Wondering if any of you still go to the trouble of maintaining a dedicated website for your music projects in 2019?
I guess it seems with Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. that most amateur musicians no longer really bother having websites. I could be wrong.
I’m getting close to finishing a second album. I made a website for my first album. The site design was tied into the artwork and mood of the first album. The second album would require a different website look and feel. Honestly, not sure if I feel like doing all that again, lol.
So, I’m leaning toward just making something very simple, minimal, and clean for the 2nd album. But I still want a way for people to see the old website. 1 album = 1 website (or subsection of website). Just thinking out loud.
Do you think having a website in 2019 is worth it (for an amateur artist)?
I’m curious if people still use websites to further storytelling/artistic projects, or are they simply a “business card” type of thing? (I remember first getting into web design back in the day when people were doing very weird stuff like Praystation, Evil Pupil, etc. Anybody remember those? If you do, you’re probably old now, like me. )
If you have a website for your music project, please share a link to it below! Maybe tell a bit about why you made it, and plans for the future?
Yeah, I have one, mostly to take advantage of my artist name being an actual URL… it’s mostly a bunch of links to my social media/store pages, but behind the scenes it also hosts my visual design/composition portfolios so I can send potential employers/clients (? lol I never have clients, who am I kidding) a nice concise link.
So yeah, at the moment it’s still a “business card” kind of arrangement, but maybe one day I’ll expand it, if I ever get good enough at HTML/CSS. Ideally I’d like to have a dynamically updating “store” section, that contains my releases, sample/sound packs, etc, or at least links to them/Gumroad style overlays.
So I can reply to you because that’s normally my formation Narrative Communication and Graphic Communication later on… and I fully embrace graphic design communication.
A Website is not the only thing, generally people think it is. They made one and they submit their website to browsers and what ? failed to achieve a goals if they have one …
Do you think having a website in 2019 is worth it (for an amateur artist)?
No (but it’s a yes otherwise) if you not have a serious website development plan behind. A website online who’s not evolve where nothing happen with Soundcloud player, a bio and no more is a static site and it’s not encouraging people to come back… BUT at least you “FAN (s)” know where to find you’re work and you handle better how they discover you rather than on facebook, soundcloud etc… because of ergonomics and design + content that’s for sure —
I’m curious if people still use websites to further storytelling/artistic projects, or are they simply a “business card” type of thing? (I remember first getting into web design back in the day when people were doing very weird stuff like Praystation, Evil Pupil, etc. Anybody remember those? If you do, you’re probably old now, like me. )
Traditional communication is not dead, digital is not the evolution but everyone must consider both. (at least for now) Communication is a lot of work on personal project where’s no money. A website who’s not evolve and shows new things on a time notion is generally like a pebble on a lake that is just a rebound and sinks …
If you have a website for your music project, please share a link to it below! Maybe tell a bit about why you made it, and plans for the future?
I have nothing to show you. But I spoke from experience and quite some website done for people in agency as a web designer and print as a graphic designer.
Advise :
Since the WEB lost FLASH player because of market percentage and adobe drop the mobile and tablet support … The WEB is boring. So one way to be notice is to not use wordpress + template as everyone really seems to do (even web agency because it’s you make more money for a little time) - I know it’s tempting but if I take this road I will write a very long reply… so …
As an artist I would do something very different, less on GRID… have a vision of your website really can make a difference. (but it is only an advice regarding a web project there’s then a lot more to make a project a success)
it must be accessible and responsive too… but there’s on the grid, and giving the feeling to break the grid it will be understandable by web-designer for the others not sure
Also there’s animated things possible as JS replace those Flash, also CSS animation is quite powerful now… the problem is technology is evolving so fast … it’s really difficult to keep a web designer in the game. SO they specialize even more in the tooling… which is crazy because it’s more a developper thing for me. But yeah, that’s all I can say…
I guess that’s kinda why I did mine to begin with - another little chunk of content for the ol’ portfolio. But I never get freelance clients these days either, so I feel it’s kinda wasted effort. Too busy with the day job to mess with it. But I also feel like knocking some rust off my design skills once in a while, so I dive back in sometimes.
You have done an excellent job tying everything together! Love the colors and strong shapes. Looks like a lot of effort went into making everything cohesive.
1/ No. Sad as it is, it’s all bandcamp/facebook/youtube now.
2/ Too much music in the world already… no interest for stories.
3/ Even I can’t remember my URL.
This is an excellent point. I’m afraid any websites I build for my music projects are mostly:
Just an excuse to knock some rust off my design skills and put something new-ish in my portfolio. But, like I say, not really sure of the point since I have a solid day-job that keeps me busy. But I seem to want to do it anyway. Feels like it’s part of the project, like making album artwork.
I guess it’s nice just to have a central URL to point people to when they ask if they can hear my music (which, let’s face it - happens maybe once a year, lol).
Not sure what content I would routinely update as I’m not really into the whole social media thing. I tend to like the Boards of Canada model. Release something every 5 years and then immediately go dark. Or maybe I’m just lazy.
Well, sure. I guess I mean when I’m talking to people at a BBQ or whatever. My URL is my artist name (well, one of them at least), so I just tell people “mtindigo.com” and then they can do what they like (which is usually have a couple more beers and forget the URL). Ah, the self-deprecating humor never stops.
When I enter “mtindigo” the first result is my website. I’m not sure what you mean? If you’re trying to say I’m irrelevant, I’m not arguing against you.
But if search results don’t work sometimes, then that’s probably why I mention my URL I guess?
But hey, my main wish is for this thread to be a place where people can list their websites for their music projects and talk about about them (like the “Share your website” version of the “Share your tunes” thread perhaps). Let’s make this a bit less about me starting now, okay? Thanks.
I wouldn’t disagree. I’ve been working in web design since 1999 and I really feel lost these days. That original spirit of the artistic wild west has long since gone. Might could chalk it up to age, but the sheer amount of commercialization, monetization, template farms, etc. is mind-boggling to anyone who remembers what it was like in the early days. I know it’s a natural process, money comes in, big business takes over, but it still makes me a bit sad to think back and remember what it felt like back in the day.
I was never into web design stuff, so that’s not what I regret here. What I regret is what used to be the never-ending discovery of human-curated quality content through the use of links. You would jump from site to site using links. Doing so, you would find stuff you didn’t know which could surprise you, please you, offend you. Nuggets in cyberspace.
But now it’s not about discovery. It’s about getting what you want, not what you weren’t expecting. You use a search engine like google and because this engine knows you it only serves you what it thinks you like, not the unexpected. Hence “mtindigo” not returning your website to me, while it does so for you, of course.
All created content is poured into 3 or 4 websites, all social networks of some sort… and then the content flows like tap water. And like tap water, nobody cares, nobody notices.
That’s cool. I’m beginning to think that’s all most people really want/need anyways. Plus you can always throw links other sites in the sidebar, like YouTube for videos, Soundcloud for works in progress, remixes, etc.
It would really take a lot of time and work to make a dedicated website into something that justifies having anything beyond the standard bandcamp page + links.
Do you have any plans to make a dedicated website for your label? Or is there just no need at this point with all the free/cheap existing resources?
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Thanks.
