Super positive spirit in all the responses! 
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Great post dude. I think the primary thing that people in the scene can do to benefit everyone is simply stay in touch at this point. Everyone has different goals and different skills, so if we just keep trying to maintain an active community then that will help centralisation. This forum is a great place to start!
I just launched Chiptune Rush yesterday - http://www.chiptunerush.com - the idea behind it is to collate a batch of non-free releases from the chip scene in one place, then put some effort into marketing them as a small commercial enterprise. So far, I have to say it's proving a bit difficult to get my own fans interested in the music of others, but I'm going to keep trying and keep working to build this up as I think it's a worthwhile goal.
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Westfield, NJ
_ensnare_ wrote:
Great post dude. I think the primary thing that people in the scene can do to benefit everyone is simply stay in touch at this point. Everyone has different goals and different skills, so if we just keep trying to maintain an active community then that will help centralisation. This forum is a great place to start!
I just launched Chiptune Rush yesterday - http://www.chiptunerush.com - the idea behind it is to collate a batch of non-free releases from the chip scene in one place, then put some effort into marketing them as a small commercial enterprise. So far, I have to say it's proving a bit difficult to get my own fans interested in the music of others, but I'm going to keep trying and keep working to build this up as I think it's a worthwhile goal.
have you pursued press? especially online press from music & gaming sites. you could even promote it based on the innovative side of it; it's a boutique online store dedicated to a specific type of music, and with all the interest right now for chipmusic, I'm sure people would at least be interested in checking it out. there's a whole world of people out there beyond your fanbase.
also everyone that has content in your store should be promoting it too 
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Tokyo, Japan
Decktonic wrote:
also everyone that has content in your store should be promoting it too
Doing my best guvnor!
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Yep, I'm absolutely going to do a round of PR next week using my existing contacts from my games business and beyond - I want to take this as big as possible. Was just starting out with my own small group of fans who regularly buy my stuff.
In terms of the artists promoting the site, that's fantastic and I will support them in any way possible if they want to do that, but it's definitely up to me to get this going.
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Seattle, WA US
O2star wrote:
I really would love to see chiptune artists break into electronic musical festivals.
This is absolutely the ultimate goal as far as I'm concerned. I'll go ahead and say fuck the stick-in-the-mud purists who are afraid of growth, change, and the assimilation of chipmusic into the modern dance music community. Chip artists involved in all-encompassing EDM festivals would gain tons of new, not-familiar-with-chip fans for themselves, which would then lead to these new fans discovering more chip artists.
I've been in the middle of this debate numerous times with numerous chip artists who have more of a "conservative" view of the scene.. I understand the argument that this sort of exposure could lead to a "lower quality" of fans in the chip community who care more about having fun and dancing as opposed to appreciating your tracking skills. Whether or not this is true, the existing "true" fans of chip aren't just gonna quit caring about and loving the artists and songs they've always loved.
These chip conservatives also fear that they're going to be "left behind" when these newer artists who have decided to take on EDM aesthetics gain more fans. I don't see how this could be at all true, because I can't imagine that added exposure to one (or a few) good chipmusic artist(s) would be a bad thing for the artists who closely surround and support that/those artist/artists. I think what these artists are truly scared of is looking bad in comparison to these newer artists who take their music more seriously.
I just don't see why we should make it any harder on ourselves to make money for our hard work. Whether or not you want to be in the limelight is up to you, but its really sad in my eyes when I see established artists trying to put down younger, wide-eyed chip artists who are hungry for more than what chip has to offer right now. Really no sense in holding back innovation in my opinion.. maybe I'm just crazy
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Brunswick, GA USA
boaconstructor wrote:
O2star wrote:I really would love to see chiptune artists break into electronic musical festivals.
I've been in the middle of this debate numerous times with numerous chip artists who have more of a "conservative" view of the scene.. I understand the argument that this sort of exposure could lead to a "lower quality" of fans in the chip community who care more about having fun and dancing as opposed to appreciating your tracking skills. Whether or not this is true, the existing "true" fans of chip aren't just gonna quit caring about and loving the artists and songs they've always loved.
What if mainstream presence actually made mainstream music become more interesting? Making an EDM festival doesn't have to mean selling out to the lowest common denominator.
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O2star wrote:
I really would love to see chiptune artists break into electronic musical festivals.
AHEM
http://funfunfunfest.com/artists/anamanaguchi
Good bands are good bands. If anyone here really feels like their tunes are epic enough to rock 1,000+ people at once then get cracking. I think people focus too much on the goals without considering all the hard work (and yea luck) that gets people there.
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Brazil
It's good to make money, but it's like herr prof said. You have to work out the things by yourself.
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Milwaukee, WI
This sort of breaks out from chip discussion into promote your electronic music to get gigs discussion, which is something I'd like to hear too. Google time!
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Marseille
Why are pure chipevents so important? Why cant chiptune be blended into wider themed events? I mean all due respect to chipmusic, the chipscene and all chip musicians but going to an event where 8 out of 10 artists play uptempo gameboy music ain't that sexy, as it aint sexyto go to an event where 8 out of 10 artists play stonerrock, dubstep or nu-post-oldschool-gospel-electronica. OK OK, I know, but even though that was me generalising, lets face it, it is a very accurate demography of the chiptune scene and has been since the early 00s.
Better use the community as a good resource for colaboration and a platform to better reach out to a wider audience and further establish chiptune as an accepted genre instead of the purity 8-bit -don't let them in if they can't name three gameboy trackers and know how to solder a speaknspell- jihad.
I don't think the wider public we saw at european chipmusic events in the early 00s lost interest at all. I just think the pure chiptune event lost its novelty that attracted non hardcore chiptuner crowds but still said -nonhardcore- crowd are always delighted to see a chiptune artist in the lineup of a larger festival and I have played quite a few... There is this one problem in the chipscene, maybe because of the strong DIY attitude and purist mentality in the chipscene, a lot of artists tend to lack what, having no better words to describe it, a professional attitude, entourage and or method towards the music industry (I dont mean major labels here, I am talking about everything from festivals to promotors and labels, smaller venues etc) and that tend to scare the bookers and promotors off. Everytime a chiptune band or artist get this (or accept the current state of affairs as some might put it) they tend to pop up all over the mainstream musicfestival chart which is where I think they belong.
Too bad that for each one who gets there, there are 99 other uptempo gameboy musicans in places like this one who flame them for doing so ...
I am sorry for rambling, but I was just chocked by people here talking about "lower quality of fans in the chipune community". Who ever have that point of view of things, you are drunk, go home! (but now I am being a hypocrite, I had the same views of chiptune purity once, back in my early teens....)
anyway, sorry for the grumpy monologue. Go Fakebit!
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Brunswick, GA USA
To put content back in the Necro, Chibitech's tune is starting to prove some of the points made in this thread.
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uhajdafdfdfa
i imagine that "going mainstream" will improve the offline scene but make the online one a bit more annoying. i am in favour of it really. if a thing gets too big to really focus on then you can just zoom in a bit.
anyhow the only way this scene is going to get bigger is if more people get involved. i don't mean more people get more involved but people who aren't involved at all get in
i think CDK and blip team and soundbytes crew and 8static and everyone else are allready doing a lot of good and great things. it's not like they need to "make their events better" or "put on more events". really more pople just need to attend them. which means more people listening to chip. which means going mainstream. which means chipsongs with skrillexy bits in .which means skrillexy songs with chip bits in.
sell out now! it's your duty
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Tokyo, Japan
Im kinda happy with the slow steady growth of the scene, at least here. Every event seems to have a few new faces, a couple of new performers popping up, and new VJ or two. Its groovy.
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Sweden
boaconstructor wrote:
Whether or not you want to be in the limelight is up to you, but its really sad in my eyes when I see established artists trying to put down younger, wide-eyed chip artists who are hungry for more than what chip has to offer right now.
Do you have any hard examples of this? I.e. any artist that is obviously put down not because of a personal preference of the critic, but because the artist is upsetting some sort of conservative elite by being truly innovative and creative.
I really don't see the problem with some people being conservative about the scene (and doubt your assessments of these people are based on any kind of real experience. "Quality of fans" -- seriously heard anyone reason like that?), and I don't see the problem with some people catering to a greater audience either. After all, any loosely knit scene consists of a bunch of individuals with different tastes and preferences, not a governing authority that you really have to care about. If you don't get a gig it's because you don't fit the bill or missed an opportunity, not because some sort of jealous elite of conservative old farts is holding you back.