Song-bar.com was set up in February 2016 by The Landlord, pseudonym for a known professional culture and features writer from The Guardian, The Observer and other publications. The Song Bar is a non-profit website promoting good music. It's a virtual venue for enthusiasts and specialists to share in their joy and knowledge, and engage in friendly banter, not only about songs but a variety of other subjects from film to food, animals to Absinthe.
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HOW DOES THE THEMES/PLAYLISTS SECTION WORK?
Readers nominate songs in comments below a weekly topic published in the Song Blog section, launched at 1pm UK time on a Thursday. Nominations close on the following Monday. On Wednesday, we publish a guest writer's pick of the list in a blogpost, before a new topic is launched on Thursday. The blog is aligned with the Marconium, with continuity from previous playlists on that site shown in the Guardian's Readers Recommend blog, written by many on this site. So the writer's A-list will exclude songs already listed for previous topics. A B-list, no less valid can include any nominated songs. The guest writer can also add a guru's pick of a song not nominated. More on the rules of the game can be found on the Marconium. All newly written material © Copyright The Landlord or guest writers as applicable.
HOW DO I POST COMMENTS?
For the first time, if you haven't done so elsewhere, login to Disqus, a commenting system used on sites around the world. Simply write a short comment and then click post, and you will go to the Disqus website. Fill in your email, a password and your profile name. You will then be sent an email to confirm. After this, feel free to ignore the invitation to 'follow three channels to get started'. Just go back to song-bar.com and comment. You can amend your profile, including avatar, any time. More details on how to do this here.
WHAT CAN I DO IN COMMENTS?
The dynamic system allows you to paste in a variety of media which will automatically show up - such a YouTube video - ideal for nominating a song. Just put in a link. The same applies to Vimeo, Vine, GIFs, images and memes, Soundcloud songs and playlists, Twitter cards and tweets. You can also attach pictures by clicking on the picture image. To let comments load faster, reduce the media pictures by going to the drop down menu on your profile name (above right) and click 'hide media'. You can also edit comments after publishing in case of any errors. Click here for more details. To see all comments so you can search, click your ctrl or cmd key and the down arrow, then hit 'see more comments' and repeat a few times.
SELECTED FRIEND SITES
The Marconium - wonderful reference emporium of playlists and all those who made them. Originally inspired by Readers Recommend on the Guardian, now linking with Song-Bar.com
The 'Spill - very friendly, informative site devoted to all things musical, with features such as earworms, year profiles and favourite albums.
Magicmenagerie's blog - brilliant autobiographical site written through the prism of music by one of Britain's best actors, now in New York.
Tincanland - where the music plays all day and it only rains at night.