I caught a tweet today from Earbits that their deal with SF Gate [the Chronicle] has gone live. I was contacted a couple of weeks ago by them because I’m a San Francisco musician and asked if I’d like to have my music streamed through their website to readers of sfgate.com [hell YES!]
Well, I believe the tweet was a bit premature because if you go to sfgate.com you won’t find any mention of it, but if you go to sfgate.earbits.com you’ll get the station. I’m currently clicking through the songs in various categories and found it odd that for a station that is supposed to be based around the SF Bay Area indie bands that bands from Los Angeles, San Diego and Chicago are popping up. I did find some San Francisco bands though, but I feel there should be more. If any San Francisco bands are out there that read this contact me and I’ll hook you up with earbits so you can get your music heard.
I have my album I’ve Got a Guitar and I’m Not Afraid to Use It! on their playlist as well as my recent single Funk U, but I haven’t heard it yet on the station yet. They definitely need more local talent on there. I’m also a bit surprised at how they classify the music. I currently have the Hard Rock and Metal channel playing and there seems to be a definite lack of hard rock and metal there. I’m hearing a few ska bands and whinny emo-like bands with the occasional metal band thrown in and every other song seems to be from Santa Cruz punks called Seduce the Dead.
Earbits also includes a social networking aspect linking in with facebook and twitter so that you can share the bands you like with your friends and followers. It has potential, but needs more local bands to make it stand out as significant to the Bay Area. They also have apps available for the iPhone and Android so you can listen on the go.
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Hey Baghdad! Thanks for the shout out about the new partnership. This program is being promoted prominently on SF Gate’s Entertainment, Nightlife and Things to Do sections. http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment
We’re going to make that button even more obvious momentarily.We definitely want to make showcasing Bay Area talent a big focus of SF Gate Radio (obviously!), but we are also giving a lot of attention to bands playing shows in the Bay Area as well. If you’re seeing bands from Los Angeles or Chicago it should be because they have an upcoming show in SF/Oakland or nearby. If they don’t, please let us know so they can be removed. If they do, however, we think it’s a big win to make it easy to hear about these bands and go check them out while they’re in town.I’ll have to check into the complaint about the Hard Rock and Metal channel. With bands like Toxic Holocaust, Chelsea Grin and the like, it ought to have plenty of head-splitting music, but it’s going to have its fair share of other hard rock genres. Also, as SF Gate Radio grows, we’ll be expanding the channels and making them more narrow for people who prefer specific sub-genres, just like we do at Earbits.com
Thanks again for the write-up and please email any other feedback you have to sfgate@earbits.com!
Thanks for the update. That makes sense. Now make my music more prominent there! 🙂
For sure! What is the name of your band?
Eric Kauschen: Here’s the link you sent me http://www.earbits.com/s/UfDGP7IyhNdgo