www.manitobamusic.com

Manitoba Music

This is an archived version of this project. It represents an previous iteration of the site, and is kept for historical purposes. Click here to see the latest version.

 
 

the Hub Of A Vibrant Music Community

Manitoba Music is a constantly updating organization, with hundreds of members tracking and talking about their news bites, press releases, gig dates, album releases, and much more! Both the Manitoba Music association and its members wanted a simple way to keep up with the data, and make it available to their fans. Working hand-in-hand with the organization and Guppy Graphic Design, we worked from the ground up, building relationship databases, user interfaces, live updating calendars, band profiles, and everything they needed to maintain a steady beat on the local music scene.

First Impressions

Open, clean, solid, focused. Manitoba Music's website was designed to get music information into the hands of the people who want it. Shunning busy backgrounds and fancy buttons, the site layout looks great on your desktop, on your tablet, or on your mobile smartphone. Built on CSS3 and HTML5, the site takes advantage of the capabilities of modern browsers while still being a light, snappy load. 

 

Meet The Musicians

Local music isn't just a list of names, its a community. Its about meeting the neighbours, listening to good music, and having a good time doing it. And in Manitoba Music's neighbourhood, public profiles allow artists, bands, promoters, venues, studios, and everyone to shine. Members can feature photos, audio samples, and online videos. They can link in their Twitter and Facebook feeds to keep in touch with their fans. And with the list of upcoming gigs, getting together for that evening of live music is only a matter of time!

Building on Social Media

It's not a fad, it's a revolution. Being able to stay in contact with hundreds of fans, supporters, and followers in near-real-time has changed the way artists and bands promote themselves. Manitoba Music took this idea to heart, incorporating social media into the heart of their new site. Facebook powers their comments on photos, videos, news, and profiles. Flickr powers the photo gallery, Youtube and Vimeo power the video gallery. Twitter and Facebook are featured in the sidebar, and members can add their own feeds on their public profiles. The more the Manitoba Music site is updated, the more it reaches out.

Live Music Calendar

The best way to support local music is to get out there and see them live. Members can create and manage upcoming events through provided editors, having the gigs appear on the live music calendar, on their own public profile, and featured in the sidebar. They can even link their events with other members if they share the playbill, and share their events through RSS feeds, iCAL subscriptions, and custom javascript widgets. Providing times, venues, promoters, descriptions, ticket prices, they can give fans all the information they need to come out and have a good time!

Signups and Renewals

Custom forms are not just a matter of collecting the right information. Working closely with Manitoba Music to determine their requirements and workflow, we took care to build a form that was easy to use and understand. The goal was to have clear fields and labels without weighing everything down with extraneous help text or instructions. From there, Manitoba Music could follow up with a potential member and have them set up with a public profile in a few clicks.