Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

This was a reply I just posted in the UK forum, but I felt it deserved to be a topic of it's own in this one, here it is:

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 were forced to fill out details for each and every instrument (see item #2)!!

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 (and NO idea if it will EVER pay off!). 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.

I agree, personally I would like to see a specific songwriters profile category. I dont want to be in a band really but I'd like to colaberate. I'm fairly creative but I play guitar like crap. I can write riffs that I can barely play that when played by a real guitar player sound great (to me anyway). There is no way for me to do searchs for people interested in songwriting specifically. So like most on this site I'll wander off.

I have to agree. I haven't looked around much at profiles, not many in my area and very few are focused on the musical styles I'm into. (classic/southern rock and blues). The one person who did try to contact me through the forums never replied after I responded. I still have no idea what she wanted...

I can't afford the premium membership, how am I supposed to pay for this site if I'm NOT MAKING ANY MONEY...not making much money if I'm not playing, it's not easy to justify another monthly bill when I'm struggling to keep the utilities from being turned off, and I'm looking for a band specifically to help alleviate that situation. How am I supposed to come up with money to pay for this site when I'm trying to survive on no more than $20 a week or so for groceries, after the bills kill my meager paychecks? Actually it's worse than that now, the motel I was working for cut me back to one hour a day 2 weeks ago and I quit, 1 hour a day is an insult and won't even pay for the gas to get there. He said he didn't think I got enough done, while he never has cut his head housekeeper back to an hour a day when she didn't do specific jobs he gave her for weeks at a time. I'll never even look at another Best Western, I'm now a walking bad advertisement.

The ads on the site don't bother me, advertising is a necessary evil on the Internet, so I mostly ignore them unless they happen to be the garish, stupid bright flashy numbers that distract from the content of the page. Then it's not hard to decide 'this sucks' and move on. Usually the ones I see here aren't bad.

I think a rearrangement of the layout and priorities of this site would be very beneficial to both the musicians and the site administration. I wouldn't mind the premium membership fee if I could actually afford it, but until I can either find better employment or get into a working band it's not possible, and that defeats the purpose of joining at all. At this point, the only reason I'm still around is to browse the forums and see what the regulars have to say, most of them seem to be good people and I know some are excellent musicians. But contacts? Nonexistent. That's primarily because it costs to be allowed contact. Starving musicians don't have the bucks, you're shooting yourself in the foot here...

I think I'll go check out craigslist...I think there's one for Shreveport...

I feel ya Pete! I'm a starving artist myself. if I payed to join the sites that have something to offer it would add up quickly. and the fact is they all offer little for the money! craigslist is free so what incentive does anyone who's struggling to make ends meet have to fork out the $? yes the catagories here are lacking to say the least. one really has little idea of what the musician has to offer without investigating. the last site I joined (musicians in your city) was "very" specific about info on what I was looking for and what I had to offer. I would suggest getting more sponsorship. Bandmix you might consider showing potential sponsors these post of just what the "musicians" wanted, and how you have provided just that. then you possibly offer this site for free, or maybe just $5, and charge for your other site!

On an off-topic note here, that lends to the topic I think,
I went out to buy guitar strings today. THREE guitar stores relatively close to me and ALL of them are closed on Sunday. I can understand some businesses wanting to have one day off, but I would think most people go out to buy luxury items and accessories on weekends. I know I do. What bothers me about it, is the same attitude when I'm inside the store (that one we all know we get from employees), that "i'm looking DOWN at you, unless you are spending $1000 or more..." attitude. That same attitude that treats us like we're idiots. The same attitude that says "they can come to US when we decide to be open and WANT to sell it to them" attitude. I see it almost every time I go into the store. The guy at the sam ash near my job hates my guts because I called him out on his shitty attitude in front of half the store.

But I think that idea trangresses to many businesses in how they deal with musicians. Everyone seems to think we're either made of money or some shitbag idiot who doesn't have the money and is therefore a waste of time.

I see it from bar owners, I see it from music stores, and I see it from WEB SITES. I'm not pointing the finger at bandmix specifically here, I want to make that clear, but it is something to think about.

Bandmix your customers are talking and you should be listening. Fix what can be fix. I'm already on the fence about not renewing my subscription next year after just being a member for three months.

OK... let me see what I can do about it... in the meantime, keep sending those checks..... or else....

Husband is going thru the bills just now. He questioned an amount charged to "Echo Media". I was really confused about what it was, so I looked them up online...... Bandmix is an Echo Media company. Echo Media is a HUGE Corporation. It is not a small potatoes kinda company. Just to let you all know...

.....then if that's the case..... they shouldn't run the site so shabbily like a kid out of high school!! Shame on them Imagine that... a big corporation with half assed premium services!

well that explains their apparent "aint answerin, dont givva shiitt" attitude then doesn't it!

*(;>)-~

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the feedback. You may not believe it, but we do make a list of all constructive ideas and migrate the best ones to our development list. We have been doing a giant system overhaul for the last few months. This however is all behind the user side and so you will not see many differences with the user experience. Upon completion of this system upgrade though, one of the priority updates (as it has been a popular one) will be to update the instruments section. This will allow a guage of experience for each instrument that you play. As we are constantly working and improving BandMix, you will see even more updates over the next 6 months. Thanks again.

-Rob
BandMix Staff
www.bandmix.com

BMix



Joined: 01 Aug 2004
Posts: 31
Location: United States, South Carolina, Charleston


hmm,
not many posts: perhaps this is a part of the problem...

Censored!
Yesss!
I've finally had a post censored!!

I'm in some sorta new club I'm sure..

I'm actually jealous!... I wanted to be the fukker who struck the nerve!

Kramerguy, thanks for starting this! It's good to know I'm not the only one going crazy with this site!!

I want to love bandmix in the worst way. It's so hard when it seems like it's just not organized as good as it should be. I would love DESPERATLY for there to be a songwriter/colloboration section, organized by genre. PLEASE BANDMIX. That way you could find musicians to collaborate with online without having to blindly send messages to people (which never get a response). It's annoying that I have to pay $10 a month on here, another $10 a month to a colloboration based site and still check craigslist/myspace/harmonycentral. I'd give $5 more a month just for that.

Also, I really think the instruments played should be limited to one instrument. If someone is a singer and wants to be a singer in a band, they should just be listed as a singer. Not singer/baritone, singer/alto or even worse, the singer/drummer/piano/guitar/violin/skinflutist/ waster of time. I've wasted so much time contacting people who say they are drummer, when in fact they don't even have a kit and might have played once or twice in their life.

I really really want bandmix to work because of the features it offers. It could potentially be awesome. I would love for it to start heading in the direction it should be. I also agree with the original poster about bandvista. Definately not worth extra money, considering what it offers.

I've been on the fence myself with renewing/continuing my membership.