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July, 1999
Hudson Valley Music Website Rolls Past 100KThe Hudson Valley Music website (www.HVmusic.com), recently surpassed the 100,000 visitors mark. The success of the 18 month old website, whose purpose is to showcase the musicians and music-related events of the Hudson Valley, testifies to the depth of musical talent in the region and the ability of the internet to make this talent accessible to the world without the backing of a major label.Among the features offered at HVmusic.com are: a comprehensive listing of regional artists with links to websites; over 100 songs in RealAudio format; an events calendar; monthly CD giveaways where visitors can read about and listen to CD's created by Hudson Valley Musicians; ticket giveaways to local clubs and festivals; and articles written by local music writers such as Haven James, Phil Farber, and Kevin Robinson. The site is the creation of two Ulster County residents, Steve Wehr and Steve Stiert, who seized on their mutual interests in music and their penchant for computer programming to implement the concept. "There is so much musical talent in the Hudson Valley," says Steve Stiert. "Our goal is to use the power of the internet to help expose this talent to music lovers around the world who enjoy good music but who have been previously limited to only those artists the major record labels deemed worthy of recognition." "The Steves", as they are often referred to by their cyberfriends, are pleased with the success of HVmusic.comi and excited about the future. "We've gone from less than 1000 visitors a month to over 1000 visitors a day and we expect that to increase", explains Steve Wehr. That success they attribute to the ever growing amount of information on the site (currently over 500 pages) and the talented musicians who are the subject of those pages. The site is a labor of love for "the Steves" who maintain it in addition to their full time jobs as software engineers. Because of limited resources, they are dependent on the community to supply information. Explains Steve Stiert, "We would like to be able to recognize all artists and events, but we just don't have the time to gather the information and also maintain the site. We've been very grateful to receive regular contributions from local music writers and the community, but we're always looking for more about all kinds of music." The Steves encourage the public to submit musical events, musician listings, and classified ads using the easy on-line forms on the site. There is no charge to use these services. Stories and photos from the community are gladly accepted. They can be reached by visiting www.HVmusic.com, sending email to steve@HVmusic.com, or by phone: Steve Stiert at 339-1364 or Steve Wehr at 246-9643. |
January, 1998
New Web Site Gives Hudson Valley Musicians a Voice on the WebA web site created by two Ulster County residents makes it easy for local musicians, bands, and music-related services to be "heard" on the world-wide web. The web site is named: Tuned-In to Hudson Valley Music, and can be found at http://www.HVmusic.com/. The purpose of the Tuned-In site is to showcase the diverse professional and amateur musical talent in the community through directory listings and web pages. A special feature is the use of RealAudio technology which allows high-quality audio samples to be delivered in real-time to the user's computer so that visitors to the site can hear as well as see and read about the performers. The site sponsors articles by local writers and those seeking to publicize their events. Free CD give-aways give visitors the opportunity to preview and win CDs of local artists. Tuned-In's free services allow clubs, bands, DJs, and music-related services to advertise themselves and their events and to post classifieds. Users can submit information directly from their web-browser or, for those who don't have internet access or experience, they can contact the Tuned-In folks who will be happy to add the information. The developers, Steve Wehr and Steve Stiert, both music lovers and computer enthusiasts, seized on their mutual interests to implement the concept. "Tuned-In is meant for everyone in the community who performs, supports, or enjoys music. Our goal is to provide a site that is entertaining but that can also be a practical resource for those seeking to book entertainment for their gathering", says Steve Wehr. Although lead singer for a local rock band, Steve Stiert wants to see music of all kinds show-cased on Tuned-In. "Most web pages on the net today are about rock bands. I want to see more focus on classical performers, high school marching bands, barbershop quartets, and certainly there's room on the web for more polka bands!". The two Steve's (they prefer to avoid last names so that they can blame the "other" Steve for any problems) particularly want to encourage amateur and non-profit organizations to participate and would be happy to help those people without internet experience to get started. At this time, they are funding the site out of their own pockets, but they are optimistic it will become self-sufficient in the future. Explains "one" of the Steves, "We pretty much give away our labor for the cause, but there are monthly charges from our internet service provider for the memory used by the web pages and particularly for the audio demos which require a lot of computer resources". They plan to offset this by charging a very reasonable fee only for creating web pages, providing audio demos, and for commercial advertising. For community-oriented groups, they'll waive any fees or only pass on their fixed costs if greater support is required. To find out more about Tuned-In, send email to Steve@HVmusic.com or contact Steve Stiert at 339-1364 or Steve Wehr 246-9643. |