Ok, I give up ...

Pollyanna

Platinum Member
Trying to get a MySpace going for the band. I know HTML and have designed many websites from scratch but I cannot make sense of the design features of MySpace.

How do you guys do it??

I go to Edit profile and I get options to enter text: Musician Details and Basic Info, and to upload songs. I uploaded the songs but when I went into the profile over the next few days the music didn't appear (yet the songs were still there in the control panel).

I go to Customise Profile and it's the same as Edit Profile.

The welcome email referred me to some links to design the site. The first two were non-functional. The third one gave me the chance to create a design for a music file. Did it and generated the code. The site said to go to About Me section of my profile so I can paste in the code. There is no About Me section of the profile. About 3/4s of the way down the page there's text that says "About [band name]" but it's not a link.

Help!!
 
Thanks Luke! I was about to give up giving up with the non-replies :)

Just looking at the site now - it looks more modern and organised than MySpace, which strikes me as being like an old house that's been renovated too often. Or maybe that's just me haha
 
I completely agree. I decided to never use myspace, it looks and feels to me like its being held together with binder twine and chewing gum. I know its been around forever, and tons of people use it, but I think its going to die.

I've used other music sharing sites like Soundclick, but Bandcamp looks like its the best by far. Its powerful, modern, innovative, and looks great! You can do a lot of customization, and they give you lots of tools. I would check in to it for sure. You can sell your music through the site, or make all of the downloads free. It can stream audio, and you can embed an audio widget on your own website too. You can make your band page look like almost whatever you want, and I don't think that they're selling advertising space at all right now!
 
Mysuck is can be annoying, but it's easy enough to work with once you understand it's limitations.

Best thing to do is find an Myspace editor, and let it type out the HTML for you, since it will come up with the proper codes that mysuck prefers. Then go through the code, and cut out the ads that the editor will insert (usually at the end). Then you insert the code into the bio section. That will give you color scheme and such.

As for songs, go back to the upload section. There may be a box of an extra button you're supposed to check/click to authorize the upload.

Myspace is definitely dying out, I don't know anyone who uses it for social networking anymore, but it's still great for bands due to the ease of uploading songs, and it's where people still look for music. Myspace also recently reached major agreements with several/all major record labels about licensing agreements, so I suspect it will remain a player in the music field for at least several more years (at least for the US markets). Garageband.com just went out of business, and while they are 1001 sites trying to do the same thing, it's tough for any one of them to attract a wide variety of people.
 
I have everything up on facebook, but I even can't figure out how I did it sometimes.
 
Just a heads-up,
I put my band on myspace & got a virus on my computer so be careful.

we're getting our own website instead a lot safer.

keep swattin'
Bonzolead
 
Just a heads-up,
I put my band on myspace & got a virus on my computer so be careful.

we're getting our own website instead a lot safer.

keep swattin'
Bonzolead

I don't think uploading to mysuck gives you a virus. Surfing the web gives you viruses.

I've got three, er, four myspace pages, and no issues.
 
Luke, I did read a thing on a metal site that complained that Bandcamp has joined MySpace in charing 15% on all sales as a transaction fee, dropping to 10% as soon as the band's sales exceed $5,000. (Disaster! We'll be charged 30 cents a year for our sales!). I sent an email to the crew for opinions on it last night.

DED, I generated the MySpace/MySuck code. Just tried loading it in the Bio this morning. OMG, it actually worked! The bio - load code into the effing bio FFS ... how oblique is that! Guess that bit was attached with chewing gum ...

PK, our bassist has talked about doing a Facebook profile. I've never done Facebook myself because I have had my own domain now since 2000 ... but I have loaded so much of my own crap on it that there's not much space left, and it's better not to have a URL with an irrelevant prefix.

Bonzo, our singer is keen for us to have a regular website, which is the most professional option. However, that costs and the only real advantage of having your own domain for a non-pro band like ours is having total design control (since he's a designer by profession, I think this is a major attraction).

BTW Bonzo, with friends like yours ... ;-)
 
Yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember Bandcamp was gonna charge a percentage on sales... Facebook is a good option, you could start a profile for the band (which allows you to add people as "friends") and/or a fanpage, which is essentially a blog type deal (you post stuff, people become fans and your updates appear in their news feed) Facebook will allow you to do quite a few different things, but the design aspect is very restrictive.
 
Luke, I ended up giving up and we decided to do our own site. Thanks for your suggestions anyway. When Bandcamp's blurb started talking about the standards they expect in uploads, well, stuff 'em :)

Last night I put together a quick and dirty design for the site and we've organised for a domain and hosting. $100 p.a. between 5 professionals *not in music* is no biggie.

Our singer is a pro designer so when he has time, he will replace it with something cool. This is what the interim site looks like.

It's very simple with just the important things - title, picture, brief bio, streaming demo songs and contact details. The idea is to approach venue owners and give them a card with the web address.

Thanks to all who pitched in. The info might come in handy for others.
 
I don't think uploading to mysuck gives you a virus. Surfing the web gives you viruses.

I've got three, er, four myspace pages, and no issues.

It's the third party stuff where you get the viruses. You assume that everything within MySpace is safe... They'll get you.

Same with FaceBook. I don't touch any of the applications, all of them are third party...
 
Luke, I ended up giving up and we decided to do our own site. Thanks for your suggestions anyway. When Bandcamp's blurb started talking about the standards they expect in uploads, well, stuff 'em :)

Last night I put together a quick and dirty design for the site and we've organised for a domain and hosting. $100 p.a. between 5 professionals *not in music* is no biggie.

Our singer is a pro designer so when he has time, he will replace it with something cool. This is what the interim site looks like.

It's very simple with just the important things - title, picture, brief bio, streaming demo songs and contact details. The idea is to approach venue owners and give them a card with the web address.

Thanks to all who pitched in. The info might come in handy for others.

I've been designing and marketing Websites for a long time. A good website is an effective website. I always ask prospective clients, "Do you want the most beautiful Website on the internet, or do you want the one that makes the most money?" The great thing is that you can have both. However, marketing always, always comes first.

I like the site Pol! If it helps you get gigs it's doing its job!

In the music business SEO isn't that important. Most venues aren't searching the web for prospective talent. Nor are bands searching for prospective drummers. We are usually sending people to the site. This makes it a lot easier! The best thing to do is ask some of your potential audience, "What do you need to see on my website?" and when they tell you, listen. That's the stuff you need on your website. Don't be looking at sites like BennyGreb.de. He already has a following. His site is a PR site more than anything. You want to motivate someone to consider you and give you a call. This is true whether you are making a personal site or a site for your band...
 
Most venues aren't searching the web for prospective talent. Nor are bands searching for prospective drummers. We are usually sending people to the site. This makes it a lot easier!

Cheers Chip. Yep, it's all about sending people there. No one's going to find you amongst the billions of web pages out there.
 
I was wondering about whether Bandcamp was free or not. Kind of disappointing, I've always wanted an awesome band site generator that was free. Alas, I'm using Reverbnation.

Facebook is a must if you want the ability to get fans as much as you'd probably like to. It's much bigger than Myspace, and it's easier to spam people's pages with the link. :D

Reverbnation can link to my band's Facebook and Myspace pages and pull data from those two places and pool everything to give me a total feed. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

I wish I knew how to generate code...
 
Steel, we started with Reverbnation but from what I could see it gave viewers no opportunity to contact the band unless they are members. This is a crucial thing for what our band is doing.

I think our bassist or singer will put up a Facebook page but, as middle aged people playing older music, we're not going to have any fans, or maybe just a handful. It's more a feature for up and coming bands hoping to make a splash.

Re: generating code, do you mean writing HTML or generating the code for MySpace? There was a message from MySpace admin when I first created the account that provided links to sites that generated code to put in your Bio (as per DED's earlier post). Some of the links weren't functional and there is very little design control without knowing HTML or being able to generate your own graphics and uploading them.

One thing I like about being able to create our own site is that the page isn't cluttered with all of MySpace's default elements ... just the important bits. All it takes is $100 pa, an evening time uploading some YouTubes to embed, and an evening putting together the graphics and page, and then uploading it.
 
It's the third party stuff where you get the viruses. You assume that everything within MySpace is safe... They'll get you.

Same with FaceBook. I don't touch any of the applications, all of them are third party...

True. I never use any of the third party apps either.

Most of the plugs application are annoying and pointless anyway. Although they obviously sucker a lot of people into installing them.
 
I think our bassist or singer will put up a Facebook page but, as middle aged people playing older music, we're not going to have any fans, or maybe just a handful. It's more a feature for up and coming bands hoping to make a splash.

don't give up on facebook just yet. it's kind of hard to make your facebook page look fancy, but facebook is a great way to let people know about your band and upcoming shows, etc. you can create "events" for your shows and invite people to them. since everyone and his dog is on facebook, it's a great way to reach a large number of people who are already your friends.
 
don't give up on facebook just yet. it's kind of hard to make your facebook page look fancy, but facebook is a great way to let people know about your band and upcoming shows, etc. you can create "events" for your shows and invite people to them. since everyone and his dog is on facebook, it's a great way to reach a large number of people who are already your friends.

Ta for the info, Dairy. Being neither man nor dog, I'm not on Facebook :) Might have to chat with our Facebook-connected members so see what they can rustle up.

I'm pretty happy with the way our normal site's looking for now; it should at least give potential hirers an idea of what we're like, although we need a much better photo. If our singer stops being insanely busy he'll put together a deluxe version.
 
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