Tags: beta
We Need Your Help!
This site is currently in beta mode, and we need to know what features and improvements you want us to make to the site! Please help us by voting on the survey below! Thank You!!!
If you would like to see a feature not in the list above, or if you have any other suggestions or ideas for the site, please add a comment below!
March 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I think most of those options are good ideas. I voted for the radio station, as other than sites like Last.FM, there isn’t a radio station for Classical Crossover. Discussion forums are necessary. They get people coming back to the site. E-mail alerts for concerts would be very useful! Both user and staff written reviews are good. Having a staff member gives it some air of authority, someone that users can trust, and user reviews because a lot of people will want to express their opinion anyway.
Least important from that list for me are the unsigned artists (though it would be lovely for them!), the biographies, and full length songs. Most people are aware of youtube and wikipedia. Tasters should be enough.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Just flicking through the site - there doesn’t seem to be enough colour. Photos of the artists would be good. Most people connect through a face rather than a name.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I think that adding a few more colors would spice it up a bit. Also, I think that the options for the artists ( bio, albums, pics, etc) would work better up top than at the side and perhaps be re-ordered. I personally think its nice having biographies and such on the page, it’s convenient rather than having to look the artist up on youtube or wiki.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I agree with Nicola a picture is more eye catching than a name.Also if the artist put out new albums where you can buy them would be a good idea.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Hi Guys.
I think that if you don’t add the talented Mr Gari Glaysher to your artists you’ll be missing out on proberly the best tenor the UK has produce in a while. Gari has one of the most amazing classical voices I’ve heard. Not only does he sing with a so much passoin, you can feel the goose pimples, he also is a amazing guy that can capture and entertain his audience.
Good luck with this great new site & I look forward to seeing and hearing many new up & coming artists including Gari Glaysher in the future.
Tony
March 5th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
“I personally think its nice having biographies and such on the page, it’s convenient rather than having to look the artist up on youtube or wiki”
I think mini biographies are okay, but not massive long ones. In which case, it may be useful to link to the artists wiki and their youtube channel if they have one. Their MySpace would solve both issues, as they have bios and music.
My concern for full length tracks is that they are hard to get hold of and gain permission to use. There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo and it’s messy. It’s also just not necessary. I think album samplers would be enough. But yes, if you have the facilities, time and man power to gain permission for full length tracks, then that would be a great treat for visitors.
I would like to add that it’s probably best to do everything on that poll list. If you DO have a feature for upcoming artists, they will flock here, and it can become a regular place for them to promote their work. Which brings traffic and will give many artists a step up from their MySpace page. I can think of two at the top of my head (Tiffany DeRose and Eleanor Purcell).
The poll may have been better if we could ‘check’ boxes instead of just voting for one, because I couldn’t honestly pick out the most important service over any other.
You should “open” the website with a big name. I know you are adding more, but I don’t think opening with these five will bring many people in. At least one big name should be on the list before opening, such as Hayley Westenra, Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman or Andrea Bocelli.
March 5th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Thanks guys for the feedback so far! My responses/thoughts/ideas:
1: Biographies. I think we’ll continue with the short ones and link to Wikipedia/artist website for full bio.
2: Yes, it would be very difficult to get licenses for full length tracks. We could probably get unsigned artists tracks easily. If there were a strong demand for it, we could attempt to get licensing to do full tracks of signed artists, but there would have to be a good demand for it.
3: Yes, we’ll have the big names on here, too.
4: I’ll adding brightening up the design a bit to our to-do list. It is rather stiff and formal and boring.
April 16th, 2009 at 7:33 am
When is this going to open properly?
April 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Unfortunately, this website is currently on hold - frozen in beta. We had to reprioritize internal projects and place this one on hold. I do not know when we’ll be able to unfreeze and fully launch this site.