Your Music = Unique / Your Website = Derivative

Ask any band what they sound like and you can guarantee that they’ll tell you they’re unique. Sure they might give you qualifying reference points: Led Zeppelin meets the Eagles – Karen Carpenter on top of Diane Birch (Hmmmm!) but at the end of the day – when you listen to the band – there is no other soul on the planet that sounds like them.

So why would you want your band website to look like someone elses? I mean – you don’t dress like other bands do you?

There are loads of options for bands that are looking for a new site – companies are popping up every week with a new variation on the band theme template. However, when you look at the marketing that surrounds these solutions the one message that comes across very clearly is this:

“Spend your time writing and playing music and only spend a few minutes setting up your website – it’s Easy!”

Stop and think about that for a moment. Your website is your home – it is the place that the VAST majority of your fans will interact with you. Your website is international, no matter how many Volcanoes are hitting Europe. Do you really want the thing that differentiates you from the next band to be a different color background?

Here’s our view – your website is critical to your success and if you aren’t spending time learning how to use it and develop it then you may as well play your gigs onstage behind a black curtain. For every second that you spend on working out your stage plot, the set list – what the drummer’s going to wear…you need to double that on how you present on your website. We’re not saying that an awesome looking site is going to make up for lousy music – but a cool engaging site that screams who you are and makes it easy for a fan to interact with you and your music sure is going to help.

Now if you have the money – then you can skip that stage and hire us to come in and build a Kick Ass site for you – but we reckon that most bands starting out don’t have $550 lying around to blow on a website. But we reckon you do have time - learning tech is no different than learning an instrument – it all comes down to how many hours you put into it.

Kilted Chaos is working with DTF Works to build an affordable solution to this and yes – it involves you learning how to make shit work - more very soon.

Image Credit: Day 157 - Pasukaru76 on Flickr

Don't Call Me A Fan

You know – I’m as much of hipster dude as the next guy (especially if the next guy is Alex!) – although I’ve never done Bikram, I could pop a couple of polos and have been known to drink the odd PBR here and there – however – one thing that I struggle with is the idea of being a Fan.

Having grown up in the seventies – when the world was still reeling from the Beatles phenomenon – a fan was typically portrayed as a teenage girl, head thrown back, eyes closed and mouth opened wide enough to allow her adoration out in a blood curdling yelp.  If that’s what a fan was – then I wasn’t ever going to be a fan of anything.

Now don’t get me wrong – I am a huge supporter of music and bands – I’ve put plenty of money into the pockets of people like Bowie, The Stranglers, the Pretenders etc, and I’m stoked to give money in return for tracks from bands like Company of Thieves or The Hold steady – but have I ever joined a Fan Club? – No.

But I do want to be in the club – I do want to be in the cool hipster club – I want to get the music early, I want to know the inside gen on the drummer, I want to hear them working out new tracks and I want to know how to see them.  I want to know when they’re coming to my town and where they’re playing and how much it’ll be, but more than that – I’d love to connect with them – even if it’s just once – I’d like them to know I exist. 

I’ve never wanted to be part of the “VIP” selected guests who buy their way backstage and force a bullshit session on the bands before or after they’ve played – that just reeks of crap to me and I’d much rather it happened organically.  But – I would love it if my favorite artist retweeted something of mine or commented on my blog or wrote something about me or my family.  How cool would that be?  I’d be stoked if my photo of the latest gig made it up to the front page of the band’s website – hell – I might even create something totally cool - totally cool based on the band - something that other people like me – supporters of the band would dig – and if that got on the front page I’d be even more stoked and then and then…

I don’t want to be a fan – I don’t want to be in someone else’s club – I don’t want to be treated like a screaming teenager - I don’t want to be part of some lame online community – I don’t need a card or a signed photo – I want access and connection – and I have the dough to pay for that.

If you know a band that needs a new website - which is a really good place to develop such a connection - enter the FREECHAOS competition here - only 1 more week to go!"