Tawiah released a brilliant EP as a free download over the 2011 festive season. The ‘holiday gift’ features her new song ‘Run’, along with a remix, acapella version, a song called ‘Don’t Know You Yet’ and a powerful version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’.

To give the EP widespread reach I made an email sign-up widget, optimised for sharing on social networks and easily embedable on blogs and websites.

Having built many free download widgets over the past year I’ve always wanted to streamline the process with a more templated system. I used the ‘Run EP’ widget to start working on a dynamic system that remains quite flexible.

All the free download details are stored in a MySQL Database where the widget is assigned an ID. All image assets, mailing list information, text and meta data for sharing is then loaded and displayed dynamically when the widget is viewed.

The widget is mobile-friendly, providing an iFrame embed code to easily add it to blogs and websites.

To enhance Facebook sharing I built a Flash version of the widget that accesses all the data from an xml feed. This means that users can sign-up for the free download and share it without leaving their Facebook news feed.

I have a fair bit of work to do on the CMS as well as adding more flexible options, but this widget has helped me lay a lot of the foundation for a really powerful and easy to use system. Stay tuned.

In November 2011 Muse released an incredible coffee table book filled with photographs from The Resistance Tour. The book was released exclusively through muse.mu and the band needed to get the word out to fans.

I was asked to build a gallery to preview some of the photographs. I built a gallery using jQuery to elegantly fade the images in and out as a user pages through them. I put together some iFrame code so the band’s management could easily add the gallery to the product page in the online store.

To take it further I developed a slightly smaller version of the gallery to sit in a Facebook tab. The tab links back to product page to encourage purchases. The tab includes social sharing options linked to the product page. So fans who click ‘like’, ‘tweet’ or ‘share’ on the Facebook tab would share a direct link to the product page on muse.mu.

To enhance the sharability of the gallery I created a small Flash version for improved Facebook sharing. Anyone sharing the product page or hitting ‘like’ on the page or Facebook tab would post a preview directly to their wall. The small flash gallery loads in the news feed and ends by linking back to the product purchase page. Sharing the product in this way made it far more engaging and appealing, while driving traffic to the store.

Finally I made sure that the jQuery gallery degraded gracefully for users without Javascript enabled. Instead of using a smooth jQuery transition, the gallery still allows users to flick through the photos easily.

The gallery seems fairly simple at first glance, but there are a number of clever bits of code working together to provide the best product experience.

Just before Stooshe launched their lyric video for ‘Betty Woz Gone’ they put a mixtape up on Soundcloud which was covered by numerous blogs and music sites.

We also made the StooshTape available as a reward for fans joining the girls’ mailing list. To further promote the sign-up incentive, I built a widget that could be embedded on sites, blogs and social networks.

This was one of our usual sign-up widgets, built in Flash with an html5 fallback option. It is optimised for social sharing to allow in-feed embedding on Facebook, as well as Google Analytics to track it’s success.

To promote the release of Marlon Roudette’s Riding Home EP, we created a data capture widget with a free download of a song called ‘Brotherhood of The Broken’.

The widget is flash based with a mobile-friendly html & javascript fallback option. The Flash version also plays a preview of the song.

Kate Brighouse designed the widget and a mailer template that I set-up as an automated response to deliver the free download to fans that registered for the UK mailing list.

Along with the launch of Lianne La Havas’ EP and a redesigned website, we had an amazing set of live songs to give away as a sign-up incentive. ‘Live in LA’ is a four track recording of a gig that Lianne La Havas recently put on in the states. The songs sound incredible and make a brilliant sign-up incentive.

Kate Brighouse designed the widget and I assembled the swf to embed on the website and spread around blogs and social networks. I created an html fallback option for mobile phones and devices that can’t use flash. This time I extended the functionality to include jQuery form validation and submission running in the background so that the user never leaves the page.

As usual the widget is configured for enhanced sharing on social networks. Sharing the widget on Facebook will embed it into the news feed, allowing people to sign-up without leaving their Facebook home page. It is also set-up for easy sharing on Twitter and the embed code is easily obtained for bloggers to embed it on their own sites.

To give the free download maximum exposure on her networks I also created a Facebook application to include the widget on a tab.

To deliver the free download we needed a new html email template, so Kate Brighouse designed a new template to match the widget. Alex Burfurd then set it up to deliver the free download once you sign up. The widget proved to be hugely popular, instantly lifting Lianne’s fanbase and quickly spreading across all the blogs that are in the know.

Marina Diamandis has returned with an ambitious precursor to her new album. The new song, ‘Radioactive’, is a concept single that delves into new territory to make her point.

A week after launching the campaign and video for the single, we made an alternate version available as an incentive to join Marina’s mailing list.

I built a free download widget for the acoustic version of Radioactive. As usual the widget is Flash based with an html fallback option for mobile users. It includes all the best optimisation for social sharing and embedding across blogs. I also set-up a basic Facebook iFrame App to give the widget a more permanent position on Marina’s Facebook. The widget was also added as a sign-up module on her website to give it more prominence on the site.

Marina & The Diamonds fans loved the acoustic version of Radioactive and the widget quickly spread across the internet.

In the build-up to Joshua Radin’s sophomore release we were given a 6 acoustic recordings to use for data capture.

We bundled all the songs as a free EP and released them in a download widget.

Kate Brighouse designed the widget, which I then reconstructed in Flash along with all the necessary actionscript to make it run smoothly.

As usual the widget includes samples of the songs that can be played on demand, an actionscript sign-up form with validation, optimisation for social media sharing and Google Analytics to measure it’s success.

Coinciding with the launch of Tawiah’s blog, I built a free download widget for the BTraits remix of ‘Sweet Me’.

Kate Brighouse’s design for Tawiah’s online estate is deliberately bare-bones, relying on Courier New as a font base.

Kate was away when the widget needed to be built, so I took care of the very stripped back design.

The widget includes a preview of the song, an actionscript 3 sign-up form with email validation, Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons, pop-up embed code and Google Analytics.

One More Tune Records recently signed DEVolution. In the build up to the first single, ‘Good Love’, we gave away a remix by Rude Kid.

We did this in one of my popular free download widgets. Kate Brighouse designed the widget’s layout and I assembled it in Flash.

To make the download page mobile friendly I wrote a fall-back form that looks very similar to the widget. So anyone visiting the page on a device without Flash compatibility would still be able to sign up and get the free download.

All The Young are about to launch a live EP, recorded at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. To raise awareness about the band and help establish their reputation as a solid live band, we released one song from the EP as a free download.

I built a Flash sign-up widget for ‘Today’ using all my tricks that have now become standard practice. AS3 form submission with validation, mp3 preview playback, Facebook and Twitter Sharing, easily copied embed code and Google Analytics.

The widget is also optimised for Facebook sharing to enable in-feed display and sign-ups.

I created a clean html fallback option for users that don’t have Flash enabled. This allows all fans to sign-up and share the widget, even if they’re using iPads, iPhones or other mobile devices.

Celebrating the release of ‘Revolutions // Live at Wembley’ we made two songs available to download for free.

Live versions of the massive hits ‘Mountains’ and ‘Bubbles’ are available by joining the mailing list through an embeddable and sharable widget.

Kate Brighouse designed the widget and I got to work building the Flash file with all the necessary functionality.

The widget includes playback functionality to stream previews of the two songs, a sign-up form with actionscript validation, Google Analytics tracking, facebook and twitter sharing buttons and a pop-up dialogue allowing the user to copy the embed code.

When users sign-up they’re sent an email with the download link for the two songs. They are also directed to Team Biffy where registered members can get a third free download of ‘Machines’.

The widget was one of our most successful yet, and was featured across all the major music websites as well as the blogosphere.

The Overtones are playing at this year’s Windsor Races. One lucky fan has the opportunity to attend the races and see the boys perform.

To maximise the number of entries to this competition I built a new flash widget. The sign-up form feeds into the band’s silverpop mailing list while sharing buttons allow the widget to be posted on facebook or twitter as well as providing standard embed code for blogs and websites.

To help promote Biffy Clyro’s headline set at Sonisphere this year, we provided a sharable competition widget.

Kate Brighouse designed the layout and I got to work with my usual set of tools. The widget adds entries to a silverpop mailing list while sharing buttons make it easy to embed and share the competition on social networks.

To further inform fans about Biffy Clyro’s new live album I built a Facebook tab showcasing the trailer and encouraging pre-orders of the limited edition boxset.

Kate Brighouse designed the tab and I made a few adjustments while writing all the code.

The tab is built with php, html, css and a bit of Javascript to include the Facebook SDK.

I edited a custom skin for the flash player to make the YouTube playback a bit more stylish. I also used a few css tricks and pngs to immerse the video in the design.

The tab also includes like to view functionality – so any visitors that haven’t liked the Biffy Clyro fan page will be reminded that they need to.

The tab is based on Facebook’s iframe method, which I was apprehensive about at first. While it is a hassle to create a stand-alone application for every tab, it is a lot easier to work in standard html or php rather than fbml. The tab can also be far more dynamic and easily updated without worrying about Facebook caching all the images.

Before his first public concert at the Union Chapel, Hugh Laurie signed an acoustic guitar as a prize for one lucky fan on his mailing list.

To ensure that the prize would be available to as many fans as possible I created a sharable sign-up widget similar to the Paris competition and free download widget.

I took a photo of the signed guitar and Kate Brighouse did a great job of integrating it into the design. It’s a fairly basic widget with an AS3 form (including validation), Facebook, Twitter and embed code sharing options and Google Analytics tracking.

I added all the necessary meta data to a news piece to ensure that the widget plays within a Facebook news feed.

Moving on from the Paris competition widget, the signed guitar widget further kept Hugh Laurie’s mailing list growing significantly.

Caroline Beashel sat the band down to record a podcast about the new album. This would then be accessible through a pop-up lightbox within Spotify.

Kate Brighouse designed the page and I wrote the necessary code to make the lightbox function. I created a custom skin for an mp3 player to load the track from an Akamai StreamOS server.

The lightbox then includes basic buy and listen links to further promote the new album.

With Hugh Laurie’s forthcoming European tour we were given a great prize to encourage mailing list sign-ups. One lucky fan would have the opportunity to see Hugh performing live in Paris.

We wanted the competition to spread far and wide so I built a flash widget for the sign-up form. Kate Brighouse came up with a great design for the widget and I quickly converted a previous free download widget into a new sign-up form for this competition.

Due to the easy sharing and embed options Caroline Beashel was able to get the competition placed on a number of blogs and websites. It drove a huge number of sign-ups in a very short space of time.

Another point in our huge online launch day for Hugh Laurie is a free download widget. These always work very well to increase mailing list sign-ups and the social sharing functionality makes them great viral marketing tools.

‘Guess I’m a Fool’ – bonus track from “Let Them Talk” – was made available as a sign-up incentive. After briefing Kate Brighouse on the design requirements and Alex Burford on the mailing list integration I got to work building a widget for Hugh Laurie.

It includes all the features that come standard in the widgets I build these days:
* Seemless integration to submit data to our Silverpop database.
* Social sharing through Twitter, Facebook and html embed code.
* In-stream functionality to display the widget without leaving your facebook wall.
* Audio playback to hear a sample of the song.
* Actionscript 3 form validation
* Google Analytics to track the success of the widget.

The Widget was embedded on hughlaurieblues.com and his myspace profile. I also created a custom facebook app to display the widget as a default tab on the Hugh Laurie Blues Facebook Page.

The widget was one of the first announcements on our March 23rd impact date and it rapidly spread around the web being embedded on blogs, news sites and facebook news feeds.

Despite Hugh Laurie being such a recognised face around the world, he didn’t have some of the online presence that comes standard with any musician or band. So we got to work putting a myspace profile together to showcase ‘Let Them Talk’.

Kate Brighouse designed a beautiful myspace layout and I handled all the necessary image slicing and coding to create the custom layout. The intricacies of the design meant that design elements wouldn’t fit in the marquee. So all the header images are placed on the background, with transparent overlays making all the links active.

The profile includes a flash sign-up form, the free download widget as well as some standard myspace modules.

Kate Brighouse designed the widget and I put everything together to malke it function. It includes social sharing, easily copied embed code, in-feed display for Facebook, a preview of the song and actionscript form validation.

The group was also running a competition to win tickets to see them live in London. So I created a simple ‘like to view’ Facebook tab housing both the widget and the competition entry form.

The Wombats recorded some amazing acoustic versions of songs from their forthcoming new album, This Modern Glitch.

We were given two of these songs to use as a sign-up incentive to grow the mailing list.

Kate Brighouse designed a widget and I got to work building it in Flash.

As usual this widget is optimised for sharing on facebook and twitter as well as embedding. Clicking on a song name will play a sample of the track. Entering your details will add you to the mailinglist and send you a link to download the tracks.

Fenech-Soler has recorded some incredible stripped-down versions of four songs. The tracks are available as an EP called ‘White Versions’ and available as a free download.

1. Stop & Stare
2. Battlefields
3. Demons
4. Contender

Kate Brighouse designed some amazing artwork for the EP as well as a really slick widget to provide the free download. I put all the Actionscript together to power the widget.

The White Versions widget includes all the usual features:
* Samples of the songs can be played by clicking on the title
* Facebook & Twitter sharing functionality
* Embed code that can easily be copied
* Facebook meta data to enable in-stream functionality
* Flash form processing with validation
* Integrated Google Analytics

Alex Burford came up with a great idea for a Valentine’s Day promotion around Cee Lo Green‘s album; The Lady Killer. Following the success and popularity of Cee Lo’s lyric videos for Fuck You and It’s OK, we would allow people to create their own videos with a personal message for their Valentine.

It’s my job to make these ideas a reality, so I drew up a thorough brief for Jaco van der Walt at Etiket. After many sleepless nights he managed to get the animation as close to the lyric videos as possible, with customised text.

I requested a number of features to ensure that the app is very user-friendly.

Users enter their message, choose a style (Fuck You or It’s OK) and finally select one of three instrumental backing tracks to create a personalised video. They then have the option to email the video to their loved one or use a custom link that can be posted on social networks. Sharing a link on facebook will use a custom playback swf on a whitelisted url, allowing it to be viewed within the news feed.

Due to the highly customised nature of this campaign, it was a challenge to project manage. After a lot of testing and tweaking we finally got to a brilliant application.

I wrote some php script to dynamically generate the embed code and social meta data based on the unique querystring that personalises the video. Iwan Moore as Isle Interactive then converted the script to asp.net and integrated it into the official Cee Lo Green website.

The final result is a fun and effective Valentine’s Day promotion for The Lady Killer.

The widget includes all the usual tricks: a sample of the song, a sign-up form with a validation script, google analytics, embed code, Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons and all the correct meta data to make sure the widget is easily accessible and works in-line on Facebook news feeds.

My sister, Laura Yates, recently opened a studio in Johannesburg. She has been a Nia instructor for a few years and was eager to set up her own teaching space. She asked me to build her a website to promote the new studio.

I got to work building a WordPress site using the Thematic Framework to streamline the process of building a custom theme.

The site’s header is an animated Flash banner. I used Illustrator to trace photos of people in various Nia positions before animating the images in Flash. I ran a simple conditional statement to ensure that the animation only runs on the home page, all other pages feature a static image of the traced movements. The same image is also set as a fallback for browsers that don’t have Flash installed.

To help Laura communicate with her Nia students and anyone with an interest in Nia, I set-up a phplist mailing list. I created a very simple html mailing template and used Jesse Heap’s PHPlist plugin to add a sign-up widget to the site.

The photo gallery is powered by the NextGen Gallery plugin, making it easy for Laura to upload and manage photos herself.

Social sharing is encouraged throughout the site with AddThis powering a Facebook like button and sharing features on every page.

I turned to Google Calendar to power the studio diary and upcoming events. I used Google Calendar Events to sync a calendar with the upcoming events module. Two calendars are combined and embedded in the class schedule and upcoming events page.

Nialonehill.co.za benefits from a number of useful WordPress plugins working behind the scenes.
All in One SEO Pack
Slimbox
Dynamic Widgets
Google XML Sitemaps
Asynchronous Google Analytics for WordPress
Redirect All Types
WP CSS

The combination of WordPress, the Thematic framework and useful plugins meant I could quickly deliver an effective website with all the tools needed for my client to maintain her website and add content without my help.

I was tasked with finding some creative animators to produce some exciting assets around the artwork for Pendulum’s latest single, Crush.

I turned to a Jaco van der Walt at Etiket, a talented South African agency. The team at Etiket were very excited about the opportunity to work on a Pendulum project and pulled out all the stops to bring the artwork to life.

The original artwork for Crush was designed by Valp. Etiket filmed real people behind a screen and applied a combination of effects and techniques to reproduce the artwork as an impressive animation.

The animation was then used as an asset in various banners and online estates. Following the success of the Witchcraft Eye screensaver, the animation was also transformed into a screensaver for fans to download.

You can download the screensavers here:

Windows
For Standard click HERE
For Widescreen click HERE

Mac
For Standard click HERE
For Widescreen click HERE

Continuing with shareable free download campaigns we put together a new widget for Fenech-Soler.

To promote the new single, ‘Demons’, we encouraged mailing list sign-ups by offering a free Drums of Death remix of the song.

Kate Brighouse refreshed the design of the Battlefields widget to represent the Demons artwork, and I went to work on the settings.

The actionscript and html for these widgets has become really easy to edit, by changing just a few links and references I am able to configure a new widget very easily.

The Demons widget includes all the usual features:
* Play button to play a sample of the track within the widget
* Facebook & Twitter sharing functionality
* Facebook meta data to enable in-stream functionality
* Flash form processing with validation
* Integrated Google Analytics

Using Adobe Flash I created a custom player that streams the video from the Warner StreamOS server through the Flash FLVPlayback component.

When the video plays back there are four hidden overlays that can trigger a competition entry form. The overlays were roughly traced around certain objects and programmed to become active when those objects are on the screen.

The entry form mechanic I created for this competition has proved to be very valuable as I’ve extended it for use in a number of Flash widgets as well as the flash sign-up form template for myspace.

The concept of sign-up forms in video is something we’ll be exploring a lot more going forward.

The God & Satan Hotspots video was made available to fans through the Team Biffy member’s area, giving them the opportunity to win tickets to the band’s show at Wembley Arena. The competition only ran for 2 days but had just under 500 entries in that short period.

Have a go at finding the 4 hotspots in the video to the left. If you feel the need to cheat click here to find out where they are.

Following James Rhodes’ YouTube success, we were given an exclusive song from his forthcoming album to drive database acquisition. Maurice Ravel’s Toccata, From Le Tombeau De Couperin is taken from the Bullets section of his new album Bullets & Lullabies.

I designed a widget using elements of Dave Brown’s artwork and enhanced the free download mechanic I’d used for The Wombats and Fenech-Soler.

The widget includes the option to play a preview of the track before signing up to have the free download emailed to you. Sharing functionality for Facebook and Twitter is included along with an easy method of copying the embed code to your clip board.

The widget also includes Google Analytics for Flash, allowing us to gauge its effectiveness and any locations it is embedded in.

Finally I needed to design and code an html email template to deliver the message with the download link.

Following the success of The Wombats Widget, we decided to follow a similar route with Fenech-Soler.

A recording of ‘Battlefields’ from a live radio session on SSR was released through the widget. I modified the design of the Wombats widget to incorporate Fenech-Soler’s style, cut the mp3 to create a sample and created a page to ensure that facebook sharing was smoothly executed. Sharing the Widget on facebook will make it run within the news feed.