In an effort to promote further activity by all our journalists we have just introduced a new scheme to Altsounds called Altsounds Dollars. How does that affect you, you ask? Well, going forward CD Reviews, Live Reviews and Interviews cost Altsounds dollars for that privilege to in some small way offset the costs associated with making all this stuff happen for you guys. Think of it as a back scratching tool where we work our asses off to get you to listen to and see what you want to in return for you helping to grow Altsounds.

NOTE: Altsounds Dollars is a completely fictional currency and does not equate to anything of any monetary value whatsoever. Altsounds Dollars are credits that can be used for Review CDs, gigs and interviews.

How Do I Earn Altsounds $$
Altsounds Dollars are earned in hundreds of different ways and the general rule is that if your using Altsounds then you are earning Altsounds Dollars. Post a new review or piece of news, viewing others work, commenting on your own or others work, adding reputation. Much like life there is a bank and a savings account if you want to use it. Please see below for a concise list of what can be earned on Altsounds:

• Induction [Given when you become a reviewer] - $40 on signup
• Referral Fee [Given when you refer a friend] - $100 on completion of signup (for this to count for you the person you refer needs to enter your usernameon signup)
• Activity Credit [For Logging in] - $1per login, per day
• Birthday Present [Happy Birthday to you!] - $100 per year
• Reputation given [Click the thumbs up on a post to give a great post a reputation boost] - $0.10 per rep given
• Reputation Received [When someone gives you a positive reputation boost] - $2 per rep received
• Infraction [When a MOD flags you for being abusive, prejudice, racist etc] - -$100 per infraction
• New Thread (new review, news item, interview etc] - $10 per thread posted
• Thread Rating Credit [When you rate a thread you have not written] - $0.25 per rating
• Posting [any reply to any thread - excludes open discussion and the staffroom] - $0.50 per post
• Post on your own thread [helping keep conversations rolling in your threads] - $0.25 per post
• Word Count [Promotes healthy posts and reviews] - $0.01 per word
• Your Thread Viewed [If someone including guests check out your thread] - $0.05 per view
• Your Thread Rated [someone rates your thread] - $1 per rating received
• Poll Created Credit [create a poll to get more interaction from visitors] - $5 per poll created
• Poll Voting [When you post an answer to a poll] - $1 per vote
• Profile Picture and Avatar Credit [put up a profile picture and avatar to make your posts look more attractive] - $10
• Profile filled out [Fill out your profile and get this bonus] - $5
• E-mail Interview [Send us 10-15 questions for an e-mail interview] - $50
• PR Company Introduction [if there are bands you are into we're not working with, make an intro and if we end up working with them you get] - $500
• Discretionary penalty [if people fail to follow rules etc we reserve the right to deduct money from them as we see fit] - $variable

As you can see there are loads of ways to make Altsounds Dollars and if you just utilize the site you will have a bunch of money before you know it!!

What I can buy with my Altsounds $$
OK now you've scratched my back, it's time for me to scratch yours and it's the reason your all here. Free CDs, gigs and interviews with bands - in return for more Altsounds $$ Please find below the cost of these items on Altsounds.com so you know what your spending before you spend it.

Physical CDS (delivered to you via Royal Mail)

• CD Album of choice for Review - $50
• CD EP of choice for Review - $40
• CD Single of choice for Review - $25

Online Music (delivered to you via email)

• CD, EP or Single of choice for Review - $20

Gigs, Photopasses and Face to Face Interviews (whether successful or not)

• Guestlist + 1 for tours listed in the Altsounds News section - $100
• Guestlist +1 +Photopass for tours listed in the Altsounds News Section - $125
• Guestlist +1 for tours not listed on Altsounds (cold call) - $150
• Guestlist +1 +Photopass for tours not listed on Altsounds (cold call) - $200
• Face to Face Interview with a band - $300
• Phone Interview with a band - $250

First Come First Served?
As the regulars are aware CDs are first come first served......until now! To further promote people to use Altsounds we are now allowing people to name their price for the really popular CDs or gigs e.g. the Kings of Leon UK tour 08. The way this should work is you post that you want it and unless it has been posted "This will be going out in the mail today" it can be bartered. Just reply with that CD name and how much you are paying for it and as long as it's higher than the previous bid that CD moves over to you. If you want to get your hands on your CD of choice you should rack up those Altsounds Dollars so you can outbeat your opponents!!

I really want to get a CD or go to a particular gig but I'm Skint and have no Altsounds Dollars, what can I do?
At this point you go to your Press Control Panel and request a loan from the bank to tide you over which will be subject to interest and fees.

You may also talk to a friend on Altsounds to see if they will personally loan you the money (Donate) which is always a possibility.

Weekly Altsounds Lottery - $1,000,000 prize
There is a weekly lottery on Altsounds.com too that allows you to pay $1 for a ticket which will generate you a random number from 1 to 100,000. You can either use the random generated number or you can pick your own. You can buy up to 10 lottery tickets per week. Current Altsounds Millionaires:

• mediawhore

Earn Interest from Saving
At the top right of the screen when logged in (next to the red logout icon) is a little $ icon. Click this to go to the bank where you can transfer money from your current account to your savings to make some interest and earn some more money.

And that's about it. If you have any questions whatsoever please post in here. At this moment in time this is completely new and is a trial to see if it will even work so we would really appreciate you all trying to get into this as much as possible. If things start going well we will introduce more ways for you to spend your Altsounds Dollars that you will all love!

Leave a Comment | Kudos

[LondonerGroupie]

Hey Chris,
now this is interesting, it mostly make sense and I guess it might really boost up motivation in people, although I'm a little bit concerned about the live part. I mean, I think this way everyone would save up altsounds dollars just for bands and gig they just really like, so it might be that less and less people would become interested in doing interviews and live reviews just for the pleasure of it or to make the experience and on the long term I think it might affect the variety of gigs and bands covered.

just my humble opinion though

[wildcat]

hmmmmm, that's pretty complicated, but i'll try and figure it out...

[Esme]

It is indeed complicated. And why's it in dollars?!?! It's doing no better economically than the humble pound sterling.

So we have to earn money reviewing but also spend the money we earn to recieve CDs to review?

[Heron]

It seems like a good idea in many ways, although for some reason I have lost dollars after both posting a reply, and starting a new thread just now.

Why is this?

[kat]

so is this in effect as of now?

[jack s]

Very good, nice work Chris.

[altsounds]

Everyone,

This is new and a test so don't all get wiped out and frightened about it. In a nutshell it is asking for a little more activity from everybody - thats about it.

If you noticed there are easy ways to make money quick to buy CDs anyway (doing an e-mail interview for example). So if you wanted to cover a gig and had no AS$$, a couple of e-mail interviews later you would have enough. Plus if you are active on the site anyway you will by all means have enough money already to do what you want.

Chris

[altsounds]

Originally Posted by Heron

It seems like a good idea in many ways, although for some reason I have lost dollars after both posting a reply, and starting a new thread just now.

Why is this?

I just found a bug. That won't be happening again.

[Jen]

I THINK ITS A GOOD IDEA

JEN
X