Additional extras for your Making Music Platform

This guidance specifically covers Additional Extras for your Making Music Platform. Before reading this, please ensure that you have read our help guide on Getting Started with your Making Music Platform.

All of the Making Music Platform help guides and latest Platform News can be found on the MM Platform Service Hub page.

You can also download and read the Additional Extras for your Making Music Platform helpguide in PDF format.

DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT

What is the domain name management service?

Your domain name is your website address (for example, our domain name is makingmusic.org.uk) which you purchase, register and renew each year. This is something that we can do for you.

If you already have a domain name, then you will most likely be paying a company to manage and renew it. You can carry on with this - or transfer it to us and we will manage the renewal for you, tying it in with your Making Music Platform renewal.

If you don’t have an existing website you probably don’t have a domain, but you might want to think about registering one – especially if you plan for Making Music Platform to be your public-facing

website. You can contact a company directly to do this for you – or we can look after the purchase and renewal for you, tying it in with your Making Music Platform renewal.

 

For more information take a look at our information about domain name management for full website users and for members area only users.

How much does the domain name management extra cost and how can we add it?

If you want Making Music to manage your domain name this will cost £25 per year. Please be advised that if your domain name ends in just .uk (excluding any .org.uk or co.uk domain names) then this will cost £30 per year. If, when you signed up for the platform service, you didn’t request for Making Music to manage your domain name, then email us on platform@makingmusic.org.uk to ask us to add this for you.

Once you have paid for this extra you will need to email us on platform@makingmusic.org.uk to let us know when you are ready for Making Music to manage this for you. We will then advise you of the process and what needs to be done.

Domain name management - Members area only

If you have opted for the members area only then you first need to make sure you have picked a domain name for your group’s members area. Look at the FAQ on members area only before proceeding with the process outlined below.

If you have chosen the sub-domain option (for example members.yourgroup.com) we can manage the full domain for you which will include your regular website hosted at yourgroup.com (as an example) and the sub-domain (members.yourgroup.com) where the group’s members area will be.

If you have chosen to register a new domain name for the members area we will manage this newly registered domain name.

In either scenario the process is as follows

  • Once you have told us that you are ready for us to manage your domain name, we will initiate the process
  • We will then provide you with short instructions to be passed onto your current domain name providers. Let us know once these instructions have been carried out
  • We will then confirm once the transfer has completed

From then on, Making Music will manage the renewal of your domain name.

Domain name management - Full website users

You need to tell us when you are ready for us to manage your domain name. The simplest option is to do it as soon as your Platform has been set up, but you can do it at any point after that. The only thing to be aware of is doing it at the same time as your Platform goes live (see below). Whenever it happens your website and Platform will function as they normally would.

Transferring your domain name before or after your Platform goes lives:

  • Once you have told us that you are ready for us to manage your domain name, we will initiate the process
  • We will then provide you with short instructions to be passed onto your current domain name providers. Let us know once these instructions have been carried out
  • We will then confirm once the transfer has completed

From then on, Making Music will manage the renewal of your domain name.

Transferring your domain name at the same time as your Platform goes live:

  • This is not possible. If you are ready to go live with your Platform but have not transferred your domain name yet, you need to make your Platform ‘live’ first using the instructions in our help guides then transfer your domain name following the process above.

 

EXTRA NIGHTLY BACK UP

What is extra Nightly Back up?

As standard, MM Platform backs up your entire site data every night and on the first day of each month. With the backups taken each evening being replaced by those taken on the subsequent evening. You will therefore always have two versions of your platform existing on the server. Extra Nightly Back-Up keeps all versions of your MM Platform from every day it has existed.

How much is the Nightly Back up extra and how can we get this added?

The Nightly back up option costs £25 per year. If you did not select this feature when you signed up for the Platform, please email platform@makingmusic.org.uk to request this feature be added.

If you have already paid this when you first requested the Platform service then this would have been added when your Platform was set up and no further action will be required by the group.

 

ADDITIONAL STORAGE SPACE

How much storage does my Platform have?

As standard your MM Platform comes with 1000mb of storage. This space is filled by anything stored on your Platform for example videos, photos and documents as well as emails (if you have set up your email addresses so that they are held in a Mailbox).

If you have created any email addresses within the Platform (so that they are held in a Mailbox) then as standard each email address is given 100mb of space on the server. These can be increased to 1000mb of space per email address free of charge but do note that as advised above, each Platform is allocated a total amount of space of 1000mb and therefore you may want to add on Additional storage if you do want to increase the size of each email mailbox. More information about Additional storage can be found in our What is the additional Storage space extra? help guide.

You can check how much storage you have left on your Platform by going to the Admin dashboard and then selecting the Hosting Account Status page.

What is the Additional Storage extra?

As standard, your MM Platform comes with 1000MB of storage (more information about this can be found in our How much storage does my Platform have?  help guide) which for many groups is enough.

If your site has a lot of photo, video, and music content, you may want to upgrade this to Additional Storage space. You can check how much storage you have left on your Platform by going to the Admin dashboard and then selecting the Hosting Account Status page.

If you add the Additional storage space extra this will give you unlimited storage space to be used for items stored on the groups Platform itself e.g. documents, photos, videos etc. However, the space on the server allocated to emails will still be limited. If you have set up your Platform to send emails using the held on server option then the emails within those mailboxes will impact the amount of storage space you have on your Platform. As standard each mailbox is given 100mb of space which can be adjusted to a maximum size of 1000mb at no additional cost. If you would like us to increase the mailbox size to 1000mb then contact us on platform@makingmusic.org.uk.

If you would like to add the Additional Storage extra then take a look at our helpguide called How much does the Additional Storage extra cost and how can we add it? for more information. 

How much does the Additional Storage extra cost and how can we add it?

The additional storage extra costs £25 per year. If you did not select this feature when you signed up for the Platform, please email platform@makingmusic.org.uk to request this feature be added.

If you have already paid this when you first requested the Platform service then this would have been added when your Platform was set up and no further action will be required by the group.

 

SSL CERTIFICATE

What is an SSL certificate, and do I need one?

SSL certificates are a way of making your website more secure. If you have one it will show a padlock and ‘s’ after the ‘http’.

They help protect your site from hackers ‘eavesdropping’. For example, if someone is accessing your site on a Wi-Fi network that has been compromised by hackers the hackers might be able to view the user’s activity on the site. There are two main areas of concern here:

  • Viewing card details being entered for payments
  • viewing passwords – which would give full access your Making Music Platform and the personal data held in it.

So, do you need one?  

You are not required by law to have an SSL certificate, but to ensure you are compliant with the Data Protection Act 2018 it is strongly advised. They improve the security of your site and the data held in it – and give confidence to users.

For groups signing up from 1 May 2024 we will therefore add this SSL Certificate as standard to the sign up price for using the service (£99 annual licence fee + £145 one off set up fee + £15 one off fee for the SSL certificate).

There are lots of different providers – most charge an annual fee. The solution we offer is a one-off fee of £15 – a worthwhile investment for added security and user confidence.

SSL certificate - Members area only

An SSL certificate can be added to the site any point after the group have set up their chosen domain name (see our FAQ on members area only for more information). Just let us know when you are ready for this certificate to be added and confirm the domain name you are using for the members area and we will do this for you.

If we have added an extra lock screen to your members area for extra security, then please note that the SSL certificate will replace this lock screen. If you are not quite ready for your SSL certificate to be added and you would like to add an extra lock screen before then, please contact us and provide us with a chosen username and password and we can add this for you at no additional cost.

SSL certificate - Full website users

The SSL certificate will be added by us after the group have gone ‘live’ with their Platform. This is because the domain name needs to be connected to the Platform before we can secure it.

If we manage your domain name (take a look at the domain name FAQ) then let us know when you want your site to go ‘live’, we will then do this for you and then add the SSL certificate when this has been done. If we don’t manage your domain name then you can make your Platform ‘live’ by using the instructions In our help guide. In this instance let us know when the Platform has gone live and then we will add the SSL certificate for you.

If we have added an extra lock screen to your site for extra security, then please note that the SSL certificate will replace this lock screen. If you are not quite ready for your SSL certificate to be added and you would like to add an extra lock screen before then, please contact us and provide us with a chosen username and password and we can add this for you at no additional cost.

 

SCHEDULED TASKS

What is the Scheduled Tasks extra?

The Platform has the ability to automate certain tasks. Examples of such tasks may include:

  • Perform regular member invoicing (invoice any member whose fees have recently become due)
  • Send reminders for overdue invoices
  • Send a reminder email to anyone that has not responded to a request for event-availability
  • Send a text message to all members
  • Send a specific email to group of people
  • Back up the member database to a CSV file
  • Or anything else that you can think of that can be programmed to run in an unattended way

Tasks can be run:

  • Every fixed number of minutes (e.g. every 5 minutes, or every hour)
  • At a specific time of the day
  • On a specific day (or days) of the week
  • On a specific day of the month
How much does the scheduled tasks extra cost and how do we add it?

The scheduled tasks extra costs £36 per year. Please email platform@makingmusic.org.uk to request this feature be added, with as much detail on the tasks that you want to be enabled so we can advise if this would be possible.

We hope you find this Making Music resource useful. If you have any comments or suggestions about the guidance please contact us. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the content of this guidance is accurate and up to date, Making Music do not warrant, nor accept any liability or responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the content, or for any loss which may arise from reliance on the information contained in it.

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