Any ideas for a better website?

[ligeti]

I just put this landing website together which will then refer one to the page with the music samples. Please let me know what you think and if I can improve (which I'm quite sure I can).

http://kurtandersonaudio.com

[Gregg Juke]

I don't know, Kurt... It's pretty simple, elegant, and to-the-point.

One might expect to see more business details, info on equipment, or contact info, but then again, all of the importanat stuff is there. The painting and the verbiage all point to what you do and want to do-- record classical music.

As to the SoundCloud recordings-- Wow. Those sound like classical records to me! Nicely done.

Too bad you didn't include some "Efrem Zimbalist, _Jr._" (I've always like "The FBI;" but then again, I was _really_ partial to _Stephanie Zimbalist_).

GJ

[Snarl 12/8]

You've made a choice. I think the simplicity makes it stand out once people get there, but I'm worried that you haven't given google (and the other search engines, if there are any ) anything to grab on to. Do you want people to find this site organically (via browsing and search on the web) or is it just a web address to stick on a business card? If it's s the latter you might want to reward them with more details too. Although the sound files do pretty much speak for themselves.

I've been out of the game for a bit, but I still think having a blog is probably the best way to drive traffic to your site and build a following. If you're a good writer and willing to put in the time. Just keep it updated with what you're doing. Maybe that's been eclipsed by the twitterverse and the bookface.

Make sure that page at least has all the buzzwords on it that you want people to have you pop up if they get searched for. But I think without more, fresh, useful content, google is pretty much going to ignore you.

[lifeintime]

There is something to be said about simplicity. The landing page says what you do and how you do it. The soundcloud mixes are beautiful and very relaxing. A great way to spend a Sunday morning.

When I'm not pretending to be a small-time recordist, I pretend to be a developer. I'm selective about the feeds I subscribe to; this one is in the category of "Things to Consider" relating to the marriage of the web and business. I subscribed a couple of years ago and it is spam-free. I hope you find it helpful.

http://www.spinweb.net/

Cheers!

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i don't have any advice for you about your site, but

The soundcloud mixes are beautiful and very relaxing. A great way to spend a Sunday morning.

[Anthony Caruso]

Beautiful recordings for sure!

I don't know if this was common to everyone's browser (I'm on Firefox 3.6.18, Mac OSX 10.4.11) but when I clicked Hear Samples, a little sub window popped up and it just had the Soundcloud link, which I then had to click. Maybe streamlining that so clicking the first link just sent me to Soundcloud.

And I thought the Hear Samples link was too small, and maybe could be in a better place. I like the simplicity thing you're doing, so you could get even more to the point, the first things I could see on your page are "Kurt Anderson Audio :: Elegant and affordable stereo recordings for musicians :: Hear Samples". Make your name the biggest font size as it is, then the tagline and link a smaller size (but bigger than the upcoming paragraph). Then put the whole paragraph about what you do, in the normal font size that's there now. Someone comes to your site, hits hear samples, soundcloud instantly opens in another tab, they hit play and then go back to your site and listen as they read about what you do. That's often how I'm surfin. Actually right now I'm listening while I type this. All But Phrase is awesome!

And just to be super picky while I'm here, is there a way to get rid of the Owner Login thing, and maybe the GoDaddy advert tab on the bottom right? I think with your site as simple as it is, they stick out.

[Peterson Goodwyn]

Looks really nice. A couple of ideas:

Personally, I would lose "a very simple Blumlein microphone configuration" and just use "I record live music with two figure-8 microphones placed in an optimal position to record the truest stereo image possible." "Very simple" kind of sells you short--to some idiots it might even imply that they could just Google "Blumlein" and cut you out of the picture completely.

Get something up there to capture email addresses/Twitter followers/Facebook likes. Having a nice landing page is great, but it's even better if it can lead to opening a line of communication that will keep you on people's radar longer than 30 seconds. Make a clear call to action with a reason people should follow/like/give you their email.

Finally, you might want to focus your blurb more on what musicians will get by working with you rather than on who you are and what you do. I know this sounds like hard-boiled marketing speak, but you're not inspiring anyone to pick up the phone by telling them the kinds of music YOU enjoy recording. They want to know what you are going to do for THEIR careers and music. In other words, people don't want a 1/4" drill bit, they want a 1/4" hole. See what I mean?

[Peterson Goodwyn]

BTW, if you want to get rid of the login and godaddy BS without messing with the site's code, add this to the CSS stylesheet:

#logindisplay, .blurb {
display:none;
}

[ligeti]

Updated my website with a lot of the suggestions mentioned here.

If you feel so inclined, let me know what you think.

Thanks again

http://kurtandersonaudio.com/

[Snarl 12/8]

If it was me, I'd try to get more verbiage "above the fold" by making your name smaller, so it fits across the top and then make the tag line under it, even smaller than that to differentiate it from your name. I found that big blocky headline hard to parse.

I'd also get rid of the "Home page" link at the bottom, 'cause it just refreshes the page. I'd also do my damndest to get rid of that "powered by" bullshit at the bottom. Aside from that I think it just might work.

[jnTracks]

If it was me, I'd try to get more verbiage "above the fold" by making your name smaller, so it fits across the top and then make the tag line under it, even smaller than that to differentiate it from your name. I found that big blocky headline hard to parse.

I'd also get rid of the "Home page" link at the bottom, 'cause it just refreshes the page. I'd also do my damndest to get rid of that "powered by" bullshit at the bottom. Aside from that I think it just might work.

+1 here. the text of the page feels too big to me. it feels like this information would fit without scrolling. you can embed a small sound cloud player on the bottom right that would contain a menu of all your samples that would play right on the page. no need for links at all! (and yea, update the title so the browser tab doesn't say "home page". it should be the name of your page here.)

[mscottweber]

Composers made certain sections or music louder or softer for a reason.

Its a minor typo, but those types of things tend to turn me off or websites...

edit: Is it a typo? Re-reading, I can see how it DOES make grammatical sense that way.

[Snarl 12/8]

Its a minor typo...

Typos on web sites always make me have to engage in a guessing game that usually doesn't end in favor of the web site owner. Is this person ignorant, have bad communication skills, poor attention to detail or are they absolutely top notch at what they really do and sucky at putting together a web site <-- totally forgivable in my book.

If you're only going to have a few lines of text you better get them right. I found the text clunky syntactically and grammatically. People don't consider the text (the content, not the font) to be a design element, but the text itself can set the tone of your site as much or more than a logo, picture, whatever. (humorous, serious, classy, trashy, etc.) If you can, have a brilliant writer go over your blurb and sharpen it up for you. You're trying to project a classy image, so speak the king's english.

Think of the text itself as a design element. Get it mastered.

[rant]I see so many professional designs that use that "lorem ipsum" latin crap as placeholder text and expect the customer to come up with and insert the real text. Some of these designs you can tell will break with too much text, or not enough. Or that real explanation of the pages subject will make a picture seem stupid there. But that's how they "ship" it to the customer, which I think is bullshit. The text is almost always the most important element of a web page and it shouldn't be given short shrift. I'd rather see someone pay a pro for the verbiage and do a crappy design for themselves than some of these beautiful looking but symantically null web sites that are out there.[/rant]