Re: band websites


Thanks,

I put the music startup on there because it seemed that's where they
were going with this. I didn't have a video clip and I wanted
to see if I could figure out how to do streaming audio.
The way I did it, the music is supposed to stream if it can,
I think IE causes it to stream. Most of the rest of the site
was designed by this guy our drummer knows.
Our bass player tried it and said the audio loaded fast on his PC.

I researched it and was told that creating a video clip from a DVD
was difficult.

They want to have a flash intro or so something
the same way as the carmine appice site works:
http://www.carmineappice.net




MartinGibsonTaylor wrote:
Professional web design is part of my day job.... so I'll drop some
tips free of charge, because I admire that you want to do the work
yourself:

First, your site is on the right path as is, but it has a few things
that cry out "amateur".
First is the fact the site is really image heavy, the concept presented
with the band logo up top, the menu to the left, etc... is fine. But
here are some things I noticed right away:

1. The image bands logo at the top is positioned on an image backdrop
that looks very generic, it doesn't really serve much purpose on the
site other than to slow down the user who's trying to view your site...
I think it would look much better on just a solid black background.

2. The photo of the band isn't bad, and you can keep it if you want,
but if you think of the website as your bands Press Kit (which for all
unsigned bands, that's exactly what your website should be an
interactive Press Kit). what would be nicer is to have a professional
photographer take a picture of the band dressed in a style that suits
your music (be your own fashion consultants) and fuse that picture into
the homepage. Regardless of what picture you use there, you need to do
something about the rough edges, it never looks good to just put a
photo up on a site as is, it should alwaus be framed or have a drop
shadow or something, the drop shadow has become a bit of a cliche
lately through.

3. The side menu is nice, the font even looks nice, the only problem I
see here is for the Merchandise label you had to change the font size,
this is noticable and not so esthetically pleasing. You should use
another word that would fit (e.g. "Store") or change all the fonts
sizes to match.

4. Your booking information shouldn't be in large font at the bottom.
If people like your music they need to be able to find this information
on your homepage, but it doesn't need to cry out in desperation as it
currently does (sorry, that's the impression I get as it is now). What
I'd recommend is a small font (pick something standard like Courier, or
Aerial font) centered footer for your page that contains: copyright
information, contact links, booking information, etc....

5. The sound player plug-in at the bottom of the page needs to go
away, I don't recommend to clients to have any music start up (even
band websites) because some people may want to check your site out at
the office, in an airport, etc... and they don't want your music in
their face right away.... A lot of users will actually just kill the
browser and make a mental note to try and come back later, about half
those who do this won't be back to your site at all. What you can do is
build a music player and give the user complete control, if you're
going to do this make sure more than one of your songs are available.
Here are examples of bands doing this:

http://www.nickelback.com/
http://www.castingcrowns.com/


Remember, it's not about how much media content (Flash, etc...) you
use, it's how professional your site is done (just like with any kind
of production really). If you think about it in music terms, you can
add as many instruments you want to a mix, but if even one is out of
tune or if one bad note is played it can ruin a song. Same is true for
a professional website.

I have a few more ideas, but I have to get back to work.

.

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