Music Exchange Workshop 23 March: Web Development and SugarMan.org

In 1997, Stephen “Sugar” Segerman set up a website, called ‘The Great Rodriguez Hunt’, with the intention of finding any information about the mysterious US musician of ‘Cold Fact’ fame. In the same year Brian Currin established ‘Climb Up On My Music’, a tribute site to the life and works of Rodriguez.

Brian Currin
Brian Currin

In 1998, when Rodriguez was discovered, alive and well and living in Detroit, the search was over and those two websites were combined into one central online repository for all information about Rodriguez.

Brian Currin will be holding a one-hour workshop on the various cost effective tools and platforms that musicians and music-related businesses can and should be embracing for online marketing and sales.

Brian loves the internet. He is a freelance Web Marketer and Music Consultant who lives, works and plays in Cape Town, South Africa.He has been involved in the sales and marketing of technology products since the early 80′s, holding various sales, marketing and management positions with Panasonic, Hicor and Sony.

Since 1997, Brian has been helping many South African brands, bands and businesses establish a presence on the internet.

He is a sought-after speaker and has spoken at many conferences and workshops. Included among these are Music Exchange, Moshito Music Conference, Locksmith Association Of South Africa, Campus Of Performing Arts, Varsity Newspaper Conference (UCT) and The Academy Of Sound Engineering. His well-received presentations cover topics such as Cost Effective Web Marketing, Getting Your Brand Online, and How To Be Self-Employed.

He has two adult sons with whom he is well-pleased. He enjoys laughing, cooking, eating, music, reading, dragons, science fiction, watching TV and can usually be found on the internet.

The Virtual Braai

Twitter is like those newspaper headlines that you see on lampposts. Just a quick bit of news to encourage you to investigate more. Minute-by-minute information of what is happening right now.

Facebook is like a newspaper that you buy and scan through, picking out the interesting bits and throwing the rest away. Day-by-day information of what is happening in your world.

A Blog is like a magazine, that you read more thoroughly, and perhaps even keep for future reference.

A Website is like a coffee table book with lots of detailed information on a subject you are really interested in.

And all of this is so we can stand around our Virtual Braai and discuss topics that are close to our hearts.

All Jazz Radio

All Jazz Radio

All Jazz Radio is in its test phase and broadcasting ”live” on the ‘net. One can “tune in” and hear a continuous broad mix of music being played currently online, right around the clock, 24/7. We would like you please visit our social media sites and pages on; Facebook at www.facebook.com/AllJazzRadio and @AllJazzRadioSA on Twitter.

Remember too to let all your friends, FB Friends and Twitter Followers know to go and Like the FB page, Follow the Twitter feed, subscribe to out daily newspaper, All Jazz Radio News at http://paper.li/AllJazzRadioSA/1342250877 and most importantly listen online via the web, on your smartphone and on your tablet.

All Jazz Radio, your key to listening pleasure online, join us today. 

Please bear with us, as our training program and broadcast schedule are being  finalised and will in due course be put into place. Enjoy the good music on All Jazz Radio.

All Jazz Radio, your essential music listening home, where Jazz Lovers of South Africa, Africa & The World meet to share in our common social interest and lifestyle on the World Wide Web

SEARCHING FOR EXPOSURE? TRY SUGAR MUSIC….

Brian Currin and Stephen “Sugar” Segerman met in 1997 through the rediscovery of Rodriguez. A mutual love of music (especially the South African kind) and sharing it with others, saw them launch Sugar Music in the early-2000’s.

Sugar Music has since become the hub for many projects including SugarMan.org, The South African Rock Encyclopedia, The SA Rock Digest, SAmp3.com, Mabu Vinyl, and a number of other joint and associated music ventures.

Since 2004, Sugar Music has been supplying Channel 24 (MWeb’s entertainment portal) with MP3s by South African artists of all genres, and from all decades, for the MP3 section of their Homepage.

These MP3s are made available as free downloads by Channel 24, to help give exposure to all these artists and their music. Some tracks are full length (if requested by the artist), but most are edited to be between 70% and 75%, as long as they are longer than 2 minutes.

An image, a short blurb, and a hyperlink are included with each entry.

If you would like to take advantage of this excellent promotional opportunity, at no cost to yourself, please supply a list of songs that you are authorising for free download and which web address you would prefer each song linked to. Sugar Music will take care of the rest.

Sugar Music submits monthly reports to NORM, of all tracks supplied to Channel 24, to ensure transparency and compliance.

For more information please contact Sugar on sugar@sugarmusic.co.za or phone 021-4237635.

Brian, My Web Guy

Brian Currin is known to many of his friends and clients as “My Web Guy” and to a number of people all over the world as “a guy who knows a bit about music“.

These people say ... Brian is My Web Guy
These people say … Brian is My Web Guy

A few of his recent and current projects include:

A WordPress.com Website is the perfect solution for Musicians

These people say ... Brian Currin is My Web Guy
These people all say … Brian Currin is My Web Guy

WordPress.com is the perfect website solution for people who want to:

  • promote their music
  • connect with their fans
  • do their own updates
  • showcase their videos
  • showcase their photos
  • showcase their music
  • save money

Some Questions People Ask

Q. What are the benefits of WordPress.com?

A. There are many benefits, here are some of the main ones:

  • Free web hosting
  • Free web themes
  • Free Content Management System
  • Ability to include own header and background on most themes
  • Google-friendly
  • Mobile-friendly
  • YouTube, Soundcloud, Google Maps, etc can be embedded
  • Contact Form – helps reduce spam
  • Social Media feeds can be embedded
  • Blog can update Social Media platforms automatically
  • Analytical Information
  • Premium themes and upgrades available at reasonable prices

 

Q. Aren’t websites expensive?

A. They don’t have to be. Depending on your requirements, you really don’t need to break the bank. A WordPress.com website can be set up without incurring costs for web hosting, graphic design and web development. Read more.

Q. What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

A. Basically a WordPress.com website is ideal for people who want to get on with focussing on running their business.

WordPress.org is great if you are happy to pay for web hosting and pay a web developer for their time.  Read more.

My Currin(t) Projects

Cape Town Small Business Websites

Since 1997, I have been helping bands, brands and businesses establish a presence on the internet.

Sugarman.org

A fan website, officially endorsed by Rodriguez and his family.

SpaceHymns.com

The original Ramases fan website, set up in October 1997.

Music Choice

UK-based Music Choice is the Audio Channel supplier for TopTV. Since April 2010 I have been consulting on 3 South African channels; SA Modern, SA Traditional and SA Gospel.

RhythmMusicStore.com

This online music store was established in August 2006 and I am the content editor and involved with their online marketing.

SAMP3.com

I co-founded this project in 2002, and it has been the official supplier of free mp3s to Channel24 (MWeb) since 2004.

South African Rock Encyclopedia

I founded this website in 1999 and I am still the curator.

SA Rock Digest

Co-founded this e-mag in 1999 with Stephen Segerman and it ran weekly until April 2004. It was re-established in 2009, as part of Sugar Music, embracing social media tools and platforms.

1001 SA Songs You Need To Hear Before You Go Deaf

Project created by John Samson in May 2011. I provide technical support and music research.

Why doesn’t my website show up in Google or other search engines?

This is probably the question I get asked most from people who have put up websites and then sat back waiting for the world to find them.

Why doesn’t my website show up in Google or other search engines?

As much as we might like to think otherwise, the world is not looking for you specifically. If they were, they could just type your web address i.e. briancurrin.com directly into the address bar of their favourite browser and up would pop your website.

What people on the internet are looking for is solutions to their problems, and if your website offers the right solution, then it needs to appear on the first page of search results.

For example, I would like to have music people (musicians, studios, labels, shops) who live in Cape Town, and who are looking for help with online marketing, find me.

Search “online music marketing cape town” on Google and see the results.

And then search on Bing, another popular search engine.

Or Yahoo.

And try searching for “marketing south african music on the web

So who are you talking to about your online marketing?

Contact me

http://briancurrin.com

Further reading

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