HeavyMetalBay.com Founder Caters to Collectors and Musicians

Metal and hard rock fans love to collect things, which is why a service like HeavyMetalBay.com is so useful. The new website is a unique online marketplace for the heavy metal community. The site features any product related in any way, shape, or form to the genre: new and used music, videos, memorabilia, clothing, jewelry, posters, instruments, amps, and more.

HeavyMetalBay.com was founded by Denise Dale, who is no stranger to the metal scene. Her company, Metal Music Bookings, has worked with such artists as Nightwish's Tarja, Michael Schenker, Cinderella, Blind Guardian, and Yngwie Malmsteen, to name just a few. Seeing a need for a website that ties all of the facets of the metal world together, she came up with the idea for HeavyMetalBay.com.

Noisecreep spoke with Dale about the site and her vision for its future.

The first thing a lot of people will say about HeavyMetalBay.com is, "Why do we need to use it when eBay already exists?" What do you say to them?

HeavyMetalBay.com is a specialist website for the metal music loving community. EBay is not a specialist site, it is for anyone and anything.

Our site is for heavy metal fans specifically. They are a very tight community and are loyal to their music. I would say that metal fans do not change their music taste no matter what trend of music is in at the time. Also, on our site you don't need to go through thousands of irrelevant pages to find anything you need to do with metal, it is all in one place here.

Was there some kind of "Eureka!" moment for you, or did the idea for the site come to you over a longer period of time?

Yes, there was actually. This was about five years ago. I was living in Miami at the time and the idea to open a website dedicated to heavy metal fans came to my head instantly as I was sitting on the beach one lazy Sunday [laughs].

I went online to see if anyone else had already come up with the idea, and to my great surprise, I didn't find anything. I was stunned. I did not understand why someone did not think of the idea before, as to me it was so clear to put the two concepts of heavy metal music and one online market place to trade goods. It took two years to build the site and three years of thinking of the look, developing it and to make the idea a reality.

The fact that I am a booking agent in the music business made the idea more exciting. I also added the Concert Guide section for promoters or individuals to market their gigs and Band Corner for artists to push their music. The site caters to all aspects of the business.

What other services do you see the site offering in the future?

There is so much more we are thinking of doing, like adding a YouTube type of option where fans and bands can upload their videos. The future is on the internet. However I am on the idea that I don't like to make plans for the future. I move with the times and come up with ideas and add new things on the spot. I love decision making and implementation on the spot, if it comes to my head instantly then it usually is a winner!