Comments on: Musician Websites 101: Is Your Site Doing The Job?

By: Matt Fripp

Matt Fripp — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 23:11:19 +0000

In reply to W. Held. Thanks for sharing, appreciate it!

By: W. Held

W. Held — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 20:08:38 +0000

Working as an (online) editor, it is always a real pain to have to hunt down cover images and royalty free press photos across the web. It sometimes takes me a lot more time to find a decent cover image than to post a fearure or review, especially with indie bands and labels. If I am lucky I find a cover on a shop’s site, but the material is too often highly compressed and/or edited, so I have to guess which version has the right colors, format, sharpness and so on.

I therefore cannot stress enough how important I consider to offer hi-res image files on your site, because you never know in what size and resolution a person willing to promote your music will need some material.

And your deal with your photographer must include the right to distribute and publish your promotional photos free of charge for websites, magazines, clubs etc. as long as he is credited (if he wishes that). Paying credit is no problem at all, being asked to pay royalties after you helped a band in gaining an audience is meh. We already had photographers asking for royalties for photos, a band itself handed over for promotion. Ouch.

By: Matt Fripp

Matt Fripp — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 09:23:23 +0000

In reply to Dave Hall. Thanks Dave!

By: Dave Hall

Dave Hall — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:52:07 +0000

Hi Matt. As a web designer myself I think that’s all right on the money.

You’re welcome to add my details to the list there. I’ve done sites in the past for Empirical, Chris Allard, John Turville and Jacob Collier (though not his current one), among many others outside the jazz world.

http://www.icanmakeyouwebsite.com

By: Matt Fripp

Matt Fripp — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 07:00:22 +0000

In reply to Carsten Tradowsky. Thanks Carsten. Hear a similar thing from a lot of promoters!

By: Carsten Tradowsky

Carsten Tradowsky — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 14:15:49 +0000

I am often asked if an artist still needs a webpage these days. I think a beautiful webpage is the single most important page promoters stop by to check out the artist and their activities in more detail. So my answer is yes, a nice & clean webpage with all info you can find on the Jazzfuel.com sheets is perfect.
For example rieke-katz.de by Christina Ravnikar

By: Matt Fripp

Matt Fripp — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 15:50:27 +0000

In reply to Robin.

Good point, especially on collecting emails for mailing lists – it’s so important these days!

I personally hate using contact forms to get in touch with musicians or anyone else I’m reaching out to; I like to keep track of who I’ve emailed in my sent box and contact forms feel very impersonal.

Of course it’s a risk of spam if you post your email on your site, but I think the halfway solution is to have a ‘subscribe’ button for mailing list but also display your email in a format like this: matt [at] jazzfuel [dot] com

It is not failsafe to the cleverer spammers, but it helps a bit…

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 15:20:13 +0000

Excellent advice, just worth noting that in a time when email addresses are vital for building a fan database, but also fiercely protected, using a contact form allows you to add the permission tick box which can automatically add them to a database via software such as MailChimp. If you add the email address manually, emails might get marked as spam which could effect mail you send from your domain / email in future. Promo emails should always be sent from email software these days to avoid the spam issue. Cheers, Robin Phillips (jazz musician and marketing consultant)