With all that has occurred over the last month it was difficult to determine where to start with this update. I’ve decided to keep things in order so people reading can get a general overview. The first matter was the removal of the additional services messaging, blogging and photo sharing that was running for a short period on the site. It was trialed as a free service but like many of the businesses on the internet, way too many of the conditions changed too quickly. We actually thought it ran reasonably well, in fact one of the best we’ve come across but it just was not going to be worth the additional hassles that were taking place in terms of it running with limited problems and functions.
Lipcrack have also established that the blog service have now also reach a hosting resource load limit in terms of apps available to run it correctly which occurred very quickly and as a result we were also additionally being asked to upgrade the account but without the additional sign ups or purchases to warrant it. Most of our visitors come back and listen to a track when we have a new release and briefly check out the latest blog update which is fine.
As a result of the latest findings and in part due to further issues that came up when mailing lists, we were forced to find a new service because the hosting company would not allow us to utilize our mailing address anymore. Things proceeded to get worse as options were considered and tested. This led to the establishment of a Gmail account. Mailing was purchased after a number of test runs that went well. Then Bam – hit by a recurring bad spell of business. The account was closed after about 4 mailouts on their bulk mailing system and all we received was an email to say the account had been disabled. Now that might have been okay in normal circumstances but the email that was generated, lipcrackmusic@gmail.com, was also somehow linked to our Yahoo address and the Youtube account which has also rendered the Youtube account inaccessible. Not only that it appears as though someone’s gone in and basically deleted files that were on the account such as the profile picture. Basically I have no ability to access Lipcrack tracks on Youtube, change anything or update anything. And that is a major problem for me. It’s a problem when Gmail of Google has their finger in the pie of Yahoo and Youtube and there is currently absolutely no way to follow up via email due to their revalidation process which won’t validate via the phone – for no good reason. It’s been done once but the error message is maintaining it’s been done too many times. Hardly likely when it’s only been validated once.
That said the site was moved to a new hosting service very quickly and at the same time, all range of emailing services on the web were tested. Gmail was one of those, have I attempted to sign up with others ? I have accessed a number of small test run accounts and for the most part they went well, but generally it seems like you’re just going to walk into another door which is going to give you as many problems just as quickly. And I’m not the sort of person to say that lightly, I’m just going with the gut feeling that came back with some of the sign up processes and correspondence. The other side of the coin though, some of them not only provide email abilities but hook straight into business directories which you can purchase additional services from to mail to them directly. My problem with this whole matter is the fact that a service can charge $29 a month to do this, yet if I try and to the same thing via my own service it’s basically having a brick wall put in front of it. The reason the site was hosted in America in the first instances is because of the more friendly mail regulations in particular to cold call marketing. While Can the Spam Act does exist, they also attempt to let people go about honest business which we have been doing so it’s frustrating to say the least. Being locked out of major hosting accounts without access to files on those servers, well that comes across as criminal to me.
Soooooo… that said, it’s on to some further news. Recently Lipcrack signed on with a major point of contact service that distributes artist tracks to all range of third party music listening services. I’ve included a brief list in the image below. Basically you can now go onto any of those services and listen to the Lipcrack Track – Voodoo Doll and also purchase it at a price far below cost price than at the site. Now are we happy with that ? Lets just say it’s one of the reasons only one track has been put on the service at this time and if you consider what has occurred above, I do not want to be put in the same position again with no access to Lipcracks private property, it’s music tracks. The song couldn’t be included on Youtube via the service due to the composition of the track which musically was too different to what their linking systems allow. – it’s a complex matter.
The final outcome of the past month is that while some significant growth potential has been implemented it’s limited in capacity and trustworthiness given preceding matters. There’s also terms and legalities across the board that are going to prevent growth. With that said I’m also briefly going to mention the outcome of the mailout which was started and interrupted by the hosting company. It’s been compiled by looking at data rates from 2023 and 2024 when mailouts of new track releases occurred.
2024 total 2851 MB previous mailout to same lists 2023 total 1355 MB Twice as much data in 2024.
Total month of data or data totals for month sept 2023 = unique visits 1351 bandwidth 928 MB
Aug 2024 = unique visits 1053 bandwidth 3.3 gig or 3.5 times as much data. While initially it seems there were less visitors there were more when subsequent mailouts went out in the following month.
Update of new track releases have seen repeat customer numbers increase which is the result we have been looking for but it’s hard and difficult work trying to achieve that. It’s also been difficult to keep track of the data to analyze due to the hosting company halting mail outs in the middle of the process. They can maintain it’s due to a one off complaint however repeat times when we have gone about following up the data there’s been a lack of transparency and deliberately malicious processes to interfere with the mailout regularity. Could that be prevented by using one of the recently tested service providers? We don’t believe that is the solution, we believe that non-interference in our own should suffice. So again it seems we are hitting a wall with business groups who act as regulatory bodies but don’t seem to have any ethics other than their own position which should then move the process to some kind of legal matter. Currently access to following up these matters legally is limited and the best outcome is to just move the site and follow up as necessary. The outcome seems to be an ever large pile of paperwork that you seemingly sink beneath.
There’s really not much else to be said. The matter has been assessed and it’s never really a positive outcome which can be disappointing. Despite that, a new track has recently been completed, there are plans to attempt a few more and then it will all be reassessed in terms of any further business growth and development because the current conditions are not making that possibly without unreasonable hassles. That’s about it for this month, see you all next month.
Lipcrack.