About

Music defines us. It’s intimately personal and at the same time extremely social. In the past, access to music and music information was guarded, filtered and disseminated to us by a network of gatekeepers. A handful of major labels dominated; they signed, built and sourced acts to us through a hierarchy of press outlets, primarily music publications who in turn jealously guarded their roles as kingmakers. We were told what was ok, and not ok to like. It was a closed system. Times change, happily. And we all know that the 21st Century has proven to be a brave new world in terms of access to music. Exponentially greater opportunities to seek out and discover music are literally at our fingertips, and artists have access to a potential audience that was unimaginable twenty years ago. So, what hasn’t changed? There’s still gatekeepers. The names may be different (though some old stalwarts are still hanging in there), but there are still music magazines, sites, newspapers and blogs that enjoy an undue influence on the music we hear or are even aware of, and who are all too willing to tell us what we should and shouldn’t be into. We didn’t understand why a system of tastemakers still ran the show. Why not discover new music through friends or unique individuals with a good ear? If opinions on music were meant to be discussed and shared, not handed down to us, we needed a better way to do it. And thus Noisevox was born. “Are music critics pretentious and out of touch, or is the public full of tasteless idiots” It was a question first brought up by Matt Rosoff of CNET News. We wanted to provide the technology to help find the answer…and so it began. Noisevox allows you to post your opinions and reviews on music. The site incorporates all the social sharing tools popular today (followers, feeds, status updates) and focuses on one thing – music.

One thing we did keep from old media: the masthead concept. When you first join Noisevox you’re designated an intern. Writing album and concert reviews, along with uploading photos earns you points. The more you contribute, the more points you earn; and the more substance behind your work the greater the odds of you receiving bonus points. It’s those points that help determine your title and ranking on the Noisevox masthead. 0 to 9 points and you’re still getting coffee and running errands. Reach 10 points and you’re promoted to Beat Reporter/Beat Photographer. Your goal is to reach Editor-In-Chief, democratically. The higher your name is on the masthead, the more perks you’ll enjoy. Find out more on points here. The site has a lot to offer so we’ve outlined some of the features below:

Your Notepad Assignments The Stack Points The Masthead NVTV The Riff The Reverb Concert Listings Photo Database Artist Profile Pages

Your Notepad – Revealed only when logged in and always located on the right hand side of the site, your notepad is how you contribute content and earn points! Use it to write and submit reviews, upload photos and contribute albums. There’s even a suggestions tab where you’re encouraged to communicate with us. On the Notepad you’ll notice five tabs. Each one serves its own purpose.

Reviewing an album, track or concert: This is done by navigating to the album, track or concert page and then clicking on the “write review” tab in your notepad. The information about the item you want to review is automatically populated in your notepad for you. You’ll just need to enter your numerical rating, title and write your review, then hit submit located on the bottom of the Notepad. You do this for concerts, albums and tracks. You must always navigate to the page you want to review first, then your notepad will automatically be filled out with information about the item awaiting your review. Contribute Album – This tab should be used if you’d like to add an album to our database. Are you a diehard Radiohead fan and upset that you can’t review any of their albums on our site yet? Simply hit the “Contribute Album” tab and be sure to fill out all the information requested. Your contribution will then be checked for accuracy by our system, and if all is well, the album will be posted to the site for yourself and others to review. Best of all, your name gets attached to the album page for its entire life on the site, letting people know you’re the smarty pants that made sure it got added. Please be patient as the review process can take several days, but the credit’s forever. Upload Photos – Currently you can upload photos for concerts only. The most thorough way to upload photos is to first find the concert the photos pertain to by searching the concerts database and then marking yourself as “attended the concert.” This will help make sure anyone browsing that concert listing will easily be able to find your uploaded photos. Once you’ve done that, please fill out the information in your Notepad and include the RSS link of where your photos are located. You cannot upload photos directly to Noisevox at this time. Please use a third party such as Flickr to host your photos. Send Suggestion – One of the most important tabs in your notepad. Please use this as an instant way to communicate with us. Let us know what you like/dislike, which new features you’d like to see, what city is lacking comprehensive concert listings, bugs or inaccurate information you may find floating around the site, abusive members, tracklist suggestions for NV Radio …anything and everything. We appreciate it! Take Notes – This is a little feature we added for you to jot interesting tidbits down. Look at it as your personal post-it note. Maybe you’ve come across a new artist you’d like to check out, jotted down the address of a music venue, spotted a cool writer…just type your notes into the empty space and click “Send to my Email” located at the bottom of the Notepad. All the info will then be sent to the email address you registered with. [back to top links]

Assignments – Located by clicking the assignments tab on the top header of the site, this section is where we place all the available upcoming writing and photography gigs. Once logged in, you’ll be able to submit yourself to cover the events listed. Please make sure you are available and located close to the event you wish to cover. Also, make sure you are old enough to get into the venue in which the gig is taking place. After you apply, you’ll be contacted within five days of the gig if you’ve been chosen to cover it. Selection is based on a combination of factors including current position on the masthead, past reviews and quality of work submitted. The contributor chosen to cover the event is given comp admittance, but is then responsible to submit a review and/or photos within two days of the closure of the event. [back to top links]

The Stack – Located to the left of your Notepad on the homepage, The Stack is where new album releases are featured. Every Tuesday you’ll find new albums posted in the stack for review. Your job is to review the albums located in the stack within seven days, before the next batch of new releases hits. You can still review albums once they leave the stack, however, reviews may only be featured (highlighted in orange and posted at the top of the album page) and bonus points distributed if your written review is posted on or before the deadline. [back to top links]

Points – Points are automatically assigned to you based on the content you contribute. You earn points by contributing albums to the database, writing concert, album and track reviews; also by uploading photos from concerts. One point is the standard amount given for content contributed. If your content is featured, the system will assign you upwards of 40 additional points. It’s the points that move you up the masthead. The quality of your contributed content determines how many points you earn. Spamming or abuse of the points system will result in the permanent deletion of your account.

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The Masthead – Located within the community section, the masthead is a listing of contributors and photographers making the biggest impact on Noisevox and they are emerging as the site’s tastemakers. The higher your name on the masthead the more perks you’ll receive. [back to top links]

NVTV – All original video content produced on Noisevox is done through our NVTV department. You can access the NVTV section by navigating and clicking on the NVTV tab in the site header. Noisemakers On Noisevox is our first original show. You can browse the different shows airing on NVTV by scrolling to the bottom of the NVTV page. Our video content can be viewed on select third party devices and partner sites. If you have a suggestion for a new show, an artist you’d like to see featured on an existing show, or would like to see our videos on other external devices, please login to Noisevox and submit a suggestion to us by using your Notepad. We read all your suggestions and highly appreciate them! [back to top links]

NVRadio – A 24/7 streaming radio station. If you’d like to help program the station, please submit tracklist recommendations using the suggestions tab within your Notepad. Please title your suggestion NV Radio. [back to top links]

The Riff – Similar to status updates on Facebook and a tweet on Twitter, the riff is a place for you to update your followers and friends. The Riff is only accessible once you are logged in and is located on the far left hand side of the site. You can sync your riff with your Twitter and Facebook account by filling out the necessary info in your account settings on Noisevox, located directly above The Riff section. [back to top links]

The Reverb – This is a stream of the actions of everyone you are following on Noisevox. It’s easily sorted via the drop-down menu. You add/remove contributors and bands to your reverb by navigating to their profile page and becoming a fan/unbecoming a fan of them. Information from Noisevox is automatically pushed to your reverb. [back to top links]

Concert Listings – Noisevox has comprehensive concert listings provided by artists themselves and Jambase. At the present time only certain zip codes are being serviced with concert information. If you’d like your zip code to be serviced with comprehensive concert listings, please login to the site and send us a suggestion (zip code included) by using your Notepad. [back to top links]

Photo Database – Accessed by navigating to the Images section, this is where you can find photos from concerts. Photographers with photo albums receiving lots of views are featured on the Images page. [back to top links]

Artist Profile Pages – You navigate to artist profile pages by clicking on an artist’s name, or searching for their profile. Here you’ll find album, track and concert listings, along with other contributors who like them. All content written about a particular artist gets tagged and appears on this page. [back to top links]