Website launchpad for local bands

Web designer David Parker with (from left) Keanu Vicente (Strange Angel), George Davidson (Dr Ego/Uncle Arthur) and Beach House manager Tim Campion.

Alistair Brightman

AN EXCITING new website for local musicians to get noticed will be launched at the Beach House Hotel tonight.

Local acts such as Dr Ego and Strange Angel will be at the popular jam session which the hotel puts on every week, but tonight there will be an important difference.

Maryborough’s David Parker is a web designer who wants to “sell the Wide Bay to the world” and his latest project centres on local bands.

After being impressed with the quality of music and performance on display, Mr Parker decided to use the Beach House Hotel’s weekly jam session as a launch pad for his new website www.aussiejamsessions.com.

The website would allow bands to upload photos, 30-second MP3 samples, Youtube clips and contact details free of charge, so that prospective clients could book them for their own gigs or functions such as weddings and birthday parties.

With the increasing trend of people finding their music online, Mr Parker believed there was no reason the idea couldn’t one day go Australia-wide, with “people from Sydney checking out a band from Hervey Bay and booking them for a weekend”.

The only limitation for bands uploading their MP3 or Youtube clips was that the music had to either be original or the band had to have copyright authority to use the song.

Mr Parker also wanted to film the jam sessions via a webcam for live streaming to the world, but again the music had to be original.

Bands who wanted to upload extra information such as full length MP3s could also sign up for the value-added service, giving them an individual page for less than the cost of setting up their own website.

Anyone who wanted to be involved could go to the Beach House Hotel on the Esplanade tonight from 6pm.