Clan Playlist Feedback

I do like the idea of a rotating playlist, even though it'll take some serious upkeep to keep it going every single month. 

I think it'd be interesting to have each member be able to suggest a song for next month's playlist, so it's actually a Clan activity rather than forcing Daniel to leaf through his collection every single month. Obviously it will work better if the site grows, but just a thought to boost interaction for people who want to contribute. I know I'd want to throw in some 2020 stuff into Guardian/Infinite/North playlists. 

I do like the idea of a rotating playlist, even though it'll take some serious upkeep to keep it going every single month. 

I think it'd be interesting to have each member be able to suggest a song for next month's playlist, so it's actually a Clan activity rather than forcing Daniel to leaf through his collection every single month. Obviously it will work better if the site grows, but just a thought to boost interaction for people who want to contribute. I know I'd want to throw in some 2020 stuff into Guardian/Infinite/North playlists. 

Love that idea. Daniel?

Thanks for the feedback Xephyr. I like the idea too. In fact, in the long-term I was actually thinking that the responsibility for putting the monthly playlists together could sit with the senior members of each clan who could coordinate it with their fellow clan members in whatever way they felt fit as long as it covered the entire subgenre spectrum that the clan encompasses & drew upon the whole history of metal rather than just being from a specific era. This is because I see these as a way to a) draw in new members from a wide array of backgrounds & experience levels & b) I'd like people to hear something fresh & new every time they attend the Academy. 

Great idea, Xephyr! Song suggestions for playlists would be a good clan activity for members, new or longtime, to check out other members' favorite songs way more than just the "Track of the Day" threads. I'll start with some suggestions for this month's Revolution playlist since it's not up yet. Daniel, please pick any of the songs from this list:

Amaranthe - "Afterlife" (from The Nexus, 2013)

August Burns Red - "Defender" (from Guardians, 2020)

Betraying the Martyrs - "Let It Go" (from Phantom, 2014)

Betraying the Martyrs - "Take Me Back" (from The Resilient, 2017)

Bullet for My Valentine - "Tears Don't Fall" (from The Poison, 2005)

Converge - "My Great Devastator" (from The Poacher Diaries (split with Agoraphobic Nosebleed), 1999)

Darkest Hour - "For the Soul of the Savior" (from The Mark of the Judas, 2000)

Trivium - "In Waves" (from In Waves, 2011)

I'll counter the Trivium request with their track "In Waves" if we're doing Revolution requests, which I think is a pretty underrepresented Clan here in the Academy. If anything, after checking out "Becoming the Dragon", it means that I have to check out Trivium a bit more since I didn't know they were a thrashy band before leaning into a more Death/Metalcore angle. 

Hence why I think I'd be neat to have a "playlist request" system, I think this would help to supplement the "Track of the Day" thread like Andi previously said. 

I like this concept of a playlist suggestions thread in the forums as I think having a playlist that reflects the clan's current listening habits is a nice idea. I'll start these today.

Also, I've been programming these playlists in a very specific way thus far & I don't thing it's been working very well. As a former DJ, I always used to program my sets to slowly build in intensity as the tracklisting progresses i.e. start from the lighter & least intense track & increase the intensity as the set progresses. That way there aren't any flat sections where the listener gets bored & they continually find themselves being drawn further into the music. It also ensures that there's no major drop in intensity from one track to the next which is a really bad thing for a dancefloor if you don't place & execute well. Unfortunately with metal it's meaning that the opening tracks aren't really grabbing the listener so I'm gonna change approaches for the start of the playlists moving forwards by starting with some of the bigger tunes & pulling it back for a slow build after I've grabbed the listener's attention. Check out the new playlist for The Pit that will go up shortly for an example.

With the initial run of playlists I tried to allow for roughly equal inclusions for all clan subgenres in order to satisfy everyone. After listening to some of the playlists & receiving feedback from various members on the topic, Ben & I are thinking I should go for a different approach whereby the primary subgenres receive the majority of the play time & the niche subgenres only get the odd track here & there (perhaps one per playlist for most of them). It wasn't such an issue with clans like The Fallen that have much longer track lengths but was very noticeable with ones like The Gateway, The Horde, The Infinite & The Guardians which include niche subgenres (funk metal, rap metal, gorenoise, cybergrind, avant-garde metal, neoclassical metal, etc.) that not everyone likes.

Does everyone agree with that approach?

To be fair Andi, melodic death metal is one of the more populous subgenres included in The Horde so it isn't really one of the ones I'm referring to.

Hi everyone. The new October playlists for each of the nine clans have all gone live this morning. Check the associated forums for details.

Hi everyone. Just a heads up that I've changed the naming convention for the monthly clan playlists. Xephyr mentioned that the original convention was a little awkward to navigate from his smart phone due to key information being truncated (i.e. the month & clan) & after investigating it myself I found that I agreed with him. In order to rectify this problem, I've now renamed them all in this format:

Oct 2020 "The Sphere" Playlist - Metal Academy Radio

This should eradicate the truncation problem but let me know if you have any further suggestions in this space.

I've just put the finishing touches on the last of the November clan playlists & they've come together very nicely. The arrangement whereby everyone gets their track submissions in by the 15th day of the month has worked well & gives me just enough time to pull everything together in its optimal configuration so let's stick with that for the time being. It's a chore for me to post in every clan thread to ask for track submissions each month so if you want to participate then feel free to post your recommendations at any time. Any that come in after the 15th day of the month (i.e. too late to be considered for inclusion in next month's list) will be included in the shortlist for subsequent months.

Also, I think that limiting everyone to three submissions each (including myself) per show is working. Previous to limiting the submissions I ended up having loads of tracks leftover & wasn't able to get through them all for several months. This is mainly due to me trying to include as many subgenres as possible to showcase the full scope of the clans & the bulk of the submissions coming from the same couple of subgenres (see The North for example where I still have a long list of leftover atmospheric black metal tracks). I had a couple of playlists that were dominated by one member's submissions too which doesn't make them all that interesting for that person given that they already know most of the tracks & the list does tend to favour one particular style. Keeping it to three gives us good scope for additional members becoming involved, ensures that everyone is constantly discovering new music (myself included) & has the added bonus of making sure that the quality stays high as people have to be more selective & choose only the best of their month's listening experiences.

Keep your feedback coming because these playlists are ultimately for all of you to enjoy. If you totally disagree with me on anything I've just said then don't feel like you can't speak up. We've changed our approach to different site activities a number of times based on your wants & needs over the last couple of years & we want the site to be as universally appealing as possible.

I'm really looking forward to the next batch. Feels like ages since I devoured the October lot. Are you sure this can't be a weekly thing? 

Just a bit of feedback to everyone who has been submitting tracks for inclusion in the playlists, please make sure that your track submissions are available on Spotify before posting them. I've been unable to include a fair few track suggestions  due to them not being available on Spotify in recent months but haven't had the time to chase people for replacements.

Can I please ask a favour? Can everyone please follow the Metal Academy Spotify account (if you haven't already)? I understand that the more numbers we get the more people are likely to actually give our playlists a crack.

Agreed, I fell off of doing them because of end-of-year stuff and just not thinking I've had too much to share, which is kind of not true.

I'll definitely hold myself to contributing again.