Anyone that’s been paying attention to my last few posts has noticed a lot of content about WordPress, and so the launch of Band WP Themes is timed just about perfectly for me.
Band WP Themes is the brainchild of Greg Rollett (of Label 2.0, GenYRockstars.com and The New Music Economy – review coming soon) has partnered up with a dude named Brett to create awesome WordPress themes for bands. Like I said, this is the perfect timing because I’ve been showing you guys how to use WordPress to build a band website (if you’ve checked out my DIY Band Website training). I’ve been doing my best to find some great themes for musicians to use, but I’m sad to say that there isn’t a heck of a lot to choose from.
Greg and Brett are hoping all of that is about to change with the launch of their Band WP Themes product on June 7th. So far the details are few and far between, the features, price and even the look of the themes have yet to be revealed, so I can’t say whether I recommend them or not. However, if it meets up to the same quality level of Greg’s New Music Economy training, then I have high hopes that WordPress will finally have some kick ass themes for bands, DJs and artists to use.
I’ll update this post when I learn more, for now you can check out the video on why you need to host your artist site.
UPDATE:
Greg & Brett revealed their new theme yesterday on the GenYRockstars.com site (check out the BandWPTheme in action). If you visit the page you’ll see that Greg actually walks you through the install process (again for WordPress – Brett already showed that step) plus tweaking out the them. The theme is clean and has a right sidebar with customization options for setting up your newsletter, hooking up a photo gallery and a place to bring in your Twitter feed. However, I’m left a little underwhelmed at this point in time; most of the videos show Greg using the standard features that come with WordPress. Aside from the sidebar (btw, I’m not too keen on how the photo header doesn’t run all the way across the top personally) I haven’t seen anything new from this theme in terms of customization – maybe Greg’s waiting for the next video to show us that stuff? He promises another video on Sunday – the day before the launch.
Here’s what the theme looks like – what do you think?
The other curious omission at this point is the price. Nothing has been said of how much it will cost to get this theme. Rather than just sell a theme, it sounds like they’re going to offer a membership of some kind where you get all the extra training and perhaps more themes, but I’m not 100% on that. I’m uncertain whether they plan to release one uber-customizable band theme or just a whole slew of different band themes that you can choose from. I guess we’ll find out soon.
Bottom line – right now it looks like this theme is geared to the complete technophobes that either don’t want to learn how to use the text widget in WordPress or are completely ignorant of what you can do with it. It’s really not that hard guys – trust me! Having said that the BandWPTheme will live or die based on its price – right now I like it, but I’m not sure that I’d shell out cash for it unless I see some more features. However, I’ve been playing around with WordPress for close to three years and messed around with Microsoft Frontpage for a half dozen years or so prior to that – so I’m probably not the target market for this product!
More updates to follow as the price and further details are released!
FINAL UPDATE: The price was released last Monday – $27 for the theme only or $37 for the theme with WordPress training videos and support. As I said before – I don’t think I’d buy the theme, but I already know my way around WordPress pretty well. However, for those that don’t know how to use WordPress, the $37 option is obviously much cheaper than attempting to get a designer to build a site for you.
For those that are looking for some great training for free, I just made a decision to provide the first module of my DIY WordPress Band Website training for free as part of the free membership level of the Indie Band Alliance. Membership is closed right now – but will be opening soon.
