From: news_at_efolkmusic_dot_org

Sent: 01 March 2011 04:47

Subject: efolkMusic Artist Update 3.01.2011

March, 1, 2011
Carrboro, NC

Dear artists:

You can't say we spam you with too-frequent updates, that's for sure. This one has some good and bad news.

First the good news: We BELIEVE that we have corrected an issue that has plagued us for a while, a bug in the content management system that caused the site to load slowly. We'll know for sure in a few days.  We use the Joomla content management system, it is an open-source CMS that contains elements created by hackers all over the world, and when they all play nice, life is sweet- when they don't, look out.  We cleaned out a few outdated and unsupported components, and updated a number of others, and we seem to be running smoothly.

The bad news is that the existing video section doesn't work with the updates, and neither does the media player on artist pages. Both have been replaced with new components, but you need to reload video links and streaming previews, from your artist administration. Sometimes a loss like this can be cleansing- that's how I'm looking at it, sorry for the inconvenience. It's a chance for you to put up your latest tracks and videos- the new components work great, I hope you will "re-populate" your pages.  (Promo MP3s are not affected, whew...)

We will also use this upgrade moment to remove "dead" pages; if you have an artist page with no content, we'll be deleting them starting in April, so if you want to maintain a presence on efolkMusic, login and update!

Thanks for your patience as we do what we can to improve the service. Traffic is up since we went to all-access promo mp3s, and we've added some exceptional new artists in the last few months- as always, its the quality of the music that makes efolkMusic valuable.

Sincerely,

Chris Frank
efolkMusic founder, etc.

PS Our mission is to support folk music in the broadest sense, raising awareness and getting the word out about our exceptional independent artists. Artists benefit from exposure on efolkMusic through the website, our newsletters, "efm radio", RSS feeds, artist services, and the additional resources that bring visitors to the website, like our folk festival and folk radio listings. We help carry a corner of your promotional load, we ask those that can to help support our efforts- consider making a donation right now!