House of Drumming.com

Hey guys,

I would like to know if any of you had any past experience about creating & having a band website?

I am not a programmer and I do not want to learn how to code HTML just to create that one website.

Here are the things that we want:
- Our own .com domain
- Servers included, with unlimited transfer
- Unlimited content/songs
- Music player on the website
- Fans can contact us directly on the website

It would be nice if it had Facebook & Twitter integration too.

How much should I be looking to spend for a custom website from a professional webmaster (including the requested features above)? Many people told us between 1,500$ and 3,000$ is the average pricing nowadays, is that true!!!? Do you guys have any suggestions? Is Myspace still good?

Thanks,
F.B.F

Quickest and cheapest way is to use blogging software like Wordpress. Peter Erskine just switched his site over to it, check out [url]petererskine.com[/url] to get an idea of what's possible. Also check out the link to my metronome app at the bottom of this message, it's another blog-based site.

As for unlimited transfer, that will depend on the host you go with. I use Dreamhost and have been happy with them.

MySpace is junk.

Myspace and Facebook are free/junk. I can't take anyone seriously if that's all they have BUT ya gotta start somewhere. It's ok to look amateur if that's what you are.

1500-3000 is fair for professional web design services. Like Lucas said, Wordpress is great for a DIY option. All the things you asked for out of the website are available with Wordpress. I have a soundcloud embed for media player and it works and looks great. FB and twitter connections too.
You can peak at the site here:
http://brickandmortarstudios.com/

As far as your hosting concerns, cant give you much guidance there except to say I am not sure that you need to pay for unlimited anything. If you do pay for unlimited you may be paying for a service that you dont need right away.

Myspace is dead. Facebook is good enough . . . I/we use FB to drive preople to the website whenever possible.

As far as a music player goes, you can always use a stand alone music service like SoundCloud and embed the music that way.
Like I did here: http://www.jeppemorgenthaler.com/hor-lige-den-stemme (the Isaac Freeman file)

I built my Worldwide Gentlemen blog on virb (http://virb.com/), which costs $10 a month and has a lot of great templates
so that no or very little coding is needed: http://worldwidegentlemen.com/

They have tons of features including unlimited photos/video/audio within that $10 monthly fee.

I agree with those who said "Wordpress"...

pay for your own domain
get a bandcamp account (fwd the url to bandcamp if necessary)
- free player
- sell your music
get a facebook page, integrate with bandcamp

done.

Lucas Ives wrote:Quickest and cheapest way is to use blogging software like Wordpress. Peter Erskine just switched his site over to it, check out [url]petererskine.com[/url] to get an idea of what's possible. Also check out the link to my metronome app at the bottom of this message, it's another blog-based site.

As for unlimited transfer, that will depend on the host you go with. I use Dreamhost and have been happy with them.

MySpace is junk.

I've heard good things about Dreamhost too.

Thanks for the replies guys! Awesome info right here.

I made some research and ended up on Bandmo (http://bandmo.com) a website generator designed especially for music artists & bands. It’s pretty cheap considering that it includes hosting + domain + everything else. I think it might just be more simple to deal with them instead of ordering every element I need from different companies.

The reviews I found are looking pretty good, I am going to try it now and let you know what happens...

Thanks!

PS. If you guys have more suggestions, please reply to this thread!!!!

http://www.wix.com/stereo1/scully-and-the-crossbones

I used Wix.com.. easy to use.. and if you want to have your own web name. You can link it to the site for 5 bucks a month or so..

I have another site host and built another site using Web Studio 5.0.. Because paying twice was dumb..

www.scullyandthecrossbones.com

Both work well.. If I didn't already have a host for my other sites.. I would have just used the Wix one.. and assigned a domain name to it..