Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I have a suggestion for the BandMix people... make the site COMPLETELY FREE. The rest of the internet is slowly moving toward an ad-based business model. MySpace, Facebook, and most recently the Wall Street Journal are excellent examples. Making it free would increase site traffic, along with the sites overall effectiveness connecting people.

Most people just put their email address or myspace link in their profile anyway. They cheat the system, and I applaud them.

Shhhhhhhh, as the immortal ICE-T says "there goes the neighborhood". lol

guitarlesson wrote:I have a suggestion for the BandMix people... make the site COMPLETELY FREE. The rest of the internet is slowly moving toward an ad-based business model. MySpace, Facebook, and most recently the Wall Street Journal are excellent examples. ....

Uhm, Wallstreet Journal is far from free. Subscriptions, even with its discount offer, are 52 weeks for $99, or 26 weeks for $59. The online version, like most e-papers, is not the complete edition either.

We've gone round and round about this issue before, but I guess it's a dead horse that still has a tuft of flesh and fur on its bones, so here goes. Solely ad-based internet ventures don't make real money unless they are in the top tiny percentage of such businesses, like Yahoo, Google and Amazon. A musicians networking site is simply not going to be in that category.

Hmmm... I heard about it on NPR. Must have been some other paper. Or perhaps it's about PLANS to switch. I shall research it. But it was a major print news provider.

Being a new user, I've not seen the past discussion, so I am sure you'll see this topic over and over and over as newbies sign up.

But perhaps you're right. And for the record, $10 isn't bad as pay sites go. I suspect people would be more inclined to subscribe if it was $5-$6. I mean... that's the price of a burger. Who wouldn't throw that down?

I wouldn't, and, with all the other sites available for free, I suspect a vast majority of others wouldn't pay, either. . . . don't know . . .
With Bandmix, I've seen about 7-8 people from CT, advertising for musicians, in the last several YEARS, and I'd have to pay $120/year to contact them.
With the other services, I see about 15 CT people a DAY, and I can contact all of them for free . . .
Sorry, there's just no contest there . . .
I kind of suspect that, if they made it mandatory to pay, that Bandmix would lose 85% of their membership overnight.
And - with them gone, the remaining, paying members would be visiting a very, very desolate site, indeed . . .
.
But I do enjoy this forum.
Other forums I've visited are either populated by kiddies, or one style of music exclusively, or people with less than 3 years playing experience, or they talk about things that aren't as interesting to me or, or, or . . etc.
So, I think Bandmix has the best forum . . .
. . .

guitarlesson wrote:
Being a new user, I've not seen the past discussion, so I am sure you'll see this topic over and over and over as newbies sign up.

That is a very true & accurate statement.
You'd think it'd be in a FAQ or something...

Not that I grumble against this site, but there does seem to be the feeling that it's looked after by aliens...meaning one gets the feeling that folks don;t pay too much attention to the content of these forums.

I suspect they just set the ball rolling & let it roll...

Aliens....taking over through free message boards...you know what? You may have a great movie script in there, dude!

"Coming - Summer 2010 - INDEPENDENCE DAY II....Log in for your DOOM"

I agree, bring the price down to a more reasonable amount. Dare I say it uuuuummmm sprinkle in some ad's (we're used to it).

guitarlesson wrote:I have a suggestion for the BandMix people... make the site COMPLETELY FREE. The rest of the internet is slowly moving toward an ad-based business model. MySpace, Facebook, and most recently the Wall Street Journal are excellent examples. Making it free would increase site traffic, along with the sites overall effectiveness connecting people.

Most people just put their email address or myspace link in their profile anyway. They cheat the system, and I applaud them.

Nine bucks people, nine bucks. If in this country you can not afford nine dollars, then how can you afford all that expensive equipment?

Hey, $120 a year for something that's free elsewhere isn't such a great deal.
.
And $9 will buy me gas to get me to my next gig and back.

RhythmMan_BluesRockFolk wrote:And $9 will buy me gas to get me to my next gig and back.

Just wait a year, RhythmMan, that $9 will just about get you to the gig, but there is no turning back, lol. Gas prices are soaring.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

iralarry wrote:Nine bucks people, nine bucks. If in this country you can not afford nine dollars, then how can you afford all that expensive equipment?

I have been able to afford the equipment because I don't spend that 9 bucks on unnecessary crap! I agree with you RhythmMan, $9 will go further if you spend in places that are actually beneficial. $9 for a "maybe" contact is ridiculous.

Plus, $9 can buy a few beers!

I signed up for the premium membership ONLY because I'm currently looking to join a band and needed to contact other members who didn't have the foresight to put their email in their profile.

Soon as I get a band, of course I will be downgrading my membership, so yeah, it does seem like a bad business model in the long run.

What's also notable is that I've found more contacts on Craigslist than here, and that's 100% free. I do like that I don't get pop-ups and those rude 'cover the part of the page you are trying to view' ads here.

It's a shame. If bandmix was the ONLY site, then I would be a lot more willing to keep an active membership. $9 per month seems excessive, I would rather pay like $30 a year, and it also seems like a more reasonable price considering that bandmix isn't even close to having a majority of the market share.

Bandmix certainly has a much bigger membership than some of the smaller regional services that are free, but, it seems very unproductive.

Not only can you, as a band not contact a possible musician without joining, but the musician also has to join in order to view their 'email' to even know that someone has tried to contact them. It'd ludicrous.

Compounding the problem, is after a few weeks, it seems people stop logging in and their posts are stale, since they realize that they have to shell out money fo' nothing.

What MIGHT help here bandmix.... is if you would send an alert to the account holders real email address (whether free or paid) that someone has tried to contact them about their post. As of now, a person has no idea if someone is trying to contact them, and i proved this out by logging in and "emailing" one of my own posts... I have yet to receive any notice to advise me to log into my account to see who is trying to make contact.

Musicians, at least in my neck of the woods (pro level aside) don't have a lot of disposable fundage, and frankly if they wanted to work really hard for a minimal result they'd be happy with a factory job.

You need to make this more friendly to the musicians and bands, (read that as productive and useful).... and worry less about getting money out of the very musicians who need it most.

I responded to a dozen people yesterday and none of them even know it. They are all local to me, and would probably jump into our band if given the chance since we are one of the top tribute acts, but alas... they don't even know to log in.

I got so frustrated, I decided to post to the forum, but I guess that post violated the rules and was removed since I cant seem to locate it today.

OK, well thanks for giving me space to rant. Back to fruitlessly trying to find a bassist who sings, within 25m of me, who is aware that I am trying to contact them!


Vick
www.MonstersOfRock.info

keep trying Monsters, a lot of the guys on here (the site not so much the forum) are just standin around with it in their hand if ya know what I mean. It took some doing / time but I was able to fill out my band here. I seen lots of um put up a site and dissapear like that makes em a rock star or something. (yo dude I'm on Bandmix, awsome)