From the Patch Bay

I have been using programs like Dreamweaver and Frontpage to design websites for music and studio projects for years. At first, it was bad. Really bad. Trying to organize biographies, images, event calendars, music streams into a nice layout from scratch took days, if not weeks. Sometimes you had to sacrifice design for functionality or vise versa. Once the site was built, I still needed to routinely pull down old events and add new music and images. After a year, the content grew larger than the design would allow for and the layout needed to be updated. Back to square one. Before long, I was spending more time updating the site than I was working on music.

Yes, I could have hired someone to maintain my site. But what happens when they lose interest? How long before they actually got around to posting the new content I sent over? Sure, there are companies that provide templates and tools, but I didn’t want my site looking like 200 other bands out there.

Enter WordPress, a platform used by the blogging community.

When it comes to publishing online content at the click of the mouse, the blogging community has it down. With more than 12 million Americans currently maintaining blogs, new online publishing tools designed to support their endeavors have emerged to help content creators focus on the core of their sites – the content. While there are various sites that will help you build a blog property, WordPress offers tools and plug-ins that allows you to customize your site to fit your readers. It’s these plug-ins that make WordPress a beautiful online content management tool for artists and musicians.

So, what does blogging have to do with bands?

A blog, short for web log, is a website where entries are posted in reverse chronological order, allowing for the newest posts to take center stage on a site. For musicians, a blog is a great way to post your news, thoughts, and events along a time line. Have you seen this icon lately? Otherwise known as the RSS feed (RSS stands for really simply syndication), this button allows readers to subscribe to your blog in their web browsers or feed aggregation service of choice. Instead of having readers check your site every day to see if new content is available, they can subscribe to your feed. When you post new content, your subscribers will be alerted. You can also ask event listing services and members of the press to subscribe to your feed, eliminating the need to send out mailing list emails that, more often than not, end up in junk mail folders.

Now that your content has a feed, broadcast it to the world.

WordPress allows you write both posts and pages. Posts are entries that get added to your feed. You would create categories such as “news” and “events” to hold these types of articles. For your biography, images, and contact information, you can place this information in a “page” and keep it out of the feed all together.

Once your content is available through a feed, you can use the feed URL to create widgets that will let you to embed your content on other sites.

Here is an example of an artist group that is using WordPress and has placed a widget on their MySpace page to pull up their feed content:

Sangre del Sol
Website | Feed URL | MySpace (see yellow widget)

When the Sangre del Sol site is updated, their MySpace page is automatically updated as well. There is no need to put the information up in two places. They let the feed do all the work for them.

There is a plug-in for everyone!

Now that you have given your content legs, lets take a look at some of the tools that can help give your site some functionality. After installing the basic WordPress blog on your server, there are hundreds of plug-ins you can install to make common updates more efficient. Here are a few of my favorites:

Podpress: Allows you to quickly create podcasts from your music streams and promote your music through podcast distributors like iTunes and Podcast Pickle.

NextGen Gallery: Allows you to upload images to a gallery and automatically create thumbnails for quick display on your “images” page.

Gigs Calendar: Allows you to add gig information and automatically adds event to a calendar this is displayed on your site’s home page.

Flickr Tag: Insert Flickr sets, tags or individual photos in your posts by using a special tag.

EasyTube: Allows WordPress users to easily embed YouTube and Google Videos using one simple tag.

Feedburner (not a plug-in, but a service): Provides tools that allow you to put an email sign-up on your site so users can elect to receive your feed via email. When you post a new page, that page is automatically emailed to your subscribers. No more mailing list emails. Brilliant! In additional to mailing list feeds, Feedburner also provides tools for monitoring your traffic and statistics.

Want more?

Want to learn more about installing WordPress? Check out this article, written by Tim Ziegler, about how to install, manipulate, and use WordPress. Want to learn more about blogging. Visit www.BurstBlog.com.

While most of these resources are geared for artists and musicians, I don’t know many audio engineers that don’t have a side music project in the mix. Regardless of your career path, there are bound to be a few sites on the list that you find valuable. Do you know of a site that is not listed below? Have you had any success with any of these? Let us know in the comments section below.

AmieStreet.com – Social networking and digital distribution center for artists and musicians.

AnyGig.com -Gig booking and promotions

Artistopia.com – Online career management tool where artists can upload music, bios, images and report progress.

BandBuzz.com – A social network to generate buzz and receive track reviews.

Beatpick.com – Artists can sell digital tracks to customers in European markets; Beatpick also licenses tracks for TV/film projects. Artists keep 50% of sales.

ChampionSound.com – Free mailing list manager for artists and music business members.

Download.com – Create online music profiles and let fans rate and download your music.

Elisteningpost.com – A social networking app that lets artists sell their music through their MySpace and Facebook pages.

FireGigs.com – A music licensing site that helps artists get their music played at restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops. Also provides Facebook and MySpace widgets to help band promotion efforts.

Fuzz.com – Provides digital distribution and mailing list services.

GarageBand - Upload music and trade reviews to achieve awards and chart rankings. The top tracks on music charts receive potential radio airplay and/or other A&R perks.

HitMusicLink – A site where you can upload music, bio, gigs, and images; also provides A&R reviews and TV/Film ops.

HumbleVoice.com – An online music promotion tool for bands and musicians.

iJamr.com – Upload tracks for use by bloggers and podcasters. If a blogger features your music and lands you a sale, they get a cut of the profits.

InternetDJ – A place for electronica artists to upload their produced tracks, remixes, and mix sets for review and sale.

Indie911 - Create music profiles for fans to discover; also alerts subscribing members to TV and film music licensing opportunities.

Indistr.com – Place tracks for sale and promote your music via online profiles.

Mubito.com – Easy band websites where you can sell tracks via mp3′s.

Musicane.com – Place tracks, as well as ringtone conversions, up for sale to the public.

MusicNation.com – A community of musician profile pages that engage regularly in competition for various prizes.

Pandora – Online radio where users can find artists similar to those they already like.

PocketFuzz.com – Convert music to ringtones and create marketing campaign for mobile subscribers.

Popfolio.net – Upload tracks to a widget used by bloggers.

PumpAudio.com – Provides music licensing services for TV and film.

Scriggleit.com – Turn your laptop into a mailing-list signup station at your merch booth. Also provides mailing list services for a fee.

Sonicbids.com – Create and maintain electronic press kits and connect with venues, festivals, and media outlets that are seeking artists for rosters and coverage.

Spreadshirt - Upload band logos to create a wide variety of band merch. Also create online storefront to sell merch on band websites.

StarPolish – Online community for musicians to created promotional profiles.

Unsigned.com – Create an online music profile for marketing exposure.

Virb.com – Social network and online community specifically for artists and musicians.