Website

[Pahchisme Plaid]

I listened to Midnight Hour and Little Monuments on my iPod speakers and they were very hard to hear.  I like the door ways inside doorways photo, but where the color is light where your songs are listed, those few at the top don't show up so well.  I do like that typeface and color with your image--it just hard to see the upper part.  Might you consider just a teaser on those songs until the actual release and for the sake of return viewers, do you really want to post works in progress?  I could understand maybe showing short video clips of you putting those songs together maybe, if done right, but isn't the idea to build anticipation?  If it is, #1 just a taste, a sliver, a tease, so they keep coming back. #2. Only tear with your songs that are close to being done and DON'T refer to them on your website as works in progress!  Also, I'm hopeful that what's posted on there for information is for SongStuffers to give feedback on, cause it's gonna be a little dry to the pubic.  I might help you with that if you ask nicely 😜.  I've got to go right now, but I'll be checking in later!

[Richard Tracey]

57 minutes ago, Pahchisme Plaid said:

I listened to Midnight Hour and Little Monuments on my iPod speakers and they were very hard to hear.  I like the door ways inside doorways photo, but where the color is light where your songs are listed, those few at the top don't show up so well.  I do like that typeface and color with your image--it just hard to see the upper part.  Might you consider just a teaser on those songs until the actual release and for the sake of return viewers, do you really want to post works in progress?  I could understand maybe showing short video clips of you putting those songs together maybe, if done right, but isn't the idea to build anticipation?  If it is, #1 just a taste, a sliver, a tease, so they keep coming back. #2. Only tear with your songs that are close to being done and DON'T refer to them on your website as works in progress!  Also, I'm hopeful that what's posted on there for information is for SongStuffers to give feedback on, cause it's gonna be a little dry to the pubic.  I might help you with that if you ask nicely 😜.  I've got to go right now, but I'll be checking in later!

 

Thanks Kelly - at the moment the only people that know about the website are the SongStuffers, so it is trial and error at the moment.

 

I need to put some time aside to create some kind of teasers or media for the site.

 

The work in progress stuff is just to have something on it at the moment.

 

 

Re: the videos, did you have YouTube up full? Sometimes it defaults low. I'm listening on headphones on my iPhone and the videos sound fine.

[Pahchisme Plaid]

4 hours ago, Richard Tracey said:

 

Re: the videos, did you have YouTube up full? Sometimes it defaults low. I'm listening on headphones on my iPhone and the videos sound fine.

No.  I didn't have the full YouTube up.

[Richard Tracey]

20 hours ago, Pahchisme Plaid said:

No.  I didn't have the full YouTube up.

 

Did it sound louder?

[Richard Tracey]

Hi all - I have updated the website with a couple of tweaks from suggestions made by the SongStuffers (for that is what we will all be called from now on!!!).

Also added links to a new Twitter account and my SoundCloud account. They are the little icons at the bottom of the site. I am going to see how to get them at the top of the page as well, so that they are one of the first things you see.

 

I now need to set up a new Facebook page for the music and link that.

 

Dek - I am still trying to work out what to say in an 'About You' type page, but it is coming soon....

 

[Richard Tracey]

@MonoStone - Dek I have now added an About section to the website. Let me know what you think... Cheers

[MonoStone]

2 hours ago, Richard Tracey said:

@MonoStone - Dek I have now added an About section to the website. Let me know what you think... Cheers

 

Looking at it on my mac, in safari... the text is extremely hard to read. You just can't have white or light text over a such a pale background, there are large areas where the text blends into the background, probably 70% of the text is extremely hard to read for that reason.

 

I genuinely couldn't read some words and it wasn't comfortable trying, but what I did read seemed ok. And if the background image didn't cause such a problem I'd think that was fine too...I mean the general look of the site is coming together.

 

In terms of the written content, again I think it's ok... say what you want to say... although I think if I was reading it as a potential fan (maybe I'd heard a snippet of a track of yours and was intrigued to search for info on you) then maybe I'd want to read something more 'artist' focussed, like....what do you do in the songs (everything, so vocals, keys, programming.... let people know), who inspires you and did they get you into making music? , and just a tiny bit about you as an 'ordinary' guy. But again, you say what you want to say.... it depends on your goals too.... and by the way I think this is all very helpful to everyone including me....it is very useful to critique these things because I think it's really hard to see when you do your own site.

 

[Richard Tracey]

8 hours ago, MonoStone said:

 

Looking at it on my mac, in safari... the text is extremely hard to read. You just can't have white or light text over a such a pale background, there are large areas where the text blends into the background, probably 70% of the text is extremely hard to read for that reason.

 

I genuinely couldn't read some words and it wasn't comfortable trying, but what I did read seemed ok. And if the background image didn't cause such a problem I'd think that was fine too...I mean the general look of the site is coming together.

 

In terms of the written content, again I think it's ok... say what you want to say... although I think if I was reading it as a potential fan (maybe I'd heard a snippet of a track of yours and was intrigued to search for info on you) then maybe I'd want to read something more 'artist' focussed, like....what do you do in the songs (everything, so vocals, keys, programming.... let people know), who inspires you and did they get you into making music? , and just a tiny bit about you as an 'ordinary' guy. But again, you say what you want to say.... it depends on your goals too.... and by the way I think this is all very helpful to everyone including me....it is very useful to critique these things because I think it's really hard to see when you do your own site.

 

 

7 hours ago, tunesmithth said:

 

Ditto on my PC via Microsoft Edge...almost illegible.

On the plus side, text size for the links at the top look much more balanced now 

 

Thanks Dek / Tom - I'll have a look at that again. I tried all different colours, but nothing stood out, white was the better option.

[Richard Tracey]

@MonoStone - Dek I have updated the site and made the backing image darker and I think this works better (I thought it was dark enough, but obviously not). Let me know if the white text works now, as I can always change the colour.

 

I have also extended the About page to include a bit more info.

[Richard Tracey]

1 hour ago, HoboSage said:

Wouldn't you search for my musical presence on the web by inputting HoboSage?   I think your website should be easy to find, and I think that means using a domain name others would naturally associate with your music.  In my opinion, by far the biggest issue you have with your website is that the domain name is not the pseudonym you intend to use for your music.  If you're going to be "Jigsaw Sequence."  then, in my opinion, the domain name for your website should be "jigsawsequence.com" - which, btw, is available.  If you're going to use "richardtraceymusic.com" as your website domain name, then in my opinion, you should be doing music as Richard Tracey and not as Jigsaw Sequence or as anyone else.    Whatever name you decide to use as your name for music, I think you should be consistent with it everywhere and avoid creating any confusion about who it is that's doing your music.

 

Just my opinions.

 

P.S.  Perhaps you want to express gender confusion, but FWIW, to me, the face on the left in your double-headed pic looks like a female, which, for me, creates just another layer of confusion about who you are - a solo artist who identifies their gender as in some way both male and female, or a duo with an uncredited partner, or . . .?  Seriously.  

 

The banner image is for a possible EP and is not of me or meant to look like me. It is a male and female and the Inside of the title is meant to represent their relationship. Nothing to do with me trying to identify which gender I am. I'm the grumpy looking bearded git in the About background.

 

Unfortunately, I bought the domain when I decided to go with my own name, but then decided to go back to Jigsaw Sequence. I had thought about buying the domain for that and link both in case I decided to do different music under my own name.

 

I'll look into how much it would cost. I can get a domain name through squarespace for free for the first year, so might do that.

[Richard Tracey]

 

 

54 minutes ago, HoboSage said:

I think having both domain names is a good idea.  But in any event, I do think if you're releasing music as Jigsaw Sequence you should use that domain name. and spend your resources developing that website.  For now, you could just "park" richardtracey.com (you might be able to park it for free too) until you release other music as yourself, and then each website could provide a link to the other.  FWIW, that's my suggestion.

 

P.S.  You could also maybe get a reduced price if you use the same host to host both websites.

 

 

 

I'll have a look as I've realised I would need to pay for 2 websites and don't really want that expense at the moment. If I can get a reduced price, that would be a big help.

[Sreyashi Mukherjee]

Richard,

 

I went through your website again.. this time on a P.C. The idea of a website is always very interesting for me because it can take up so many different directions!

 

So, visually, it seems clean with not a whole lot of content. The black background looks nice, the white font as a contrast make sense but the font style itself appears a little dated (I know, this is subjective). But more than dated, I feel that it takes some effort to read it, especially in the "About" section - which is probably a combination of the font style and the excessive black-white contrast, which tends to scatter the attention. Perhaps using more muted shades of the same colours along with a simpler looking font can help address this issue. Just as an example, check this out : http://www.u2.com/band. It's using the same black and white theme (inverted) but it's very easy on the eyes in spite of being text-heavy.

 

Now, going beyond the looks, if I were to create a website for my music (I just did a LOL to that  ) these are the questions that I would I ask myself:

 

1) Why am I putting out a website? Is it because it feels good to have one and additionally I can park all my finished work there? If my answer is yes, then I'll be damn happy to have a website like this.. it's just great! If my answer is no, then I would dig deeper and ask further questions like :

 

2) Do I want to seriously showcase my craft to the world? If yes, then all that is written in the website has to look less amateurish. It needs to show that I really know what I'm good at. So, to cite a specific example here, the "About" section can't be as humble as it is appearing currently . Next, I'd have to worry about the other big thing...

 

3) Building my brand. For that, I'd first have to identify who my target audience is. Which demographic? Which genre? Accordingly, the entire look of the website can change. If it's the younger lot, then it has to look a lot more "pop". Also, to repeatedly be known only by my stated/artist/band name and nothing else. And to have every one of the images, audio & video clips and other social media posts tagged with that  stated/artist/band name. 

 

4) Also, if I'm thinking more along the lines of 2 and 3 than 1, then I would also think about how frequently I would like to update my website. 

 

Once this clarity comes in, I think it'll act as a blueprint and will help in mapping out the whole look and content better as per your desired goals. But yes, the goals need to be defined first.

   

Now let me start daydreaming about the day I'll be launching my website

 

[Richard Tracey]

Hmm, a couple of things to mull over but the general consensus seems to be changing everything over to either Richard Tracey or Jigsaw Sequence.

 

I'll have a look at the font style as this is the default with the template.

 

Now I just need to decide what to call myself!!!!

[dislocatedlove]

Richard,
Web Designer here - if you do purchase your secondary domain name and hook up hosting, i'd be happy to help you with something provided i could put my company link in the footer

[Pahchisme Plaid]

1 hour ago, HoboSage said:

P.S.  Another reason to have a website based on the name you actually use for music, is to have email accounts for that name too

 

I also want to add a personal BIG GRIPE I have regarding many musician websites - I'm speaking only for myself.  I can't tell you how lame and off-putting I think it is when the "About" or "About Me" section takes the cookie-cutter approach of being a second-person perspective, like it's an objective review of grand acclaim from Rolling Stone or something.  I know it's not, I know your blurb was written by you or your "team,", and because I know that, you touting yourself as this great this and that comes off to me as an arrogant insult to my intelligence.  I don't give a damn about any musical "accomplishments" you think you have achieved, and nor do I care what anyone else thinks about you.  Be real and be honest with me.  And, be a little bit humble.   And, be personable and respect me enough that you tell me directly a little something about yourself as a human being, and at least feign an interest in connecting with me as a human being, and let your music speak for itself.  Okay.  Rant over. 

 

 

 

I would have said it a little differently, but have to say, I agree with HoboSage.  It comes across much better and is more relatable in first person.  First person has a warmer feel to it and you can breathe a little personality into it.

[Pahchisme Plaid]

I don't know how the media thing works to know if you can do this, but the box you have off to the side where you can play your music (I'm viewing from a desktop),  has a great picture.  However, what I thought would add to interest (the music of the first song sort of demands it, I think), is some movement, like for example if you can get the shadows and lights to alternate down the hallway as though someone is moving through the hallway, that would highlight the movement in the music.  If you can't use that picture to do it, I wonder if you could use a short video clip that repeats itself (you know like the DVD's do when you're waiting to play the movie).  Your music needs some movement to accompany it, if you can swing it technologically.

[Richard Tracey]

1 hour ago, HoboSage said:

P.S.  Another reason to have a website based on the name you actually use for music, is to have email accounts for that name too

 

I also want to add a personal BIG GRIPE I have regarding many musician websites - I'm speaking only for myself.  I can't tell you how lame and off-putting I think it is when the "About" or "About Me" section takes the cookie-cutter approach of being a second-person perspective, like it's an objective review of grand acclaim from Rolling Stone or something.  I know it's not, I know your blurb was written by you or your "team,", and because I know that, you touting yourself as this great this and that comes off to me as an arrogant insult to my intelligence.  I don't give a damn about any musical "accomplishments" you think you have achieved, and nor do I care what anyone else thinks about you.  Be real and be honest with me.  And, be a little bit humble.   And, be personable and respect me enough that you tell me directly a little something about yourself as a human being, and at least feign an interest in connecting with me as a human being, and let your music speak for itself.  Okay.  Rant over. 

 

 

 

 

What do you think of my About section? I hate speaking about myself, although I know from time to time 'we' have to speak about ourselves to get the message out.

[Richard Tracey]

18 minutes ago, Pahchisme Plaid said:

I would have said it a little differently, but have to say, I agree with HoboSage.  It comes across much better and is more relatable in first person.  First person has a warmer feel to it and you can breathe a little personality into it.

 

Okay, I need to ask again.... does my About page not read as first person? I use 'I' a lot, which should give that impression.

[Pahchisme Plaid]

It Does, Richard, and that's a good thing.  I was agreeing with HoboSage in the event you might be tempted to go a different direction.  You have very warm commentary there.  It does need to be edited to put you in your best light and to shorten it a bit (attention spans), but you're headed in the right direction, I think.

[Richard Tracey]

8 minutes ago, Pahchisme Plaid said:

I don't know how the media thing works to know if you can do this, but the box you have off to the side where you can play your music (I'm viewing from a desktop),  has a great picture.  However, what I thought would add to interest (the music of the first song sort of demands it, I think), is some movement, like for example if you can get the shadows and lights to alternate down the hallway as though someone is moving through the hallway, that would highlight the movement in the music.  If you can't use that picture to do it, I wonder if you could use a short video clip that repeats itself (you know like the DVD's do when you're waiting to play the movie).  Your music needs some movement to accompany it, if you can swing it technologically.

 

I am sure there will be something out there that gives like a stutter effect on a static image when music is playing, but I don't know if that needs to be done through a video or not.

 

The other thing you mentioned, would have to be a video for the movement.

 

I don't own the image I used. It is a placeholder, but is similar to what I want to achieve looks wise. I just need to find an old delapitated building to get this effect. I could then have a figure walking down it on built up images, with a slight tweak to make it look like it's moving too fast or something.