Thought I’d write a quick post after spending a couple of hours this afternoon faffing about trying to customise the custom header on my Bandcamp page with the addition of an image map.
It’s actually much easier than at first it may seem and with just a few simple steps you can have your Bandcamp page integrating with your main website in a far more effective form. The addition of a custom url for your Bandcamp page means you can use the site as a shop-window for your music which forms part of your main website as a sub-domain. This is what many artists are doing now to promote their music, using their own site as a hub and using external sites such as Bandcamp for additional functionality.
This is how I created the image map…
First you need the actual image for the custom header. I did a screen grab (command-shift-4) from the home page on my main website. Here is the crucial piece of information (which cost me two failed attempts): Bandcamp custom headers are required to be between 975 pixels wide and 40-180 pixels tall. What I should have done was check the dimensions when I did the screen grab. Third time lucky…
Here is what my custom header looks like. I included the menu at the top so I could superimpose the image map later…
I then went to the excellent Image Maps site and uploaded the image. I shan’t bother to fully explain how to use the site as it is incredibly easy to figure out and simple to use. Basically once the image is uploaded you can create boxes around whichever blocks you want to add links to and away you go. Starts looking a little like this:
Once you’ve finished marking up the image, just click the Get Your Code button and copy the generated HTML code to your clipboard.
Then you hop over to Bandcamp and upload your custom header image on the main page. The final step is to go to your Profile page and paste the HTML into the Use an image map box in the Custom Header section.
Then you’re laughing.
Hope that was useful to somebody. This post could’ve saved me a good hour this lunchtime 🙂
This is just a quick update to let you know that my solo album Mandala is now available on virtually all the major music download providers including iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, eMusic and Napster. This is thanks to those lovely folks at CD Baby (where incidentally, you can also buy the download!).
Now, CD copies are still only available form my website via Bandcamp, and the best way to help support me and my music is to buy the album from me directly there. I know some people prefer to use iTunes or Amazon and it is for this reason that I’ve submitted the album to these sites. I also really wanted the album to be available on Spotify, which it should be in the next couple of weeks.
Now for a little plea… If anyone who already has the album fancies writing a short review or posting their ratings over on the iTunes or Amazon MP3 sites, that would be much appreciated. Niche music like mine relies so heavily on word of mouth and personal recommendation that any help you can give would make a real difference. If you have any questions on how to go about this, please leave a comment here or contact me on Twitter. Thanks guys 🙂
I have already started work on the follow up to Mandala here at Little Towers. But that is another blog post entirely. I posted a little sketch over at Soundcloud a couple of weeks ago to give you some idea of the direction it’s heading in. Here it is again so you can have a sneak peek..
If anybody’s in Glasgow at the end of the week, I’ll be playing two shows with Maggie Reilly at The Tron Theatre on Friday and Saturday. These are very special shows as they are the first UK dates Maggie has played in over ten years. Seriously not to be missed. Hope to see some of you there.
This last week I have spent quite a lot of time listening to some of the great new music that has been brought to my attention recently, mainly through the joys of Twitter and Facebook. Both regularly prove great sources of shared information, especially in the world of new music. I currently follow 804 people on Twitter, the vast majority of them are musicians and music lovers with whom I have a great deal in common musically. So what better platform to discover new music?
I thought this would be a good opportunity to blog about some of the great new music I’ve been listening to over the last couple of weeks that have been recommended via Twitter and Facebook and give you the opportunity to check out some great independent artists you may not have come across yet. And through the joys of the Bandcamp embeddable  players I can miraculously place little links direct to their music right here on the blog. Sweet…
At the end of last week I received my copy of  Disarm by She Makes War (aka Laura Kidd)
This is a fantastic album of what Laura herself describes as ‘grungey dystopian gloom-pop’. The writing is really interesting and for me brought to mind some of Skin’s solo material on the first couple of listens. I posted my favourite track NIMN from the album in the player above. Well worth checking out and her Bandcamp page offers a plethora of imaginative packages.
My second offering today come from ambient/drone artist Emmalee Crane. I really enjoyed her 2009 album Crux and have been keeping my eyes peeled for news of her latest release Formantine. It seems I entirely missed said news and today discovered the album was released in November..
Emmalee creates some beautiful ambient soundscapes using a combination of acoustic, electronic and found sounds treated with delicate processing. The review at Savaran Music and Sound describes her music as ‘ambient, orchestral drone’. The production is wonderful and helps create some of the most atmospheric and organic ambient music I’ve heard in a long time.
Purely by chance this morning I came across A Lullaby Hum For Tired Streetsby Ephemetry, also via the Savaran Music blog. This is the music of Derby based musician Richard ‘Biff’ Birkin. There are only five tracks on his Bandcamp page (two of which are free downloads) and the full album isn’t due for release until later this month, but I really loved what I heard…
The first track After Catalunya (posted in the player above) and track 3 A Lullaby Hum grabbed me straight away. Again we’re in the realms of ambient acoustic music with a few folky vocal acoustic tracks thrown in. I’m really interested to see what the full album sounds like and will be keeping my eye on his Bandcamp page for updates..
Finally it was brought to my attention at a gig last night that Hannah Peel‘s new album The Broken Wave is out now. I don’t have a cunning little player for you this time so I’ll have to trust you to check out the album yourselves. It is available from the usual download sites, including eMusic.
I met Hannah last year whilst touring with Duke Special. Her music is incredibly delicate and honest. She plays a variety of instruments when she performs, most notably a little wind-up music box which she painstakingly prepares the reels for with a hole-punch before the show. Produced by Tunng’s Mike Lindsay and with a couple of tracks orchestrated by Nitin Sawhney, the album is truly stunning. The official launch party will be at The Vortex on Tuesday 8th February. Get yourself along if you’re about…
Well that’s it for now folks. I’ll probably do this again sometime in the near future. There’s so much great new music out there right now, despite what the big record labels would have you believe. You just have to know where to look…
