The Chemical Brothers

• Weapons: XHTML, WordPress, jQuery/AJAX, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm.
• Genre: Big Beat
• Country: England
• Superpowers: Upper dropdown media, Chronicles/Chemmunity media, tons of content, nice mobile version.
• Weakpoints: Load time feels delayed. Gig map is overkill—to help it’d need to show all gigs at once.

The Knife

• Weapons: HTML5, WordPress, YMLP, SoundCloud, Beatport.
• Genre: Electro Pop
• Country: Sweden
• Superpowers: Blog posts, mailing list visibility, overall design simplicity.
• Weakpoints: You have to be a mind reader to find the RSS feed. [easy fix] No mobile theme.

The Pineapple Thief

• Weapons: HTML4, WordPress, jQuery (Pretty Photo), YouTube, Flash audio
• Genre: Progressive Rock
• Country: England
• Superpowers: Navigation. Design style. All the essentials are there.
• Weakpoints: Bio needs life. No mobile theme.

Death Cab For Cutie

• Weapons: HTML4, TinyMCE, JavaScript (Prototype), Flash objects.
• Genre: Indie Rock
• Country: USA
• Superpowers: Interesting individualized extra content from each band member.
• Weakpoints: Latest blog entry is from 2009. Users aren’t able to comment on blog entries without leaving the site. No (dedicated) mobile version.

Belle and Sebastian

• Weapons: XHTML, WordPress, jQuery (Flickr Gallery), Vimeo
• Genre: Indie Pop
• Country: Scotland
• Superpowers: Recordings/News/Q&A/Live Dates/Video pages and overall usability.
• Weakpoints: You can’t see that a show is sold out until you click on it—traumatizing for superfans. No mobile theme.

Tip: WordPress: Use a “mobile theme” plugin, such as WPTouch or MobilePress.

DepecheMode.com brings us the expected features of a band website, and then some. The site is photo-rich and packaged in layers of sleek design. The tour tracker adds interactivity by letting fans share their concert experience via messages posted by map location and photos uploaded to an immense fan gallery.

Photos posted by the band at each tour location can be seen in the tour blog. I only wish it were easier to sort and share the photos by location and date. The tour blog updates are not included in their RSS feed and they lack permalinks but the band does post them on Twitter @depechemode. I would like to see them integrate commenting to both the tour blog and the news feed.

Depeche Mode is currently on their Tour of the Universe and they are compiling a Universe of the Fans in a fan mosaic comprised of fan photos. “The more photos are uploaded, the more clearly visible Dave, Andrew and Martin will be.” One can zoom in on the mosaic to see the individual photos.

The downloads page includes two Depeche Mode iPhone applications—one free and one paid—but they lack integration with the more interactive features of the site. I would like to see a free app that extends fan involvement to the mobile environment by allowing mobile fan uploads and geotagging as opposed to the existing free app that contains sound samples, tour dates, and iTunes links. The paid app is meant to let fans remix the songs from Depeche Mode’s latest album, Sounds of the Universe.

Depeche Mode in Lima, Peru on their 2009 Tour of the Universe / flickr.com/photos/jos_ec/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Music SOTM Series: Do you know a band, DJ, or musician with an ace website? Please let us know: contact RVE and we’ll consider it for Music SOTM. Entries are based on interactive content, fan engagement, and mobility. Visit virtualmusic.tv/msotm/ to see more MSOTM artists.

Paramore.net is more than a website—it is a community and social network for Paramore fans. We need to see more music sites like this. Paramore fans can upload their own photos and videos to the site for everyone to view in an easily navigable fashion. Fans can connect with each other (and with the band) through the community, and they can subscribe to the fan club for exclusive content.

This video clip shows Paramore’s tight Monday night live TV performance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Paramore’s third studio album Brand New Eyes was officially released this week. Rock.

Music SOTM Series: Do you know a band, DJ, or musician with an ace website? Please let us know: contact RVE and we’ll consider it for Music SOTM. Entries are based on interactive content, fan engagement, and mobility. Visit virtualmusic.tv/msotm/ to see more MSOTM artists.