Classical-Crossover.co.uk

[nicola]

Hey Michael,

Cortes is from Iceland. He toured with Katherine here in the UK a few years back. He is incredibly successful in his own country, and he charted quite well in the classical charts here, too.

I have always compared the voices of Hayley and Sissel. If you like Hayley, you'll like Sissel. You know the Titanic soundtrack? The sweet vocalise present throughout the score? That's Sissel. She always sings like that.

Kanon is... unique. She's a Japanese artist, and has a lot of Eastern influence. I think she sounds lovely, but her experimentalism may not be to everyone's taste. She's very "poppy". XD

[martindn]

Hi Nicola,

Thanks for the new taster, finally found time to play it a few times and do it justice.

Strangely I don't get reminded of Hayley when I hear Sissel, although I enjoy her music.

Kanon I enjoyed too, although she reminds me a bit of Enya (to a greater extent I think than Sissel reminds me of Hayley).

I was a bit disappointed with Gregorian. For me, all that clattering detracts from the beauty of the singing.

The others were all well known to me.

Martin D

[Richard]

Hello Nicola and everybody.

This thread has turned into a general discussion about the classical crossover genre and is no longer predominantly about Hayley. Following discussions with the Management Team, I have moved this thread from Miscellaneous to Other Music. You may of course continue to mention Hayley as appropriate to the discussion.

Richard

[nicola]

Thanks Richard. I was having the same thoughts over the past few... well, since the name of the thread changed! lol! xx

[nicola]

Hey guys,

Just to let you know, if you go looking for Fiona, Raven, etc, they won't be where they were before. I shifted the artists around into two categories.

The main artist profile list is for artists that have a major record deal (this includes artists that are no longer active that bowed out on a major record deal)

The other list is for unsigned and independent artists, which is where Raven and Fiona are. This section will also include artists that have had a major record deal, but are now working without one.

Hayley is unaffected by these changes of course. The idea is to make navigation easier, both on visitors, and on talent scouts.

Nic x

[nicola]

The chart has been updated this fortnight. No change for Hayley, though Pavao, Raven and Fiona are steaming ahead.

[Richard]

[martindn]

Interesting that there are no changes at all in the top ten from last time. Hayley has a massive lead now!

Martin D

[nicola]

Copied and pasted from my forum - I won't make you guys take a trip over there:

Hey guys,

Over the next few days, you will see some major changes on the website. Whilst we are going through the notion of updating and switching around, now would be a great time to give us your ideas as to what would improve the website.

Firstly, you may have noticed that artists have been switched around. To make it easier to navigate, artists are now in one of two categories. The artist profiles are for artists with major record deals; this includes artists that have left their recording year who had major record deals. Unsigned and indie artists, I hope is self explanatory, but this section is up to date - that is to say, if an artist had a major record deal, but is now attempting their career alone (such as Blake and Operababes) they will be found in the Unsigned/Indie section.

These categories may narrow down, depending on our website. The categories may look like this:

Female Vocalists
Male Vocalists
Group Vocalists
Choirs
Instrumentalists
Group Instrumentalists

The reason for this is because we are going to have images next to every name now, so it's not just an endless list of names that nobody can identify with. With that in mind, it will be a longer loading time, which is why there may be a need to narrow the artists down for these categories. As you guys are the visitors, do you prefer the artists as they are, or would you find these categories useful?

These forums will also be updated - largely because, as I am sure you have noticed, new posts appear at random places in a thread. This barely makes the forum readable. There is also the issue of visible IP addresses, which we are also working on.

Any comments, questions and/or suggestions are welcome.

[Elliot Kane]

Sounds like the changes will add to the ease of use considerably, which can never be a bad thing

[nicola]

Updates are going to be implemented within the next few weeks. Major ones.

Main new features:
*Shoutboxes/Comments on each profile
*Artists to be organised in different, more transparent categories (female vocalists, male vocalists, etc)
*Award system (this is to do with rating and voting, more on that later)
*E-mail Newsletter
*Profile lists will include images of the artist (sounds simple, but this is the most complicated update)
*Essay on Classical Crossover
*Pages on About CC and the website
*Tag clouds (not definite)
*Embedding artists twitter accounts on their profiles so people can see the latest of what they are getting up to.

The biggest interest to you guys is probably the award system. Basically, we have been scratching our heads for a long time wondering how to make the ratings system fair. We took a major step a few months ago, by resetting and having members only vote, but this is still unfair on artists that are added to the site later. My latest addition, Margaret Keys, for example, as absolutely no chance of catching up with Hayley's 3000+ votes.

The solution to this must be obvious to you. Keep resetting the ratings. I agree. That is obvious. But boy does that upset fanbases. Fans put a lot of work in getting their artists to the top of the pile, and to have reset back to zero is really demoralising. Russell Watson's fanbase withdrew from my site in protest when I last resetted the ratings. I can see their point.

What to do? Credit goes to my web designer for thinking this up. Wondering what you guys think of it. We have decided, that we WILL reset the ratings, but will do so once a year. HOWEVER, the artists achievements in that year will permanently be recorded on our "awards" page (think of it as a Hall of Fame). The "awards" will be milestones. Such as reaching 500 votes, 1000 votes, 5000 votes, Average rating of 4.90 or higher, perfect score, top 3 artist, number 1 artist etc. They'll get neat little ribbons/trophies on their profiles and in the Hall of Fame (the awards will be rewarded as they are acheived, they won't wait until the end of the year). SO, when the ratings are reset, the fans support for the artist is still visible, for eternity, on the Hall of Fame page. It will stay there for each year. So the 2011 awards will not cancel the 2010 awards - it will show their awards for each year.

That seems to be the compromise we have come up with.

[martindn]

Hi Nicola,

Yes, it seems to me that is a good idea. Hayley is now getting so far ahead of the rest it seems unlikely she will ever be caught. And even though I think Hayley deserves her position, it does make things difficult for new artists. So you do need it reset it from time to time.
I think what you suggest is a good compromise.

Martin D

[mihizawi]

Yes, Nicola, although I am not registered in your website and so, have never voted, I think it's as pretty good idea. As I have said sometimes before, your website is just great and very, very useful, and it's good that you keep making changes to improve it.

Looking forward to your essay on Classical Crossover, by the way.

Michal

[nicola]

Thanks guys, glad it's got a stamp of approval! And can I apologise for the terrible spelling/grammar in that post. It's awful, but I was in a hurry at the time!

Haven't written an essay since I left university. Better flex my essay writing muscles! Better still, should work on my grammar! XD

[grant]

Hi Nicola

Mar 14, 2010 21:03:10 GMT nicola said:

What to do? Credit goes to my web designer for thinking this up. Wondering what you guys think of it. We have decided, that we WILL reset the ratings, but will do so once a year. HOWEVER, the artists achievements in that year will permanently be recorded on our "awards" page (think of it as a Hall of Fame). The "awards" will be milestones. Such as reaching 500 votes, 1000 votes, 5000 votes, Average rating of 4.90 or higher, perfect score, top 3 artist, number 1 artist etc. They'll get neat little ribbons/trophies on their profiles and in the Hall of Fame (the awards will be rewarded as they are acheived, they won't wait until the end of the year). SO, when the ratings are reset, the fans support for the artist is still visible, for eternity, on the Hall of Fame page. It will stay there for each year. So the 2011 awards will not cancel the 2010 awards - it will show their awards for each year.

That seems to be the compromise we have come up with.

Does sound a bit complicated but nevertheless seems the fairest way to proceed so I'm with the "Aye's". You have an excellent site which, importantly, has the support of some of the top names in CC, so it's only fair that everyone listed has an equal opportunity.

It will be an interesting challenge. Am I correct in thinking that you will reset from 1st January each year? I don't think anyone has asked that yet.

Best wishes
Grant