The HomeSkillet Records Blog

HomeSkillet Records Version 4.0

Today we launch the fourth iteration of the HomeSkillet Records website. Which begs the question, why launch a new website when the last one was so perfect?  Aside from the bold-faced lie just stated, the reason we launched a new website is because HomeSkillet Records has grown up.

Why Build A New Site? What’s the big deal? It’s just a website, right? Right. But if we are going to be the digital record label we say we are then we must have our best foot forward.  As GEO’s skills get better, so do our sites.  We seem to get a new one every time the current one becomes the worst site in his portfolio. For him, and we say him, we mean us, it’s more than just a website.  It communicates a brand, a HomeSkillet Records theme that we’ve built so carefully over the years.  We feel like we’ve been playing minor league and it’s time to step up and play in the pros. This new site sets the tone for where we would like to go.

The Shop - In the past we never knew where we were going. We sort of started HomeSkillet Records just because we knew we could do it on the cheap digitally and start promoting the music we were all playing. There was a good crew surrounding HomeSkillet and the love for music and sharing pushed us pretty far.  Turning into adults and having adult responsibilities added one more push to the future, financial sustainability.  To help with this goal, we have decided to launch the HomeSkillet Records shop. Look for digital downloads of past and future releases as well as any merchandise and ticket sales.

Music - What happened to all the free downloads from the past - have you guys sold out? If asking for money for stuff we put work into is selling out, then yes, I suppose we have. We firmly believe that some people want to pay for music and we haven’t given them a convenient avenue to do so, but we have madeit  easy for anyone to download music for free.  We have decided to do a 180 on this stance and let anyone who has to have it for free search through old content and find the links (which still work) as well as posting all of our albums on bittorrent. Huzzah!

Shows - We also have a shiny new shows page where you can subscribe to the upcoming events via RSS(?) and although we don’t do a ton of shows - we plan on putting together a few more every year. At some point we may let people know of upcoming shows via the email list again, but we lost our list, so sign up below please.

HomeSkillet Fest - While it was really fun for GEO to design and build a new site for every HomeSkillet Fest - it was also time consuming and we felt it could do better living under the HomeSkillet Records website.  On this page you can find a little description of the festival, artists committed, and photos from the group HomeSkillet Records photo pool hosted on Flickr.  Hopefully we also catch the eye of sponsors, hint hint!  We need your money - without it, we’re doomed, please contact us!

Media - We have lots of video from HomeSkillet Records events - but we don’t have it playing on our website other than random YouTube embeds.  We launched the HomeSkillet Media page so that we can become friends wherever you are hanging out on the web and also so we can pull in all of our media from other outlets.  Go here to see latest videos or photos, oh and please do follow us on Twitter.

GEO’s Conclusion:

“I have built many websites working with many combinations of teams. HomeSkillet Records has always been the project where I sharpen my knives, solo. At first, Nick used to tell me he loved/hated what I did, but more than anything encouraged my growth as a web designer. That was four/five years ago. 

This design and this layout all stemmed from a very talented designer named Todd Quackenbush - he did the HomeSkillet Records logo you see at the top.  It was from this logo that I flushed out the rest of the site.  It’s remarkable how a solid logo can really make or break a site - this is a case in point.

As far as building it, I didn’t build it for IE6 users - here’s my hunch, there aren’t that many of them that visit the site.  I don’t know, I may go back through and “fix” it for them - but it would take a lot of effort and time, and really it’s probably easier for them to get a better browser.

In conclusion, I’ve spent a lot of time designing and building this site - hopefully ya’ll feel me and the label.”

So there you have it - new website, new ambition, new HomeSkillet Records. Show your support and let us know if you love it or hate it - but most importantly, let us know you care enough to comment.