Your favorite designed musician websites
kagejs
drummer and currently playing with Pat Martino. I want to upgrade his
site to look more professional, so I'm looking for ideas on what you
think the best musician websites out there are. I think mine is pretty
good (www.joshsager.com) if I do say so myself, but I don't really know
of too many that are done well.
Any favorites of yours that I can look at?
Josh
paul
--paul
Gerry
> I'm working on a new design for one of my friends/clients. He's a
> drummer and currently playing with Pat Martino. I want to upgrade his
> site to look more professional, so I'm looking for ideas on what you
> think the best musician websites out there are. I think mine is pretty
> good (www.joshsager.com) if I do say so myself, but I don't really know
> of too many that are done well.
I went to your site assuming it was white on black-background and with
jabbering animations and zip-a-dee-doo-dah impossible to read.
I was pleasantly surprised. One of the cleanest and most directy and
easy to operate sites I've seen in a long while. Damned fast too from
display to display.
Good work!
--
///---
RickH
Call me old-fashioned, but I too like good typogragraphy on white
background, get that right and I'm 90% happy. Yours is nice, a news
column structure is good too as your eye does not need to travel so far
to read quickly.
I dont care for Flash web sites unless it is functional (like to show
schematics, or used as a useful problem-solving application).
Otherwise Flash used simply as an artsy-fartsy interface that moves
around or does a long intro "intro" "fades" etc. I dont personally care
for, but I suppose many clients insist on it (photographers seem to be
fond of Flash but it drives me nuts unless they are using it as a
functional application, photobook etc).
Fewer/Smaller graphics are better than big ones, simple/shallow
navigation, to the point Meat and Potatoes on the home page (or links
to the meat and potaoes), etc.
Greger Hoel
>Any favorites of yours that I can look at?
http://www.johnmclaughlin.com/
Look at that one and make your friend's site as /unlike/ that one as
possible
oasysco
Couldn't agree more!
Greg
tom walls
gre...@spammersgetbent.net says...
--
Tom Walls
the guy at the Temple of Zeus
oasysco
I don't have any fave musician sites that I like more than another
based solely on design. I like your site, though, primarily because
it's uncluttered and simple.
I know there is a propensity for some musician's sites to carry the
musical, artsy thing into the visual world (like that John Mc site),
but the trend I'm seeing on the web for other sites (public entities,
retail, research) is moving to simpler interfaces without alot of
"news" boxes, "reviews" boxes that clutter the opening page.
As we all know, web sites started off fairly simple - you could only do
so much with early HTML and then they moved to clutter with scrollable
frames and then frames were bad and animation took over. Now, I think
we're headed back to simple and uncluttered but with more functionality
than at first.
We have one of the biggest/richest cities in our state with a very
uncluttered and fairly simple presentation... http://www.vbgov.com/
I honestly think this is the trend that we are at the beginning of now
- simpler, less cluttered, better organized with drill-downs to mroe
detail.
HTH some,
Greg
Keith Freeman
>
> Look at that one and make your friend's site as /unlike/ that one as
> possible
I'll drink to that (much as I love him)!
-Keith
Portable Changes, tips etc. at http://home.wanadoo.nl/keith.freeman/
e-mail only to keith DOT freeman AT wanadoo DOT nl
Bob Ross
(he's an awesome drummer too)
paul
no offense, but any site that loads in a popup window is horrible
design, especially given the amount of popup blockers in use today.
RickH
Difficulty seeing red on black is one of the most common forms of color
blindness.
Kevin Van Sant
in message <1166036313.3...@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com> :
>I really like http://www.rjdotcom.com/
It's pretty slick but I really hate sites that either resize my
browser window without asking, or like this one have to exist in their
own pop up window which is minus all my usual browser controls and
menus. I usually bail out of either type immediately.
Andreas Oberg has a nice site. It makes heavy use of flash but I
think in a functional way and it is still clean and streamlined.
http://www.andreas-oberg.com/
Mathew von Doran also has a very sharp site
http://www.matthewvondoran.com/home.htm
I get a lot of unsolicited compliments for my own site too.
_________________________________________
Kevin Van Sant
http://www.kevinvansant.com
CDs, videos, mp3s, gigs, pics, lessons, info.
kagejs
from Flash because they are a pain in the butt all across the board.
These are good suggestions. Keep 'em coming!
Josh
paul
love scriptaculous' wiki:
http://wiki.script.aculo.us/scriptaculous/
very clear, well laid out and not cluttered at all. I like your page
josh but the buddha is very visually distracting to me for some reason.
--paul
paul
Kevin Van Sant wrote:
> I get a lot of unsolicited compliments for my own site too.
>
your site looks great man!
--paul
kagejs
Paul, are you an Ajax programmer? (I am.)
Josh
Kevin Van Sant
message <1166048622.0...@t46g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> :
>
>Kevin Van Sant wrote:
>
>> I get a lot of unsolicited compliments for my own site too.
>>
>
>your site looks great man!
thanks paul. hmm, do I file that one under solicited or unsolicited?
:)
paul
--paul
vintagearchtop.com
some ideas:
Cheers,
-Thomas
Ted Vieira
1166028547.7...@t46g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "kagejs"
<w.sa...@comcast.net> wrote:
If you guys get a chance, take a look at my site for me. I've been working
in Flash recently, so this ought to bug the guys who don't like flash. I
don't know if I'm crazy about Flash yet, but I'm just getting to know it.
Anyway, let me know what you think or if you run into any problems.
(ps, currently the online lessons section hasn't been completed yet.)
Thanks,
Ted
--
http://www.TedVieira.com
CDs, NEW: eBooks, Free Online Lessons,
Free Online Articles, Playing Schedule and more...
http://www.JazzInstruction.com
A fresh new resource to lessons
and instructional materials on the web
to help your development as a jazz artist.
paul
the stuff below is constructive criticism, hopefully it won't come
across as harsh.
I hate flash intros of any kind and almost never stay on sites that
have them. if you must have a flash intro, at least have a button
allowing the user to skip the intro. I have never, ever seen a flash
intro that was worth the 3-15 seconds of my life wasted by watching it.
being a big music fan, I am almost always listening to music on my
computer while browsing the web and get very annoyed if sites play any
kind of music at all, as it forces me to pause my player while I try to
figure out how to cut off the music on the webpage.
not sure why you have a splash page (the page that says "enter") on it
at all. what are you trying to accomplish with it? it's just one extra
click and 3-4 seconds of my time.
after getting to the main page, if I click "bio" there is 3-4 seconds
of animation before I get to your bio. this is very annoying and
another 3-4 seconds of my time.
it may seem like I'm impatient, and when it comes to browsing the web I
pretty much am. what I'd personally like to see when I visit
tedvieira.com is who you are, what you do, where you are playing and
how to hire you for a gig or buy a book within 5 seconds of visiting
your site.
--paul
Gerry
> I hate flash intros of any kind and almost never stay on sites that
> have them. if you must have a flash intro, at least have a button
> allowing the user to skip the intro. I have never, ever seen a flash
> intro that was worth the 3-15 seconds of my life wasted by watching it.
I concur. I think the intro display is pretty, and visually
well-paced. But I go to websites for content. The "Enter" button
appears last. i think it should appear first. Even if it did, it's
just a turnstile to a turnstile, if you get me.
> being a big music fan, I am almost always listening to music on my
> computer while browsing the web and get very annoyed if sites play any
> kind of music at all, as it forces me to pause my player while I try to
> figure out how to cut off the music on the webpage.
Ditto. Every website constructed should provide audio only on request,
say I. Exceptions being audio/video delivery systems, of course, like
youtube and such.
> after getting to the main page, if I click "bio" there is 3-4 seconds
> of animation before I get to your bio. this is very annoying and
> another 3-4 seconds of my time.
And when you get there it's text is white on black, which for some is
very difficult to read. Also, I found that returning to "home", which I
accidentally did, is pointless from any of the other subgroups: all it
really accomplishs is clear the display. You might want to leave any
basic info (perhaps the contact page or a pictures and bio or
something) as your actual "home" display.
When I tunnel down to a particular ebook I really like the various
online preview options. And they work very quickly and without visual
clutter. I'd just like to see all three books on the same page display.
Which underscores: you don't use much room in the browser, which cuts
downon the immediacy of content. As Paul mentions, I go everywher for
content, not leisure. I don't like hunting around for which button is
likely to take me where, if it's avoidable.
You might consider having all of the items you're selling, CD's,
ebooks, perhaps instruction, all on a single apge. All your
bio/pictues/other stuff on another page.
> it may seem like I'm impatient, and when it comes to browsing the web I
> pretty much am. what I'd personally like to see when I visit
> tedvieira.com is who you are, what you do, where you are playing and
> how to hire you for a gig or buy a book within 5 seconds of visiting
> your site.
About right.
In any case, relative to your actual request: it's a beautiful site,
very visually appealing. The meager use of real-estate, which is kinda
frustrating as a content-hunter, is, on the other hand, aethetically
quite lovely. As is your wife, by the way! :-)
--
///---
Ted Vieira
"Gerry" <some...@sunny.calif> wrote:
Hey Gerry and Paul,
Thanks very much for your input. Even though I've done the work on the site
I tend to agree with your comments. I'm not really sold on the Flash thing
yet. I do web design (to fill in the income gaps as being a professional
musician) and some of my clients really like it so I started using my site
as a tester site to learn Flash, so I was very interested in your opinions.
I do tend to like Flash splash pages, but once I get into a site, I like the
simple feel of a well done html page with nice use of graphics, text and
color schemes.
Anyway, enough of the web design thing. Thanks very much...
As far as other cool musician sites, check out www.milesdavis.com and
www.georgebenson.com. I also really like www.bobbybroom.com. (these are all
flash sites, but still very cool.)
kagejs
It looks nice, but I'm inclined to agree with Paul pretty much down the
line. I think the days of being wowed by "flashy" graphics (pun
slightly intended) has come and gone down. People want the information
and they want it fast! They also want it organized well (which yours
is).
I would kill the Flash stuff altogether and make it more HTML-driven.
Josh
Kevin Van Sant
<contac...@tedREMOVEvieiraREMOVE.com> wrote in message
<C1A84F58.D8E%contac...@tedREMOVEvieiraREMOVE.com> :
>On 12/13/06 8:49 AM, in article
>1166028547.7...@t46g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "kagejs"
><w.sa...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> I'm working on a new design for one of my friends/clients. He's a
>> drummer and currently playing with Pat Martino. I want to upgrade his
>> site to look more professional, so I'm looking for ideas on what you
>> think the best musician websites out there are. I think mine is pretty
>> good (www.joshsager.com) if I do say so myself, but I don't really know
>> of too many that are done well.
>>
>> Any favorites of yours that I can look at?
>>
>> Josh
>>
>
>If you guys get a chance, take a look at my site for me. I've been working
>in Flash recently, so this ought to bug the guys who don't like flash. I
>don't know if I'm crazy about Flash yet, but I'm just getting to know it.
>
>Anyway, let me know what you think or if you run into any problems.
>(ps, currently the online lessons section hasn't been completed yet.)
>
>http://www.tedvieira.com
Ted, I think the look is nice, though I agree about there being too
much waiting around for basic navigation. I totally agree with paul
about needing a skip option for your intro. I don't mind the intro
as long as I can bypass it. That's a really easy add in flash. The
slow loading subpages aren't as bad as some (like GB's site you linked
to) Your whole scheme kind of reminds me of a DVD menu. But then,
many times those are annoyingly slow to get through the transitions
too. I also agree with paul about defaulting to music off. But otoh
it makes sense for a musician's webpage to be playing tunes right off
the bat.
The Miles Davis site you linked to looks and works great. Bobby
Broom's site is another one that looks fine but I hate those sites
that load into resized popup windows. There is no need for that.
Ted Vieira
Thanks Kevin and Josh. Your site's always impressed me Kevin. Great job!
Yours looks good too, Josh. I like the lighter colors. (always seeing
websites with dark color schemes.)
Yeah, seems to be the consensus. I've got the html site in place in case the
visitor doesn't have flash they're directed to the html version. When I
would look between the two versions, I was always a little aware of the
value of the simplicity and directness of the html site.
I liked the site Thomas posted, http://www.joshworkman.com/. I agree that
the white text on black is kind of a drag, but I think this site looks nice.
Nice job Thomas.
Your site's always impressed me Kevin. Great job!
Thanks again,
Lumpy
Prettty busy front page. Gazillion album
covers scrolling by. Newsletter signup too
prominent.
Automatic music. ALWAYS gets an immediate "previous page"
click out from me.
> ... www.bobbybroom.com
Tiny graphics on the front page. The thing at the
bottom is totally unreadable to me. Front page kind
of useless. Click to enter - why? Why not just get
me there to begin with?
I personally don't care for
any of the three.
Lumpy
--
You Played on Lawrence Welk?
Yes but no blue notes. Just blue hairs.
www.lumpyguitar.net
cl...@claymoore.com
Ted, I haven't been to your site in a while, but everything Paul says I
agree with. Obviously Flash is very cool for designers, but for folks
like myself who actually USE the web to research and reference it's a
giant pain in the ass. Case in point: I designed a site for a musician
pal of mine, a clean, simple HTML version. Later he wanted it
updated/improved, and went to a Flash guy. On extremely short notice I
needed the bio and credits info from his site to submit a group
proposal to the Lincoln Center. Guess what? I couldn't easily get to
his info because of the Flash crap - no way to copy except print page
after page of high graphical content, which would have taken all day
and bankrupted me buying printer cartridges. I ended up having to
reboot an old computer to find the files I'd designed for him, which
didn't have his latest info. Ce la vie.
I use the web a lot to find info for playing, touring, submitting press
releases, finding radio contacts, etc. Every time I go to a site and
waste 15 minutes trying to find something this simple that I should be
able to cut and paste it's 15 minutes I could have used to do ANYTHING
else. Rant over.
Clay Moore
http://www.claymoore.com