IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

January 8, 2009

Source: Mustard Seed Media

For Immediate Release



New Campaign Urges MySpace.com to Create a Soca Music Category

Toronto, Canada - A new advocacy campaign was launched yesterday to officially list soca as a musical genre on the internet entertainment portal, Myspace.com. The initiative entitled Bring Soca to MySpace is lobbying to make it easy for fans to browse soca music online and interact with their favourite personalities.

Bring Soca to MySpace has four main aims:

· The creation of a Soca category in MySpace Music

· The featuring of Soca artist profiles on the site splash page

· The inclusion of editorial relating to Anglo-Caribbean music

· The creation of a MySpace Caribbean regional English-language sub-site.

At present, MySpace considers the Caribbean to fit under the umbrella of Latin America. Therefore Caribbean users often login to into a Spanish-language interface featuring the latest in Reggaeton and Latin Pop. Organizers believe that the end result of the above recommendations will create a win-win situation for the soca music industry, fans and MySpace alike.

"Every other style of Western music is up there," says campaign organizer and Caribbean entertainment writer Nurse Karen , "We are simply asking MySpace to give soca artists the respect they deserve. Artists already use site, but they have to describe their sounds as Reggae, Tropical, Fusion or Zouk. There is no category that represents them. As a result, Soca artists never have the chance rise to the top of MySpace music charts. Soca is way bigger than that, so the time is now for a change."

The non-partisan campaign, officially endorsed by (Nurse) Karen (Etc) and Soca Therapy, Canada's #1 Soca radio program, asks for the grassroots support of all Caribbean media outlets, entertainment professionals and music fans.

Supporters may assist in the following ways:

· Post or circulate this media release and campaign poster

· Join Bring Soca to MySpace in Myspace Groups

· Email MySpace in support

· Encourage contacts to join the Bring Soca to MySpace group

· Add your logo to future versions of the poster



For more information, to get involved or to join the Bring Soca to MySpace group please visit:

MySpace

i call bullshit on this. the soca artists would be wise to get their acts together 1st and actually release their songs on myspace so that fans could have the latest music at their disposal. when they get up to par, then myspace can grant them whatever category they want. until then, i don't blame myspace for treating them as they feel.

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http://www.uppantigua.com

...while they're at it they should make a category in itunes for soca, too - i think they've been trying to do that for a while.

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i kinda agree. If you notice Zouk got their category. They don't play with their myspaces lol.

What happened to calypso?

BULLSHIT on this BASED on what?

What do you MEAN SOCA ARTISTS would be WISE to get their ACTS together?

You mean all those SOCA ARTISTS that has an ACCOUNT on MYSPACE have not RELEASED any of their MUSIC on their PAGE?

Are you also saying that REGGAE/DANCEHALL and ZOUK artists have their ACTS together and that is why there are INDIVIDUAL CATEGORIES for those GENRES on MYSPACE?

Come on BRO, HELP me out here, I want to KNOW what it is that you're REALLY saying so I can get a BETTER UNDERSTANDING of your BULLSHIT remark

U PICK UP the STRUGGLE for CALYPSO to have its own CATEGORY on MSPACE.

How about it?

what i am saying is that most (not all) soca artists do not even update their myspace profiles regularly and the music on their profiles is nowhere near up to date. Why would myspace create a category for them when they themselves do not have their act together. Plus, your article makes it sound as if it were myspace keeping the soca artists down when it is clearly not the case. they need to get their acts together. when they do, then by all means have a soca category and whatever else.

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http://www.uppantigua.com

I think what he is trying to say is that Reggae/Dancehall & Zouk has a larger regional scene than Soca. Which is actually true

Do you also THINK that MOST (not all) ZOUK artists do not even UPDATE their MYSPACE profiles REGULARLY and the music on their profiles is nowhere near up to date?

LQQK, whether their MUSIC is UP to DATE or not, is IRRELEVANT (because MYSPACE wouldn't know that anyway), the FACT of the MATTER is, their is a HUGE PRESENCE of SOCA ARTISTS and MUSIC on MYSPACE, thus we NEED to have our own CATEGORY.

TRUE or NOT, SOCA needs to have its OWN CATEGORY, and this is what this CAMPAIGN is all about. So one has to GIVE NUFF RESPECT to KAREN RICHARDSON for TAKING on the TASK of getting this in MOTION on MYSPACE.

My issue would be Caribbean music, under which the over 70 styles would come - some would not be listed but at least artists etc would know that is the place for the music from the region.

One of the issues here is that you have to show these sites why they should go beyoned the category of Tropical music which they created to fit music from any tropical island - has nothing to do with Latin America although we know when we see the category 99.9% of the music in there is Spanish oriented.

I have had this running discussion with Ourstage over the same issue, they created tropical to fit all music from tropical islands which is the same with Myspace, you really have to show them why they should create a category for you when the #'s are small compared to other genres.

For the person who says soca is not on itunes, the aritsts have to understand what they have to do to overcome this. If the distributors don't have a category, all the artists have to do is put soca in the first line of their bio, description etc. no further than the second line, when you search or crawl their names will come up under soca. Unfortunately most artists don't do that.

This is an actual email from myspace in November for one of my sites"You're losing it,

Your MySpace URL is about to be taken away, so you may lose it forever. This is the unique URL you chose for yourself (such as MySpace.com - Tom - 33 - Male - Santa Monica, California - www.myspace.com/tom)

It’s been some time since you’ve logged in and used your MySpace URL. You're holding a very valuable piece of MySpace real estate, which is the URL you chose.
Since it doesn't look like you're an active user on this account, we will be resetting your username/URL so that someone else can use it.

How do you keep it for yourself? Simply login to your account right now by clicking: MySpace. That’s it!"

Most Caribbean artists don't log for months - when I go to a site and they have not logged in for 3 months it is usless to send them a request. Myspace tracks all of this stuff.

Is about time for myspace to have a category for Soca. Myspace is a good way for singers to promote their music and a quick way to put up a web page. Tropical category is not good enough.

*goes to check out group*

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President Barack Obama!!!!
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Let us work with others to change our communities.

Many create pages and not serious enough to update their page etc to say yes I should be taken seriously. Plus have millions of friends they can't maintain.

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President Barack Obama!!!!
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Let us work with others to change our communities.