United Kingdom

What are peoples thoughts on this.

I've been a subscriber for a while on and off - 3 month period, then a 1 month break, another 3 months etc etc.

The site tends to move very slow, and provides a lot of false positives eg: it alerts me to members that are "new" that are 80 miles away, thats 160 miles to meet someone.

After 2 months away from the premium usage, I find someone I want to contact, but I don't want to pay £5 to attempt to contact someone (no promise they will reply).

I'd like to see a change in the site in that you can contact as many people as you want, but you can only read their response if you sign up, or some other form of communication, as paying for the site to do nothing, then having to sign up for a month at an expensive rate to contact one person is becoming all to regular and expensive, times are getting tougher (usa based site should be well aware of this) and the cost of this site is becoming too much, more so when you could contact 40 people and get no responses, there must be a better format.

Post some music on your profile!!!

This has been a thorn in my side for a while.

I think Bandmix / Bandvista needs to rethink their format and model.

It would seem less people, or at least less matches in my area, are signing up these days. I just cancelled my premium subscription because it no longer became worth it.

You are correct that most people set up a profile, usually vague, and then never respond. That's fine, I can't blame bandmix for that, or can I?

Upon thinking about this, I can, and will blame bandmix for their own decline. And if you guys (bandmix) are reading this, I have some solid advice for you- read on.

First, you are competing with craigslist, like it or not. Your format is easy, and the forums are nice. Not great, but nice. The largest problem you have is expecting revenue to come from (exclusively?) premium memberships. This is a flaw, because your premium service only adds 1 real feature which is unfortunately the critical feature to musicians and bands. I know there are many other sites that do the same thing, I've set up a profile on 10 different matchmaker sites only to discover that I can't contact anyone, and in some cases, can't even be contacted without subscribing. NOT ONE of these sites has been able to concentrate a larger number of musicians (paid or not) opposed to craigslist.

Some suggestions (what would make a paid membership worthwhile):

1. Add more options in profiles, and search tools. I've mentioned the primary/secondary instrument separation 10 times in the last six months. There's even more that can be done. make the gigs played a more flexible number, same with some of the other fields. I want to know, from a profile, for instance, if a drummer has practice space. I want to know if a guitarist has a car. I want to know if the bassist has a 4 or 5 string bass. This should not be a blank comments field, but radio boxes based on the instruments. That would help a ton, AND it would reduce those annoying "I play 50 instruments" profiles if they had to fill out details for each and every instrument!!

2. Make ALL of the fields REQUIRED to be filled out.

3. If someone fails to respond to messages, there should be a "report" feature, and warnings/eventual cancellation of account if it continues. It should be made clear to every subscriber that even if you are NOT interested in someone who contacts you, that a person, paid member or not, should at least have the decency to reply. Screw them if that's too much to ask. If they leave, then you just ENHANCED your service to your premium members by getting rid of a clusterfuck. Those are the people you WANT to send back to craigslist.

4. I don't mind banner ads. I do mind the ones that get in the way and block my view of the 'body' of a page. You can earn revenue with banner ads and most people aren't that offended so long as you don't allow aggressive advertisers. But jeez, expand your advertising and make a few bucks so you can hire someone to fuggin fix this place up.

5. Allow unpaid members to initiate contact with something like 5-10 contacts a month, and sell it as "unlimited" on upgraded membership. Or maybe a 30-day unlimited feature trial period... something. Your current business model basically chases off potential long-term members because you hit them right up front when they are at a desperate moment to find a replacement or band. I know. Your reputation on other musician forums? Not so good. I recommended your service to someone looking for a band on a MAJOR forum last week, and about 40 people responded "Bandmix sux!" Not ONE person outside myself had anything nice to say. And frankly, I had a hard time defending this site.

You gotta change that perception or you should just close the site now and call it quits.

6. Give paid members here a free membership to bandvista, NOT the other way around. Bandvista is too expensive and really has less visibility than this site. You should reward paid bandmix members, not try to donkey 5 more bucks on top of the 10 we already paid.


As I said. I canceled my premium service, mostly because the economy is kicking my azz right now, but partly because in about 6 months of being a paid member, I've not found ONE band-mate here. I have met a select few from here, but for every bandmix contact I meet, I can count 10 craigslist contacts. And CL contacts aren't so bad. They are people who would be here if the site wasn't so constrictive and vague (on profiles).

Hope you take this advice and use it. I DO care or I wouldn't have bothered to take 15 minutes to type this.

Kramerguy. I agree with everything you've said. BUT - let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. This site has considerable potential, if for no other reason than it is paid for by subscription only. Why do I say that? Because the people paying for it are the ones who control it.

Now. The great thing about your post is that you addressed the problem up front and head on. And you raise excellent points. You have begun a discussion that could lead to some great improvements if the rest of us follow your example and keep our heads. But lets not be too critical of whomever runs Bandmix. It's a good thing they've got going. There are some negative aspects, sure. But we stand a greater chance of success if we help them to achieve their goals as they help us to achieve ours. Who knows, we may even find out we're all after the same thing.

Kramerguy. I agree with everything you've said. BUT - let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. This site has considerable potential, if for no other reason than it is paid for by subscription only. Why do I say that? Because the people paying for it are the ones who control it.

Now. The great thing about your post is that you addressed the problem up front and head on. And you raise excellent points. You have begun a discussion that could lead to some great improvements if the rest of us follow your example and keep our heads. But lets not be too critical of whomever runs Bandmix. It's a good thing they've got going. There are some negative aspects, sure. But we stand a greater chance of success if we help them to achieve their goals as they help us to achieve ours. Who knows, we may even find out we're all after the same thing.

I would generally agree, but there are some older issues that have been addressed in the past and seemingly ignored by bandmix. I do believe we're all after the same thing, but I also think, as I also posted this in general forum, that bandmix does indeed need a sharply worded wake up call. There's very little stopping the next 'bandmix' type site from stealing all the thunder, and frankly, I'm surprised none have yet. Mostly because they all got greedy and want money up front.

For some reason, the same business models everywhere else online that can profit off of traffic alone haven't taken over this industry yet, but eventually one will. And bandmix will fall into the depths of obscurity. Craigslist should be a glowing example of how easily that can happen.

RICK STRINGFELLOW, you are an ass kisser arent you?

Yeah. Deal with it.


(p.s. get back with me after the alcohol-induced stupor wears off)

HEY, he's a PRO ASS KISSER to you, bub.. lol