Frequently asked questions

What are some of the projects I can find on bandscores.net?

bandScores' main focus is to publish dashboards and web apps with current and historical scores. Current and past projects for each activity can be found by their respective dropdown menus in the top header or via the homepage. Additionally, we occasionally publish written blog content about interesting findings in score data.

Where are the scores and data collected from?

Data is collected from a variety of online resources, but primarily through competition scores and recaps made available on circuit websites. This includes Drum Corps International, Winter Guard, International, Music for All/Bands of America, and a number of other organizations that produce marching arts events around the country. Additional online resources have been consulted and used to collect historical data, however we can not always guarantee the accuracy of this data.

What exactly are these dashboards you keep talking about?

Think of a dashboard as a fancy version of an Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet. They are an interactive report that allows data to be presented in various tables, charts, and graphs. Dashboards allow for users to fully control how and which data is displayed, for example sorting by certain metrics, filtering by certain categories, or viewing data within a specified date range.

All of the embedded dashboards on our site are currently powered by Looker Data Studio. Most elements on a dashboard are interactive and clickable. Any filtering or sorting you do within a dashboard is unique to you, is not viewable to other users, and will not be saved by Looker Studio or bandScores. All of our dashboards also contain an intro and "how to use" page, which we recommend you to briefly review before using for the first time.

For the best user experience, we strongly encourage that dashboards are viewed with a desktop browser as some features may not be fully functional with a mobile device.

I found an error in your data, would like to suggest a new project or feature in a dashboard, or would like to share historical data. Can I contact you?

Absolutely! Please use our contact form to reach out with a message. Please note that we are currently a team of one, so certain projects may not be possible simply due to the time commitment that would be required.

When suggesting or sharing new data, it will be very helpful to include links i.e. score pages from circuit websites. However, please understand that it may not be possible to scrape scores from certain websites due to the nature in which they are posted.

Are you making money with your website and work?

bandScores was built to be a resource for the marching arts community as a hobby and passion project first and foremost. All of our work currently posted on our website will always continue to remain open access.

In April 2024, we launched a new Patreon page available to interested subscribers for $2 per month. Members of the Patreon page receive access to certain perks, projects, and further analysis that may not be posted on our site. Additionally, we have a page on Buy Me a Coffee for those who would like to make a one time contribution without joining the Patreon page.

That said, the revenue generated to date from our work has been incredibly limited. All money earned from contributions or ads placed on the website is being directly invested back into operational costs for our projects such as web hosting, data storage, and cloud computing. All of the projects posted here (including the website) were built over the course of hundreds of hours of work. If you enjoy our work, please consider contributing to our Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee pages to help us further offset these expenses.