Video support at CFTA with grace and class

With web videos becoming as accessible and acceptable as audio streamed on web pages is, more and more website and blog pages are becoming increasingly cluttered with embedded large video boxes that stretch text beyond the levels of good page layout.

CFTA's new video support for listed artists remains true to CFTA's established reputation of grace and elegance when it comes to page layout and web design. Visitors at the CFTA site viewing an Artist's CD listing with video, will only see an additional small video play button called "Quick Video" below the traditional "Quick Listen" play button just below the CD cover picture.

Clicking the "Quick Video" button will place the entire web page on a shaded background and open a bright video box in the center of the screen, where the video plays, drawing the audience's complete attention to the video. With closing the video box, CFTA's web page instantly comes back from the shaded background to its colorful foreground where the visitor can continue browsing and viewing other artists.


Just another innovative feature for CFTA visitors to enjoy when browsing Indie artists at CFTA and focus on what matters most... the artist's music.

The CFTA team

Snap Shots, a friendly addition to the CFTA site

Here at CFTA we love to stay tuned with the fast changing web technology. Enter the wonderful Snap Shots ® browsing feature. It helps better present each CFTA artist to prospective fans at CFTA, and it makes browsing for CFTA visitors pleasantly more efficient.

Next time you browse CFTA artists, give it a try, simply bring your mouse pointer over any artist's home page link, and see a preview of the site before clicking and going there. It helps save clicking back and forth and closing windows just to have glance at a site's home page. Like the snap shot? Click on it to proceed. Not impressed? Save yourself clicking over there, and stroll along to the next artist.

Happy CFTA strolling...

The CFTA team

BBC Technology news confirms what we said all along

It was very sweet to come across a recent BBC Technology news confirming what we have been saying all along. That online tune downloads have not and will not replace CD sales, and that a CD as a complete product has so much more to offer than what digital downloads can.

The BBC news page can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3047661.stm

Happy reading.

Harei and the CFTA team

CFTA article published in www.ezinearticles.com

Just a quick note to let you know that CFTA's article on the new generation of independent artists has been published under the expert writer at:

http://ezinearticles.com/?id=185497

Happy reading.

The CFTA team

CFTA is out with a free tunes download music store.

Another step in CFTA's direction of free services to Indie artists is the amazing new full featured tunes download music store that each CFTA artist can have for free.

The idea is that artists can cash in on the new popular demand for buying tunes individually as downloads, but without having to pay up to 30 cents off the 99 cents per tune to one of the big music stores out there.

CFTA tunes music store is a simple, no hassle proposition. Indies artists with at least one CFTA CD listing can now sell individual tunes from the CD as mp3 downloads, and see the entire payment go directly into the artist's own PayPal account at no cost to the artist for using the music store and zero sales commission.

To see how the free music store works, check out CFTA's listing #1 for the artist Shony by clicking the "Download tunes" option from below the CD cover.

To learn more on how an artist can participate, click the "I am an Indie artist" from the CFTA's options bar on any CFTA music page.

Musically yours,
Hare Edom
http://www.cdsfromtheartist.com

CFTA new face - Part B.

A quick update to announce that with CFTA’s migration to a more CSS based site technically, we now have our new CSS based look implemented for the home page.
As we take in visitors comments, we will tweak the new look before continuing with the upgrade to the other CFTA music pages.

As it stand now, you can see the difference between the new look of the home page at www.cdsfromtheartist.com, and the older look of the other music pages, mostly in the CD listings area. The new CD listing block was completely redesigned to offer a more appealing look, and temporary broken listings will now show a friendly red sign to inform visitors.

We are excited about the new look.

Comments always welcome.

The CFTA team

CFTA's new face for the New Year

It has been a while since my last posting here, and while it does not speak well for the currency of the blog, I can say shamelessly that busy time and endless work in following the exciting evolution of CFTA are the reasons for keeping me away from here.

Indeed the excitement of how CFTA is taking shape and a soul of its own, keeps driving us here day and night in following and growing with CFTA. Numerous prominent music sites have noticed us with great approval and support, and our artist community has passed the 80 mark, making the 100 mark our next milestone.

But what I really came here for is to announce the slightly new look and face of the CFTA site. I say slightly because the changes are not radical, rather they are symbolic of how CFTA has evolved and grown since it’s humble conception in April this year. It really is like a baby. It’s the same face but much better formed with the natural beauty slowly coming out as our original baby face transforms to a more mature look.

Some of the elements taking the new, evolving look are the page header blocks, the option bar and the brand new CFTA Quick Listen player that now has an easy to find Close option. The conversion to the new player is taking place as I write this. I think some artists on the first and last page already have it, and we are hoping to have all the CFTA artists set with the new player for the first month of 2006.

While these changes are mostly cosmetic, we feel that they contribute measurably to making your visit, browsing and music discovery more pleasant and functional at CFTA.

But cosmetics are not the only changes we have made recently. We have also added new functionality to make the artist’s task of keeping her/his CFTA listing current, significantly easier. We have created a new tool dedicated to artists called the Links Manager. This tool makes it easy for artists to quickly review all the current links in their CD listing, and submit any changes quickly and easily as needed.

As we make CFTA an easier place for artists to stay current with their links, we also make CFTA a better place for quality browsing and functionality for music lovers who come to discover great Indie music and want to follow the links to the music they like

I hope that your year of music making and discovery was as exciting and fruitful as it was for us here in building CFTA for the new generation of online Indie artists and music lovers.

From all of us here at CFTA,

Season’s Greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year.

Harei Edom

The value of a CD in the new digital age

As the digital music age is taking the music market and industry alike by storm, with the iPod becoming a common personal digital music appliance and the initial download craze spreading with unstoppable momentum, it is so easy to loose sight of why the CD format of creating, delivering, consuming and collecting music remains not only legitimate, but very much viable, cherished and unchallenged by music lovers who care and appreciate the CD audio quality it offers and the artistic value of the CD's packaging artwork.

For an interesting article on the subject of music CDs and the music lovers who care for them, click here.

Harei Edom