I’ve been getting some great feedback from composers, performers, and other music professionals lately, and I’m in love with some of their suggestions for how to make the site better and friendlier, so I figured I’d mention a few of the features and changes I’ll be adding/making over the next few weeks.
Composer Photos & Bios
I’d like to add photos and bios for the composers on the site – it gives the site a more personal touch, and it definitely makes a difference knowing something about the composer when you’re looking at their works. Just seeing a title and a name with instrumentation and duration, even with sample pages from the scores, is a fairly cold experience, and doesn’t do much to draw anyone in.
Plus, it really fits in with my philosophy of promoting my peers – the additional exposure that this basic bit of information affords can only be positive.
Featured Composer
To make further use of composers’ bios and photos, and promote the composers on the site even more, I’ll be creating a Featured Composer “module” that will cycle through the roster and highlight a random composer. I suspect that making it happen will take a fair amount of work – after I’ve made some basic functional decisions like: how often do I cycle through the roster, how long will a composer’s information stay on display before I cycle to the next person, if/how to automate the process, etc.
What Else?
I’m really interested in making the site as friendly and helpful as possible, so if there are any suggestions out there in Reader-land, please feel free to email me with your thoughts, suggestions, comments, etc at dennis@newmusicshelf.com.
