In the age of social media, you may be wondering whether you need a website as a musician. Well, the answer is yes, because a website serves as a hub where your fans and music professionals (promoters, managers, journalists, music bloggers, venue owners, and more) can go to find all the information there is to know about you.
What’s more, having a professional musician’s website establishes credibility within the music industry, as it conveys the message that you’re really serious about your music career and that you’re in it for the long haul.
But creating a website can seem daunting, so to help you out, here’s a comprehensive guide to everything that should go on your musician’s website.
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1. Setting up your website and customising it to reflect your brand as an artist
The first thing to do is to secure your website’s domain name, which can be compared to the address of your online site. Although you can find free domain names, it is very likely that you will have to pay an annual fee to secure it. The best thing to do is to choose your artist name, if it’s available, and once you have it, you need to choose a web hosting provider, such as Bluehost or DreamHost, who will host your website for you. When choosing a hosting provider, you should pay attention to price and reliability.
Next, you need to choose a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, or a website builder such as Squarespace or Wix, all of which are platforms used to create websites and blogs. Now, some of these allow you to build your website from scratch, but if you have no idea how to do this, you can hire a professional web designer to create a custom design for you and the advantage of this option is that it’s as customisable as you want it to be. On the other hand, if you want to get it up and running as quickly as possible, you can choose one of the free or paid website templates offered by these various platforms, which allow you to create a professional website in just one click and which you can then customise to suit your brand.
As your website is the only thing online that you actually own, it’s important to tailor it to best reflect your brand as an artist, so take the time to choose the right font and colour scheme, as well as other basic design elements such as a logo. This should be fairly intuitive, but if you’re struggling, it can be helpful to look at other artists you like or think you sound like and see what their website looks like. And always keep your target audience in mind when designing your website.
OK, now you’ve got your basic website, it’s time to look at what it should contain.
2. A captivating artist’s bio that draws the reader in
Everyone loves a good story, which is why storytelling is so important in marketing and the tool you use to tell your story and market yourself as an artist is a good artist bio.
You can put it right on the home page, which acts as a sort of welcome mat to your website, or you can have a separate web page to tell your readers about you and your music.
Wherever you decide to place your bio, it should draw the reader in and remember that the aim is to stand out and be memorable, so there’s no room for modesty here and you should try to put as many unique facts about yourself as possible. Don’t be afraid to include some bits that may have been difficult, as people can really relate to hardship.
And to build credibility, be sure to include any media coverage you’ve had and let the reader know that you’re still active in the music scene and are currently working on something exciting.
3. A variety of high-quality photos with narrative value
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. So don’t forget to include some on your website, firstly because it will make the website more attractive, but also because your readers will get much more out of your images than anything else.
As well as being of high quality, your images should have some narrative value and you should include some that show you in different contexts, such as photos of concerts, of you in the studio, of you on tour… you really want your readers to get a overall glimpse of your life.
Now, if photos are crucial, you don’t want to over-saturate your website with images as this can then make it difficult for readers to navigate. You also need to make sure that your photos (and your website!) are up to date so let’s say you’ve got a new album coming out, you want that information to be highly visible on your website and you can do that by putting up a picture of the album cover on your home page.
4. Some music videos as well as live performances and maybe a bio video
Images are great, but videos are even better. They’re the most popular form of content these days (thanks TikTok) and they allow you to connect with your audience on an even more personal level.
When you think of video, you probably think of music videos and if these are perfect for your website, you could also include videos of your live performances that you particularly enjoyed (this is very useful for venues that want to book you as it gives them an idea of what you are like live), and you could even include a video to welcome people to your website and tell them about you and your music (basically your artist bio in video format).
5. Your brand new music and the lyrics
As the centrepiece, any new music you have should be front and centre on your website and easily accessible for listening.
The best option is to embed the full track directly on your website. But if you can only share an extract, it’s better than nothing, and if you can’t embed it, at least put links to various online streaming platforms (Soundcloud, Spotify or Bandcamp) so that any visitor can go and listen to the song there. Bear in mind that any links you put on your website, especially the links to listen to your music, should be highly visible and easy to use (and make sure they open in another tab, as you don’t want people leaving your website easily). And a good tip for improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking is to add the lyrics of your songs to your website.
6. An online shop to sell all your music and brand merchandise
If you have merchandise to sell, you should have an online shop on your website to sell that merchandise. Selling online by having an e-commerce shop directly on your website (or by linking it to your website) is a great way to make some extra money as an independent artist.
Not only can you sell CDs, cassettes and vinyl of your albums, but also T-shirts, hoodies and caps that showcase your brand as an artist.
Now, bear in mind that most platforms offer the possibility of creating an online shop or e-commerce shop, through the use of plugins or built-in functions. However, the ease of use of these can vary considerably from one platform to another.
Just as social media shouldn’t replace a website, a website shouldn’t replace your social media presence, so you want to make sure you include links to all your profiles on your website, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. You can either post links or embed them directly into your website.
Not only is this great for increasing your follower count on these platforms, but in a similar way to adding lyrcis to your songs, it’s also great for your SEO as social media accounts tend to be highly visible on search engines.
8. The dates of your next shows or even the dates of an upcoming tour
If you’re an independent artist, there’s a good chance that the majority of the money you earn from your music comes from shows and concerts, so you need to have any upcoming dates and venues on your website. As with everything, make sure that the information is easily accessible and update it regularly.
9. An electronic press kit (EPK)
An EPK, or electronic press kit, is an essential tool for musicians because it gives music industry professionals all the information they need to know about you. It contains information such as your artist biography, professional photos or videos, music samples, press reviews, tour dates, contact details, etc.
If you’re talking to people in the industry, you’ll probably send them your EPK, but if it’s a music industry professional contacting you, you can simply direct them to your website where they’ll find all the information they need.
10. A contact page and a form for subscribing to the mailing list
Every good website should have a contact page. After all, you want to build a relationship with your audience, so you need to make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch with you.
You can do this by including a form on your contact page so that anyone who wants to can quickly send you a message. But you should also include your contact email address on that page, as some people may prefer to reach you that way. And if you have a manager or anyone else involved in your music career, make sure you list their contact emails too.
In the same way that you make your email address available for people to contact you, you should make sure that visitors sign up to your newsletter, because email is still the best way to reach your target audience, as it’s one of the only direct means of communication you have. But if you want to use e-mail to let your fans know what’s new, you’ll need their e-mail address first, so make sure you have a sign-up form somewhere on your website so that all visitors can leave their e-mail address.
In conclusion, having a website as a musician is not only a great way to look more professional, it’s also a great way to get all your information in one place that you fully own.
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