The Bandwidth Benefit Festival - Before & After!

[Neil]

It has long since passed but for historical purposes here is the e-mail that was sent out to all registered forums members just days before the festival began:

Dear members,

This is the very first e-mail I have ever sent en masse to all of the registered members of aberdeen-music.com. And I hope the next, last ever e-mail I send out will be congratulating everyone on saving aberdeen-music.com! This e-mail aims to not only make you all aware of the Bandwidth Benefit Festival (yes, I know you are probably all sick of hearing about this now!) but also explain why the festival is taking place and what my future plans are for the web site. This is a lengthy e-mail but I would appreciate it greatly if you would read it to the end.

Without further ado, the latest event information for the Bandwidth Benefit Festival is as follows:

Day 1 - Saturday, 11th October 2003.

At Moshulu (over-14s permitted) from 6pm till 10pm:

- Alyssa's Wish

- Black Atom

- Deadloss Superstar

- Hot Mangu

- Quik

- We Become Less

DJs: Stephen + James WBL

Comperes: Chris Robertson + Craig Fudge

The band running order will be decided on the day. Tickets can be bought on the door for only 4. They cannot be purchased in advance so make sure you get to the doors early so not only do you not miss the first act (first band will be on at 6.15pm!) but also to ensure you actually get in. Yes, this gig could sell out!

There will be a local band merchandise stall so if you want to sell your band's merchandise, fanzines etc then just bring it all along and we will sell it for you!

Day 2 - Sunday, 12th October 2003.

At Dr. Drakes (over-14s permitted) from 2pm till 12.00am:

- Emma Forman (acoustic set)

- Marcy's Monster Parade

- Orwell

- Paul LTP (acoustic set)

- Pure Lead

- Small Enclosed Area

- Sirius

- StewCat (acoustic set)

DJs: AUBL DJs

The band running order will be decided on the day. Tickets can be bought on the door for only 3. They cannot be purchased in advance.

There will be a local band merchandise stall so if you want to sell your band's merchandise, fanzines etc then just bring it all along and we will sell it for you!

Day 3 - Thursday, 16th of October 2003

At The Lemon Tree from 8pm till 12.00am:

Emma Forman

Onion Terror

Useful Idiot

Jody Cooper

DJs: TBC

Ticket prices have yet to be confirmed but they will likely be 3 on the door. More acts have still to be confirmed for this day.

Even at this late stage any of details above are subject to change. So make sure you keep checking the official thread for this event where all updates and changes will be posted:

http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=3038

Dont know where the venues are? Then just use the handy venue locator facility on the aberdeen-music.com home page to find out!

Why is the benefit festival being organised?

Well, this event is taking place in order to raise money for the aberdeen-music.com web site. As some of you know the web site has simply become too popular for its own good and my current web hosting provider have told me that the web site must be moved to a dedicated web server soon or face becoming shut-down. It might sound like a rather nasty ultimatum but my web hosting provider have been very understanding and have even moved the entire web site to a faster, more powerful shared web server to simply avoid having to shut-down the web site in the short-term. But I cant push my luck with them infinitely and so the leap to a dedicated web hosting environment must be made sooner rather than later if aberdeen-music.com is to continue to go from strength to strength.

By my calculations aberdeen-music.com will need approximately 3500 a year in order to stay afloat on a dedicated web server. As the web site currently earns absolutely no money at all (it has been funded out of my own pocket up until now) then this needs to obviously change. Im hopeful that an event like the Bandwidth Benefit Festival will go someway to raising this total and if the event proves to be a success then I would like to see the benefit festival become a regular, annual event. However, this alone will not be enough and so I have had to unfortunately turn to more traditional methods such as advertising in order to attempt to get the web site to generate an income.

As you have no doubt seen on the web site I am currently in the progress of trialling a number of different online advertising programmes to see which will actually generate some money for the web site. I can assure you that although there are plenty of banners on the web site just now this will become reduced in the following weeks as an advertising programme is selected and the others removed. I am no fan of online advertising and so I will try to make the advertising banners as non-intrusive yet effective as possible. It is a tricky balancing act.

I have also identified three other sources of income for the web site. One of these many of you are familiar with and that is making donations to the web site via PayPal. I have been very impressed by the number of donations I have received from members and significantly members who have donated to the web site multiple times! The donation pot sits at a healthy 105 and this is after a 60 deduction for the photo gallery software component but more about that later. But again, donations alone are not enough although they are very gratefully received and I continue to encourage you all to donate if you can. Remember, there is no minimum donation amount and every penny helps me get nearer that 3500 target.

The second source of income is sponsorship arrangements. At the moment a number of parties have expressed a desire to become sponsors of the web site and Im glad to say that all the parties that have shown an interest so far are people involved with the local music scene already. And these are exactly the kind of people I would like to see sponsoring the web site. However, discussions are still on-going as to what form this sponsorship will take. You can at present already sponsor sections of the web site. There is more information about how to do this in the following post:

http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2087

Announcements regarding new web site sponsors will be made in due course.

The last source of income is arguably the most controversial: A subscription program.

Now, before you start to panic let me inform you now that this would be an OPTIONAL subscription and not something people would be forced into paying in order to use the web site. I do intend to offer an optional subscription program to existing registered members after, and if, the web site is moved to the dedicated web server environment. No registered members will lose any features or access to the web site if they dont subscribe to this program. However, those that do subscribe will be entitled to a number of new features that do have a significant cost implication (hence the requirement of a subscription). I have yet to decide what new features will be classified as these premium features but I can tell you the subscription rate will be small (probably around 2 a month) and will be handled through PayPal. Subscription will be a monthly basis and you will be allowed to cancel your subscription at any time.

More information about this will be released when the subscription program is launched if the web site is moved to the dedicated web server.

What are the future plans for aberdeen-music.com?

As you can understand the future of aberdeen-music.com is very much unknown at present. If the web site is unable to move to a dedicated web server in the next couple of months then its entire existence will sadly be under threat. However, let us assume for a moment that enough money can be raised to move the web site to a dedicated environment. What new features can you expect to see?

Well, one of the most popular feature requests is now a feature actually already implemented and this is the new Photo Gallery section of the web site. This section cannot be opened yet as I do not have enough bandwidth to spare at the moment (another problem that will be resolved by moving to a dedicated web server). When this feature does open, and I really hope it does, then registered members will be able to not only upload and maintain photo galleries of local music events such as the Fudge Awards for example but also upload photos of local bands. Members can also maintain their own personal photo galleries so gone will be the days of having to find a web host to upload the photos of your mates to!

Other new features I have in the pipeline are a new Classifieds section of the web site which will ultimately replace the Wanted & For Sale forum if it proves to be successful. There will also be a comprehensive Links Directory where members can submit their own links both related to the local music scene and other links that fellow members may find useful. The aberdeen-music.com Online Store is also in the planning stages and this will allow all local bands and musicians to sell their merchandise online through the web site with as little fuss and cost as possible. And there may even be exclusive aberdeen-music.com merchandise on-sale within the store as well!

The aberdeen-music.com streaming radio station is also planned to make a triumphant return and this will feature a much greater variety of live shows both related to the local scene and not. As this station will be run as open access then anyone will be permitted to host and produce their own radio show assuming their shows meets some basic requirements.

The most significant change that is planned will be the eventual upgrade to vBulletin v3.0 (the core forum software) when it is released later this year. This upgrade will bring a wealth of new features to the forums including one or two features some of you have been missing from the old forums. And thankfully the upgrade this time will not result in anyone having to re-register!

I have many more ideas sitting around just waiting for some attention but the above are the big features that I hope will let you see where I intend on taking the aberdeen-music.com web site in the future. This will hopefully give you all some encouragement and justification to support the web site in its time of need at present.

Acknowledgements & Thanks

Firstly, the Bandwidth Benefit Festival would simply not be happening without the fantastic help and assistance from these lovely individuals (in no particular order): Rob & Flik @ Moshulu, Sharon & Jim @ Dr Drakes, JimmyB, RicoAUBL, Craig Fudge, Ross, Stu and all the bands and DJs that have volunteered to play. I simply have no idea how I am going to repay you all!

Secondly, aberdeen-music.com would have closed down long ago if it was not for the fact that is currently hosted by one of the best web hosting companies in the world. Thank you for your understanding and patience FutureQuest! (http://www.futurequest.net)

And last but certainly not least thank you, the members and visitors to the web site. You make and shape the online community into what it is today. Without you aberdeen-music.com is nothing more than an empty shell! I could of course blame you all for putting me in this current situation but I know the majority of you want to see this web site stay alive and continue to grow and develop onwards. Now is the time you have to show support for the web site if you can. Remember, there are many ways of doing this. Simply turn up to the Bandwidth Festival and rock out, donate money, become a sponsor, click on an ad banner, hand out a few flyers for the festival or simply recommend the web site to a friend. Whatever you do, please show your support for aberdeen-music.com.

Everyone take care of one another. And I hope to see you all on Saturday.

Neil.

[Neil]

And after the Bandwidth Benefit Festival:

Dear members,

This e-mail is well overdue but Ive been hanging on as long as I could so I could give you the very latest news regarding the future of aberdeen-music.com. Remember that Bandwidth Festival event a wee while ago? Well, I have good news for you all. It was a complete success!

First, how much money was raised? Well, as most of you that are reading this e-mail actually attended at least one of the events I think you all have the right to know. After all it was your money at one point! Here is the breakdown of what was raised:

Day 1 - Moshulu Event - 800 (at least)

Day 2 Dr. Drakes Event - 300

Day 3 Lemon Tree Event - 400

The Donation Bucket - 100

Previous PayPal Donations - 110

This makes a grand total of: 1710

Pretty impressive stuff I think you will all agree. Most of the money has still to be collected and banked but that is my fault more than anything else. One more reason why this e-mail is so late is simply because Ive had very little spare time recently to concentrate on aberdeen-music.com. But the money has been raised and this goes a very long way to securing the web sites future.

As some of you may know aberdeen-music.coms new home has been online for a number of weeks now. While many people were frantically running around making the Bandwidth Festival the huge success it was I was quietly working in the background shopping around for a good deal on a dedicated web server. You may remember that I stated in my last e-mail to you all that it would require 3500 a year to keep aberdeen-music.com going. This was an estimate and a pessimistic one at that. I can now confirm for you that the new, actual annual running costs for aberdeen-music on a dedicated web server will be only 2400 a year.

Want even more good news? Ive also been busy speaking to a number of people who have come forward and asked to become official sponsors of aberdeen-music.com. Already the web site has three proud sponsors contributing collectively 105 a month to the web site. And Im continuing negations with a further three potential sponsors at this moment in time. Those of you good at math can quickly see that even if monthly sponsorship money fluctuates (as it almost certainly will) that when combined with the money raised from the Bandwidth Festival the end result is that aberdeen-music.com is secure for at last a year if not longer. Please take time to support our sponsors by clicking on their advertisements and visit their web sites. Ive tried to ensure that any aberdeen-music.com official sponsors will be sponsors that are relevant to the audience of the web site. Remember that by supporting them, you are indirectly supporting aberdeen-music.com as well.

Due to the overwhelming success of the Bandwidth Festival I really would like to see this become a regular annual event. This would ensure that the funds required to keep aberdeen-music.com would always be there and ensure its long term survival. I intend early in the second half of next year to set-up another working group to help organise such an event. So remember to keep an eye out for announcements if you want to get involved next year!

And so the new dedicated web server has been purchased, built and configured. What next? Well, the big move has been organised and I urge you all to read the following important post very carefully:

http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5081

The move is going to be a big operation and hopefully a successful one. Yes, aberdeen-music.com may be closed for up to 3 days but I can assure you all it will be worth it in the end!

And so I would like to end this e-mail with my very overdue expression of sincere thanks and gratitude to all those involved in the Bandwidth Festival. From those of you who attended, to the musicians that played, to the volunteers that made it all happen. Thank you so very much. You have successfully saved the web site!

Many thanks,

Neil.