A couple questions

[Funkmasterr]

A friend of mine who has a record label with a few artists on it now (jae millz and mysonne) wants me to make a website solely for Jae Millz mixtapes.

I have done some very basic web site stuff, nothing very complicated though. I have sevaral questions about doing this.

1- Is it even feasable to set up something like that without a more in depth knowledge of web site developing? I learn fast but there are lots of features im not sure im confident about. This would need to be a site you could purchase the cd's on, so I would need to know what that entails. Other than that it would be fairly basic, a frontpage and a listing of the mixtapes with small pictures for each one and a order button.

2-where is the best place to look for webspace? and about how much might I expect to need? Like I said it will not be a huge site, just the frontpage and the abillity to order one of maybe 50-75 mixtapes.

3-How do I go about looking for domain names as well?

Lastly if there is anything you think I overlooked, or anything you want to ad that would be great too.

Thanks ahead of time.

[Leonaerd]

My domain names always came straight from register.com.

I have done some very basic web site stuff, nothing very complicated though.

If that means you know HTML, then you can make a decent looking page.

the abillity to order one of maybe 50-75 mixtapes.

I haven't the slightest clue how you would do that. CGI maybe?

Though, if you're making a website, I'd highly recommend not using words such as "sevaral." I don't purchase anything from websites with spelling mistakes, but I'm a prude like that.

[XunilTlatoani]

The most complicated thing I see in your description is the order form. The complexity depends on what you want it to do. It could be as simple as a form with the shipping/billing info that gets e-mailed to whoever is selling the tapes, or as complex as a full-blown e-commerce site with a shopping cart, customer accounts, etc.

Either way requires some knowledge of HTML forms and server-side languages such as PERL (yuck), PHP, ASP, JSP, etc. If you are looking to do a professional e-commerce type of site, then you need to understand HTTP sessions, cookies, and have some sort of database that you will need to query and update.

Some hosting sites are e-commerce friendly and have a lot of tools to help you build your site (like pre-made shopping carts, etc.). I have never tried using any of these tools, but that may be something worth looking into.

But, without a precise definition of what you want out of your online order form it's hard to describe what you need for it.

[Fash]

If you want to do it yourself, a great option is to use a paypal shopping cart. check out the merchant solutions on https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?c ... nt-outside

I do web hosting and would host the site and provide ftp access, with jolly customer support for $9/month.

If hes willing to invest a few hundred, I could build a database driven, easily editable site that even generates paypal links for you.

[Zaelath]

You'd use paypal? Really?

[Canelek]

Without an in-depth knowledge of a scripting (ASP and such) or object-oriented (C#.NET, etc) language as well as database architecture experience, you may be in over your head for developing an e-commerce site on your own.

That said, yeah there are hosting services that can provide these things for a price. I do believe there are software packages out there to help you along, but I am not sure exactly what is what.

Just my point of view... I used to be a ASP monkey, now I am a DBA (aka SQL monkey), although it is mostly on the production side of things. Having a solid front end and back end is critical when dealing with other folks money, so it can get pretty pricey if you want to make something from scratch.

[Fash]

You'd use paypal? Really?

It all depends what the business is... I've done both on several occasions, and I feel that a small record label selling mix tapes would need to sell a lot of mixtapes to cover costs without a cheap alternative like paypal.

Rather than geting involved with the setup costs of SSL encrypted true e-commerce, yeah... let paypal take care of that. The customers don't need to have an account to use it... and while it becomes less visible that someone else is handling the transaction as the service level goes up, people that actually want your product aren't going to care.

[Funkmasterr]

All it really needs to be is something basic.

I heard somewhere else about the paypal thing too, and that would be fine. But given the target audience of the music, I think it would be a good choice to offer paypal and also just a plain credit card order form.

I don't think I want to set up accounts or anything like that, keeping it as simple as possible would be best as I don't plan on having forums or anything like that.

But if a shopping cart type thing is what would need to happen for them to be able to purchase multiple items without having to do multiple transactions then that might have to happen as well.

I might take you up on that offer fash, I have to talk it over with my friend first, but money is not an really an object. Jae Millz is already getting very popular, and universal records picks up the tab for anything they do, including the website.

Here is a write about about him and the record label, if anyone cares, from MTV.com. Nigel(Noj) is the friend of mine wanting to set this up.

— by Alyssa Rashbaum, with reporting by Rashaun Hall

Jae Millz made his name as one of the best underground battle rappers in New York, so much that P. Diddy asked him to appear on "Making the Band." And after years of cutting his teeth on the mixtape circuit, the rapper brings his old-school, grass-roots upbringing to his debut album, Back to Tha Future.

"I'm trying to take the game back to the future," he said, "take you back to when it was all about hip-hop, when it was about lyrics, about the essence, the culture. I'm gonna take you to the future — 'cause that's what I am."

But before he was all that, the MC was an art student.


Jae Millz
Photo Gallery
"I went to high school for [art]," he said. "But as time went on, you get in that lunchroom, they start beating [rhythms] on the tables, and there ain't nothing more to say after that. I just fell into the rap thing, writing rhymes all day."

Millz went up against rappers anywhere, any time he was challenged. Opportunity knocked one day in 1997, while he was battling outside his younger brother's basketball game: Tupac's wife, Keisha Morris, was watching and decided she liked what she heard. She introduced the then 15-year-old rapper to Wanna Blow Entertainment's co-CEOs, Nige and Tone.

"Tone made me battle [for him]," he said. "He asked me what I didn't like doing. I was like, 'I don't really like rhyming over slow beats' — so he comes back with a 90-minute tape of all slow beats, and he made me rhyme to every single one of them. It showed me that you have to learn to adapt and be quick on your feet."



You Hear It First:
Jae Millz
MTV News RealVideo Report
Millz has been with the Wanna Blow crew ever since. He spent a few years dropping exclusive tracks for mixtapes and built a strong buzz on the streets of New York, but as his reputation grew, so did his opportunities for bigger and more public battles — including his appearance on "Making the Band" in 2003.

"I was just in my crib, minding my business," Millz said, "when Nige called me and said, 'Jae, it's going down tonight. Puff wants you to battle someone in the house. I don't know who it is, just get ready."

The MC did well enough in his battle against E. Ness to earn some lavish praise from PD.

"Puff just wanted to see what I could do in front of the cameras, with the pressure on," Millz said. "And after that, he came up to me and was like, 'You made me a believer.' "

Millz scored a record deal with Warner Bros. and released the successful single "Rude Boy Get Up (No, No, No)." He recorded an album for the label, but due to marketing and communication problems, it was never released. So the rapper parted ways with Warner and switched to Universal.

Millz is now preparing for the release of Back to Tha Future, which is slated to come out in May. And although the rapper has done tracks with Cam'ron, T.I., Slim Thug and hitmaker Swizz Beatz, Millz insists that he didn't choose his collaborators for their star power.

"If your beat is hot, I don't care what your name is, I'll make you famous," he said. "I'm not stuck on the names — I'm about making good music."

And for all the high expectations that accompany his debut LP, the man who calls himself "the Statue" — because he feels he represents the spirit of New York hip-hop — sets the bar pretty high for himself.

"I'm just trying to pick up where all the great ones left off," he said, "trying to be the next one to take it there. I'm just trying to stamp my name right now."

[Zaelath]

Eh perhaps, w/ all the bad word of mouth paypal gets though I won't buy anything where I see their logo or suspect they're involved...

A lot of that comes from how the CC law is here, and how much protection you're afforded, v's paypal "we think you're a crook, good luck doing anything about it" approach.

[Funkmasterr]

I might want to take you up on that offer fash. I have the front burner under my ass to get this thing going. One other question I have though- opposed to the paypal thing, how do you feel about ccbill.com ?

A guy I work with hosts and runs a few porn sites (yeah i know) and said that paypal can be a pain in the ass about adult content (such as parental advisory on cd's). I pretty much trust what you say but wanted to run that by too and see what people thought.

[Aabidano]

PERL (yuck)

Sissy

[Zaelath]

PERL (yuck)

Sissy

Used to feel a bit that way, (yuck), but once you attempt to hack a large PHP project (Horde/IMP) v's hacking a large PERL project (Bugzilla, Sandsurfer), PERL all of a sudden becomes simpler by several degrees of magnitude. =p

[Aabidano]

PHP and SQL would be my suggestion, it's a hurdle to get started with though. I don't like Paypal but it's nice and simple, CCs can get to be a problem pretty fast if you aren't set up to handle them properly.

Yahoo does somehing along the lines of what Fash offered, probably more expensive though.

I've never been a MS person, so I've never really had to deal with those abominations they put out.

[Ebumar]

http://www.w3schools.com

[valryte]

If they are willing to pay, then I recommend you pay someone to do it. No offense, but it sounds like your experience is basically creating websites to host people's family pictures. There is a big difference between that and creating an ecommerce site, no matter how simple it is. You wan't to take credit cards? Be ready for SSL. Pay pal? eh hit or miss. Some people dislike it, some don't. I've been developing for almost a decade and have done everything from the back end databases right up to the front end web sites... So trust me when I say this, I know he's your friend and you want to help, but you don't want to get into this. It can lead to a lot of hassle that you are probably not ready for. I'd offer my services, but right now I'm booked for at least 6 months.