Hello there,

I am looking into putting up a website for my band, I’d like to know if any of you had any experience creating a band website?

We would like to have stuff like:
* Our own .com domain
* Unlimited streaming of our songs
* Music player that can play on an ipad
* Facebook & Twitter integration would be great
* A form for fans to contact us and register to our mailing list directly on the website

I am definitely not a programmer and I don’t have time to learn how to code HTML just to create that one website.

How much should I expect to spend for a custom website made by a professional web designer (including the requested features above)? Many people told us we should spend between $1,000 and up to $5,000, is that true!? Do you guys have any ideas?

Thanks a lot!
FBF

Alright guys,

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!!!!

Dear FBF,

well, I'm an IT guy, however, I'm not specialised in WEB development. I don't know the prices abroad, but in my country that interval seems to be accurate. anyway, a few thoughts:
- a .com domain is not too expensive for a year, if it is not taken. The hosting is of course an other story.
- I'd suggest You to talk to an IT friend about the functional requirements of Your site. What is important, what is not. How long do You plan to use this site? etc..
- In many cases, if its a new website, I highly suggest people to choose a cheap option to do something that works, and it has the most important features. While that site is running, You'll experience, what is that You really need. (For example: Do Your fans need a guestbook or a forum, or whatever... Do YOu really need streaming or just few flash based songs to be played) After using the site for a short time, You'll have a clear picture, what You really need, and then it has a a higher chance, that You won't spend Your money on things, that You don't really need, or don't really work the way, as You imagined. And also, maybe You'll realize, that the cheap option is good enough.
- I don't want to advertise google here, but if You have a google account, You can make sites, where You can have a news feed, etc. (I'm not sure about facebook and twitter integration, You have to check the plugins). You can create a list using google groups, on which Your fans can subscribe, and then You can send mails to that list. You can have nice photo albums in picasa, and a lot of videos on Youtube. All of them is integrated pretty well together. So the only problem is with the ipad streaming, for that I don't know if there exists a solution. Och, and I forgot to mention. It is free. You don't need to pay for the hosting or anything. Just if You really want to have a .com domain, You'll have to pay for that. (But if .com is not a must, You can also have a free .tk for example.)

Well, so much for today :-) Don't misunderstand me, I don't want to convince You about google. My advise is only to have a cheap and simple first version first, and then decide, whether You'd like to invest money in a special one. A nice "cheap" version is Google, but definitely there are other opportunities as well, just I'm not aware of them :-)

All the best!

Mate

I've just looked at that bandmo, It seems to be an other nice alternative to be a cheap first version, so if You like it, go for it!

One thing that You have to know about these technologies, like bandmo or google sites: Those thing, that You can do, You can do usually in a very easy way. And other things.... You can't do at all. This is a shortcoming of them compared to a self-developed site, where Your developer can implement a new feature maybe with 5 lines in the code. (although sometimes it is not 5 but 500, then it is really expensive...)

UPDATE!

I did it! Here's my new band website:
http://sunholesmusic.com/

What do you guys think? I like it!!!

I chose to do it with http://Bandmo.com - It's 100 % worth the price IMO. Took me about 1 hour to do everything.

You know, I really tried to help You, and invested my energy to answer Your question. After all this, I'm a bit disappointed, when I see, that Your post here was on the 8th of March, in 4 hours You came with the great idea of a website. Now You post about how You managed to make Your site, and advise that engine. I go to Your site of curiosity, and I found out, that the site You linked has news from February.

=> The site was already built, when You asked the question here.

A logical implication is, that Your only goal was to advertise Bandmo.

If I'm right, please next time just open a topic about this, and don't fool me to invest my energy into helping You. Thank You.

Your site is really fantastic. You should bookmark your update regularly with popular bookmarking sites. Also you may create a fan page on Facebook.