katebush.com: a site review

Normally music is the typical topic of review for an artist like Kate Bush. I got puzzled by the website since the old Arial website from 2005 blocked me from going further into the music. So when Kate Bush relased a new website I digged a bit further into it:

• Site: katebush.com
• Publishing system: Drupal version 6 (from robots.txt)
• Plattform: Linux
• Web design and development: EtonDigital London source
• Launched: May 15, 2011

It is nice to see such a important site based on Drupal. It brings hope that I can get standard features like RSS-feed and most usability issues can be fixed by installing the right Drupal module.

Home

katebush.com launches a splash screen with a Flash movie welcoming you to the site, then a button to enter the site. Splash screens are "out" so I hope it will go away after some weeks, no cookie registers that you have visited it. Thumbshots of page has issues with the Flash movie so previews of the site is a big black box.

The home screens uses a record metaphor, the record label is the menu. This has some problems with vertical text. Vertical text works nice on print and record labels since you can turn the object, it is more difficult on a screen.

The menu item Music sends you to iTunes without a warning. Using a separate page for the main menu creates a lot of other problems, also when returning to the home screen. The concept is good would it would have fitted better as a part of the main navigation. Now it creates two levels, one with the record label and one with the horizontal menu.

Content

The third level takes you to the content. The record label is gone and you have a list of primary links and a sidebar. This page works well, the Fish people design and the menu gives a good overview except for Music that sends you to iTunes without a warning

About, contact and legal information is placed at the bottom, focus is content.

The albums and photo shows a impressing display of everything Kate Bush has produced. I have no problem understanding why she want to remix old albums, I am not often confronted with the work I did 25 years ago. As a songwriter you are, now that all albums can be found on iTunes.

The About us and Contact has some text, it seems like this is not finished yet. The "Sign up" link uses the Drupal login to give you a subscription but it never tells you what you are subscribing to.

Images and video

The images and videos are of the superb quality we are used to from Kate Bush. Videos can be viewed inline. The new Fish People logo and the use of a fish as the head of persons is moving the site away from the person Kate Bush, a good move. No interview with the artist is provided. The global fame of an artist and the focus on the person is the downside of the music industry, since it seems like every thing Kate Bush ever said in front of a camera is ending up on YouTube. I hate to se myself on national TV so I will not complain when an artist only choose to be interviewed on the radio. Comments are not allowed, in this case this is correct as the will add little of value and be a nightmare to administer.

Music

Sending you directly to iTunes is confusing, there should been an iTunes icon that warns you. It would be better to end up on a page with links to iTunes and perhaps information about different distribution in different markets. Links should avoid start iTunes automatically, this is something the user can decide themself: Without stariting iTunes vs starting itunes. Links that send you of the site should have a symbol. There is a Drupal module that does this.

News

It is ambitious to provide news on a site like this, for long periods there will be nothing to write about and this will automatically give the label "recluse". Replacing it with the term blog is much safer, a blog can contain a picture that is 20 years old. To avoid the tabloid press and the fan pages assuming that nothing is happening, it is smart to publish something at least a couple of times each month.

It can be

• something boring
• interesting only to someone working in the music industry
• some statistical information, like a pie chart (the record label would make a great pie)
• a picture or a screenshot

The value is in the "ping", I am alive and working on something (but I am not telling you what). It should have a timestamp and a author stamp so you know the artist is alive, the content does not have to promise anything. There is no personal message from the artist, I like that. The music is so personal so there is no need for personal messages.

FAQ

A FAQ is missing, Peter Gabriel's FAQ tells you a lot of how it is to be an international known artist, his "lack of storage facilities" is a good and valid explanation why you should not send gifts. The FAQ should be honest and empathic but there are some "Facts of life" that applies and that can not be hidden.

Recommedations

Some Drupal modules to install:

The captcha module to avoid scripted submissions of forms:

The external link module the automatically tell that the URL is external with a tiny arrow:

Plus:

• change the navigation to avoid several levels, the welcome video is something that is sticky on the top of the news list
• rename news to something that is less demanding on the content
• enable RSS: the rss.xml is there but it is empty
• use embed code from YouTube instead of insisting on delivering videos as Flash. The the site would work much better in iPad.
• use the blog API to publish from a client like Ecto for Mac or Microsoft Word for Windows. I do not understand how anyone have time to struggle with the web browser to publish content. This was written with Ecto for Mac. The Blog API is the best feature in Drupal 6.
• Redirect katebush.com to www.katebush.com so it only looks like one site to page ranking sites.

Conclusions

katebush.com it the new version is a good start and a much needed improvement from the previous version. After checking out some of my other favorite artists websites the graphical elements are very good. With the material available it could be turned into a reference site for artists.

It does look like the launch was done in a hurry on top of a lot of other activities from an already small staff. Hopefully the web site will get the attention it deserves. It is an important channel directly from a brilliant artist with an ability to relay emotions I have only seen in Alice Miller. Hopefully the website can be a way to cut through the lack of facts in the tabloid press, the is how the artist intended it to be. When the music is sold via iTunes there is not album graphics or other information, this has to come from the website.

As known from other industries, only colleagues working in the same field know how much work it is. Great work on the content, images and videos but it is time to add a web and interaction specialist to the team.