# My new website, could i get jobs with this?



## P-A NILSSON

Hello,

My name is Per-Anders Nilsson and i am a composer from Sweden. 

I recently made a website and really would like to know what you guys think? 

www.panilssonmusic.com



//P-A


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## mc_deli

At last, someone listing Epidemic sound... the first composer I have seen in the wild...

You probably don't want to answer, and may not be able to, but is the ES stuff royalty free and 150 a track as hinted elsewhere?

(I should confess, I am not an ES fan. That they have a big deal with YLE in Finland is bad news for Finnish composers etc etc plus so many other TV companies blah blah I am like a stuck record)


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## Jdiggity1

It's looking good Per! Squarespace always looks great for portfolios.
2 things I would do though... Optimise the graphic in the "music" header by reducing the file size. Maybe re-export it as a medium-quality jpeg or use an online tool like optimizilla.com. It took a while to load for me so at first I thought you had forgotten to put an image there completely.
Secondly, if possible, try to organise the text on your "works" page into 2 columns to reduce the need for scrolling.

Oh and a tip - having your email address as text in your contact page will almost certainly lead to spam. To avoid this, you can use a contact form, use a graphic of your email address (so the text can not be extracted by bots), or write it out broken, eg. jdiggity(at)vicontrol(dot)com

Oh and nice tracks.


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## Anders Wall

I'm curious too, re EP sound.
You're not allowed to be part of a copyright collection society, in our case STIM, due to the contract you write with EP sound. So how does that work with the other songs you've written?
Because as soon as you commit to be part of STIM they will collect royalties from all your work and that wouldn't fly with the EP contract...
/Anders


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## P-A NILSSON

Hi there, 

Yes, ES is royalty free, you sell your rights completly. 
In my case i gained alot of experience and got about 4500 sek per song. 

I knew that it wasn't the best deal going in but at least i get to work with music.


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## P-A NILSSON

Jdiggity1 said:


> It's looking good Per! Squarespace always looks great for portfolios.
> 2 things I would do though... Optimise the graphic in the "music" header by reducing the file size. Maybe re-export it as a medium-quality jpeg or use an online tool like optimizilla.com. It took a while to load for me so at first I thought you had forgotten to put an image there completely.
> Secondly, if possible, try to organise the text on your "works" page into 2 columns to reduce the need for scrolling.
> 
> Oh and a tip - having your email address as text in your contact page will almost certainly lead to spam. To avoid this, you can use a contact form, use a graphic of your email address (so the text can not be extracted by bots), or write it out broken, eg. jdiggity(at)vicontrol(dot)com
> 
> Oh and nice tracks.





Jdiggity1 said:


> It's looking good Per! Squarespace always looks great for portfolios.
> 2 things I would do though... Optimise the graphic in the "music" header by reducing the file size. Maybe re-export it as a medium-quality jpeg or use an online tool like optimizilla.com. It took a while to load for me so at first I thought you had forgotten to put an image there completely.
> Secondly, if possible, try to organise the text on your "works" page into 2 columns to reduce the need for scrolling.
> 
> Oh and a tip - having your email address as text in your contact page will almost certainly lead to spam. To avoid this, you can use a contact form, use a graphic of your email address (so the text can not be extracted by bots), or write it out broken, eg. jdiggity(at)vicontrol(dot)com
> 
> Oh and nice tracks.



Thank you for the tips!
I will look in to it in the morning


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## P-A NILSSON

WallofSound said:


> I'm curious too, re EP sound.
> You're not allowed to be part of a copyright collection society, in our case STIM, due to the contract you write with EP sound. So how does that work with the other songs you've written?
> Because as soon as you commit to be part of STIM they will collect royalties from all your work and that wouldn't fly with the EP contract...
> /Anders



Hi, 
Thats right the day i started to work with ES i had to break my contract with Stim, there is no way i can use both at the same time. I have recently gone out of ES and started with stim again and i can report my songs at least three years back.


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## josefsnabb

Nice page all around! Clean and easily oriented. 

As a visitor on the page, I can give some feedback.

About:
All good. Maybe add some pictures you in any studio? Playing instruments etc. 
Music:
Easy to listen. But want more tracks! Good music you have done btw. 
Work
The Clients area could be more appealing and structured. For example, add Logos of the companies, or some small pictures that are relevant to the different projects.


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## P-A NILSSON

josefsnabb said:


> Nice page all around! Clean and easily oriented.
> 
> As a visitor on the page, I can give some feedback.
> 
> About:
> All good. Maybe add some pictures you in any studio? Playing instruments etc.
> Music:
> Easy to listen. But want more tracks! Good music you have done btw.
> Work
> The Clients area could be more appealing and structured. For example, add Logos of the companies, or some small pictures that are relevant to the different projects.



Hi Josef! 
Many thanks for all the great tips  
It's always so hard to find the time to make new songs haha. 

Thanks again man! 

//P-A


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## WaldmanD

agree with Josef- even a small amount of visual stuff in the clients area could go a long way towards showing that you're a professional and have "worked well with others" etc


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## adamsample

pretty nice. Love the shot with the plant 
Good to see cause i am at a point i need to make a site as well.


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## P-A NILSSON

adamsample said:


> pretty nice. Love the shot with the plant
> Good to see cause i am at a point i need to make a site as well.



Thanks Adamsample  lately i've been thinking of putting a more serious picture in the banner, maybe i should put that idea on hold hehe.


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## Anami

Like it! Typography is nice! Good vibe and professional feel.


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## Lassi Tani

Like the feel of it! Needs more pictures of you playing an instrument or in a studio. The plant picture is funny, but I don't quite get, what you are telling .


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## doctornine

Nice site.
However....there is an elephant in the room : Epidemic Sound. 
If you work with them thats entirely your choice and I'm not going to criticise you for doing it, each to his own. But.... going from personal experience, there is a very good chance that it's going to cost you work, even turn potential clients away. If it was me, I wouldn't mention that as part of my work.


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## P-A NILSSON

Anami said:


> Like it! Typography is nice! Good vibe and professional feel.


 Thx Anami!


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## P-A NILSSON

sekkosiki said:


> Like the feel of it! Needs more pictures of you playing an instrument or in a studio. The plant picture is funny, but I don't quite get, what you are telling .


Ahh, good points, studiopics is on the way. To be honest, i don't get the flowerpicture eather  I'm trying to stand out and be funny haha.


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## P-A NILSSON

doctornine said:


> Nice site.
> However....there is an elephant in the room : Epidemic Sound.
> If you work with them thats entirely your choice and I'm not going to criticise you for doing it, each to his own. But.... going from personal experience, there is a very good chance that it's going to cost you work, even turn potential clients away. If it was me, I wouldn't mention that as part of my work.


Hello Doctornine, You could be right but in my case it hasn't hurt my career, it was my way into the business. 
I have experience and a lot of songs to show potential clients my work, at the same time i don't regret ending my cooperation with them.


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## doctornine

If you're fine with it - no problem. Personally I found my involvement with a certain library caused "issues" further down the road with other library publishers.


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## P-A NILSSON

doctornine said:


> If you're fine with it - no problem. Personally I found my involvement with a certain library caused "issues" further down the road with other library publishers.



ah ok, i sure get what you mean and i won't have them in my roster for very long, but for now it's all i got


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## jjmmuir

Per, it's a great site mate. Uncluttered and inviting. PS listened to your tracks, you guitars sound awesome. Seriously top draw. Are you recording/playing these? You have a gift for getting electrics to sound as they should.


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## C-Wave

I didn't read the comments above, so it may have been mentioned before, but: fix the linked-in link, it's broken.
Cheers!


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## P-A NILSSON

jjmmuir said:


> Per, it's a great site mate. Uncluttered and inviting. PS listened to your tracks, you guitars sound awesome. Seriously top draw. Are you recording/playing these? You have a gift for getting electrics to sound as they should.



Hey! Many thanks mate  Yes i recorded and played the guitars, glad you liked it  cheers


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## P-A NILSSON

C-Wave said:


> I didn't read the comments above, so it may have been mentioned before, but: fix the linked-in link, it's broken.
> Cheers!


Ahh, thanks for the heads up! i fixed the link  Cheers


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## Hasen6

If you live in Sweden, how did you work with Epidemic sound? From their website it seems they only allow US residents to join as composers.


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## P-A NILSSON

Hasen6 said:


> If you live in Sweden, how did you work with Epidemic sound? From their website it seems they only allow US residents to join as composers.


hey, where does it say that? They are working with many swede composers.


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## ranaprathap

It's simple and uncluttered design, serves the purpose. 

You should compress the images on the page, as it helps to load things faster. Also, the music on the page takes a long time to start playing, see if you can fix that. Clicking on the song's name makes it download into the computer. It is ok if that is what you were trying to achieve, but i think it will be more effective to have it play on the website when you click on the song name. 

Out of the four photos on the home page, I only found the first/third image serving any purpose. You can consider replacing the other three photos with you in the studio/you playing an instrument/ or anything like that.

With the amount of content you have on the website, sometimes it is more effective to have a single page with tabbed scrolling. This prevents having to load multiple pages, and makes the overall experience snappier. 

This is a thing of personal preference, but I would have liked the typography to be a little more larger, and a slightly more readable font. 

Hope this helps.


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## Hasen6

P-A NILSSON said:


> hey, where does it say that? They are working with many swede composers.



If you click 'Get in touch' here it says its US residents only. Maybe its a recent change?

http://www.epidemicsound.com/composers/


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## P-A NILSSON

ranaprathap said:


> It's simple and uncluttered design, serves the purpose.
> 
> You should compress the images on the page, as it helps to load things faster. Also, the music on the page takes a long time to start playing, see if you can fix that. Clicking on the song's name makes it download into the computer. It is ok if that is what you were trying to achieve, but i think it will be more effective to have it play on the website when you click on the song name.
> 
> Out of the four photos on the home page, I only found the first/third image serving any purpose. You can consider replacing the other three photos with you in the studio/you playing an instrument/ or anything like that.
> 
> With the amount of content you have on the website, sometimes it is more effective to have a single page with tabbed scrolling. This prevents having to load multiple pages, and makes the overall experience snappier.
> 
> This is a thing of personal preference, but I would have liked the typography to be a little more larger, and a slightly more readable font.
> 
> Hope this helps.



Thanks for the input mate  

All great points, sadly there is a lot of things i can't do to the website due to the fact that it's a Squarespace template. 
I will change the things i can. 

Thanks again!


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## P-A NILSSON

Hasen6 said:


> If you click 'Get in touch' here it says its US residents only. Maybe its a recent change?
> 
> http://www.epidemicsound.com/composers/



Ahh i see, I'm not sure but it could mean that they are searching for USA writers, but not exclusively.
but its all speculation hehe 

Cheers mate


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## jacobthestupendous

This might not be the kind of help you were interested in, so feel free to tell me to get lost, but I did a small bit of revision of the language in your About section. Nothing too serious, but there were a few sentences where the lack of subject/verb agreement made it appear that you are not a native English speaker.

I'm a Swedish composer who mainly produces music for visual media and recording artists. 

I play a variety of instruments, but I am a guitarist at heart. I write music in a wide range of genres, and I’m constantly searching for interesting new sounds and inspiring new music styles. 

I provide mixing, mastering and music production services for everything from advertising to whole album productions for artists. ​
Feel free to use or disregard this.


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## P-A NILSSON

jacobthestupendous said:


> This might not be the kind of help you were interested in, so feel free to tell me to get lost, but I did a small bit of revision of the language in your About section. Nothing too serious, but there were a few sentences where the lack of subject/verb agreement made it appear that you are not a native English speaker.
> 
> I'm a Swedish composer who mainly produces music for visual media and recording artists.
> 
> I play a variety of instruments, but I am a guitarist at heart. I write music in a wide range of genres, and I’m constantly searching for interesting new sounds and inspiring new music styles.
> 
> I provide mixing, mastering and music production services for everything from advertising to whole album productions for artists. ​
> Feel free to use or disregard this.



Hello Jacob! 

Dude that was awesome, thank you for correcting my text. 
Looks way better now  

Cheers


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## BigImpactSound

Looks nice!


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## P-A NILSSON

BigImpactSound said:


> Looks nice!


Thank you very much


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## robgb

The music is excellent.


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## P-A NILSSON

robgb said:


> The music is excellent.


Thank you so much robgb


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## creativeforge

P-A NILSSON said:


> Hello,
> 
> My name is Per-Anders Nilsson and i am a composer from Sweden.
> 
> I recently made a website and really would like to know what you guys think?
> 
> www.panilssonmusic.com
> 
> 
> 
> //P-A



For sure, it has all you need to inform potential collaborators. I would suggest justifying your text left, though, not centered. Usually titles get centered, but text needs being aligned left. Or right for effect.

All the best!


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## P-A NILSSON

creativeforge said:


> For sure, it has all you need to inform potential collaborators. I would suggest justifying your text left, though, not centered. Usually titles get centered, but text needs being aligned left. Or right for effect.
> 
> All the best!



Hello, thank you for your input! 
I'll try your suggestion 

Have a great day!


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## Flaneurette

As an outsider and private composer, I have some tips and constructive criticism. Based upon what I know from being in business and as someone who would hire musicians I would say this:

1. Clearly define who you are. If you list yourself as a composer, mixer, producer etc, I would think this: is he trying to do it all himself? how can he do all these things? does his music suffer from it? While admirable, I am looking for a composer not mixer nor a producer. I probably have other people for that. So what can you do for me? compose music? then you are a composer. On your CV/BIO you _can_ write that you produced and mixed albums. It's nice to find out myself that you can also do these things on the side, and be an asset when my mixer isn't available. Which, I assume, has happened when you got the opportunity to mix and produce: _which is the story I tell myself, _when I read it.

2. I would move the about section to it's own page, and list the music first. If I am interested, I will click the about section to know more about you. But the music has to speak first.

3. The contact page is excellent. I like the simplicity. Making the e-mail click-able would certainly help.

4. I would move the second video to the position of the first. The first video makes me want to click away. It's nice, but not as an introduction. The first thing I hear should convince me. And more often than not, that means showing off to blow me away... It's your page, so stand out, sell yourself in 20 seconds of music.

Hope it helps.


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## P-A NILSSON

Flaneurette said:


> As an outsider and private composer, I have some tips and constructive criticism. Based upon what I know from being in business and as someone who would hire musicians I would say this:
> 
> 1. Clearly define who you are. If you list yourself as a composer, mixer, producer etc, I would think this: is he trying to do it all himself? how can he do all these things? does his music suffer from it? While admirable, I am looking for a composer not mixer nor a producer. I probably have other people for that. So what can you do for me? compose music? then you are a composer. On your CV/BIO you _can_ write that you produced and mixed albums. It's nice to find out myself that you can also do these things on the side, and be an asset when my mixer isn't available. Which, I assume, has happened when you got the opportunity to mix and produce: _which is the story I tell myself, _when I read it.
> 
> 2. I would move the about section to it's own page, and list the music first. If I am interested, I will click the about section to know more about you. But the music has to speak first.
> 
> 3. The contact page is excellent. I like the simplicity. Making the e-mail click-able would certainly help.
> 
> 4. I would move the second video to the position of the first. The first video makes me want to click away. It's nice, but not as an introduction. The first thing I hear should convince me. And more often than not, that means showing off to blow me away... It's your page, so stand out, sell yourself in 20 seconds of music.
> 
> Hope it helps.



Hello!

Thank you! All great points and I tried them right away. My webpage is constantly changing hehe

All the best
P-A


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## Flaneurette

Some honest advice from running (Internet) companies for 20 years: a website doesn't promote itself, so the chance you get any clients from having a website alone is slim, unless you are established or in the top 10 of Google. For a shop it is somewhat different. But for composers, musicians, treat your website as a business card, portfolio, to which you can _send_ potential clients. Printing real business cards with that web address might land you customers offline.

I ran a design company for 15 years. In that 15 years I only got (if I remember it well) 3, yes, 3 customers coming directly from my website inquiring about design. All my other clients came from real world connections, networking and meeting people. Think about it: when you need a service, where do you go? if you are like me, you will look into your own network to see who is there who can do the job. When that resource is exhausted, you turn to friends who might suggest a guy. The last option will be Google, which is similar to approaching a stranger. I know no-one who goes onto soundcloud or whatever, and look for some composer to hire.

Having a network is the best thing. Probably the only thing that will make a real difference. We once hired a guy, only for his connections and network. He came to us with a little flip-box filled with hundreds of business cards of important people at important businesses. He placed this little box in front of us, and he knew he would get hired. He got the keys to castle, so to speak. His little box with business cards was worth millions.

My advice would be: get a business card and land yourself in these boxes, invest in offline connections, actively search for possible clients and networks. Go and do commercials, do _some_ work for free, look in classified ads, connect with musicians, connect with people who make films, students, do a free score for them. If they blow up one day, they will take you with them in their blast field, if the explosion is big enough. Few people ever succeeded alone.


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