As a musician, wouldn’t it be great to have a permanent presence online. A space that isn’t beholden to the corporate conglomerates that pillage and transfer wealth? 😊 If so, It is important to stake out your own little bit of digital territory. Having your own website is a great way to connect all of your online promotions. It can serve as a hub to all of those social sites that you do use for promoting your music. But, what website pages do musicians need?
A website can also be a great tool to interact with people who may want to book your act. It could also be great place to organize a membership based fan club so fans can support you directly.
So whether you’re getting into building one for your project DIY, like I am for mine, or if you’re hiring out help; This will help you decide for yourself what will be important for you and your act to include on your site.
Pages And Features To Include On A Musicians Website
- Stylistic Header
- Logos
- Embedded Music
- Embedded Music Video
- Concert / Event Calendar
- Merchandise / Music Store or Link
- News Blog/Vlog
- Newsletter Email List Sign Up
- Fan Club Membership
- Social Media Link
- Contact Info
- EPK (Hi-Rez. Press Photos Bio / Copy)
- Links to Press
- Analytics
I know that there are a few more things that could have been included on the list. While that’s true, this will surely serve as a good starting point.
You shouldn’t feel compelled to include each item we suggest. Having an idea of why they could be useful, is a good idea though. After that it is ultimately entirely up to you. You can think of this as website a la carte. We’ll discuss each item’s description. Then you can decide for yourself how it may be useful on your own website.
Let’s take a deeper look at each one of the pages a musicians website will need.
Stylistic Header / Logo
We’ve included the header and logo together into the first description. That’s because the header and logo could be and likely would be used together. When someone comes onto a webpage you have a a limited amount of time to hold their attention in capture.
So don’t waste it. If you can help it, try to hit a home run out of the gate. A stylish Header that implements a looping video segment, That makes you look like a movie star might do that.
If you’re not so inspired then maybe some interesting banner design. If not that then a cleverly composed hero photo, that captures the imagination of your fans. Whatever you decide should suit you.
Just be sure that whatever it is, It does bring a WOW factor to the page.
The Logo is necessary for brand Identity. Having it included in the Header will go along way to help promote its recognizability.
Here’s some ways you could depict your logo on your site:
- As a clip in the video montage
- As a banner
- As a graphic overlay on a static photo
The logo or variations of the Logo should also be used throughout the Website. While the repetition is effective just be sure that it is well placed in tasteful and strategic ways.
Embedded Music / Embedded Music Video
You may want to present some of your best recordings on your front page. That is a good way to introduce you music to potential fans who may visit your site. You can use a player like Soundcloud to embed your Audio on your page.
Try including one or two of your best or most popular songs. In addition to those you should include your latest released song that you are currently promoting. Too many more and your page will start to loose it’s streamlined aesthetic.
As well as Embedding Audio Files, You should also consider Embedding A Music Video or Two. Perhaps it’s your current release. You may also think about Embedding a Live Performance. Someone who hasn’t had the chance to see your band play live will appreciate that.
It should be know problem to Embed Directly from your Youtube Channel. This is also helpful to anyone blogging about your act. In this way they can easily take and embed the videos themselves.
Thats good because you better ensure that they promote something you’d like promoted now. It sure beat them having to scroll through Youtube themselves. If they did that, they may choose a video that is too old and is no longer representative.
Concert / Event Calendar
Another one of the website pages musicians need, Is an event calendar page. When a person likes a band they want to easily keep tabs of what’s going on and coming up.
If I know you’ll be in town I’ll do my best to work it into my schedule. I’ll make the effort to get to the show. With a regular updated calendar your fans will clearly know when you need them to show up.
You can also use your calendar to promote and report progress steps your band is making. For example a calendar post that reads “Shooting New video on this day, wish us luck”. Or another that reads “In The Studio This Week Cross Fingers for Epic Results”.
You could also use the Calendar to promote any other kind of promotional meetup or cross promotion. Lastly, Don’t forget to list and include any Live Streaming Events that you have planned.
For the people who enjoy keeping up with an artist. This calendar will be a great tool. It will give them the inside window to what the band is doing on any given day. For those types of fans this can be a lot of fun. It goes a long way to having them feel connected.
Merchandise / Music Store or Link
Store and merchandizing pages are essential website pages musicians need. Especially if you are a musician who needs money! 😉So don’t miss out on getting paid.
There are many website builders that have built in drop shopping systems. There are also stand alone drop shipping companies that can be interfaced directly into the store on your WordPress webpage.
This is a cost free strategy for you to immediately have a branded clothing and merchandise. Your store you can also link to iTunes or any other online digital music sales platform.
You can also Integrate your own Digital Music Sales directly on your site. To do that you will need the help of a third party plug-in or App. It almost seems senseless to bulk produce CD’s or Vinyl these days. But in some cases artists still cash in.
If you’d like to be able to sell hard copy one-offs of the album, you can. There are drop ship companies searchable online that will press your album on either format. For more about drop shipping one offs and more; Read This!
News Blog / Vlog
This is where you give your following a weekly recap. You can always touch base more frequently if you like, but what’s more important is regularity and consistency. Everything that has been happening behind the scenes can be recounted for those whom are engaged in your story.
You can include photos of the activities that you’re discussing into the blog. You can allow for a comment section so that your fans can interact with you directly.
If you are not into typing a Blog, A Video Blog yields the same result. It can be easily embedded onto your site from Youtube, or another video platform. Again the most important thing about this process is consistency with regards to the frequency of posts. If you are very habitual about when you post you’ll find that some of your fan base are regularly waiting for the post.
Fan Club Membership
Another one of the website pages that musicians need is a a fan club membership page. A fan club is a great way for you to allow for people to support you directly.
What’s great about this is you aren’t handing over the Lion-share of the gifting to a third party platform like Patreon. Additionally, If you ever do something that gets you kicked off of Patreon you’d be out of that stream of income.
With the help of a membership plugin or app, you can set up a few membership tiers. Those tiers will be set at different price intervals on monthly subscriptions. In return for the gifting you create and share special access.
This access may include special events, ticket discounts, album or video release parties, and gifts. Those gifts could include exclusive recordings and or your time. Giving your time could include face Chats or Meetups.
These ideas and any other creative thing you can dream up can be used to promote your club. You could also borrow great ideas from other artists who are already successfully implementing Fan Club Memberships.
Having a fan club gives your fans the inside access they’d really like to have. It also gives them the opportunity to be supportive of what you’re doing the way they’d like.
Don’t forget to include a tier that is free. Those people who are not positioned to contribute won’t have to feel excluded. And, you’re not looked at as a grifter.
Social Media Link
If you are trying to build your following on any of the Social Media Sites that you use, You will certainly want to be sure and have links to it from your site. Having a page on your site that tells your fans where you can be found elsewhere is a good idea. That is especially true if they’re a regular user of one of those sites.
Additionally It is important to link to your Spotify Page. Make sure people know how to find you there especially, every stream counts. Remember that little-by-little makes small work of big tasks.
Contact Info
A contact page is essential. It should include email, as well as a phone number for texting if that is convenient for your project. The contact page could include an in-page message feature. That way a guest looking to inquire information can type their message directly and hit send.
Creating an organized page for this function provides a professional access point. That is helpful for talent bookers, press, bloggers and influencers who may be contacting in regards to any number of concerns, questions or licensing permissions.
Hi-Rez Press Photos Bio / Copy (EPK)
You could have this all on one page, or broken across two. When bloggers or press are writing about your music and they need to include some great photos to be posted on their article. Having a page that has a collection of press ready Hi-Resolution photos gives the media the content they need. It can also be something that some of your fans enjoy having a look at as well. Lastly, talent buyers will need access to official band photos to add to an event poster they’ve booked you for.
Your bio, could also be an About Us Page. It could be included on an all encompassing EPK page for press and promoters. It’s really up to you how you want to provide these various pieces of content. But, however you do it, be sure that the Bio is well written. It should include excerpts about where you’ve come from, what you’re doing and what accomplishments you’ve made. It should written in such a way that press-copy can easily be pulled from it.
Links to Press
Its nice to include a gallery of accolades. Its great for your engaged fans to find the articles recently written about your project. This also demonstrates your band’s reach. That is important to showcase for those assessing potential cross promotions.
When any blogger or online magazine writes any sort of feature about your band or project, add the link to this page. All of these bits and pieces start to add up. Eventually when people visit your site they will find it pack filled with impressive content.
Analytics
Having an analytics measurement feature on your site gives you useful insight including but not limited to
- how people are finding your site,
- where they are finding it from,
- the duration of time spent on their visit,
- what pages are listed and so on.
This type of information maybe very useful helping to conceive of strategies for promotion. It also helps turning a mirror onto areas for improvement.
So, To Conclude
Life is a work in progress. It is great to challenge yourself. But, keep in mind that Rome wasn’t built in a day. It isn’t likely that your website will be either, but at least you have a better working knowledge of what website pages musicians need.
I hope that some of this will have been of use to you and what you are working on. While I’m here building on my own progress, I’m certainly wishing you the best there building on yours. Thanks for reading along.
Best of Luck!