Many things ahve been mentioned already. If i repeat something, sorry.
To begin with, I think the most important question the administrator should ask themselves is; "What do we want with the Audio Portal"?
"What function do we want it to have, and what roll should it play in Newgrounds.com"?
Myself, I think the first and basic idea for the AP is the best one; its there for loops, or short songs for flash artists. I mean, if you really want to reach out with your MUSIC, you don´t hang out in the AP hoping for some talent scout to find you.
No, what should be incouraged in the future with hopefully a new voting/score system and the likes, are LOOPS, and COLLABORATION between flash+audio artists.
Yeah, i just made
this thread in a lame attempt to strengthen the two portals and unite them, but this is also what I belive is right for NG.
Face it, the visitors gap between the AP and the FP is HUGHE, and I really don´t think it is worth for NG to change direction, becoming a dedicated music site. Flash is what it´s about, and I think it should stay that way. There are plenty of great music sites out there that have years of headstart when it comes to system, reputation and so on. And doing both flash and music would be... i think it might be too big of a challange. Its better to merge them together;
- The result of an increased collaboration scene between flash and audio artists will in time result in higher quality flashes, wich will make this site even greater in what it show to the public, flash.
Therefore, I belive that a future system should encourage shorter loops when it comes to awards and reckognition, and also FLASH authors should get some kind of credit when using audios from the ever growing AP.
The system we know today should be changed alltogether. Here´s a couple of ideas;
- I would suggest "making a new" AP, simply leaving the old one and starting all over. Perhaps the new system could "sit on top" of the old one, i dont know really...
My point here is that there should be totally new genres, and sub-genres for the audio. The "sub-genre" would mention what type of emotion/flash value the audio would have. You should be able to search for both music genre, and emotion/flash value. This would make it very easy for flash authors to find what kind of music they are looking for.
So, when submitting an audio, you would list it after what musical genre it belongs to, and what "emotional/flash value" it has. Perhaps one should be able to list it in more than one "emotion" genre...
Example;
Genre; DnB
Emotion/flash value; chase/battle
- Some kind of blam-system should be introduced. There have been numerous difficulties when it comes to the bandwidth the AP steals (i read it all in the BBS :), so this should be a priority, i belive.
- When you have a blam/protect system, you need to get some kind of credit for that. I´m not sure here, perhaps it should be merged together with the blam/protect system the flashes have (just show in the profile how many audio contra flash that have been blammed/protected).
- In the future, it would be stupid of NG not using the resources they attract. Releasing music in perhaps a newgrounds-lable would be something, however, these ideas points in the "looping", aiding flash direction.
I actually think, how unfair this may sound, that perhaps top 20-30 audio artists of NG should have an "own" page, the NG Album Page, or something similiar. Here they could submit full songs, knowing they will get attention for it. And to get there, numerous systems could be set in motion;
¤ Some kind of average of how many people have viewed the flashes that you have had audio within. Meaning, if you have a total of 3 audios used in flash projects, then all the view count would automaticly get added, and set you on a proper list. This could be done in many ways, to make it fair; Last three months audio submissions - Whos the hottest loop-maker Right Now? Of course, - Whos the hottest loop maker over all time?
My point here is; Lists. Just look at how all other medias work, there are "top 20" lists in every freaking newspaper/magazine/TV/radio and so on. "what´s hot right now"? To be up to date is part of many ppls everyday life, and to everyone who works alot/are busy with school, it´s very comfortable having a trustworthy elite of "know how" reviewers who set the lists. In this case, it would be the newgrounds community and not some dirty half-failed journalist. And looking at what impact NG have as trend (well at least fad...) setter, this is shomething that could grow big, even though we´re mainly talking loops here (well, put it this way; the best loop makers will get the oppurtunity to get alot of attention. so i reckon the "top 30 list" or whatever will be really quality worthy and hopefully get visits from "normal NG visitors" as well as the flashes). To get an automated system bringing in the "top 30 musicians" could be a challenge, but if it could be done then it´d be fair and square!
¤ Of course, to get to the top, you should have to work hard - and from the bottom. Good loops should be brought forward and praised, even though they might be currently un-used in flash submissions. A fair score+reviewing system should take care of that. The basics could be lend from the FP system, but there probably needs to be a tweak or two to make it fit audio.
¤ Flash authors should benefit in some way if using AP audio only. Perhaps there should be a special prise every month that would benefit both audio and flash author?
- There should be a Sound Effect library, perhaps it should be outside the AP- voting system, perhaps it should get a small own one?... However, this would also make it difficult in deciding what sfx have been stolen from games etc...
More ideas to follow when they move into my head.