I have been looking for a great and free resource to help me manage my various bands. I think I have found one that is good enough to recommend to my friends. It is the Windows Live Group platform and it looks like this:

First a disclaimer, I work for the company so I *might* be biased. But I have tried other sites and this one being tested by my group the Dissonance, a jazz xTet is very painless to use. Also, I already have a Hotmail and Windows Live ID. So does everyone in the group. But many of them are using other email aliases for this group.

Setup: This was accomplished through some forms. Very few inputs were mandatory. So far, I haven’t found anything that couldn’t be changed. The result is one page with everything you need to know. And the site is private, members only.

Invites: This was as simple as selecting the members emails from some of my various address books. The first person to accept was about 10 minutes after I sent the invite. Other sites had problems where some people couldn’t access the site even after they’d been invited and accepted. We saw none of those problems.

Calendar: Full Hotmail feature set here. I can set a recurring (every two weeks for this band) practice time and add gig dates. Very nice. I haven’t tested how hard it is to transfer this calendar to other systems like the calendar in Microsoft Outlook.

Files: This group uses the Windows Live SkyDrive. I’ve dropped some arrangements in the folder, the band roster, the band music list, setlists, and WMA (audio) files to practice against.

Photos: I’ve moved some pictures here as an archive and to use on posters and for programs.

Conversations: I now have a stream of info coming from this site into my Windows Live stream. Discussions also automatically generate an email. So between the two systems I can be pretty responsive.

Messenger: I have a new category call Dissonance in my IM. But I haven’t tested it yet.

I’m toying with move the Pacific Cascade Big Band to this format. But I want to hear what my band mates in the Dissonance think first as most of them are in both bands. And now I thinking of doing a group for my extended family so that I can keep up with those I care about.