
Edwards (known in latter years as "Skidder"!). The modern-day
SkidMark ethos came about purely by chance at the beginning of 2001
when SkidMark's web writing skills were virtually nil and the only
web presence that SkidMark was involved with at that time was a basic
promotional site for his alter ego as an independent artist, Incubus
lovechild. (Site now abandoned). |
The inspiration for a web site dedicated to promoting 100% independent
musicians was provided by Jerry Fiore,
the webjay over at www.bumpskey.com
- a tireless supporter of all things indie and presenter of one of
the most entertaining webcast radio shows on the net! The show is
devoted to playing unsigned & independent artists 24/7 and includes
artists playing "Live in the living room" on the show most
weekends.
Jerry made contact after finding the Incubus Lovechild site whilst
surfing the net looking for "new blood" to play on his show.
After listening regularly to the show and many talks with Jerry via
instant messenger services, the urge to create a "new angle"
on online music promotion was kindled, and www.skidmark-multimedia.co.uk
was born & launched in March 2001.
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The aim was to provide a "personal" service to independent
musicians via hand-prepared & maintained promotional pages -
a more "human" approach compared to the popular music
sites of the time such as MP3.com where an artist deposited their
info & music files through automated scripts - very rarely were
any additional artist-orientated features provided to the visitor
bar the offer to buy, buy, buy artist CD's! SkidMark wanted to give
the visitor a glimpse behind the product; wanted to display the
drive and inspiration behind the music and show what motivates an
artist in the pre-mainstream-success era of their musical careers.
July
2001 saw the first SkidMark Featured Artist of The Month (FAOTM)
"Virtual Interview" using internet Instant Messenger services
such as
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AOL,
MSN & Yahoo to chat with listed artists one-to-one. October 2001
saw the first FAOTM spread along the lines of the current format which
includes a dedicated FAOTM page containing photographs and interesting
trivia supplied by each member of the featured act, tied in with a
virtual interview and the monthly competition to win FAOTM CD's &
merchandise. Independent bands & solo artists were joining SkidMark
at the rate of 2 - 4 acts a month until the site reached the point
near the end of 2001 where there was nearly 60+ artists covering the
spectrum of musical genres listed on the site. Maintainance at this
point in time become a real drag as the original site editor republished
everything including graphics after each editing session which then
involved 2 - 3 hours upload time at dial-up modem speeds! Jan 2002
saw a format change as I moved over to a more professional HTML writing
package & January 2003 saw the complete rewriting of the site
from the floor up and sadly the loss of about 25 bands that either
broke up or drifted away.
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The last two years saw a continued steady increase in listed bands
& solo artists, plus the addition of new features such as the
FREE guitar lessons section, the
content of which is supplied by Scott Morris,
a Billboard magazine-acknowledged guitar tutor, CD
Review section, the "Ed's
Wasted" section, an editorial containing Euro gig
reviews by Edwin Van Wylick, singer
& guitarist with Dutch rockers Sleazy
Dreams, to name a few.
During the first quarter of 2004 it was decided that due to size constraints
of the hosting supplied by SkidMark Multimedia's ISP, and the fact
that page format was not consistant throughout the site due to constant
development, a new site would be written and a new URL would be registered
with a shorter, easier to remember name - www.skidmark.org
was born. With oodles more web space the new site was able to be designed
with additional features in mind such as MP3 file streaming direct
from SkidMark (instead of linking to artist sites), video storage
space (the new "Vids & Gigs" section), and site control.
The rest of 2005 will be focused on bringing the site up to full speed
with plans for even more features and content for the future! Look
out towards the end of 2005 for the forthcoming SkidMark compilation
CD & other quality SkidMark merchandise!!
Mark "Skidder" Edwards - Webmaster |
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