Summer Wrap and Summer RAP

While I haven’t managed to churn out columns as regularly as I intended, I stand by my predictions. Back in May, I predicted hits for both Sean Kingston and Kat DeLuna. My anecdotal reports say these were the hits for the summer of 2007!

What’s now, and what’s next

The summer is being wrapped up by Disney’s “High School Musical 2″, and the accompanying soundtrack, and any and every kind of merchandising tie-in you can think of. If you don’t know about the HSM franchise, you’re either 1) Amish (no media in your home), 2) Living under a rock (ok, maybe this is the same as 1), or 3) Have no children, nor do you know people who have children. I haven’t managed to be home long enough to watch the entire movie, but I’ve heard the entire soundtrack. It’s not as good as the first one, but it’s good, and will serve its’ target audience nicely, and likely leave them hungry for even more.

I have lots of respect for how Def Jam is setting Rihanna up with a great shot at career longevity, with each single sounding great, with videos that look great, and each single being different, and relatively original. This being said, doesn’t “Shut Up And Drive” sound like it totally needs to be mashed up with “Blue Monday” by New Order? (If you make one, send it to me).

For my money Keyshia Cole is the next Mary J. Blige, a hip-hop soul diva who just wails! But in this wild and unpredictable marketplace, Keyshia’s first album was noticed, but mostly fizzled. She’s maintained a healthy public profile via appearances on other artists’ singles (most notably with Sean Paul, on “Give It Up To Me”), and finally has a bona fide hit on her hands with “Let It Go” featuring Eve. Her 2nd album drops on September 25th, and I expect it to fare much better than her first.

The biggest mouth in rap, Kanye West, drops his third proper album “Graduation” on September 11th. Will it live up to the hype? Is it even possible? Nothing wrong with ambition, and we’ll soon see!

Expect to see (and hear) Madonna return with Justin Timberlake (and Timbaland) soon, with a performance at MTV’s VMA awards in September. What was that I was saying about ambition?

As the “major label” paradigm continues to shift, many veteran artists are taking matters into their own hands, with their own labels and/or unique joint venture deals. Two of those will be coming out soon: The Eagles are touting their first full album in 28 years! At first, this claim seems incredible. But, can you count “Hell Freezes Over” (from 1994) as a new album when it contained two new songs, and the rest being new, live renditions from their vast catalog? True, you have to go back to “The Long Run” from 1979 for their last full-length album. Wow. The lead single is “How Long” (and no, it’s not a cover of the Ace song from the 70′s), which leans country in sound, and has lead vocals that trade off between Glen Frey and Don Henley. Also, expect the imminent release of new Garth Brooks material, exclusively at Walmart. Have these acts still “got it”? We’ll soon see!Steve Sharp is a DJ in Southern California who has been spinning since 1981. In addition to running his own successful single-op business, Signature Entertainment, he also creates a weekly radio remix show for Bo’s Saturday Night Party on B95.1 FM. Steve is one of the few people who can not only play the hits, but gets involved in the story behind them and can often tell you who produced, directed and published the song and how their actions affect the music industry.

If you would like to contact Steve, he can be reached at thatdj@aol.com

Sites To See

Have a website you want reviewed? E-mail it to jim@discoverydjs.com and I’ll review it in an upcoming column here on MobileBeat.com. Your website review may even make it into an upcoming issue of Mobile Beat magazine!The first website this week is: www.pjthedjnj.com

Note: PJ included a note in his e-mail that he primarily markets to schools so to consider that when checking out his site. If you market to a particular event type feel free to let me know that in your e-mail.

PJ also let me know his phone number isn’t front & center since he’s in college and e-mail is a lot more convenient for him. I’m in a similar boat with a full-time job during the week so I only have my phone number on my contact page. I prefer people to e-mail me and if you prefer the same your best bet is to not put your phone number on every page but just on a contact page. However, I recommend putting it on at least one page-companies that don’t have any phone numbers on their website makes some people hesitant to do business with them.

Good:

I really like the pop-up map when you click on Hamilton, NJ on your home page (I might have to borrow that idea!).
Very clean & professional looking website.
Good colors & look that appeals to your target market.
You have a lot of text links, which can be good, just be careful with too many as people can get confused constantly bouncing around the site. Also, many of your pages open in a new window which can get annoying to a website visitor.
Light show pictures look good and the pop-up feature works well.
Good pictures throughout the site.
VIP login is a good idea and is engaging to website visitors.
Very nice bio page and the picture & article are a nice touch.
Good FAQ’s…I saw some questions I’ve never seen anywhere else before. You might consider adding a link to it right from your navigation.

Suggestions:

I’m a fan of bullets (you’ll see me use it a lot in this column too!) but I think a little bit of actual copy on the home page would be good. Maybe a paragraph talking about your company, your services, etc.
Drop the top bullet point…your company name is already at the top of the page.
List some of the big cities near you that you will travel to on your home page-it will help with your search engine placement for those cities.
The next site is: www.jukeboxexpress.com

Good:

Nice design with soft colors.
Pictures across the top of the page look good.
Good idea having the pricing button at the top.
The map to your office is pretty neat (I took a look at their website…never heard of it but a great idea!).
FAQ page very neat & organized.
Reception site list is great….very good idea!
Video testimonial is a good idea (might want to include a link to it on your testimonials page).
Very impressive list of corporate clients.
Excellent DJ bios…really helps clients get to know their DJ.

Suggestions:

It would be nice if the subset of buttons under each category stayed there when you’re in that area. For instance, when I was in the wedding’s area it would’ve been nice if I could’ve just clicked on ‘Recent Testimonials’ instead of having to hover over weddings and then go down to the recent testimonials button.
You have your city on the home page, but way down at the bottom. You do say Twin Cities near the top, which may be enough, but it would also be nice to have something in the opening paragraph with your location.
Put a short list of cities you provide your services in on your home page-it will help with search engine placement.
I personally think people would rather read testimonials from past clients than other vendors, so I would flip-flop your testimonials page and put facility and vendor comments below past client comments.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago and lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several DJ conventions about websites and has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.