106. March Recap

Originally Published March 31st, 2025

I recognize that I often sound like a broken record. Fifteen Minutes of Fame has been founded on the principles of having integrity with their objectivity and yet it would seem like I hardly ever criticize. My reviews are overwhelmingly “positive” or “optimistic” with regards to the artists I write about. Every recap is “this is one of my favorite months,” so on and so forth.

This would be a problem if it wasn’t true.

I am coming across more and more artists who exhibit so much potential every single month. I am receiving feedback from so many readers and individuals willing to participate in the FMOF culture that it’s breathtaking. The mantra is slowly starting to catch on. We are building the community we dreamed of. 

Now, just because I report it in an article or review doesn’t mean it is going to happen. There is quite a bit of research that goes into most of my articles, but these are my opinions. They may be derived from fact but it may be my interpretation of it. For instance, I can say an artist is radio-ready. That artist may never get picked up. I can say a part of a song is brilliant. A reader could hear it and be underwhelmed by it. The things that resonate with me, might not resonate with “you.”

I’m still going to say them. I’m going to say them right now!

MARCH WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MONTHS IN DOING FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME!!!

What Happened in March?

A better question would honestly be what didn’t happen in March? March saw a return back to the typical submission rules, except the limitations were extended to two months, rather than one to accomodate for artists who had releases in January who were unable to enter submissions for reviews. We also combined the submissions for Reviews and Blind Reactions. 

March would see the combined forces of FMOF and CAN! (Collaborative Artist Network) getting to work as the music review channel featured its first posts. 

In March, Fifteen Minutes of Fame would host their first interview since November as we had the distinguished honor to speak with Unbelievable Truth.

We officially published our 100th Article with the publication of 100. A Special Tribute to the Independent Musician. 

Finally, March would see a dream I’ve had for Fifteen Minutes of Fame realized as our official website launched and has been made public to the world. It’s not fully there yet, but to have this place to go is so important to me.

March Campaign

In the month of March, Fifteen Minutes of Fame would publish 9 new reviews and blind reactions to 9 different music videos (one video containing a blind reaction to 3 music videos) for 18 new independent music reviews.

In addition to the reviews and blind reactions to artists from California, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, as well as artists in England, we also published 2 reviews featuring artists from places we’ve not featured before. In America, we reviewed an artist from Colorado. We also reviewed an artist from Paris, France. That now means that Fifteen Minutes of Fame have featured artists in 27 states, in 16 countries, and 4 continents! 

How We Have Grown

Fifteen Minutes of Fame have had the most active and involved month on social media that they have seen in months. With increases in reach, engagement, and followers within every single platform, we are showing signs that there is a loyal community of frequent visitors who interact with our mission on a regular basis, and we there are also attracting some newcomers as well!

YouTube and BlueSky saw the most significant growth in followers by 7%, Instagram saw the biggest increase in reach with an increase of 130%, and Instagram also saw the most significant increase in engagement with an increase of 87% 

The Blog

This will be sort of bittersweet because, as we turn our attention towards the new website, we will be phasing out the old blog site. However, Fifteen Minutes of Fame was built on this blog. I am always going to remember the first months on our little blog site. 

In March, there were 4,243 readers who visited the blog site, which was a slight decrease from last month- which can be explained possibly by visitors now going to the new website. Overall, we broke - new threshold of 30,000 as we now sit at 33,166 total views with 111 comments!

In just 3 days since launching the website, there have been 364 views by 225 visitors, and there have been more than 20 engagements! It makes me so incredibly happy to see that ALREADY, people are getting involved on the site!

Unbelievable Interview with Unbelievable Truth

I don’t know what the circumstances were that transpired for whoever coined the phrase “don’t meet your heroes,” to say that phrase, but I am sorry for them. That was not my experience at all! Getting the chance to meet and speak with Nigel Powell and Andy Yorke was incredible. I still feel like I dreamed the entire thing. 

The conversation was very relaxed, very personable, and delightfully in depth. I am so thankful at how personal they were willing to be with their process, their plans, and their experiences.

To see the interview, click here. 

The interview has been watched 75 times in 5 days, with more than 8 hours of watch time already!

We CAN! We Have and We Will!

It has been thrilling to getting the CAN! Channel started! I want to encourage everyone to join the CAN! website. 

With the Music Reviews Channel on CAN!, we are still reviewing music. The exciting difference is these reviews are interactive. We will review music and music videos by creating a dialogue about the  subjects.  I am really stoked about the opportunity to have some real conversations with this incredible community about some dynamic and diverse indie musicians.

What’s Next?

April Campaign

First and foremost, of course, is going to be the April Campaign which will see a full return to the standard rules which are: 

Any music submission of a single, EP, or album released from March 01, 2025 or later can submit for reviews. Fifteen Minutes of Fame do not support and will not knowingly review music or videos that have been generated by AI so please do not submit music if you used an AI tool to generate it. Other than that, there are no restrictions. If you want to submit music for review that has an upcoming release date, please follow these instructions:

Send email to jeffthomas@fmofmusicentertainment.com

Subject: Name of Artist/Name of Work/Release Date

Body: Brief Artist Bio, including where you’re from. Background on the work you’ve submitted, any upcoming events you wish to promote (shows/tours, radio/tv spots, collaborations, etc.)

Please include a file or link of the work you wish to be reviewed and the file/link to the cover art for the work.

Music videos, are a little different. For submitting blind reactions to music videos, we are still going back to January 1st. If you have already submitted a music video, please continue to submit on the most recent thread. There are 3 rules for music video submissions:

1. Again, no AI produced music videos. Bottom line, AI is not original. It is system generated copyright infringement as the software is “creating” from work that has previously been published by an artist who is not getting credited for the work. 

2. No lyric video submissions. It is ok if your music video has your lyrics in the video, I simply mean, a video showing your lyrics playing over still images or a generated video that repeats itself or has no relevance to the music.

3. No live concert or live demo submissions. If you are performing in your music video, that is ok. This is directed to, videos that are of you playing a concert or show, or if you are simply playing a song in your living room or somewhere showcasing a new song. 

The idea for the blind reactions is simple: we want to receive submissions for the traditional music video. It doesn’t matter if it was done on a $0 budget recorded on your cell phone or if you spent  money to have a work produced. We want to see it all!

Another Interview

There is another interview that is in the works, frankly I’ve just been unable to get it organized by that will be happening this month!

The Guest Review We Promised Last Month

Neccos and I BOTH had a very busy month with CAN! and Fiftren Minutes of Fame, getting our footing underneath all of the things that were going on so we unfortunately didnt get to work on his review but we will be doing that this month! 

The Official Website Launch

They say “April showers bring May flowers.” Well, May will also bring the official launch day for the Fifteen Minutes of Fame Website, which will be May 1st! By then, the site should have ALL of the archived material moved over and it will roughly look the way it is meant to!

Again, if you haven’t visited the new Fifteen Minutes of Fame website, you really should! You can so by clicking here.

The FIRST Fifteen Minutes of Fame LIVE Interview

Honestly, there are a few of these that are currently in the works. So far, I’m not sure who is going to be first, it’s a matter of where we get coordinated first, but this is an exciting new element to the interview experience that we CANNOT wait to start doing! 

A Brief Vacation

My lovely wife Naomi and I will be going on vacation from April 10th to April 15th. In that time, I will not be publishing any new reviews or blind reactions. I will still be online occasionally, so feel free to say hello! (There will be tons of pictures too, of course)

Final Thoughts

March has had energy. This month was such an exciting month for CAN! and for Fifteen Minutes of Fame. It has been thrilling to be a part of something that is truly becoming much bigger than I could have ever hoped for. After so many trials and errors, I am so grateful that we have finally found a way to bring the meaning of Fifteen Minutes of Fame to independent artists, to your friends and family who want to see you succeed, and to all of the listeners out there who are tired of feeding the machine. Fifteen Minutes of Fame is the real thing. CAN! is the bigger picture of what Fifteen Minutes of Fame was founded on. CAN! is a direction that represents a future where independent artists have real and meaningful support to continue their work. To be just one part of that is a tremendous honor I can’t and will not take for granted. 

A lot is happening and it’s getting fast. I’m being pulled in every direction. Don’t let that discourage you. If you’ve reached out to me in the past, if you’ve submitted work and it wasn’t reviewed, please keep doing so. Lately, I’ve had to reluctantly tell some artists that I have previously reviewed that I couldn’t yet review new work from them because I want a chance to get to review new artists’ work. However, I want to be able to stay in touch with artists I’ve reviewed in the past. So, I am officially lifting that veil. From now on, there will be one review per month that is dedicated to a FMOF alumni. Your new work is JUST as important as your last. I only ask that your first review be at least 3 months old or longer. 

You guys make all of this possible. Thank you.

Go Press Play!

If you have read to this point, your secret message to repeat in the comment section is: Happy Birthday, Naomi!