Name of your website?To Dream Or To Die
Your name?
Brian Schmieder
Your Location (city, etc)
Ann Arbor, MI
Please give a brief description of your website.
To Dream Or To Die is a small record label located in Ann Arbor, MI. We are here to help the small and local artists, who aren't looking for big deals and lots of money. We're a great way to start your career.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
To Dream Or To Die has been an idea in the making for the past decade. The site finally came to fruition March of 2010.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
March 2010 saw the first draft of the site.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name To Dream Or To Die comes from a song one of the co-owner's produced.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
We're a small operation. And since we're not in it for the money, we are able, and willing, to provide services at very competitive rates, if not free. It's negotiable.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
One of To Dream Or To Die's long time goals is to expand ever so slightly to cater to not only musical artists, but also visual (ie graphite artists), and short film/video artists.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Any business in start-up will have to spend a great deal of time without much success. We're not in it for the money (though some would be nice), and we're willing to put as much time as the artists are towards recording, producing and distributing their music to the public.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Higher a site designer with years of experience, but keep the general design relatively simple. We don't want to drive anyone away. The rest of the budget would go towards equipment for the artists to help produce the most creative, original material around.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Definitely. We're not looking to be huge though. Music comes first.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The price for advice - that's catchy.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Wrapping our heads around deadlines. We don't like them, but we're getting used to them.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Word of mouth is our preferred way of promotion. We like the locals and we're willing to give them discounts.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Adding pages we didn't think we would need. That's about it.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site has been up since March and we don't plan on taking it down any time soon. Big gains in popularity are fine with us, so is incoming web traffic. We just ask to listen to some of our music.
What's your middle name?
Now that's an irrelevant question.
What is your website address?
To Dream Or To Die
