It seems like it happens every day just about – that not only are WE asked to vote for one thing or another by one person or another, but there are opportunities that are constantly presented to us as a band – that require participation from our fans in the form of voting.
I am not sure what has spawned this trend, and there are probably as many reasons by the organizers – from the purely selfish to the downright magnanimous – that it would be futile to try and find out any sort of common root cause.
One thing that I DO know, is that as an internet CONSUMER, it is sometimes overwhelming to be asked to vote for things constantly, one after the other, on a daily basis. Sometimes being asked to vote more than 1x per day, or 1x per hour or that sort of thing – like we are just sitting here in front of the computer with our sole purpose in life being to help people win contests.
Certainly, my band has asked for help too. Most successfully for the A2 Festival contest last year in Ann Arbor, where we took first place and received not only a feature article in a very popular internet magazine (Rock Revolt), but a $500 payday. But to get those votes was very time-consuming work, which seemed to never end. Again, it paid off, but I wonder how many enemies we made or people we totally turned off as a result? It was brutal and tiring from our side, and I imagine it became quite annoying from the perspective of our audience. Even though we “WON” the contest, which we are grateful for, I wonder about “THE COST?” And what does it really say about the winner? Was the contest won based upon their talent and creativity? No, just popularity, and in today’s world of music, popularity is certainly not a good gauge of what I want to be listening to. Besides, many of the bands that are worth listening to, are busting ass working on their careers in some form or another – songwriting, rehearsing, performing and paying attention to the minutiae of their “business”, and NOT sitting in front of a computer begging for votes. Think about it.
I wonder how truly worth it – it really is for bands to participate in these types of things all the time? I don’t know, but in putting myself in the receiving position – I do know that it can be totally annoying. I get that.
So does that mean we’ll still ask for a vote every now and again? Probably. But when Alice Sweet Alice asks for a vote in the future, you can be assured that it will be for something that would be a REAL help to us as a band. We promise not to ask or join every endeavor to get some review, or music placement, or airplay, or award, or any of the other opportunities that are out there in the world. We have worked too hard to gain your trust and ears, and we don’t want to turn you off for something as fleeting as that.
So, I apologize in advance for that time in the future when we WILL ask for your vote, but again we promise it will be for something extremely important, something that will help advance us to the point where we can become closer to you by becoming more successful through visibility or audibility or simply getting us closer to you on the road.
Until then, if you happen to see something and want to nominate Alice Sweet Alice or vote for us or any of our members or whatever – we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We will accept all accolades and assistance you have the compulsion and desire to give – and we will be grateful for it. But we will not ask it from you, nor EXPECT your participation. Again, only when it is very important.
As long as you keep listening to our music, sending us love letters, and telling your friends about us, we feel like the luckiest band in the world. Thank you for your support, past and present, and sorry for the voting business. It annoys us too. We get it.
PS, we have 1 or 2 contests currently on our Facebook page. If you happen to bump into one and feel compelled to vote, than we are grateful. But just save the effort (and build up your patience) for the “big cahoona” contest. We’ll definitely need it then! 😉
ASA Blogesphere 
the only reason WHY the indie authority is doing it which is a once a year thing is to promote the artists. that’s it.
If people want to do it that’s fine, fi they don’t that’s fine too. we won’t ever harass people to do it that’s why we leave it up to the artists to promote it as they wish.
And you’re doing it right! Sometimes the ones that win are actually the ones that have the time to do it anyway; sometimes the bands that “LOSE”, lose because they’re too busy playing shows, or are on the road, or are writing songs – or that type of thing that takes away from all of that voting harassment anyway. LOL. Darn it all. 😉