But I’m stuck…I can’t think of a name for the show and I need your help!

If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s about a physical medium named Amy Allan and her partner, a retired homicide detective Steve DiSchavi who investigate paranormal locations, dig into the history of the property, and give the clients solutions to fix it.

Here’s a little trailer, sort of, if you want to get familiar with it and help me out!

Here’s what I’m looking for: it should be something that is catchy, short, and has something to do with the show. A catch-phrase, tag line, etc, something that if someone is browsing through shows they’ll see ours and think, “OMG is that a show about The Dead Files?!” and subscribe.

Here’s what I have so far…

I think these are too long:
“Amy, is this what you saw?” (each episode Amy sits down with a sketch artist and they draw something that she saw in the home, this is what the artist says to Amy)
“I Don’t Even Want To Show You This” (what Steve says when he’s about to show the sketch to the clients)

I think these might infringe on copyright:
“The Dead Files Files”
“Help Me Dead Files” (this is in the promo when Steve and Amy say that if you have paranormal activity that you need help with, you should go to the website and click those words)

These two I think are good, just not sure I love them:
“Were ya boozin’?” (what Steve says when he’s making sure that the client’s claims are not because they were drunk–he says this more than you’d think and it’s hilarious)

“You Could Have Been Killed” (Steve says this often when people talk about how they got pushed down staircases)

Do you like any of those? Do you have any other suggestions? I could really use your help.
If we pick your title you’ll get a shoutout in the first episode.
I’m hoping to launch it by March 2022.

The post Help! I need your input first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Check your favorite podcast app (Spotify, Amazon, or any number of phone apps) or follow the link

Please let me know if you have suggestions for other stories and stay tuned for the next big project!

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next! A new podcast series will be coming in June. I’m pretty excited about it!

The post Podcast :: Chapter 4 The Dead Smile (finale) first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post Podcast :: Chapter 3 of The Dead Smile first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Google announced that once again, they are discontinuing a valuable resource. Thanks, Google.

If you normally get an email from this site alerting you of a new post, it’s because you signed up through my RSS Feed, via Google. As of July, this will stop. So you will no longer receive these emails.

The alternative is for me to create my own mailing list, set up an account with Mailchimp, and then manually send you all emails when I update the site. Again, thanks, Google.

So if you would like to be alerted when I post a new blog post (I hope you do!), please fill out this form and you will be on the list! Don’t worry, you can unsub at any time.

The post No More RSS, emails first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post Podcast :: Chapter 2 of The Dead Smile first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Just wanted to let you know that while I am doing research for another podcast series, I thought I’d drop a quick and easy (haha*) one on you.

I actually took this pic in my backyard just before a storm broke.

Go! Listen! Subscribe, download, etc. And if you like it, it would be super helpful if you would write a review on Apple (I hate that Apple is the only one that matters, but it’s the truth).

*I thought just reading a story would be easy. But I should have learned my lesson with my first one, A Haunted House. I recorded chapter 1 4 times, and then editing in the theme song, background instruments, etc took DAYS! But I’m getting better at it, and it shouldn’t take so long in the future.

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The post NEW Series :: The Dead Smile by F. Marion Crawford first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post Don’t Do Social? first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Hey friends! I did a thing…I published the trailer for my podcast, Collected Sounds. Have a listen, please be kind. 

If you want to subscribe with your podcast app, you can use this RSS feed (copy and paste this) https://feeds.redcircle.com/990a2251-82b3-49e3-b3c1-fdee6585d958

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The post Pssst, I did a thing… first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post Logo Options first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I am working on a project now that is non-music related and needs my total focus. So I am putting any work on this site on the back burner.

My reasons are many, but I’ve been taking a look at this a lot lately, and I’m finding that it’s no longer fun. It started as a great hobby and a way for me to be what my husband calls a Music Evangelist. Now I dread opening up the Collected Sounds folder in my email because I know every day I’ll find 200 emails with people asking something from me and it’s become a chore.

I’d always been told, and believed, that you should do what you love and the money will come. Well, it’s been 12 years and I am lucky to make a few dollars a month. It’s really more like about 14 cents. I was never in this for the money, but I did believe that someday I’d make enough to be able to quit working for someone else and work on this full time. Well, I still end up spending several hours a week on it and making jack. So I still have not been able to leave any soul sucking “real” job.
I realize that the problem is that I chose music. Musicians can’t pay me and music fans want their music for free. So there’s no place for revenue to come from. I get that. I just hoped things would change.

I will still tweet things that I find interesting or when I see good deals on music or music related things. I may even still post a little musical review occasionally. But it won’t be because someone asked me to. It will be because I love something so much I can’t shut up about it and want to share it with you.

I will also still post reviews by my contributors. So there will still be some content. It just won’t be as lengthy or frequent.

I don’t know how long this will last. Maybe a month, maybe forever. I just know I need to take a break now.

As I said I never went into this to get rich. So if it was still a blast to do, I’d keep doing it. But that’s not the case anymore. I find that I don’t want to listen to the radio because I am afraid I’ll find a new band or artist that I like but I won’t have any time to listen to them because I have eleventy hundred CDs that are waiting for reviews. How super f*cked up is that?

I want to love music again, not resent it.

So I’m working on something that involves another passion of mine, animals. I will let you know more once I have more put together. I would be honored if you wanted to follow me on that journey.

Thank you so much for riding this wave with me this far. I really appreciate all of you who have read this blog, commented, clicked on links, etc. I wouldn’t have held on as long if not for you.

xoxo

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The post Announcement first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The ads you see on my site are from affiliate companies. I sign up and agree to post their ads, they agree to pay me if you click on them and/or buy something from them. I am involved in several affiliate companies that supply these ads.

One of these companies, [redacted]. Well, let’s just say I don’t care for them. But that’s putting it mildly. They have a practice in which they only pay me if my commissions are greater than $50. That’s fine. What’s not fine is that as my account approached that number they found ways to take the money away from me. If my account goes for a few months without anyone buying anything they take $10 from my earned amount. So I went from $36 to $6 at which point they deactivated my account “due to dormancy” even though I was logging in at least 3 or 4 times a week to check my totals and to get new links to display for you.

You may be asking why I decided to stick with them and advertise with them. Good question. The answer is that one of their advertisers is eMusic, a company I really like and wanted to be able to link to them for artists that I cover. (this part will be addressed later)

Needless to say I’m livid. Firstly they “stole” $36 from me (for no good reason except that they can) and now I have to go through my entire website (over 5,000 reviews) and remove all the links that I have that go through this affiliate program. I ran a little test and it took me 20 minutes to do 5 of them. With over 5,000 posts to go through you can see how long this will take. It amounts to over 250 hours of time, which if I billed for it, would equal over $16,000.

This story does have a semi-happy ending. I contacted eMusic and expressed my um…distaste… with this advertiser. They told me they are involved with another affiliate program, to which I applied. I was accepted right away and within moments of my signing up I got a personal call from a rep there wanting to discuss how we can work together. I’ve been with them for one day and they’re already 100 times better than the evil advertiser.

If you’d like to read my open letter to the this fabulous advertiser click here.
If you want me to name names email me.

So feel free to click on the eMusic banners, they’ll report correctly. And really, eMusic is a great program so not only do I think you should get a trail because it will benefit Collected Sounds, but also you’ll be very happy with the selection of music to download and the customer service. Primo company!

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The post A Cautionary Tale first appeared on Collected Sounds.

If you’re a keen observer of this website, and not an RSS follower only, you may have noticed some new links on the menu bar up there. I alluded to this last week, and thought I’d fill you all in now.

Short version aka TL;DR

The long-winded version:

I have a confession to make, Collected Sounds is not my first foray into blogging. In fact, I had a personal blog on my very first website more than ten years ago. It was just a page telling friends what we’re up to, and I called it ‘news’ but it pretty much was a blog before there was such a thing. Or at least before I knew there was.

Then I started the music website (it was called Ecalos.com and was not a blog but a standalone website). That morphed into Collected Sounds as you know it now.
Over the years I started up other websites, some lasted 2 weeks, some longer. After doing some planning and reevaluating of my online existence, I decided to pick only the topics near and dear to me and let the other stuff fall away.

The result is Chez Animal Hair, which is the name I’ve long used to describe my house.
So the other sites I keep are a cooking/foodie blog, a pets blog, and a personal blog in which I share more info that you would ever want to know about me. That’s really mostly for friends, but you’re welcome to cyber stalk me. Just keep it online.

So TL;DR:
I have four websites:
This one, Collected Sounds
A Community for pet lovers and animal activists in my state of MN
A personal blog
And a cooking/foodie blog
They can all be found at [http://chezanimalhair.com] or follow the links above in the menu bar.

Now you know why I can’t keep up with the 10 CDs a week I get for review.

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The post Announcing: Chez Animal Hair first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I will explain later in depth (oh boy will I) but right now, please do not use Emusic links embedded in the reviews. If you are interested in Emusic (and you should be, it’s an awesome program) please use the banners. The banners have been replaced with good ones. Now I get to go back to all 5,000 reviews and remove all the links I had before. Oh Joy.

As I said, I’ll explain later.

After I’ve had some cool down time.

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The post Boy, am I STEAMED first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I’m thinking of changing the theme I’ve been using in order to more match the other websites I have (I bet you didn’t even know I had other websites did you? That will be another announcement)

But I’ve made so many customizations to this theme that I am not positive it’s going to work. So if you visit you may see something funky. Don’t be alarmed, I will restore it or make the full change eventually. The content should not be altered, so if you’re an RSS subscriber you won’t even know the difference.

Oh and this photo is what I came home to one day. Ah life with three dogs.

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The post This may get messy first appeared on Collected Sounds.

So I deleted the Collected Sounds feed and re-burned a new one. I’ve updated the previous post with the new feed URL and also the button in the right sidebar.

But I thought I should put it here too.

[HERE is my new feed] Please subscribe

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The post This feed business first appeared on Collected Sounds.

So if you’re a visitor of this page, please consider using something other than that vile IE. It’s evil and wrong and there’s no reason to use it* when there are so many other good browsers out there. I use Chrome and Firefox.
*unless, of course you’re like me and have to use it at work because the websites that you have to use for work only work in that.

If you are resistant to change or can’t use another browser, then you’d be better off using a reader to access the site’s info. You can do that [here]

[This] is an oldie, but the ‘wheee’ makes me laugh every time.

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The post Just a note… first appeared on Collected Sounds.

She suggested I write honest reviews of stuff I don’t like. She used Pitchfork as an example of a highly respected review website because they don’t sugar-coat anything and they are downright scathing (and often funny). That if Pitchfork likes a band, then that band has made it. She wanted that sort of industry cred (and pull) for me.

I thought, I can do that. I can be snarky as hell when the feeling hits me. (You should have seen the review I wrote about the woman whose vocal stylings resembled a dying cow. I’m not even kidding. It was a weird painful moaning, lowing sort of thing.*)

So I started writing what I felt about the music whether I liked it or not. Sometimes this made for a funny post, sometimes it was just mean. Most of the time, these posts never saw the light of day. Some even got so far in the process to be posted to the site, just not published, waiting for the day I have the guts to hit the publish button.

Some reviews I wrote were positive for the most part, but if there was something I didn’t care for, I mentioned it. Then I’d get nasty emails or comments from the artist or I’d find out they trashed me on their website (Google Alerts is my friend). ‘Screw ‘em!’ I’d say, ‘They asked for my opinion by sending me their music.’ I even went so far as to dedicate a whole post to “If you don’t want my opinion, don’t ask for it and save your postage”.

But the bottom line is, it’s not nice and it’s not what I wanted to be when I started this site. Also, I’m finding that I have less and less time to spend on this site. I calculated that when I do a review I generally spend at least 8 hours per CD. It’s just not worth it to spend all that time, and do all that work to just send negative shit out there.

Also, I see Collected Sounds as not just a review site. Many of my posts are giving you free music, or sharing industry news, or videos, or listing concert dates. Reviewing is not my main goal. Mostly the reviews I do write end up being for the artist more than the reader/listener anyway.

So from now on, I am only writing about music that I find exceptional. If I am listening to a submission and all I can think to write about it is “she has a nice voice”, or “it’s ok” it’s not going to make it past a third listen and will not make it to the site. From now on, only gems.

Now, I do get submissions of already-written reviews from other contributors and I’ll continue to post them, but they’re generally always positive anyway.

What I’ve done in the past and what I may continue to do, is grab a whole bunch of the “good, but not great” ones and do one post mentioning them all but will still keep it positive. Not sure yet about that. What are your thoughts?

OK now to go to my ginormous stack of CDs, give them all one more listen and start paring down. Whee!

*And no I won’t mention the name of the artist who sounded bovine. You wouldn’t know her anyway. It’s not like she “made it” big.

The post Some changes around these parts. first appeared on Collected Sounds.

By the time you read this, I will be on a plane to Miami. We’re going on the Cayamo cruise!!**

So I won’t be updating this much. I do have some reviews scheduled for many of the days, but not all. I hear the boat has an internet cafe so perhaps I’ll be able to check in.

**No idea what I’m talking about? [check it out]

Have a great week and I’m sure I’ll have lots of stories and photos for your when I return!!

Oh and don’t even think about robbing us, our dogs can be vicious when they want to be, and we have two big strong men watching the place staying with them

The post See ya! first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Jemsite was looking for some new music and I told them how nutters I am over Lex Land (in fact, just listened to the CD again this morning on my way to work).

I’m honored that they added my review to their blog repotoire. Now they can’t wait to hear the album!

Read my reposted review of Lex Land on the [Jemsite blog]

It’s funny, after reading that review again, I realize there’s so much more I could have said about it. But I’ll save that for my end of the year round up. You know this will be very near the top of my list!

The post Repost on Jemsite! first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Last week I (Amy)was interviewed by Ava over at JemSite. The review’s been posted and you can [read it here]. Jemsite is an informational community based website that centers on guitars and guitarists. She asked some good questions. One of which I will probably regret answering

The post Interview on Jemsite first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Even though I pretty much hate the new page layout, I still would like to have some more fans!
[Become a fan]

[Follow on Twitter] *not that I’m very exciting, but you’ll get the news first anyway.

The post Are you a fan of Collected Sounds? first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Please to enjoy and happy Friday:

*if anyone is curious…(hey I may be next time this comes up) the problem with the blog is that the permissions were not set. In my defense, NO WHERE in the instructions for upgrade does it say that I have to re CHMOD everything. Sheesh!* Oh and it’s not really fixed, I still can’t add images.

The post Whew..fixed…and…. first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post SORRY~~~ first appeared on Collected Sounds.

[Here the online version]

Sweeeeet!!! I don’t speak/read Spanish, so I have no idea what the article says, but I’m going to try to translate it.

[Here’s the review] It’s a fabulous record that I still listen to with some regularity.

To read a translation click read more:

This is what Babelfish says, it’s not perfect, but you get the idea.

“One received the master’s degree in Biology, but what it liked it was to draw fairies and to compose. Priscilla Hernandez did not take then in becoming first illustrator and, soon, the 2002, singer of those magicians and spectral letters that as much time took writing. It hung his music in Internet and it obtained two million unloadings, so nine different discográficas proposed a “abusive contract to him”, says, that it rejected to found his own seal, Yidneth. In the 2006 it removed his first work, Ancient shadows: the ghost and the fairy, with which age competes in the Prizes of Music to the best disc new and in the Angels Music Awards like better feminine vocalista and better song (The realms of twilight). “the awards grant this Sunday in the same theater of Gold Globes, but I do not have record nor espónsor that finance the trip to me”, it is lamented. Six days later, and like member of platform PAE, he will be in Razzmatazz unfolding his wings is literal and it also designs she herself — in a recital in whom they will not lack projections, of his responsibility. Perhaps the name of this canary settled down in Barcelona does not appear in the press nor in most of magazines specialized Spanish, but in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany the means are many that have surrendered to their spells. Waiting for to the ghost “Etéreas inmortales songs with a humor of romantic yearning and a touch of gothic shade…/a suspended feminine voice in the air before an impenetrable cloud bank”, wrote Paul Jury in Morpheos Music. “This artist could be on the verge of defining a new sort of music”, loosen to Bill Bright in Gods of Music. “She is wonderful. It makes wish me to seat to me in the ground of my old Victorian house, to extinguish the lights, to ignite candles and to hope to that the ghosts come to by me “, assured Amy Lotsbert in Collected sounds. By the way, she admits that she is a “self-taught person of music”. And that in spite of its angelical and suggestive voice, never imagined like singer.”

The post Collected Sounds International first appeared on Collected Sounds.

But I think it all worked out now.

I have a little something to share that I just got today. New KT Tunstall video for the song “Saving My Face”.

QUICKTIME:
[high bandwidth]

[low bandwidth]

WINDOWS MEDIA

[high bandwidth]

low bandwidth]

The post New KT Tunstall Video first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I have been trying to figure out a way to eliminate the Parlor Parties website (where I announce house concerts) and moving the info here. The best way, I think, is to make it another blog on this domain. So I am installing the new blog, but I am running an old version of SQL and need to update it all.

So if you come here in the next day or so and it’s down, that’s why, and know that I am working on it.

Wish me luck!!

UPDATE: DONE!! With only about 14 seconds of sheer panic! That’s pretty good, the last time I did this I had a good 2 hour freakout before I called for help. This time I figured it out on my own. Please let me know if you experience anything wonky in the next few days. I don’t know if I can fix it, but I can get someone who can.

The post Maintenance first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post CS for October 2007 first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post Visit my Amazon Store first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Iâ€m going to try not to complain too much because this is only the second time this has happened in six years (and I have seven websites with this hosting company) so thatâ€s pretty good. I do have to say I love this company. But I hope they work this out soon!! I am working on my newsletter and will send it out (and post it here) just as soon as I can.

The post Sorry! first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Pretty please with butter (or whatever your favorite food is) on top?

The post PLUG:Independent Music Awards first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I’ve made a bunch of requests and ONLY to folks I really want to be connected with, doh! But I only have 9 spaces to go!! [Be My Friend!]

I did it! I reached 1000 at 4:41 (but it took my a whole 3 minutes to get my act together enough to create a screenshot.

The post My Space Friends first appeared on Collected Sounds.

1. US
2. Canada
3. Netherlands
4. United Kingdom
5. Sweden
6. France
7. Germany
8. Australia
9. Norway
10. Italy

We had over 38,000 visitors in Feb. That’s actually down from last month (at over 41 thousand) but February was a short month, right?

The post We’re international first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post Moving Day first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Just wanted to wish you all a happy new year. I have posted the last CD review of 2005 today so you can see all the ones for this month here:

Current CD reviews

or for the whole year: All the CDs of 2005

Happy New Year and if 2006 has as much great music as 2005 I’ll be very happy!

The best to you and all of yours.
~Amy

The post Happy New Year first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I’ve just uploaded a new featured article on indie musician, Helen Boulding.
It was written by one of our big contributors, David Adair.

Check it out~

The post New Featured Article: Helen Boulding first appeared on Collected Sounds.

I just have to figure out some small things like what songs I can use for the show (copyright and all that jazz). If you are a PodCaster and know about these rules, please let me know.

The post PodCast first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Hi kids!

Well, it took five years, but I’ve just posted our 1,000th CD review.

The band is Fiji Mermaid You can see it by clicking on the name.

I couldn’t have done it without my frequent contributors:

Anna Maria Stjarnell
Lauren Jonik
Anne Deming
Pierce Foxx
David Adair

Thanks you guys, and here’s to 1000s more!!

The post Collected Sounds hits 1,000 CD Reviews!! first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The August Newsletter is up!

Check it out!

The post August Newsletter first appeared on Collected Sounds.

You may have noticed something new on the site. Please do not think me a sell out. But Iâ€ve decided to allow Google ads on my site. I though about this a lot and realized that I canâ€t keep doing this with no monetary gain. It takes me several hours a week and I canâ€t do it for free anymore.

So, I signed up and put the ads on the site. So far itâ€s doing pretty well. The ads are nice (if you can call ads nice) in that they display ads that pertain to what is on the page. So if you read a review for a CD that is compared to the Pixies, you may see an ad for buying Pixies†CDs. So theyâ€re not all bad.

Thanks for supporting Collected Sounds and Independent music!

The post New on the site first appeared on Collected Sounds.

In case anyone doesn’t believe how important it is to write “DO NOT BEND” on a CD package…this is what I received today.

I’m sad because it’s a CD set that I was really looking forward to hearing.

Eh, it happens sometimes even when you do write it on there.

The post Broken CDs first appeared on Collected Sounds.

Sinead O’Conner: Collaborations (not so weird)- this is actually a CD of her doing duets with others. I’ve never seen it anywhere else and it’s not on Amazon. Can’t wait to hear it.

Monster In Law Soundtrack (also not weird, it’s filled with really good female artists)
then (here’s where it get’s weird…)
Culture Club’s Greatest hits CD and DVD (which does not play in my computer and is not found on Amazon either)
and

Power Station CD and DVD. Power Station…yep, that Power Station, the one with Robert Palmer and the boys from Duran Duran, yeah, that one. WTF?

Oh well, never complained about free music. Well, yes I have, but it has to be really really bad.

The post strangest package so far… first appeared on Collected Sounds.

So here’s the newsletter:

May 2005

The post Newsletter May 2005 first appeared on Collected Sounds.

The post My Very First Post first appeared on Collected Sounds.