As a musician who’s been involved in the Toronto live music scene for almost 15 years now I thought I was aware of most of the social utilities available to all the indie level performers. I had actually never heard of Stillepost until I met with my 2c counterpart Erica. After an initial basic demonstration of the site I was fascinated at what resources were provided with minimal effort. Used in association with the Wavelength music series – a weekly showcase for up-and-coming artists – Stillepost is an online messageboard created by the founders of Wavelength and was originally hosted at wavelengthtoronto. 
Now more than ever I believe all artists are looking for new ways to promote themselves and we’ve reached a point in time where there are just so many options available that it can become overwhelming which avenues to pursue. As well as performing I am also playing the role of the person who deals with the promotion for my band and booking shows. As I mentioned before, the avenues for promotion are endless. Major utilities like Myspace, Twitter and Facebook are ideal places to promote, simply for the volume of people who use them. What Stillepost offers is more for the musician than just promotion. The first thing I noticed was the overall layout of the forums; everything is divided by city. Within each city you have primarily all the same categories. Near the top of each of those lists were two things which immediately caught my eye and sold me on the site. First, there was a straightforward listing of every show going on for the upcoming months. In this list artists are asked to only put the basic information and because everyone follows the same format it’s very easy to follow; moreover, anyone can add their show to the thread. The second feature of this messageboard is an absolute gift from above for any musician in Toronto; open and accessible to everyone is a completed (and up-to-date) list of every live music venue in city as well as the name and contact email for the booking agent (if applicable). There was minimal registration required for Stillepost, and only necessary in order to post information. Anyone is able to view all site content making it a fantastic utility for those who simply want to keep up to date on their local music scene. Navigation through the site is EXTREMELY simple, everything is exactly where you would expect it to be from show listings, classifieds, and even just a complaint section. The loading time for the page was almost instant and I found that I had no problems or even loss of speed when running it from my BlackBerry. The main reason being that the administrators haven’t bogged things down with an excessively, flashy design. Stillepost is, basic in its appearance and handling which is probably what has kept it around for so long and watched its user base continue to grow and such a rapid rate. Have a look at my video description for an idea of the basic pros and cons. .Looking at Stillepost from a public relations standpoint, the board has the potential to provide major for artists and indie record labels who need to develop their personal brand through exposure, but don't have the large budgets for marketing. Anyone working in PR at the level of independant music artists would be wise to consider adding this tool to their arsenal. Erica, my counterpart, has been a long time user of this social media application and approaches her review from the eyes of a music lover/fan giving a great indication of what Stillepost has to offer the audience, click here for a look at her post
