People, I need your advice!
I have made websites for a number of years now but finding the time and “headspace” to make my own great is often hard. I plan to address this though and I welcome any advice.
Firstly, I have this site, which is just a blog with some bits in the sidebar, such as a crappy audio player. I aim to add sections and richer content but I’d like to know what makes a good artist site a great one, for you! I’m keen to hear different perspectives, from fans, non/future fans, labels, promoters, publications etc. Obviously the likes of Sound and Music offer good advice in this area but I want personal feedback and comments. If you have something to say, please leave a comment below. Thanks.
This site is my primary concern for now but I also have: www.samski.net / www.midi-octopus.co.uk / www.glatze.co.uk / www.thereminday.co.uk. That may seem excessive but they all serve different purposes. I welcome any comments on these / consolidation etc…
BTW: I don’t do MySpace or Facebook.
If I’m visiting an artist’s website for a second or subsequent time means that I’m interested in them, for whatever reason. I may not yet be a “fan”, but you’re sufficently interesting that I might become one. What I want then is what you’re doing and where you’re doing it.
If you’re gigging in the next days or weeks, make sure that’s pretty obvious. Don’t squirrel it away in a sidebar menu, then put the current gigs at the bottom of a page listing your entire gig history. Also don’t put in a blog post that then falls off the bottom. Write the blog post, then have a nice obvious clicky that says “Gigging now!” that links to it. Don’t let me find out this week that you were playing last week. If you don’t gig that often, that’s really quite annoying.
If you’ve released some new stuff, then make it easy for me to hear and/or buy it. If you’ve got an exhibition on, show me a bit of it.
You get the idea :)
I second everything Jezmund says.
I’d also like to mention Rule One: Never, ever, bloody ever have an audio player that starts automatically. Ever.