MP3 creating and posting - quality or quantity?

[sunsetyellow]

Hello everybody!

I'm about to start messing about with my new audio pc (a weird mongrel I got from a mate and have tweaked myself) and I was going to do the most important thing first - post tracks of my band on our label website. Trouble is I only have dial-up and a small amount of webspace to put the mp3s.

So my question is should I:
A). post loads of full songs at really shit quality
B). post short clips of loads of songs at good quality
C). post a few full songs at good quality

I am kinda tending towards one of the first two options but I'm not sure what quality is best for everyone who downloads stuff (as I don't generally download myself due to not having broadband). What quality is a good compromise?

So as consumers of mp3s, what would you (and do you) prefer?

[getreel]

I would say C. You like good quality or you wouldn't be on TapeOp forum. What does your label think? Do they care whether or not you post full songs? That would be the only other concern. I only say C because that's what I would do and have done in the past. I sometimes throw up links on forums to my tracks for feedback so I want good qaulity. Thanks for listening to my suggestions.

[drliebs]

I agree with option C. As an interested consumer I would want a full song to enjoy, and as an engineer I can't stand crappy mp3's (allthough civilians don't seem to mind). I wouldn't want to post everything because you want to leave the consumer with a desire for more, and hopefully they will pay for that. Also, you can pick your absolute best stuff to entice them to listen to more or buy it all. If you put up some less kick ass songs (I know us musicians think it is all great, but let's be honest) you might turn them off.

160 kb is best compromise IMHO. Consumers may say 120.

[sunsetyellow]

I would say C. You like good quality or you wouldn't be on TapeOp forum. What does your label think? Do they care whether or not you post full songs? That would be the only other concern. I only say C because that's what I would do and have done in the past. I sometimes throw up links on forums to my tracks for feedback so I want good qaulity. Thanks for listening to my suggestions.

It's my band's label anyway (though we are thinking of releasing other stuff) and I do the label website anyway so we don't have to consider anyone else's views on this. Except I thought I'd ask anyway 'cos I'm nice like that.

My only problem with option C is having to choose which tracks to put on the website. Perhaps I could rotate them? I dunno...

[drliebs]

Yes, rotate...keep it fresh. That is one of the hard things about websites unless you are just super busy band. The site can get stale fast.