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David Dufresne
Montreal, QC
CEO @Bandzoogle, Founder @Backfed
Recent Activity
Fantastic, Bruce.
CelebrityAccess' Larry LeBlanc Interviews Bruce Houghton Of Hypebot & Skyline Music
UPDATED: In large part to maintain journalistic integrity, I've always separated Hypebot and Music Think Tank from my work as head of booking agency Skyline Music. But a recent CelebrityAccess interview by veteran music industry journalist Larry LeBlanc shares a behind the scenes that look ab...
Hey Craig, Onesheet is one of our next priorities, so it should be ready soon. We will definitely integrate some BZ features into Onesheet but it remains to be determined what will be free vs. premium.
Thanks.
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
Yup. That's our main focus and project. I'll email you right away. Thx!
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
"all the listen/buy/download options are on one page a-la bandcamp"
We have that now. You can sell or give digital downloads, and sell your physical CDs and merch, using our native music and store features. We use Paypal to process payments. And we take a commission on your sales of exactly 0%. We also have options for other file formats and we're launching more commerce features soon.
We also let you embed or integrate with other players or stores if that's what you want. So that might have been what you saw. Sometimes our users need to do that because of label or distributor contracts, or to integrate with a fulfillment partner, and we make it as easy as we can.
Bottom line, you can move to Bandzoogle today ;-)
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
Good point and I thought we had updated it a while ago. I'll check with my design team right away. Thanks!
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
We keep the new ones in the first few 2-3 pages of the theme picker. There's only a handful of new ones for now, but we'll add quite a few more in the next days.
I have a very low opinion of the current options on the market for responsive mobile sites when it comes to musician websites, so we're working hard to get it right and do a better job. Responsive designs shouldn't have to be bland and boring...
Our templates and features right now are mobile friendly, in that they should render and work on modern smart phones and tablets (the music players play and everything is functional). Our biggest project right now is a completely new design system that will enable new kinds of layouts in the themes (side-bars, custom footers, different headers, etc.) and it will include responsive options for themes. Coming soon.
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
It really isn't.
(Did you try it?)
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
Yup. We were deploying some new code that gave our servers the hiccups for a few minutes. All good now...
Bandzoogle Beta 2.0 Upgrades Tens Of Thousands Of Musician Sites [EXCLUSIVE]
(UPDATED) Yesterday, Bandzoogle completed the migration of the "tens of thousands" of musician web sites it hosts to a new Beta 2.0 platform. Both members and new sign-ups are now using the new codebase and server. "The goal was to rebuild the foundations of our platform and migrate the sites...
The "not-being-able-to-login-to-a-service-with-FB" problem actually caused me a significant waste of time and "shit-I-cant-access-info-I-should-100%-own" situation today, via AirBNB.
Be careful, startups and users, about only providing user registration through FB/Goog/Twitter. Email+pass is the only option you control.
Facebook Experienced Major Outage Today During 'Routine Maintenance'
UPDATE 2: Things are apparently back to normal at facebook,com, but that was not the case all morning as Facebook users were unable to post status updates, photos and other content or make payments. Users trying to update got the message: "There was a problem updating your status. Please try a...
Hey Tim, ideally I'd remove auto-play off from all your pages.
Having a music or video player auto-start on the MUSIC page could be seen as less of an offence (because, hey, you clicked on Music, so here it is), but I still think you should let people click "play" themselves.
Musician Website Quick Fix #1: Turn Off Auto-start
This is the first of a series of quick posts we're working on to give simple, actionable tips and advice that can help you make your website a little better and more effective. The first is one that not everyone will agree with, and even within the Bandzoogle team, folks have different opinion...
Dude... 2003.
And it was a beauty:
http://bit.ly/15DaHcQ
The Music Tech Graveyard: A Graphic Look At Music Tech Startups Circa 2007
A collection of logos of music tech companies circa 2007 prepared by designer Jadam Kahn serves as reminder of just what a treacherous sector music tech can be. Hypebot turns 9 this week; so we've been there to chronicle it all. But even we were surprised by the huge number of defunct startup...
Woot! Good job Bruce, and team.
Would love to see more of our peers (music tech companies) support Hypebot. Amazing resource for our ecosystem.
Celebrating Hypebot's 9th Anniversary!
(UPDATED) Way back in July of 2004, I wrote Hypebot's first post - Affordable Emailable Electronic Press Kits. In the early days, it didn't matter that almost no one was reading. The original blog was a semi-internal document for the team and artists of our parent company, booking agency Sk...
That said... Youtube = Google, so maybe Google can be somewhere near that position...
Prediction: Apple, Google Finally Launching Subscription Services Will Be A Game-Changer
By David Dufresne (@DavidDufresne), CEO of Bandzoogle, a website builder and marketing platform for independent music artists. I think when Apple and Google finally launch subscription music services (or partner up with an existing one), and bundle them with each iOS and Android device sold, t...
"One problem For me - Streaming would have a negative revenue impact on their download businesses so why would they push streaming?"
True and that's definitely one main reason why we haven't seen it yet. Solveig's comment above says it. Apple is being patient and will launch a service once it sees that there's risk of a critical mass leaving the "iTunes-iDevice" for Spotify and others, and impacting their download sales revenues and competitive position. Google is nowhere near that position, but it's Google... and Android.
Prediction: Apple, Google Finally Launching Subscription Services Will Be A Game-Changer
By David Dufresne (@DavidDufresne), CEO of Bandzoogle, a website builder and marketing platform for independent music artists. I think when Apple and Google finally launch subscription music services (or partner up with an existing one), and bundle them with each iOS and Android device sold, t...
Hey Jed,
I'm no expert, but I assume the economics would be similar to the deals that rights holders have in place with Spotify and others, and based on pay per stream fees, independent of wether the service is free, freemium or paid. The main difference is that the app would be pre-installed (part of the iPod feature) and iTunes or Play users automatically signed up.
Maybe in Android's case some carriers would bundle a monthly sub. You're right that maybe in that situation the deal with rights holders would be different. I'm surprised we haven't seen more packages like Muve Music, so I don't know if it's a success story for all stakeholders.
Prediction: Apple, Google Finally Launching Subscription Services Will Be A Game-Changer
By David Dufresne (@DavidDufresne), CEO of Bandzoogle, a website builder and marketing platform for independent music artists. I think when Apple and Google finally launch subscription music services (or partner up with an existing one), and bundle them with each iOS and Android device sold, t...
Have you ever used a search box on a band's website?
(I haven't, and I visit a lot of them).
Can you see (with Google Analytics) how many people actually used it on yours? I'll bet it's a very small number.
If you have clean navigation and well defined sections, a search box is just clutter and can distract from actually useful calls-to-action. (ie. if a visitor is looking to buy a track, they'll click on "store", not search for it).
Dave is actually working on a post about this topic just now.
IMHO search boxes are important for big retail websites, or document heavy sites (think a newspaper's site, or a government website, or a huge blog), but for bands websites, nope.
Top 10 Ways to Unclutter Your Band Website
When doing website reviews at Bandzoogle, a common issue we come across are bands trying to put too much content and too many features on their websites. Because there are so many tools, features, and widgets available to musicians, some feel like they should use all of them. But when it comes...
"cough" "cough"... Bandzoogle
6 Essential Elements For Every Artist's Homepage
Guest post by David Dufresne, CEO of musician website and marketing platform Bandzoogle. Your homepage is usually the first page visitors to your website will see, so it’s important to make sure that you have the right elements in place to grab their attention, make a strong first impression, a...
"We feel the metric of success should be based on how many people are listening to your music over a period of years, as opposed to looking at how many units are shipping in one week."
Explains well the biggest paradigm shift that is so hard for so many people to understand.
Spotify's D.A. Wallach Explains How Spotify Pays Artists
Guest post by Mike King (@atomzooey), who wrote and teaches courses at Berkleemusic.com including Online Music Marketing with Topspin. The next term begins 9/24. Grizzly Bear was blowing up my Twitter feed this weekend after asking the question: what’s up with Spotify’s payment model? It’s not...
Aw shucks. Thanks dude.
You're going to motivate me to tweet better and more often.
For music folks our @Bandzoogle account has LOTS more relevant content than my feeble tweets, and I gotta say, y'all should follow @dave_cool, our Director of Artists Relations, the one real real music industry genius we have on the team.
Thanks again.
The Best And Brightest Music Industry Minds On Twitter [LIST]
A few weeks back, we began to compile a list of music industry professionals that are “required follows” on Twitter; similar to how Billboard listed their top music industry personnel but a little more focused on the music tech side of things. We took our own list of favorites and combined it w...
Great reporting !
Are EDM Artists Buying Facebook Fans? DJ Excision Speaks Out On Controversy
Controversy broke out this week in the Electronic Dance Music scene over whether or not major EDM dj's are buying Facebook Fans. A graphic showing multiple artists' Facebook fan pages with Mexico City as the "Most Popular City", including Skrillex, David Guetta and Excision, was interpreted as ...
Great post.
2 actors matter in the music "economy": artists and fans. I'm not clear which is the most important. (but if you're talking about music and money, I would say the fan is the most important).
Music Industry Fail: This Time It's Personal.
The big mistake that the industry continues to make is that too many are thinking of music in terms of social engagement, when it is actually a deeply personal experience. The huge success of Amanda Palmers Kickstarter campaign, which has so far raised over half a million dollars, exemplifies t...
I've heard really good things about the ReverbNation Site Builder ;)
Free Webinar: How To Use ReverbNation To Promote Your Music [Sign Up Now]
Hypebot is proud to sponsor the second of our free direct-to-fan music marketing webinars hosted by Brian Thompson and Michael Brandvold from The Music Biz Weekly podcast: "How To Use ReverbNation to Promote Your Music" with special guest Nick Sehn, Product Manager at ReverbNation. To be held o...
Oh definitely there should be a "contact us" section with those details... The focus here was the home page, but yes, "contact" should be a clear menu item.
6 Essential Elements For Every Artist's Homepage
Guest post by David Dufresne, CEO of musician website and marketing platform Bandzoogle. Your homepage is usually the first page visitors to your website will see, so it’s important to make sure that you have the right elements in place to grab their attention, make a strong first impression, a...
Edgar,
I'm copy-pasting a comment I made on the MTT post:
To estimate in the total cost of owning your website, few things you need to factor in:
How much of your time do you need to spend, researching, learning, building, etc. (and what's your hourly rate ? and cost of opportunity vs. practicing, songwriting, etc.).
Do you need to hire a designer, or developer ?
Do you need to buy a theme ?
Do you need to buy a domain ?
Do you need to pay for hosting ? How much ?
Do you need to host your media (music, videos) somewhere else ? Do they provide embeddable players ? Are they free ?
Do you need to sign up for a mailing list service ? Is it free ?
Do you need to sign-up for a different service to commerce-enable your website ? Is it free ? Commission-based ?
Do those different services you signed up for provide support ? At what cost ?
Can you update and modify your website yourself, at no expense ?
I'm probably missing a few elements ... great idea for a blog post if someone want to do the work and guesstimate the dollar numbers ;-)
I'm not saying you can't build an excellent band website using free or mostly free tools, but you do need to look at the Total Cost of Ownership before you make a decision, and probably spend more time and/or money than you'd think.
Your Website Should Not Be Your Blog
Many DIY artists don’t want to spend too much on creating a website or many feel that it can be intimidating. Bandzoogle is a platform for musicians to build their own featrue filled without web design skills. On Music Think Tank, Kelland Drumgoole interviews Bandzoogle’s CEO, David Dufresne ...
"That pedicab driver smells awfully nice".
Shit People Don't Say At SXSW [VIDEO]
Continuing in the tradition of the "Shit People Say meme, members and friend of The Spinto Band (who are doing several showcases at SXSW) have created "Shit People at SXSW DON'T Say". Watch the video and add your own Shit People at SXSW DON'T Say" below.
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