Welcome to SImusician.com, the future home to a hyperlocal social networking community for musicians who want to network, music fans looking for local concerts, and venues that host such events.
The site will be set up in the style of Facebook in that every member must have their own individual user profile. Here, fans, musicians, and venue representatives all are on the same level. Direct messages can be sent between anyone, and public profile comments can only occur after both users have approved their “friend” requests.
A musician’s homepage is designed to look like a personal resume/presskit for being discovered for collaboration through the site.
There are a maximum of 5 photos a musician can upload as headshots or press photos (This is not designed as a replacement for facebook and persona photo sharing is not the point of this site, hence the limit).
The user has the ability to upload sample audio tracks of their work.
Upon registration, the user chooses what instruments he/she plays and they are displayed on this page – profiles can also searched by instrument
A personal bio.
A blog – can be populated by an RSS feed such as Twitter
A band page is a brand new page that looks similar to a profile page but is created/maintained like a Facebook group. A band is created by a user and (s)he sends an invite to the profiles of the other band members.
Venues are an important part of creating events. A person can register a Venue (pending approval of the administrator) and can make sure that the details of bands’ postings of events at the venue are accurate.
When a venue is added to the site, it gets added to a dropdown menu when a band is selecting “venue” for their event. They then have the ability to add themselves to an already existing event (that was created by the venue or another band) or continue creating a new event. This minimizes the chance of double posts
When a venue creates an event, it can choose the bands playing by searching the site and selecting their names. The bands receive notification that they’ve been added to a show – it also updates the band’s calendar on their page.
Since most venues do not have a very robust website, the venue profile can act as their main page. It includes things like a calendar, history, menu, drink specials, blog, and special announcements page.
I feel that the calendar is the most important new feature on this site. It is the most useful page for the non-musician to find out what’s going on in Staten Island on any given day. This is one of the huge advantages of the “hyperlocal” idea. Imagine trying to have a giant calendar of every concert scheduled on every MySpace Music page – impossible!
Automatically-updated conglomeration of all events posted by all bands and venues on the site
Members can say whether they’re going to the show – this is visible in the show’s details popup window
Since artists, bands, and venues have restrictions as to the number of photos allowed on their site, there is a public photo upload section. On this page, anyone is able to post photos taken at shows.
Albums take the name the date/venue of the show, selectable from the past events on the calendar. For example, if I wanted to add photos of the May 4 concert at Dock St. I can select it from past events and add photos to that album. This keeps photos organized by exactly when and where they were taken.
Photos are searchable by the name of the band on the bill for that show as well as by date
This is a Craigslist-style section for announcements, for sale, musicians wanted, etc.
Also includes a search – “by instrument” and “looking for” (i.e. gigs, jam, studio work, lessons – this is filled out on the individual user’s profile)
Another great thing about being hyperlocal is that it is possible to get relevant advertisements on the site (and they are more highly valued)
Venues’ specials, big events
Band CD release parties/shows
Local restaurants, music stores, and other businesses
Local merchandise store – bands can post CD’s and merchandise on their band page, it automatically gets indexed on a “store” page that shows all merchandise being sold sitewide
Buy tix online – option to buy tickets through the site from event details page. Venues like selling tickets beforehand, most likely would not have to raise ticket prices to get $1 per ticket sold through the site
A music player at the top of the page playing random songs that Staten Island bands have uploaded to the site. A user will be able to change the characteristics of this player via their personal settings. Options will include turning on/off autoplay as well as choosing what genres of music they’d like to listen to (kind of like GTA3 
)
So there you have it – a preview of the basic structure of the site. We will be having a soft launch mid December for select bands and bloggers to join the site and get some content up, and (hopefully) we’ll be completely opening our doors on January 1, 2010. Wish us luck!
Cheers,
Rich Gilberto