A good question. There are countless website design and hosting options available out there. Some hosting services allow you to design and maintain your own website, so if cost is a concern and you've got the time and desire to learn proper design and website mastering, one of these services might be a viable option for you.

But if you're the kind of busy professional who wants your website to be accurate and up-to-date without your constant involvement, Wired Musician offers a long list of features that will interest you:

• An Hour of Free Updates Every Month

  We understand all too well how busy you are and how quickly your information can change, so Wired Musician offers you our Real-Time Reign™ Policy — a full hour of updates to your website every month included in your maintenance fees. And any time it takes us more than two business days to get to your updates, we'll waive your hosting fees for the following month.

• Dynamic Website Content, including:

  • 

    Always accurate, automatically.

    Automated News Items and Upcoming Events

    The main thing that keeps people coming back to your website is changing — and accurate — content. Would you like your home page to display an announcement of your next concert — or the next five, or the next ten — even when you're performing daily? Your Wired Musician website will do this automatically for you.

  • Filterable Performance Schedules

    Imagine a visitor to your site clicking through to your performance schedule, and automatically seeing your next performance, whether it's tonight or next month, displayed at the top of the list. And with a single mouse-click that list can be changed to show all your performances, or only past performances.

    In this way your website also becomes an on-line archive of your performance history, because concerts are never deleted from our system. For an example, visit Jennifer Frautschi's Performances page.

  • Filterable List of Works

    Of special interest to composers is our filterable list of works feature. With a single mouse-click visitors to your website can filter or sort your list of works to help them find what they're looking for more quickly. For an example, visit Jeffery Cotton's List of Works page.

• A Growing Database of Repertoire

  Performers and ensembles in particular will benefit from Wired Musician's growing repertoire database. If you're a violinist who tells us that you're performing the Mendelssohn E minor Concerto, the full title will automatically appear on your website:

  Felix Mendelssohn
  Concerto in E Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 64 (1844)

  And of course we can override the full title with any other variation you wish.

• A Growing Database of Venues

  

  Our list of concert venues all over the world is growing rapidly. A visitor to your site, seeing that you're performing at a local venue, can click on the venue name to view a pop-up window full of current information, including the address, phone number, box office schedule, and a link to the venue's own website. For example, find out here about Carnegie Hall.

• A Growing Database of Musicians and Ensembles

  Every time a Wired Musician member performs with another musician or ensemble that they want to credit on their website, that information is added to our database. So if you choose, we can automatically include hyperlinks on your website to the other musicians, ensembles, orchestras and festivals you perform with. These people and organizations are invited to keep Wired Musician up-to-date with their latest bios, photographs and website links. So your website stays current without you having to lift a finger.

• A Printer-Friendly Version of All Information on Your Website

  If you have a website, you're probably familiar with having to maintain two copies of your bio or program notes — one on the website, and another in a plain, "printer-friendly" version for administrators or reviewers.

  Wired Musician makes this unnecessary. Our system allows any piece of information on your website to be displayed in a printer-friendly format, with no background colors or graphics. As long as our database has your current information, the printer-friendly version is ready and waiting.

  For an example, click here to see a printer-friendly version of this page.

• A "Holistic" Approach to Organizing Your Information

  

  Repertoire, performances, venues and other pieces of information are all related. Wired Musician manages these relationships behind the scenes, so that information on your website is always consistent and correct.

  Every piece of information on your website is related to another in some way. For example, if you're a composer, your List of Works is of course directly related to your List of Performances and Discography. Because the Wired Musician system intelligently connects all this information behind the scenes, your List of Works page automatically provides links to the relevant performance or recording, and vice-versa.

  Further, updates we make to "third party" information, such as venue phone numbers and ticket information, instantly appears on your website anywhere that venue is displayed. In this way the information on your website is always consistent and correct without your constant involvement.

There are many other advantages to a Wired Musician membership, including automated mailinglist functions, and a page where visitors to your site can add themselves to your mailing list. Coming soon is an on-line calendar service that small ensembles can use to keep their members always up-to-date on the latest changes, complete with automated E-Mail alerts and acknowledgement functions.

And as Wired Musician continues to grow we have plans to expand the database services we offer. Our repertoire database will be expanded to include program notes and full instrumentation. Composers will soon benefit from automated alerts about competitions and grants.

Related Topics

Now that you know what makes a Wired Musician membership something truly unique, you'll want to know what it's going to cost. Check out these areas:

• What does a Wired Musician website cost?
• What's included in the setup costs?
• I'm sold! Tell me how to get started!

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