[onecorp]

Hey guys,
I am thinking of building a forum (actually installing a pre-made one) for my independent music promotions site UGMedia. I want to add more interaction but I don't think this type of service will benefit from a forum. All opinions helpful. Thanks.

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UGMedia - Free Independent Music and Videos

[bucnutz19]

Forums are a lot of work. I am trying to build a forum for the new blog/article site in my sig and it is a slow process. Hard to get the ball rolling on it but if you can get 20 or more people to sign up then I think that will help tremendously.

[akula]

no, that's not a useful service

what you want is a 10 step program that helps bands get significant exposure on social networking websites like myspace and lastfm

[cocaine]

tell them to sign up to www.amiestreet.com/mattonline get 3 recomendations and 8 USD i think free spending money.

If there artists they will get more, email me for more info.

[akula]

aimie street should be exploding but i have no idea why it's not

[onecorp]

The service allows independent music artist to promote their music but most of the features that we add will be mainly for the listeners. The forum would be a place where the listeners can discuss their opinion on the different artist, music, ect. with other listeners and even the artist themselves.

The thing that I am concerned about is the likely hood that they will participate seeing that most of, if not all, our artist have a strong Myspace presence where forums and the like already exist.

Should I just leave that type of interaction to Myspace and focus on features that make the music and videos more interactive (i.e. custom playlist, music/videos accessible via mobile device, ect.)?

P.S.
"tell them to sign up to www.amiestreet.com/mattonline get 3 recomendations..."

What would our service benefit by sending our artist here?
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UGMedia - Free Independent Music and Videos

[akula]

onecorp, take this to heart

what you're going through is called "I have no idea what my feature set should be"

this happens when you don't know a) who you are building the service for (bands or listeners) b) what these customers want and c) whether you can have a competitive advantage marketing the service

looking at your work now....the abuse of flash (i.e. no URLs) and the confusion about the feature set, let me tell you what's gonna happen

you're gonna stall for another 6 months trying to second guess what your perfect website should be, then you're gonna launch something, no one is gonna use it, but you won't wanna shut it down, and you will continue to fret over this project untill you can't pay the hosting bills

if you don't want this to happen;

a) do surveys, settle on your target market
b) release a product with 1 feature. not 2, just 1
c) charge for this product
d) make some money
e) after you're experienced and wealthy, then you can think about setting up consumer facing websites that compete with news corp

I'm telling you dude, wanna help artists? Set up a consultancy that helps bands sell their music on the internet. Get a couple of clients, make some money, then you can afford playing around with all these website thingies, and product reiterations

you haven't thought your venture through, you are shooting blind trying to guess what people might like, you are caught in feature creep - what do you want me to tell you?

[Clever]

^^ I agree with this guy on top... I love you website by the way. How exactly does this site work if you dont mind me asking?

[onecorp]

Akula,
You are actually way off. I have a well established plan on how to grow the service and make revenue. I also know very well who the service is for. My question on building a forum is what it is: A question about building a forum. As for the other features I am currently adding them as I complete them.

I decided to add enough functionality to get the site up and running so that I can start building up on artist for listeners to have something to listen to.

As for helping artist with consultation, ect. There are a ton of services trying to get the next big artist a contract deal. Our service is strictly for getting the artist music more exposure. You can promote through Myspace, sell through CD Baby, and so on. The service is designed to be a part of the artist promotional plan.

Clever:
In a nutshell, the website allows artist to sign up and add 2 tracks along with a video off of their album. Listeners can come to the website and listen to the tracks and watch the videos.

It is free for listeners and artist can have either a promotional account(free) or seller account(paid - coming soon). Listeners who sign up can create custom playlist that they can play from their mobile device or the web. There are some other features as well. You can create a free listener account and try it out.

[jhhardin]

I say give users a guestbook type program that allows them to rate and comment on the music.

[onecorp]

We don't offer a guest book, but the users can rate and comment on the artist.

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UGMedia - Free Independent Music and Videos