Music Milestones

// brief

The project «Music Milestones» was developed within the framework of my university course «Digezz». «Digezz» is the name for the development of experimental multimedia content as part of the module sequence «Convergent Producing» from my bachelor’s degree. «Digezz» is also the name of the module’s web platform (www.digezz.ch), within the framework of which the students independently conceive and produce contributions. According to the specific needs, content can be realized in all media types and combinations (text, drawing, graphics, music, photo, video, animation, e-book, web/mobile app, web/subsite, etc.).

// goals

My goal was to create a platform where the key moments of the music world could be looked up. From this initial idea, I wanted to develop a website that would show the moments on a timeline and provide background information. Additionally, the content had to be provided in a database rather than a straightforward one-page website so that it could be organized by artist name and category.

// challenges

The main challenge was that at the beginning of the project I had never worked with PHP and databases, or even had a basic understanding of what they were. However, this lack of knowledge was also part of the idea behind my project. PHP and databases were taught at my home university’s third semester, which I was taking as an exchange student at Budapest Metropolitan University. Although I didn’t have to review the material, I did because my major was «Media Applications».

// process

First of all, I had independently studied the teaching materials from my local institution. I then had a rudimentary understanding of databases and PHP and knew what they could do, but I still had some concerns about my project and how to move forward. Confident as I am, and that there will be a solution somehow, I started creating the website and produced a design prototype.

Concept and Prototyp

After one of my lecturers was able to help me with the remaining questions, I started implementing the website. Since I knew that my prototype was feasible, I implemented it with dummy texts and styled it right away. The playout of the content using the database then became the challenging part. I started by incorporating the 10 dummy sentences I had prepared in the database into my website. Some of the problems seemed endless and I often despaired. However, my lecturer was able to help me with my most massive knowledge gaps. The rest of my problems were solved thanks to a lot of web research and constant trial-and-error.

Once the website was basically up and running, I then set about creating the content. I created a well-structured Excel document that could eventually be read into the database automatically. I concentrated on significant events from the music world from the 1950s onwards. While in the beginning events happened every few years, but with the development of the World Wide Web and later social media, this frequency rose dramatically. So, the information search got a bit out of hand as it became difficult to define what was really worth mentioning now. In the end, a wide variety of data on many eras, performers, and genres was compiled and can be resumed at any moment.

Screenshots of the final Website

// reflections

This website is one of the most challenging projects I have done so far. The majority of my challenges stemmed from the fact that I had never worked with PHP at the beginning and had to acquire all the knowledge through self-study. Accordingly, however, I can also state that it is one of my favourite projects. I think the benefits of the site provide a real added value for people interested in music and in my opinion the website’s visual appeal is also rather striking. In addition, this project has a steep learning curve for me, and I intend to grow it over the next few years. Above all, my goal is to adapt the website for smartphones in the foreseeable future.