What are your favorite indie label websites?

December 29, 2004 9:10 AM

I run the website for a very small indie music label, and I want to make it better. What are your favorite indie label websites, and what makes them so good?
posted by buriednexttoyou to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

I don't go in much for flashy graphics or anything, although I like the design of HUSH records. Mostly I think the most important thing is easy access to MP3s. Sites that have streams instead, or not MP3s are not nearly as effective at getting me to buy music.

But this strikes me as a policy decision.

What's the site?
posted by OmieWise at 9:13 AM on December 29, 2004

Read Merlin's post on web design for bands and labels. Our Dear Leader weighs in.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:31 AM on December 29, 2004

To add to monju_bosatsu, check out the discussion in the blue on Merlin's post.
posted by revgeorge at 9:38 AM on December 29, 2004

I like Cuff The Duke. Very easy to navigate and read, and hardly any graphics, so virtually no download time, plus it has a nice homespun feel to it - you just know one of the band members runs it. Also The Decembrists, even though they're cheap with the mp3s. Neither of these are going to win any design awards, but they're user-friendly. It's nice to have some glitz and artsy-fartsy stuff, but not at the expense of usability. Where's the site you designed, buriednexttoyou? If you dare to share it...
posted by iconomy at 9:55 AM on December 29, 2004

I like pocketclock, just because it looks cute. but I hate splash pages.
posted by mcsweetie at 10:05 AM on December 29, 2004

My heart still belongs to Dischord Records. Not a bad site: tasteful, the IA is well executed (usable) and not a lot of non-essential bullshit like flash on it.
posted by psmealey at 10:30 AM on December 29, 2004

I'll tell you, I like VERY few of the music label websites out there, and I'm forced to look at them every day. Mute's isn't horrible, for one, as it has lots of functionality. I can tell you -- from a press perspective, not necessarily as fan or music buyer perspective, who might have different desires -- exactly, in full obnoxious detail, what I want:

1. I want to find the appropriate publicist's phone number and email with one click.

2. I want a chronological list of all the label's bands' shows, both together and also individually in the band's own section of the site -- and, hell, I want to be able to look at that information by geography, too.

3. I want a chronological (and accurate!) list of upcoming releases, grouped by release date. What a lot of us really want from music label sites is future info, not past info. Most people need this information weeks or months in advance; doing only last minute publicity for releases or shows is what hurts small labels. Even daily newspapers are planned weeks in advance -- we're talking three months for monthly mags.

4. No more jokey, pr-speak info. I want to know the band's lineup, history, discography, and want to be able to read their reviews from other sources, either in link or jpg/pdf. I don't want a lot of blather in the way of this info.

5. I want an easy way to find new bands I like. Often I come to a label's website and see a bunch of band names. What do I do then? I click on the name that appeals to me. Isn't that a dumb way to find new bands? Yes, me = dumb. I don't know what the navigational answer to that is: probably a clear two-line description of the band and a link to an mp3.

Sorry to go a little over the top, but let's just say this is an obsession of mine.

[on preview: oh my GOD, yes: no more splash pages! blargh!]
posted by RJ Reynolds at 10:38 AM on December 29, 2004

...and when you post MP3s, please tag them adequately. We are probably downloading a lot of legal free MP3s from a lot of different label sites, and when we hear one we like we want to be able to know who the artist is, not just Artist - Track 1. That way, we will BUY your label's CDs and GIVE YOU MONEY.
posted by matildaben at 10:53 AM on December 29, 2004

I like Cuneiform's site.
posted by kenko at 10:59 AM on December 29, 2004

HUSH needs to lose the frames. It's a pain in the ass to link to individual artist's pages. Very annoying.

If you don't mind Flash, the Numero Group has one of the best sites you'll find for a label. Bad Taste is pretty well done, also.

Not a label, but the band site for My Morning Jacket is very good as far as access to everything in a thoughtful way.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 11:22 AM on December 29, 2004

I like matador records - it has a compact and cute flash menu and it's easy to nav. Jeepster is nice, too. Simple. Look to Kill Rock Stars for what not to do. God I hate that site.
posted by iconomy at 11:32 AM on December 29, 2004

Response by poster: For those of you who want to see my site, I'm not going to self-link, but it's in my profile. I'm in the process of switching from an old generic php template thing to html and css code that I actually have control over... but the new design is still in its infancy, so it's not much to look at yet.

Thanks for all the links, I will be sure to analyze the layouts of all your favorite sites when I have time. I'm sure they will help me make my site better.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 12:08 PM on December 29, 2004

I like PeekABoo's site...no flash crap, just easy, clearly labelled access to the stuff I want (i.e MP3s, tour dates).
posted by alexfw at 12:10 PM on December 29, 2004

Heh, Alexfw that link brings me to the Octopus Project's label. My wife and I caught OP opening for Brendan Benson at Maxwell's in Hoboken years ago ( we were 1 of about 8 people in the audience ). I loved them, she couldn't stand them and almost made us leave ( which would have meant missing Brendan!).

Whenever we have a difference of opinion on something, we always reference the OP, meaning we will have to agree to disagree. I didn't know anyone actually new about them or that they were still around, thanks for triggering the memory!
posted by remlapm at 1:03 PM on December 29, 2004

what would really help me is if designers remembered that there's music nerds out there who want to SEARCH BY FORMAT. I do a weekly club where we only play 7 inches (7evensonly.com if you're in the 916) and while i'd rather look for records online (because I can usually find a way to hear some of the tracks before i buy, which is near impossible at record stores, because most new 7"s are sealed) there are very few sites that permit searching by format -- meaning that I have to look through everything there to see if there's sevens out (i usually just end up looking through the bands i know about to see if they've got sevens -- this is probably , at most, 5% of any label's catalog, which means I'm not going to buy as much as I would if i were exposed to bands previously unknown to me. Also it ends up taking longer than flipping through the 7" section at my local music store.

basically, what i want is:
1) listen to the tracks on the single (and not 30 seconds of the BEGINNING of the song -- let me hear the chorus, man!)
2) sort by format while searching the entire catalog.

out of those, number two is most important to me.

this thread has already, inadvertently, cost me $50. however, it has also saved me $35, because i managed to find a copy of the supergrass "caught by the fuzz" seven, which before now, i thought was only available used -- and priced around $40 + shipping from the UK.
posted by fishfucker at 3:01 PM on December 29, 2004

Web standards, please. Sloan and the Libertines are examples.
posted by joeclark at 11:51 AM on December 30, 2004

i like fourier transform - largely, i think, because it's clearly a labour of love. if you could bottle that...
(it's perhaps not "indie" if that's as in "indie kids", but it's independent, i presume).
(and it's run by someone here, but i can't remember their username)
posted by andrew cooke at 12:20 PM on December 30, 2004