What would make the Unsigned Band Web Better?????

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 11:38 am

Hello Unsigned Band Web Artists & Music Lovers....

I wanted to share my vision of things to come for this site and invite your thoughts and feedback on our direction... Currently, the next features that will be added to the site are:

Interviews section. Similar to Moderators Picks, we are working on a section where Artists at the Unsigned Band Web will be interviewed by different moderators and the results will be posted on a new interviews page. This should give our visitors the chance to get to know our artists on a more personal level, and should help artists get more exposure on the site. I hope to launch this feature by the end of this month.

Points Store. We have had the 'shell' of the points store in place for some time, but we have yet to FILL the store with items. My target is mid-April to provide UBW T-shirts, Mugs, Stickers, etc. that can be purchased with the points you earn here. My plan is to also allow an upgrade to the 'basic' premium package through points at the same time. Currently you can purchase the dynamic signature (see the bottom of the mods posts) and more space for your artist page with your UBW points.

Guest Book. I am also developing a GUEST BOOK that will be part of ARTIST pages. With the new guest book, visitors can leave comments right on your site. This will be a premium member feature. I have already started working on this feature, and I hope to have it complete by the end of the month.

Video. I am in the early stages of planning the addition of video capability to the UBW. This will allow the upload of music video's to your artist page. I will also add a chart for video, similar to the song charts. This will be a premium member feature. I don't have a timeline established for this feature yet.

I am additionally looking into many other ways to get our Artists songs heard on other sites throughout the internet, through partnerships and/or providing content for those sites.

Many of you have experience with Multiple Music Portals, and I would really appreciate your thoughts on what would make the UBW the best portal on the internet. We have seen a nice increase in growth over the past few months, and I want to keep it going! Please take a few moments to share your thoughts!

Thanks,
Ron

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:21 am

I think you should add the supporters block and module so people that host your block can be seen on your site instead of just on the forum list, at least some type of banner exchange.

Another thing is...

Take a look at this site.

http://www.radioblogclub.com/

This site gives the member the option of putting a playlist block directly onto the member’s website so when a user opens the page music automatically starts playing. The block has a "popup" option so when you flip through pages it doesn’t restart on you or need to be written in frames to prevent the problem either. The member can pick songs to dump into the playlist for his users to listen to.

I think you should incorporate something similar to this with an easy drop down genre switching option and the member could pick which genre started auto for his site. You could start the stream with a quick advert to your site with your title and slogan.

Check it out in action here:

http://endless-4um.com/index.php

I think the direction you’re heading into is a great approach and I proudly host your block on my site. www.thehourproject.org

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:36 am

Thanks so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. I tried the radio link above, but it appears to be down now. I'll give it a shot again later.

Thanks TOO for hosting our radio block, our artists REALLY appreciate it!!!!

You've got a great looking web page!
Ron

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:43 am

I think you should do somthing to raise awareness about this place.

I stumbled accross it, along with a few other places, whilst searching on google... but I think if you had more artists here, it would help everybody. People would be able to get more feedback on their music, which for some would help imensely. Also, were the number of artists bigger, it may attract record company representatives... and possibly help some of the artists obtain contracts.

I'm sorry I don't realy have any ideas other than whoring the site out to as many people and labels as you can... but I do think it would help alot. The site included.

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 7:14 am

Thanks!!! I agree with your comments. I'm looking into different types of advertising to help bring us more artists and increase our growth rate. I agree that the more artists we get, the more valuable the site becomes, so growth is very important.

We do get some 'industry' traffic now, but I know with more artists that would increase!

Thanks again for your great feedback!!! Laughing

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:14 am

You could try paying a little for google ad's or somthing?

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 4:14 pm

I am using google ads now. I don't run them all month, I usually pick a couple weeks a month. I want to spread our advertising around too. I would like to try and get in some non-traditional outlets to bring in new faces.

Thanks for the feedback!
Ron

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:14 pm

O.K. I thought of a whole heap of suggestions for you to mull over.

Firstly, and not to cause any offense at this... But I think the colours and the layout of the site could be improved a little. The logo especially. I know it may seem a little superficial; but for a lot of people these days, image is everything. I feel that if the layout of the site was improved a little, people could get a better first impression of the site, and would be more likely to sign up, or come back.

Secondly, I think it would be a good idea for you to contact a few labels directly, and let them know about the site. Labels could view the site as a pool for unsigned bands, and check up on what's going on in the hope of finding somthing big... rather than browsing through on the odd chance every now and again. Also, labels should be given special verified accounts, so people know that they are actually representatives of the labels, and not just people pretending; as I get the mpression that this is the case from reading through a few of the posts.

A good relationship with a label will help unsigned bands to no end... and if people know that the page has this, will again be more likely to sign up, and keep things up to date.

Another idea, would be to create a myspace account for the site. As much as I hate to say it... myspace has alot of unsigned artists; and contacting them through there and letting them know about this place, and the added features ontop of what myspace offers will intice them to come and sign up.

As for the accounts themselves, I think you should change them. I realise that you have to offer those who are paying added features... but I think that the extra space is enough. People should be able to make their pages however they want through html... so that the pages do not all look the same.

I hope these suggestions will prove helpfull (I'm pretty sure none will cost you any extra money), and would be happy to help you implement any of the changes/ideas I have suggested, if you need the help (I know you put alot into the site as it is)

Tom

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:54 pm

Wow!!! Thanks for all your detailed suggestions!!!

The cosmetic issues are a tough one because it's so dependant upon 'the eye of the beholder'.. Personally I like the 'techie' look here, but I'm sure some would prefer a vanilla white or blue as the standard theme. It's something I will have to consider. I agree the Logo could use some work...

I have been in contact with quite a few small indie labels, and in fact, we are going to be launching a new 'indie label' section soon. This section will allow communication between artists and labels, and hopefully bring some together!! Look for this in the next few weeks.

Not sure about the myspace thing. How could we benefit from an account there?

The accounts are setup (as you said) to reward paying members, and I don't think that will change. Ultimately, if the site is ever to be MEGA successful, it will have to be built with paying members. I have tried very hard to offer most features (even if in a limited capacity) to all accounts. That way people on free accounts get to 'try-out' most of the features before upgrading and paying.

The customization of pages is something I've thought of before. So far I've only had 'one person' mention to me they would like to use html on their page. I guess as we grow there will be more, but it seems that they make up a very small percentage of the bands overall.

Thanks again for all your great feedback, it is MUCH appreciated!!!
Ron

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:18 pm

The myspace account would be a good way to spread the word about this place.

The cosmetic issues would not neccessarily require the whole site to be changed... just to make it a little less mechanical looking, (if that makes sense?), and more modern looking.

I was thinking somthing along the lines of;

With x being the main links; such as 'artists', 'charts', 'forum' 'home', etc, Y being the logo, and z being information about the content (w)... and in the case of atists, stats and the place where the music is listed.

I really think people would be happier with the ability to use html in their profiles... and providing the images they used were linked from an offsite location, it should not effect bandwidth.

I know that the little sketch I did looks shit... as I just threw it together in order to give you an idea of my thoughts, but if you want I could throw together an html version to give you a better insight into what I meant.

Let me know,
Tom

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:30 am

Thanks Tom!!!

I'll give some thought to your layout suggestion, and html.

Your sketch is fine, don't worry about anything more elaborate, I get your point.

I didn't realize it but I already had a myspace account from way back. I'll look into how I can spread the word about the ubw there.

Ron

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:29 am

Just search the music section for unsigned bands and add them as friends. Aslong as your profile has a good explanation of how this site works, people will come and check it out.

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:46 pm

I think that in the Song Review Trade, it should be enforced that someone must post at least a couple of reviews of other peoples stuff before they can start a new thread. I often check peoples post histories and find it very discouraging to see that all 7 of their posts have been shameless self promotion. They key word is "trade".

I made it a point to do very detailed reviews of at least 10 people's work before posting my own. Now I find it hard to even look at the forum because all it seems to be is "check out me" MY AWESOME BANDS NEW HIT" "YOU MEAN YOU NEVER HEARD OF THE SELF-PROMOTERS!?" and things like that. And all those people have are endless posts about themselves. Perhaps bans are in order. I don't know. I barely want to look at the review trade anymore.

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 5:08 pm

I agree Clone. In fact I just changed the 'song review' description to basically state exactly that.

I'm not sure banning is the right direction, but I will certainly consider additional means to point people in the right direction. I may add a 'pop-up' if someone tries to post before replying to another post that lets them know about reviewing other songs first.

Thanks for your feedback!!!

Ron

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 4:31 pm

I can to this place through www.ultimate-guitar.com, you had a nce ad on there, and I think it's a great place to promote, 'cause alot of independent bands go on there, and it's just a big site, and you made 8 bucks just off me alone off it, heh.

But yeah, I also want to know what'd it take to get an interview up on here for my group? We've had experience over the net before, with a big site. www.spacejunkies.net so, I'm just wondering how we'd get the chance.

What would make the Unsigned Band Web Better?????

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