New Features

[Greg]

11/10/2006
- Added the ability to change the status of a song from free to sale, sale to free at anytime. Click on upload mp3 songs to find this menu.

11/12/2006
- All members at Music Forte can now download music. When they do you'll be notified as to who downloaded it. If you don't want a song to be downloaded, change the status to sale, as mentioned above.
Free members = 5 downloads/month
Gold/Diamond members = 10 downloads/month
Platinum members = 30 downloads/month

11/15/2006
- Added Most Recent Additions on index page. Displays results to the newest song uploads of upgrade members.

11/16/2006
- Added Top Downloads on Index Page. Displays the results of songs with the most downloads of upgrade members.

- Added Sort functionality in forums. At bottom of forum page, you'll see new sort options allowing you to display topics based on several different criterea, descending or ascending order.

11/24/2006
- Allocated moe Sub-Genres to the Top 20 list to provide more inclusion and organization.

11/27/2006
- Scripting for QIF files allowing instant import for check printing on money due for CD sales, and members of Platinum Plan.

- Revamped many textual areas of site.

- Added "Wait List" feature. Members receive notification of attempts to purchase CDs that were not currently available. Details of potential customers stored and shared with musicians to increase CD sales volume.

- Re-upload existing songs (for those that have updated their tunes) without losing stats or having to delete.

11/29/2006
- Completed Free Shipping with two or more orders (in accordance with setting on new CD Upload page).

12/02/2006
- Added customization features for background images on profile pages

- Revamped menus for customizing site

12/04/2006/2006
- Added Parental Advisory stamp. You can turn it on or off in the "Change Layout" area.

12/06/2006
- Find-It! Beta release. Search resources by zip code in the US. Currently includes retail stores that sell Independent Music, Recording Studios, and Records Labels. Much more to be added in near future in terms of categories and resources listed in those categories.

12/11/2006
- CD sales page can link to other products in order to present a "Free Shipping when purchased with following products" message to customers.
To do this, login and click on "Upload CD", then view your new sales page.

12/19/2006
- Updated Ads on Free member pages to show CD sales only (exluding sheet music and songbooks), providing more focus towards music sales of Music Forte artists.

12/21/2006
- Added YouTube to forums

12/26/2006
- Added features to Administrative area so that Gold and Diamond Plan projects can be completed more quickly and efficiently.

12/27/2006
- Delete button added for upgrade members in CD Edit area. Before it was not provided, so that it would not erase work on our end. Now it is available for CDs that have not yet been linked to our storefront. This allows musicians who have made errors to their CD sales pages to easily edit or delete them.

1/03/2007
- Updated Song Directories to include download and purchase options for each listed song title.

- Added instructions in "Customer" explaining how to download/purchase music and burn it to a CD

1/05/2007
- Change your media player to better suit your taste. New skins have been made available. Visit the "change layout" link.

- Updated Admin and member automated emails for video upload status on beginning and completion of project.

1/07/2006
- Added additional "Landing Pages" for Platinum Members
- Created Personalized blurbs on Platinum Plan landing pages

1/09/2007
- Updated Welcome email for Platinum Members to provide more information regarding Music Forte.

1/24/2007
- Configuring server for Live Radio Broadcasting.

- Finishing back-end and front-end (that's what you call it) work on "Performance Booking" site. To be announced...

- You can now forward music profiles to anyone. It was restricted to only people on your "friend/contact" listin the past.

1/27/2007

- Updated Join pages so that password is chosen on entry, rather than randomly generated.

1/29/2007
- Updated Media Player so that clicking on the picture of an artists, brings the visitor to their sales page.

- Finished configuration of Radio. In progress of assembling show.

- Shopping cart icon and link added to media players for quick sales.

2/11/2007

- All future Gig Listings will be searchable by zip code in the 'Find It' section of the site to help members find shows easily from their area.

- Price changes for Gold and Diamond Plan. It will remain a one-time fee only. No more recurring fees. Any refunds that are due in accordance to the new pricing plan will be issued immediately. This will be posted in the next update as well.

2/11/2007

- Added Pic Discussion on index page with ability to reply to pic comments

- Added Gig Locator on index page for finding gigs in your zip code area

- Revamped payment page for CD sales, so that the payment process for requesting your sales cash is more simple to follow.

2/15/2007

- Made some adjustments to the Gig Locator page, so that it is easier to navigate. This page will still get a revamp in the future.

2/17/2007

- Added Playlists to media players to seperate your songs from those of other artists' music that you have added.

2/26/2007

- Delete button added. Click on "upload mp3 songs".

2/27/2007

- Updated Song Directory pages for better pagination. The pages were stretching out because we have hundreds of pages of songs.

- Updated Song Directory pages to get rid of the double clicking. After Microsoft lost the battle to have Eolas' patent nulified, all active X content needed to be accepted by the user before it could be used. It is no necesarry to double click on the song directory pages anymore.

3/03/2007

- Restructured Navigational Menu. Changed CSS to show mouseover color.

- Restructured Navigational Menu even more. All sites show how many downloads have been made over the past 30 days. When the max is reached a notification is presented with an appropriate message that is determined by the kind of membership the particular person signed up with.

3/08/2007

- Customer Advantage Plan completed (still yet to be announced and properly presented on the site... but coding is complete)

- Slideshow presentations now available

3/12/2007

- Added Select All/Deselect All to Pending Friends Page and Block User Page

- Added Script confirmations to avoid mistakes before processing forms.

3/20/2007

- Customer Advantage Plan completed

- Contact Manager completed

4/23/2007

- Songs in Playlist (not media player) are listed alphabetically with first priority given to your own songs, and then those that belong to other artists.

- Added ability to choose top 5 for display in your friend/contact list.

4/30/2007

- Created redirect for CD pages. New format can be accessed with http://www.musicforte.com/cd/ [your userid here]

- Improved search capabilites from search form at top of most Music Forte pages (header area)

5/3/2007

- Completed Live Streaming integration for radio broadcast with Icecast

5/12/2007

- Added automated messages for restocking CD inventory, alerting user that additional stock has arrived

5/15/2007

- Added Google Checkout as option of CD Sales and SheetMusic Songbooks

5/21/2007

- Improved the keyword location on profile pages

- Provided "exact" and "partial" matching for search pages

6/2007

- Zzzzz. Sorry. We weren't actually sleeping. There has been a lot of internal work and changes, so that things can pick up quite a bit in the coming months!

7/14/2007

- Code for media players is now available for your OWN website. This player utilizes 30 second preview clips. Simply login to your Music Forte site, view your profile page, and you will see the link to click for grabbing the code.

Remember that you can customize your player, so if there is a different skin you want for your player at your own homepage, you can update the skin, grab the code, and then change it back to how you want it to appear at Music Forte.

7/16/2007

- Members can now choose if their material leads to their CD sale page, or MP3 page through PayPal. This is a great addition that works well with the above new feature.

- Top 20 has been modified to curb inflated hits.

7/24/2007

- Multiple songs can be purchased at once. Previously, only single mp3s could be sold at one time. This is good reason to grab the media player code, set the landing page to "mp3" and increase sales.

7/25/2007

- Set the MP3 price for each of your digital files. More control for YOU!

7/26/2007

- Adding Ratings to the Song Directories

[DamienProject]

[phase1]

Greg.. would it be possible to put a little piece of code that shows up on our member page that lists out a song that happens to be in the top20 of a music genre. For instance, if I have a song sitting at #3 on the religious/inspirational charts.. it would be great to see a banner that automatically shows up with this info when someone hits my site.. Just a thought....

Thanks,
Bob

[Alternatewords]

Greg,

Would it be possible that the little shopping cart icon in the media player links to purchasing the selected MP3 file rather then the CD and maybe add another line or button to purchase the entire CD? I've integrated the player on my website now (woohoo, finally found a player skinny enough to fit on my site) and it would be neat to have this linked this way.

Also, without being ungrateful considering that there are already a lot of different layouts for the media player, could there be one more, a skinny dark one, same size as the one I am linking on www.alternatewords.com ? I am sounding vain here but it would integrate a little nicer on my layout... and maybe someone else's as well.

No rush and thank you again for all you did and do.

Thorsten

[Alternatewords]

Here are two more things that may provide beneficial, considering the discussions regarding MySpace over the past few days:

- Show the media player code under the customization page. This would allow all users to quickly and easily copy and paste their media player onto any other web page.

- Show the play list code under "Sharing Music Playlists". This would allow us to post our play lists on any other web page, promoting and selling our tracks (or those of other artists). This would make it easier to repost the code whenever we add or remove tracks.

Of course if the media player could be configured similar to the SNOCAP store it would be even better (listening to and selling songs from the same interface). But that's just thinking out loud, though I do much rather use a Music Forte "portable" store and player to promote and sell my music then anyone else'.

[swconcepts]

[quote="Greg"]11/10/2006

2/26/2007

- Delete button added. Click on "upload mp3 songs".


I want to thank you, Greg. For the Delete button, but also (and mainly!) for your willingness to hear us musicians when we request stuff. You and MF are very interested in us...and I appreciate that!

I second Bob's suggestion about the Top 20 charting...additionally, what do you think about an addition to the "Genre" classisfications dedicated solely to Music Forte Musician Collaborations? Maybe that is not appropriate for the Top 20 thing, but perhaps in your wisdom you might determine to segregate, somehow, the collaboratve efforts of our fine musician members...

Thanks again,
SWConcepts

[phase1]

Greg,
I dont know if my suggestion about being able to email all of our friends at once prompted the "contact manager" feature, but I personally want to thank you very much for implementing this feature. I know its not operational yet, but Im sure it will be soon. It is going to be a great feature that I look forward to using when I announce my new cd release.. Thanks again Greg.. once again, the site is getting better everytime I log in..

Sincerely,
Bob Hughes

[Greg]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I've said it before, but people like you are have helped tremendously in forging a strong path for Music Forte, and keeping me working overtime!

The ideas mentioned above are great. There are still a few other things that will need to be completed first (like the contact manager).

Well... there are several things that need to be prioritized, but if any of the ideas can be done quickly, they will get stepped up a notch in the priority list.

Thanks again!

[Alternatewords]

Thank you Greg for all your hard work and for considering our ideas and suggestions. Music Forte has grown and improved significantly within just a few months and has quickly become my personal favorite among the Indie sites. I know certain features are easier spoken of then done (I have my share of that at work each day) so more kudos to all you do. It is much appreciated.

[johnrlhunter]

Musicforte is getting better and better thanks
John

[Greg]

[Greg]

To further that last post, multiple mp3 songs can now be purchased at one time making it more convenient for customers and making more money for the artists.

The next step (to be completed soon) will allow artists to set the mp3 price for each song.

[johnrlhunter]

Hi Greg,

What I would like to see is your mp3 player more album/cd based like musicfreedom. What do you think?

John

[Greg]

I'm not sure what you mean. I looked at an example of their player, and they are actually using the same player that we use, but they have a different skin.

You can also change your media player skin at Music Forte (in the change layout menu) so that your CD artwork is displayed. It's up to you which skin you decide to use.

Let me know if I misunderstood.

[astcyr]

Hi, Greg:

It's been quite some time since I've posted but I just had to comment on all the work that you've done on MF. The changes and enhancements are very impressive and I'm sure I speak for many when I say "THANK YOU" for all you have done.

Sincerely,
Al