Even though the station has started broadcasting again, I’m still not sure how soon I’ll have a chance to be allowed to return.
For good reason, the station is taking extra precautions to make sure that all concerned can remain safe from the virus.
In November before Thanksgiving, an attempt was made to start things up.
Then everything spiraled out of control across the country and the process was stopped.
I’m sure that the startup will continue to take place and I hope my chance will occur soon.
However, as much as I’d like to say I feel confident about getting behind a mic again, I also know that there are variants out there as well as possibly things I’m not even aware of.
So……………………………………………………………………
Since I’m bumping up against what I consider to be deadlines for how I like to make Philby submissions eligible, I feel it necessary to change some of the rules.
I always wanted to make sure that I had played a song from an album to make it available for the Philby lists.
Since I haven’t been on the air in almost a year, that has to change.
Some albums may end up on this year’s list will probably not have a song played from them at all.
Making it easier to make this choice, I intend to “grandfather” artists, meaning that if you have had an album on the Philbys, I won’t have to play a song from a new album to make it qualify.
This rule will also carry over to my weekly album Faves list.
Although this may be known only to myself, I always start to place current year albums–or as close as I can make it, on to the weekly chart by the last week of January.
That’s another reality that is forcing my hand to change some rules. They never fully switch over to only current year, but that’s not the important point. What matters to me is to mentally start making way for the newest music that’s available. Otherwise, it would be too easy for me to get distracted. I make sure that the calendar forces me to recognize new releases.
The next and last change concerns the sliding year scale that I use for the Philbys.
This will take some explaining.
I had decided early on that I needed to develop a systematic way of processing a large volume of music on a consistent basis.
For the past few years, the system has worked fairly well. I continuously tweaked things to try to make it an easier approach for me. I work on the Philbys almost every day, and I use the word “almost” just in case I can’t recall a day or two when I was sick or some other reason.
Being cut off from some of my music sources will probably take me years to catch up.
I’m just trying to be realistic.
I do the Philby Awards to reward brilliant musical achievement, but they also serve to recognize some artists that may not be part of an inner circle or “clique.”
However, part of the experience for me is to discover new music and artists.
But it is a “labor of love.”
I don’t want it to be just a laborious process. That wouldn’t be any fun.
Another lesson that I’ve learned during this layoff is just how precious life is. All of us have lost someone that we know, or have heard about another person who knew someone we know who died because of the virus. And many of them died early or suddenly.
It’s certainly caused me to think about things that I haven’t wanted to because I’m not sure how long my own clock may stay ticking.
The Philbys have always been about finding great music. Since time to me now is both relevant and irrelevant, I have decided to take away the sliding yearly guide for submissions. Sorta……………………………
I will probably still list the same time frame (2017-2020) in my sections or posts about submissions until next year. I still like the idea of being structured about my process.
However, not having yearly guardrails will solve a dilemma that I’ve had since I started doing my Philby lists.
As a lifelong music consumer, when I’ve found an artist that I think is worthy of repeated listening, I almost always would explore the musician’s back catalog, if they had one.
Because I’ve tried to have a procedural process, I’ve found it frustrating to not be able to go back and place someone I’ve “gone crazy” over, and not be able to give a recommendation on my own lists because it was outside of the yearly allowable range!
I even started to compile yearly lists for years previous to when I began the Philbys with the idea that I would put out a list for those years.
I had big plans!
Now I can compromise on that possibly unrealistic gambit and include some of those albums in my current lists.
I’m not worried that my list is possibly moving away from any yearly relevance.
The Philbys never were about that kind of timeclock.
I have always paid attention to almost any kind of musical list, and I find it strange that a lot of the same artists and albums continually show up on so many similar year end lists. I have never been concerned with doing that.
I see it differently.
I think this pushes my Philby lists into its own area of relevance because I’m interested in brilliant musical achievement regardless of the year.
In baseball, there is a veterans committee to make sure that maybe some players have been overlooked to be in the Hall of Fame for whatever reason.
That is how I will view back catalog albums. Since most artists don’t usually put out more than one release every couple of years, I see this change in eligibility as a chance to be more consistent and recognize musicians as well who are consistent in their art.
There will be limitations, of course, but I’m not sure at this point what they will be.
For instance, my player that I use for pro active listening only holds 400 albums, although I’ve added another one that can hold double that.
I don’t want to go too large in my process because I like the fact that the albums I select I pretty much know fairly well.
So, the space on my players will be some kind of limiter.
Hopefully, removing the yearly barriers will also cut down on my yearly scramble and apprehension to make sure that I haven’t missed something that I wanted on the list, but forgot it or misplaced it.
I plan to limit the amount of “multi placers”–artists that have more than one album on an individual list.
Unless, of course, the artist releases more than one album a year. Then I will have to figure out how I want to handle that situation, if I like them all.
I’ve never wanted the Philbys to be like other lists.
These changes will certainly assure that!
If you’ve read this far, I hope some of this makes sense to you, because it was important for me to state it!
Bottom line, I’m looking for great music from any year!
And fun!
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Here’s a section on submissions:
The album selections are made from a sliding four year pool of music.
This year that pool is 2017-2020.
The song selections are usually from the same range, too, but I’m a little more open to almost anything, since over time, there have been plenty of older songs that have found new life years after they’ve been recorded, even ending up on hit movie soundtracks.
Needless to say, this year is going to be unlike any year.
However, I have arrived at the realization that there will be issues every year no matter what I plan.
One of the reasons that I use a multiple year submission scale is that just getting music out to the world is sometimes difficult for an artist.
A lot of them are not really wired for self promotion.
Making music is totally different than drumming up interest in it, especially for independent musicians.
Yes, there are promoters that can help with that. And nothing against promoters because they have a role to play. But they cost money, and the artist already had to pay to record the music, and may not be prepared for the process of promoting it.
After looking at how some other independent awards are handled, I figured a four year window allows me enough time to serendipitously run across someone’s music.
I have told this story several times, but I try very hard to listen to everything that is submitted.
Although I work on my list, starting literally on January 1st, using a four year sliding window, I carry over what would qualify from the prior years.
Up to this point of the year, I just reached my largest batch of albums.
So, it’s basically a little over the number I used last year.
But let’s talk about this year, which is absolutely the weirdest year ever!
I haven’t even done a show for months!
I haven’t any idea how this will affect either list.
However, I will come up with something that makes sense.
And as large as my working list is, I know I have room for more.
I can never have enough!
Therefore, I am accepting entries for Philby consideration!
So, if you’ve made some music dating back as far as 2017, I will accept that music for consideration.
If you have something older than 2016, send that, too, but identify the release date. I’m always looking for GREAT music.
For the Philbys, I’m looking for full albums.
However, if you only have a single, I’ll accept that, too. Don’t forget that I also have a Philby Hot Songs list, and more artists are releasing singles these days.
But please don’t send me an incomplete album if you have one.
So, please don’t edit for me.
I hate that and I might not even check out the item. I don’t know why anyone would only send selected songs instead of their whole work of art for consideration.
Please don’t send me links to listen to music. That’s not how I listen to music. And I probably won’t listen to it if you send me a link to stream it. Either send me the album to download or request my mailing address to send a physical copy.
Every year I say that if your item came out later than May, it may not end up on this year’s list. So it’s possible that submissions entered now may only be considered for 2021. (It sounds so good to think of 2020 being finished!)
However, this year will be totally different than other years. I have not received any where near the amount of releases that I normally do.
It might be an excellent year to send a submission.
I will accept any genre of music. I like a variety of styles, even on the same album!
So, please e-mail your mp3s, and please make sure it is an mp3 only, to phil@philmaq.com.
If you want a physical address or have other questions, please e-mail me at the same address. Because selections will be considered for more than a single year, there isn’t an expiration date at the present.
If you want someone who will actually listen to your music, I am that person.
If you want some recognition for working hard and baring your soul, that might be me, too. I can’t make any promises, but I will listen to your music.
If you are reading this and are not a musician but know someone who is, please forward this to them.
Good luck to all who participate!
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My weekly radio show “Prime Time Theme Attic,” can be heard Mondays, 8P-10P ET when it returns.
It almost always includes a weekly countdown of my favorite albums or songs and some shows feature two countdowns!
If you like what you see, don’t forget to spread the word by hitting the “like” button on my Facebook page, Phil Maq!
#Philbys #PhilbyAwards
