Gig Dates Network Announces New Services and Features for the Coming Year.

Local music portal and pioneer takes it up a notch for 2003.

Providence, January 24, 2003: Gig Dates Networks (GDN) is nearing the end of its second year in operation and will begin its 3rd with a bang. GDN started with a small goal in mind, to make it easier for its founder Michael Sheldon to see what bands were playing at what venues and on what dates. There were no sources available for an at-a-glance website for local music. That is until June 2001 when gigdates.net was formed with only a few bands and a few venues to work with.

As the months went on so did the popularity of the new local music portal. Bands were able to register for a username, add their band and update their gig calendar as often as they wanted to. The word of mouth and some flyer promotion on a very small budget, the site grew in popularity and more venues and bands were added to it. Today the site has a database of over 1500 artists from around the nation including some national acts. A growing list of venues (over 400) is also available to browse and search thru.

GDN is now visited by over 1,500 visitors each week and has revamped their site to include a fresher and more professional look. The front page is more organized and supplies more at-a-glance information such as: playing tonight, latest news and announcements, featured events, featured band of the month, current top 10 bands and a number of additional features to the look and feel. The member management is also over going a revamp to accommodate the increased interest in updating the database. Promoter accounts are now available as well as the current venue and band management accounts.

In addition to these updates, GDN is also opening their new local music store with prices lower than current vendors. With 80 percent of the selling price going to the artist, with low shipping and handling rates, Gig Dates Network estimates a growing selection of titles for the first half of 2003. The website address for the store is http://www.gigdates.net/shop. The store accepts Visa, MasterCard, checks, money orders and PayPal. For artists interested in selling a CD or other items can contact via e-mail shop@gigdates.net for further information.

In addition to supplying local artists with a place to post their gigs and sell their CDs, GDN also supplies low cost artist targeted website hosting and design. For a low rate of $4.95 per month a band gets treated like a professional with 100 megabytes of storage, up to 1 gigabyte of bandwidth, e-mail, mailing lists, photo gallery management, integrated gig listings, MP3 streaming, detailed website access reports and 20 percent off all banner advertising on gigdates.net. Gig Dates Network can also transfer an existing domain name for $7.95 with a one-year extension on your registration to point to your new site or you can purchase a new domain name for one year at $8.95. For more information visit http://www.gigdates.net/webhosting.html or e-mail at hosting@gigdates.net.

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Contact:
Michael Sheldon
Gig Dates Network
E-mail msheldon@gigdates.net
545 Newport Ave, #277
Pawtucket, RI 02861
Phone 401 573 6459
Fax 401 633 6212