We've tried to answer as many of the common questions as possible. Hopefully you will get an answer to any site query you have, right here.
Band Mate is a new, free website created for musicians, allowing them to locate their peers quickly and easily. The site is free to use and is not supported by advertising. There is currently no financial model to the site, meaning I do not make money from it. It has been created in my spare time and is hosted entirely at my own expense. This results, I hope, in a better experience for the users as there are no advertising banners or prompts to become a premuim member of the site flashing up on every page. You can do away with all of that on Band Mate and just focus on what presumably brought you to the site - a desire to find like minded musicians in your area!
Yes - free! There is no membership fee whatsoever. You can sign up for free and instantly get access to all of the features on offer. 'Nothing is free', I hear you say. Well, sorry to correct you, but you are wrong. Band Mate is! You don't even have to be subjected to adverts as you browse the site! Band Mate is an advert-free zone, and I hope this will improve the site experience for users of Band Mate.
Registration is simple. First of all, find your way to the register page. You can access this page by clicking 'Account links' in the top right of the website and then clicking 'Register'. You will be asked to fill in a few details on the register page, once this is done you will receive an email containing an activation link. By clicking the activation link within your email, you will instantly gain access to Band Mate as a registered user, giving you access to all of the features that Band Mate has to offer.
Have you gone through the register process without receiving your activation email? If so, please firstly check the spam folder in your email, as the message may have been falsely detected as spam by your email client. If you cannot find it there, then the next step is to trigger the email to be re-sent, which you can do on the Resend Activation Email page.
First of all, have you registered for the site? If not, please refer to How do I register. If you are registered, you can login to the site by clicking 'Account links' in the top-right of the site and then clicking Login. You will be asked to input your login credentials, and if correct, will be granted access to the Band Mate site.
Band Mate user content is divided into two sections: Listings and Profiles. The point of this is not to confuse users, but to make Band Mate better!
All users who create an account on Band Mate will get their own a profile. This contains all relevant information pertaining the the account holder, be it a band or solo musician. Profiles can be searched for using the site Search Musicians page, or browsed on a geographic level through the Browse Musicians page.
Listings are also available to users, and these follow a fairly standard 'classifieds' format. They are also both searchable and browsable in the same way as profiles are. Listings are perfect for users who want extra prominence within Band Mate; who want other users to know that they are actively looking for bands or musicians; or for users who want to create a 'classified' on Band Mate with information that differs from their profile information, without the need to create a second Band Mate account.
In a nutshell there are several reasons why Band Mate offers both listings and profiles, the most important of which being that it gives you the users of the site a choice and lets you pick the option that works best for you!
Band Mate works on a geographic level, enabling users to browse listings and profiles by county and/or city. It also shows users who are logged in to the site how far away each individual listing or profile is from their own postcode. This is not possible without having some location data associated with the listings or profiles. Since we only need an approximate location, asking for a postcode seemed like the best option. The end result is that you, the user of the site, are able to find the content that is geographically relevant to you. Band Mate does not use this data for any other reason.
First of all, have you registered for the site? If not, please refer to How do I register.
If you are registered and logged in, you can edit your profile by clicking 'Account links' in the top-right of the site and then clicking Edit Profile in the dropdown menu, or by clicking Edit my profile' when viewing your own profile page.
First of all, have you registered for the site? If not, please refer to How do I register.
If you are registered and logged in, simply click the Create listing link located at the top of the website. From there, click edit profile. Underneath your profile image you will see a link reading 'Update profile picture'. Click this and follow the instructions.
First of all, have you registered for the site? If not, please refer to How do I register.
If you are registered and logged in, simply click the Create listing link located at the top of the website. From there, just fill out all of the relevant data and submit your form. It is helpful to be descriptive in your posts, as this will normally result in a higher number of people finding your profile or listing amongst all of the others.
First of all, have you registered for the site? If not, please refer to How do I register.
If you are registered and logged in, simply click the Create listing link located at the top of the website. From there, click 'manage listings'.
First of all, have you registered for the site? If not, please refer to How do I register.
If you are registered and logged in, simply navigate to a users profile page, and then click the 'send private message' button. Alternatively, you can send a message to any user that you are following by clicking 'Account links' in the top right of the site, then clicking 'Private Messages'. From there you can compose a message to a user that you are already following.
You can change your account preferences by accessing your account page (click on the 'Account links' button in the top-right of the site, and click 'Account'). From there you can navigate to your 'Preferences' . You will then be presented with the options you can change.
If you are registered and logged in, simply navigate to your account page, using the top-right menu under your username. From there, you will see an option called 'Change Password'. Click that and follow the onscreen instructions to change your password to something new.
If you are registered and logged in, simply navigate to your account page, using the top-right menu under your username. From there, you will see an option called 'Change Email Address'. Click that and follow the onscreen instructions to change your email address to something new.
Band Mate will do its best at finding relevant musicians for you, and will also aim to show your profile or listing to others if it is relevant to their search. However, the site can only work with the information you provide it.
To get the most out of Band Mate it is recommended that you add as much relevant information to your profile and listings as you feel comfortable doing (remember that this data is public, so you may not want to share sensitive information).
Nobody likes searching through pages of empty profiles, and to this end the site may exlude you from search results if it feels the there is not enough content on your profile to make it of any interest to anybody. The more information you apply to your profile and/or listings, the better an experience you will get from Band Mate and the more users your content will be shown to.
If your questions isn't answered here then please contact us with your question and we will try to answer it as best as we can.