Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am building a website for independent music artist and music lovers. Please visit the website and give me your feedback. Thanks.
www.ugmediaonline.com

This website was developed by my website development company Onecorp


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We develop great websites at affordable prices for small companies and solo entrepreneurs.

Will this be a sort of YouTube for music? If so, it looks like a really interesting idea! The problem is going to be how to make money from it.

I didn`t sign up for a free account, but how will you stream the music? The reason I ask, is that I visit Live365 and they don`t show the actual URL for a site, just play the music through their player. Same with Pandora. But a lot of the HD radio stations want me to choose between Windows MediaPlayer, RealPlayer, or Quicktime.

Another interesting issue is copyright. If someone uploads a tune to your site, do they get paid? If so, how? Are you offering downloads, or only listening?

Like the design - I believe myspace started with a similar mission, as a means for independent artists to distribute and discuss their music (little did they know what it would evolve into). For competitive research, Craig already mentioned Pandora, and I`d also recommend looking into http://amiestreet.com/

One quick design suggestion, when I went to the radio center and clicked through the various stations, it was hard to pick up that anything had changed.  The little amount of text switching around didn`t catch my eye - perhaps when there are more artists loaded in, the box at right will make it more obvious, but some sort of differentiated treatment would help.


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chuck fuller

Thanks for the feedback.

CraigL,

You can listen to the music and watch the videos without an account. You only need an account to interact with the website (i.e. creating a custom playlist).

As for the revenue part, we will adopt a business model like Orchard and CD Baby later on down the line. The difference will be that the artist will not have to pay to send us their music. We will get a percentage of the revenue they make from our site. We will also display advertisement to cover the cost of our free account members and members whos music don`t sale.

All the music belongs to the artist. They agree that the music is their own work during signup.

The music is played through a flash player along with the videos so that we can reach the widest audience possible.

chuck,
The artist photos are all the same dimensions so when all the stations become full with artist it will seem like the list did not change if the album covers look the same ,or if a lot of artist signup and don`t have an album cover they will have to have the generic photo.


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We develop great websites at affordable prices for small companies and solo entrepreneurs.

Hi OneCorp:

I`m very impressed by the interface that you`ve created. I think that an "about us" page and a privacy policy page will help a lot to increase interest and build trust in your service. I also think that you will need some type of licensing agreement so that the artists know how their work will be used.

I`d also recommend that people give their music and videos a rating in case it is for "mature" eyes and ears.

All the best,

Andrew Darlow


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Andrew Darlow, Consultant & Editor
The Imaging Buffet

Author, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers - InkjetTips.com

Hey Andrew,

The licensing and other details about the artist music is handled when the artist signs up. As for the "about us", "terms of use," and "privacy policy" I am working on those items next.

Thanks for the feedback.


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We develop great websites at affordable prices for small companies and solo entrepreneurs.

Nice site very clean. 

I do something similar.  I digitally distribute music by independent artists and small labels.  I currently have around 12,000 artists and 100,000 songs, but my site needs a major overhaul.  Maybe sometime this year.

I also have an online music collaboration site that`s in need of attention  You might find it interesting.  GlobalMusicAlliance.org or visit the music distribution site at 96decibels.com

 

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