Should SOFT get help from the government?

[soft]

i want

Content - educational, entertainment or informational.

SOFT Radio - get real people to host the show and even produce recording of bands for the Radio.

Promote SOFT to schools when we have enough material to help students learn more about making music.

Train a team to provide logistics/production/promotion to bands/gigs

Scholarship for deserving talented musician

Too many ideas ...

 

[orcfiend]

Re: ..

how about a soft weekend pasar malam?

SOFT WEEKEND PASAR MALAM + BAND FEST! woop feat. softies' own bands
of course, call the peeps to chip in to fund the event

 

[lalala]

the weekend pasar malam idea sounds cool. zouk also often have such stuffs. sure got many people wanting to buy some 2nd hand instruments one

nice ideas james

 

[plainsman]

i'm not a genius, and i don't have earth-shattering solutions.. but my vote says govt assistance no go.

for some immediate funds inflow... how about a paid member's subscription with some privileges? similar to http://forums.minidisc.org

i tend to think smaller but buildup steadily.. just my two cents, meanwhile all the best & i'm around just like a number of us always are

warm regards

 

[hifi_killer]

elections are around the corner... can do some bargaining :lol:

 

[Cheez]

Don't know how far pasam malam will go. I'm sure there are creative ideas out there if people put their heads together.

Since we have so many contributions to SOFT radio, we can even have something like contribution to download a SOFT album of 10 songs. $5 to download all 10 songs - not too much and people get something out of their contributions. I know James tried to come up with a SOFT album which didn't work out that well. Perhaps as a download format, it may work better - especially if we keep it really cheap.

Just throwing ideas - which may or may not work...

 

[Phil]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind forking out some money for SOFT, although I don't really have much. Still studying, see.
I love this place.
:wink:

 

[candie]

I think the bands fest + pasar malam is a really really good idea. A once-a-year thing to collect money/showcase talent/sell stuff. People who rent stalls in this pasar malam have to pay a rental fee, to cover the cost of the venue and the rest can go into SOFT fund. Bands can play for free. Also, you could sell tickets for the event. Get sponsors even better. Lol. A good way to publicise SOFT as well!

Government aid = government will have a say in whatever you want to do. It is a long term easy solution but it also comes with alot of restrictions. So I'd say no, unless there's nothing else that you can do to get funds.

 

[zel]

yea...i agree for that band fest+pasar malam thingy too
can lyk..gather all the bands here...den can make a performace or smth somewhere to raise funds then....u noe..can charge entry to watch d performace then the pasar malam will b outside the performance area...juz my 2 cents worth

 

[deon]

hey,

someone did mention a gig right, do an open gig marathon etc. make it a huge event, like bigger than sembawang, im sure the music ppl here can help. anyway, once u get the coverage, get the media in and also get ppl to donate during the event. then at the same time prepare some plans that soft would like to carry out and look for sponsors, it would take something but if the event is big enough why not?

not a very detailed explanation but i think its good, coz musicians shld do wad musicians can do, play music.

 

[dario]

i want

Content - educational, entertainment or informational.

I think you should get this one down properly first. ^^ but the rest are all really great great ideas. scholarship esp, damn cool, neva thought of it

 

[debbieseraphina]

I like the SOFT Radio idea. Interested to host a radio show Used to be from Mass Comm in Ngee Ann Poly! Specialised in Radio Production.

 

[seekz]

Well... S.O.F.T to me... Is really just a online forum, with a huge local visitor base. And frankly, I won't pay to access a forum.

Sorry James, its not my place to teach you how to run a website and i dont intend to. But advertising is really the main revenue for any website. Maybe you're not charging them enough for ad space. (Sorry to all you business owners) Your daily page hits and unique visitors is your gold mine. and you gotta price it with reference to say another LOCAL site like ummm... harwarezone.com, ask around, I wont say SOFT is bigger than Hardwarezone.com. but soft is still quite freakin big..

And there will always be work-arounds for online solutions, there's so much free stuff on the internet, SOFT doesnt have to host EVERYTHING internally... . Touch wood, but yeah if one day SOFT shuts down or something, one of us is definitely gonna look to
http://forumer.com/ or delphiforums or some free provider to continue the legacy. Think "sammyboy" LOL

And basically dude, contents here are almost self-generated by softies themselves. I feel like you're just a moderator or a site administrator. No offense, and neither am i expecting you to do anything else. Cos basically you're like a one man show, and i respect that.

What is it u intend to do with soft that needs a goverment grant?
I feel like there're quite a number of entities that are really out there giving their best to help the local scene but i feel that maybe its alittle scattered.

I agree with mikemann, maybe soft can be repackaged or maybe like tagged along to an existing organisation that has goverment funding, so you can worry about improving SOFT rather than maintaining it? tryin my best to throw in ideas rather than just criticising.

GtG, late for appt already, hehe
cheers

 

[Cheez]

Touch wood, but yeah if one day SOFT shuts down or something, one of us is definitely gonna look to
http://forumer.com/ or delphiforums or some free provider to continue the legacy. Think "sammyboy" LOL

Wow, come to think of it, SOFT has really come a long way. For those of you who can remember, everything started off with Singapore Music Forum (from delphiforums) - with Ovid as the guy running it. Then suddently, SOFT came up - and everything switched over to SOFT. Ovid very graciously asked all of us to make the switch - I believe at that time he was also about to leave the country.

 

[khai_stereotype]

Hey, soft.

i'm quite new here.

maybe try the straits times?
get it on the papers.

or esplanade,
since they are under the "arts".

my two cents worth.

 

[chamois]

Not IDA, not MDA,..... could it be MICA ? (But I think MDA should be the one leh...)

Anyway, I kind of agree with seekz.
I think it's better for SOFT to affiliate with some already branded-name
rich private media company or music school or something in the music industry.
(MediaCorp ? TV Mobile ? Creative ? NAFA ? Ocean Butterfly ?)

Maybe you can also have some joint program design with MOE's MEP program.

 

[chanxj]

As far as i noe, NAC gives funds more on a per project basis rather than that of a continuous funding for cases like SOFT. To secure more fundings i think things like monthly sharing sessions, workshops etc. has to be started so as to give a certain "impression" to the people who gives the funds that SOFT is growing the music scene in Singapore.

Also another way is to tie up with retailers or even manufacturers. So things such as paid up members can get things like benefits like discounts, first piority to events or even discount in jamming venues and maybe at the same time, SOFT could take a cut in it so as to amass enough funds(wonder whether members are agreeable though).

Getting grants from private foundations may also help. Foundations may be willing to give out grants in small amounts(which may be veri helpful) and maybe able to put you on with the correct people.

 

[fgl]

If govt sponsored or funded, will soft be subject to govt guidelines etc...?

8)

 

[Scream_ed]

In the first place is there a mission statement/objective that this site can aim to achieve? Cos all this while it feels like the forum is more of a hobby thing. Wherever the fund is coming from, I'm assuming the guy signing the cheque would wanna have this question answered. E.g does this site have any potential to generate some sort of profit (commercial value)? If this is suppose to be a non-profit site, then what specific benefit is there to help anyone or anything?

I'm not saying this site is of no use, just that to convince anyone to chip in some sort of fund, he/she will probably ask the same thing too. As it is right now, the forum is pretty helpful, just maybe without the additional fund, the site isn't able to stretch that potential even further...

 

[chanxj]

If you plan to have things like school tours, make use of tote board funds. Schools all have 10k each in form of toteboard funds and therefore you could apply to be toteboard approved.if i not wrong School onli pays 40% of cost remaining paid by the toteboard funds