I got something of a surprise this week.
While logging in to continue my slow-but-steady process of rebuilding my site, I found out that Geocities (my host since 2000) will be ceasing their service "later this year." No specific date yet...but later this year could be next month or December 31st or any day in between. I know Yahoo! (the company that owns Geocities) has been jettisoning money-losing projects since their new CEO arrived in January, so I'm not all that surprised to find out that Geocities was on the chopping block. But as a fairly reliable free service, I'm bummed to see it's disappearing.
Looking around, it looks like I'll be moving the 1970s music site to a paid server. While I didn't place the site online to make money, switching to a new host might be beneficial. First of all, I know I'll have plenty of room to expand the site (something Geocities wasn't going to provide due to bandwidth restrictions placed on their free accounts). So I'll be able to break the site up so that each artist can have its own page; fans of the Rolling Stones won't need to scroll down from Eddie Rabbitt's listing and wait for the images to fill in. A nice result is that those annoying Geocities ads can finally be removed from the right side of the page, and I can explore the possibility of having sponsors for artist pages. And having a "real" name for my website as opposed to a generic one is probably something I should've done a long time ago.
Keep checking back here, I'll announce any changes or updates through this blog.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
New Feature Added to 1970s Music Site
There is a feature on the pages that list each year's Top 40 singles that makes each page a little more functional. Rather than a simple list of songs, visitors now have the ability to hear (most of) the songs as well.
For instance, look at the page showing the Top 40 records of 1971. At the top of the list, you'll see a box with a Three Dog Night CD cover. Clicking that box will play a series of 30-second snippets of every song available on MP3 from the list. Actually, the 1971 list is the most complete; If it weren't for Ocean's "Put Your Hand in the Hand" being unavailable in its original form, all 42 songs listed (two songs had their flip sides listed as well) would be ready to play. Sadly, every year had at least one missing tune. Among the missing are some huge hits like "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Shadow Dancing" and "Disco Duck." Interestingly, The Beatles' two 1970 hits are missing but all of the group members' solo recordings through 1979 aren't. While it's a shame that about 30 of the 400 songs listed on those pages aren't available as MP3s, it's worth pointing out that well over 90% of the songs are.
The new boxes do more than just play 30-second snippets of songs. For those who may know a song by title alone, clicking the box and scrolling down the list will offer the chance to hear what it sounded like. It's great for those who may have forgotten or wanted to have their memories refreshed. At the very least, they play a steady stream of music for almost 20 minutes. Best of all...songs are available for direct download to your computer (no shipping, no wait, no need to go looking for them elsewhere). Most are 99 cents, some are as low as 89 cents, and "American Pie" is $1.94 due to its length.
As always, any proceeds from Amazon sales go right back into the site...I use them to buy additional reference material that will allow me to add more content.
There is a feature on the pages that list each year's Top 40 singles that makes each page a little more functional. Rather than a simple list of songs, visitors now have the ability to hear (most of) the songs as well.
For instance, look at the page showing the Top 40 records of 1971. At the top of the list, you'll see a box with a Three Dog Night CD cover. Clicking that box will play a series of 30-second snippets of every song available on MP3 from the list. Actually, the 1971 list is the most complete; If it weren't for Ocean's "Put Your Hand in the Hand" being unavailable in its original form, all 42 songs listed (two songs had their flip sides listed as well) would be ready to play. Sadly, every year had at least one missing tune. Among the missing are some huge hits like "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Shadow Dancing" and "Disco Duck." Interestingly, The Beatles' two 1970 hits are missing but all of the group members' solo recordings through 1979 aren't. While it's a shame that about 30 of the 400 songs listed on those pages aren't available as MP3s, it's worth pointing out that well over 90% of the songs are.
The new boxes do more than just play 30-second snippets of songs. For those who may know a song by title alone, clicking the box and scrolling down the list will offer the chance to hear what it sounded like. It's great for those who may have forgotten or wanted to have their memories refreshed. At the very least, they play a steady stream of music for almost 20 minutes. Best of all...songs are available for direct download to your computer (no shipping, no wait, no need to go looking for them elsewhere). Most are 99 cents, some are as low as 89 cents, and "American Pie" is $1.94 due to its length.
As always, any proceeds from Amazon sales go right back into the site...I use them to buy additional reference material that will allow me to add more content.
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