Amazing Tips For Creating Music Websites   by Mike Cosma

in Entertainment / Music    (submitted 2011-01-30)

Part One: How do you go about creating a music website? There are so many ways you can do something like this. In fact, I have 2 different music sites up right now. They are tied together yet distinct. The first one is basically a single page. On this page I feed in multiple widgets in order to have many music players built right into my website. There are many websites all over the internet where you can upload your original content for free. After it is uploaded you normally have the choice to give it away or to make it available for purchase. Most of the time I just make my creations freely available, however, you may choose to sell your music, it is all up to you.

Now, I assume that you are already familiar creating a basic website and that now you are interested in a music website. If you have never created a website before you should learn to do that part first before using any of the tips given in this article. So the first way is to get your basic website uploaded and then copy and paste in the widgets that you get from other websites where you have uploaded your music. At the time of this writing some of the sites I use are: Jamendo, Soundclick, and ReverbNation. To make this first page I found a free website template that has a picture of somebody playing a guitar at the top of the page. This way I did not have to worry about having to create artwork or find photos to make the site look good. There are many free templates available online that usually only require you to leave a link in place at the bottom that links back to the original creator of the website. You can see how the music site with widgets looks at Mudball Records.com.

Part 2: The second type of music site I have chosen to make is an Ogg music album site. These pages use the ogg format for the songs. I upload the songs and created links to them. Most browsers when you click on the song a new page will open up and a player will be in the new page playing the song. It is almost like magic. I did have some problems with the Internet Explorer browser playing this type of file but it seems to work well in all the other browsers that I tested. You can make ogg files using the Audacity program.

The advantage of this type of site is that all the files are hosted on my web server. If one of the companies hosting my widgets on the first style of site goes out of business my widget will stop working and I will lose the files. The way I have set up these pages is with the ogg music files on the left hand side at the top. There are also instructions and links to information about ogg files. Then on the right hand side in the large space I normally include the album cover art. If you make a video for your song or songs you could embed the video on the right hand side. This space could also be used for information on the contributors to the album and song lyrics. The possibilities are endless. This is only 2 quick ways in which I have come up with to create a music website. Hopefully they will inspire you to get some ideas that you may not have thought of before. Examples can be found on the Mudball Website.

Part 3: Where to find music and collaborators. If you create your own music then congratulations! You already have some music to upload. Use an FTP program like Filezilla to get your webpages and songs up on the internet. Perhaps you like to make some beats but would like to have some vocals and you don't have a vocalist in the next room. Now what will you do? Check out sites like Looperman.com You can find people on there that upload content for other people to use but usually you will need to give them some credit for the work you are using. Another great place to find people to work with to get some songs pumpin out would be the great and fabulous website called fiverr.com. On this site you can hire people to do work for you for only $5 payable via paypal. I use the site constantly. You can find somebody to do some rap for you then add your parts. When your song is complete now you need an album cover. What will you do? You are no artist now. Have no fear. The site called MorgueFiles has pictures you can download and manipulate in order to create your new album cover. Get the program called The Gimp so you can really edit your picture for free. Add some sweet effects to this picture and even put your face in if you have a shot of your mug. Then with the text tool make it real big and add your new album title. Now you are done and your new album is online with a sweet cover.

Maybe you have a band. This is great! Record your band at the studio or garage and then upload your new album. If it is really good though and you want to be paid you may want to get signed to a big corporate record label or go about getting that music on something like Itunes. This will give you much more exposure instead of making your own Ogg Album on a website that no-one has heard of. You can easily be lost in the millions of music artists that are like a dense forest on the internet. You could use a manager and a promoter if you need to be the next Superstar that is making a million dollars. Or you could just have a fun website and push up the oggs and give it away. This can be great fun and a way to showcase your mad skills. You may even make unearthly sounds that have never before been heard by humans. This is a must so that you can stand out and people will be excited. I hope you are getting excited now and have new ideas. Get ready for part four.

Part 4: You can try to find people to collaborate with online but good luck. Most people are very busy or playing games so they may not get back to you. You don't have to worry. The good this is you can find some software for free that will not turn you down. The one I like is called LMMS or Linux Multi Media Studio. This is a free program and you can create drum beats, melodies, synth effects, or whatever else you can imagine. It works in Windows and Linux (not sure about a Mac). It may take a minute to learn to use it but you could find a tutorial on YouTube that gets you going fast!!

How will you record yourself singing, rapping, or playing the Zither. I would use the free program called Audacity. It works great. You can test it by clicking the record button and see if waveforms start to show up on the visual track section. If you are only seeing a line then it is not picking up or your volume is too low. You need to check your mixer. Make sure that your mic and line in sliders are up and that there is no check box selected that might be turning off your mic or line in jacks. Sometimes these controls can be well hidden so you need to search for these big time. When you find the right slider control pump that baby up. Ok now try Audacity again. Good. Now you see the waveform taking shape as you start to rap in the microphone. When you are done you save this as a wav file or ogg file. Then you can open it up in LMMS. Or another way to go would be to record your beats and music in LMMS first and save that as a wav file. Then open that mixed wav file within Audacity. Next you record your rap while the music you just made is playing. You can use Audacity just like a multi-track recorder!!! Did you know this?? And it is FREE! Stop rapping to your cat he has heard enough and get online - download some tools like these and then make your Music Website. When it is done we can exchange Links if you want so more geeks can find our sites. Click the Contact Link below to send me a great message. The song "Chosen One" below was done by finding a rapper on looperman.com and then using LMMS to make some crazy beats.

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