By gusaus on

This is essentialy a cross-post from where I happily host my site. Hopefully I'm posting in the right section, 'cuz I'm essentially looking for a template/theme that I can use for my own purposes, as well as anybody who'd find some use in this type of site.

I recently came across the newly designed site for Little Radio. It surprised/impressed me
for several reasons:

  • It's a great looking site
  • Is pretty rich with multimedia (photos, podcasts, streaming radio, playlists, etc.)
  • Most of the content seems to be seamlessly aggregated from outside sources
  • The kicker is that it's done on wordpress!!

Another fine site (obviously built by the folks behind this) was built on Django.

Upon exploring these sites, it raised a few questions:

  • Can Drupal do this? Ok, that's a stupid question.
  • What are some examples of similar drupal sites?
  • Is there some sort of blueprint/process? Themes, modules, and all that good stuff?
  • If there really isn't something quite similar, how could we set up an open-source/Drupal version of this?

If there isn't something close, possibly the site that I've been haplessly trying to build/update/manage, could serve as a blueprint/showcase for what Drupal can do. Any help/assistance, would be most appreciated.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.6.x

Comments

bernie123’s picture

bernie123 commented

Hi.

This site: http://projectopus.com/ is built with drupal. I think there's quite a bit of discussion about it on the boards if you wanted to find out what modules they used and such.

gusaus’s picture

gusaus commented

I've been aware of ProjectOpus since their launch, but I hadn't revisited their site in quite some time. Looks like they've made some improvements to what began as a really solid site/concept/value set. As is the case with ProjetOpus and Bryght (their artist/label solution has real promise), I'm a firm believer of providing/promoting not only open tools and business models, but the companies and individuals who share this space. Zines, hyperlocal communities, music blogs, podcast/online radio sites, etc. are essential in this new indie/music/creative landscape but raising awareness and getting the tools in front of the people that need them is the battle. As an indie musican living in Los Angeles, I can tell you that there are a lot of amazing musicians, and biz types that are completely disillusioned by the current industry landscape. They're very much open to new ideas, technologies, and building communities, but many of these folks either don't have the time, knowledge, or access. There should always be room for those who are looking for 'open, artist friendly' ways to reinvent the music/industry models that simply no longer work.

Ok - I'll get off my pedestal now - thanks for the feedback!

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Gus Austin

ak’s picture

ak commented

Found this: drupalart.org

DrupalART is a site dedicated to helping people build and develop Drupal sites for artists and musicians. The goals are to show (through examples) various ways Drupal can be used to build artist websites, and build documentation aimed at newbies trying to use Drupal for their art or music website.

mrtunes’s picture

mrtunes commented

This is a really cool thread. I'm looking to setup some sort of weird hybrid of podcast/blog/store/e-zine to promote my music and others' music. I heard about Drupal at a conference a few weeks ago, but was also looking at using Mambo.

I got frustrated with Mambo very quickly cause it seemed like it was meant for people other than artists, not to say that not a lot of artists are using it well. Long story short it seemed a little overkill for me, especially since I would have no use for all those modules.

Drupalart.org looks like it could be of huge help to me getting started.

gusaus’s picture

gusaus commented

As I said in the original post, I've just been looking for an open source solution - a template or framework that would be available not just for for myself, but anybody who may have a use for it. This post may provide some more insight in where I'm trying to go with mine - somebody else would have their own purpose - could be a certain style of music they want to focus on - could be a vancouver or seattle version of it - to effectively create the new web2.0 music industry, we need to the open-source tools that will enable the tastemakers and filters do their thing.

So again, I can't, nor really want to build this thing myself. If there was, say, a Drupal based hosted solution that I (or anybody) could pay some sort of monthly fee AND be a reseller - that may be a way to do it???

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Gus Austin

mrtunes’s picture

mrtunes commented

I'd pay a monthly fee for such a service, but i'd also get a lot more gratification out of learning drupal myself... cause at the end of the day i'll always be requesting stuff that was never in the scope of the original product. I also feel that people around here would say you already have the tools for free so why the need for a pay service?

But yeah i'm definitely all ears.

gusaus’s picture

gusaus commented

This is the site I've been building - what do you think it needs? Aside from a lot of things, it needs fresh content. My current thought is that the best way to go about that is to aggregate content from other sources, in such a manner that you give credit and drive traffic back to the source of the original author (i.e. their blog, website, whatever)

If that seems like a good way to go, does anyone know how to provide what I'm talking about here? I think the aggregator2 module may be the way to go, but I'm not quite sure how to properly set that up. Any thoughts, ideas?

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Gus Austin

mrtunes’s picture

mrtunes commented

I think another way to get fresh content is to align yourself with similar artists that want to be featured. Let them post their new tunes, news clippings, events on a calender anything and everything as long as they're really good quality. This could also include the opinions of radio hosts etc that gain a new posting status. The whole payback with featuring other artists is you have a store where you sell their CDs too and you get a cut(cdbaby right?).

Syndicating content from other sources is good, but you could overload people with redundant info if they already visit those other places they will find themselves sifting through second-hand readings. My suggestion above offers fresh, exclusive content to your readers/listeners. I think the keyword with CMS is offering 'exclusivity' with a bit of syndication in moderation.

gusaus’s picture

gusaus commented

There are so many ways to present content in engaging ways and there's no single best way. The beauty about aggregation is that you have access to a lot of great content (you need to make sure you're respecting the author’s rights) and you can hopefully drive some traffic to the original source. I agree with you not wanting to bog people down with the same old stuff. While I'm an absolute Drupal novice, I do know that there are ways to effectively pick and choose what you want to use, and put it where you want it. If you still feel like your lacking fresh content, it's probably cuz it's not out there.

How to get it? One way is to have people create an account and post from your site (that was my original train of thought). The other way would be, once again, to aggregate from their blog. So what if they don't have a blog? Possibly you can get 'em into the blogesphere. If they already have a site, their webmaster and/or isp should be able to set-em up with a blog. If they don't have a site, you can them to one of the free solutions (id say www.wordpress.com); or refer them to a good host that makes it really easy to set up a blog or cms (i.e. something like a one-click install).

And yes, if you're doing a site that's essentially promoting artists, i'd say it pretty important to give visitors/potential customers several ways to listen to and purchase their music. CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, and many others have affiliate programs, so you can drive sales to their stores AND make a little money. In a similar way, there are many ISP's who have some pretty nice affiliate programs. That in turn, could be another way to make a little money without it coming out of the content creator’s pocket.

So that's sorta where I'm trying to go with this. Would love to get thoughts, feedback, ideas from the community.

One final sidenote: I have to thank 'bernie123', for pointing me back over to Project Opus. They basically have a great twist on all of the stuff that we're talking about - I'm really digging it as an artist too!
http://www.projectopus.com/tumble

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Gus Austin