What should a website be like for a musician who is just starting his career?
Contents
- Why does a beginning musician need a website and what do visitors expect from it?
- 6 elements that will make a website interesting and useful for a musician
- What should a songwriter’s website look like?
- A few words about functionality
- 5 Examples of Good Websites for Aspiring Stars
- Is a website for music performers required?
Every aspiring star who has performed at least once in a bar or club or posted his track to the masses has his own fans. Yes, at this moment it is, to a greater extent, only a group of people interested in the work, but in the future it can grow in proportion to the popularity of the star. To do this, you must always maintain contact with people who are interested in the musician’s work. And the Internet will help with this – one of the most powerful and productive platforms for promoting yourself and your music. Runet provides a lot of opportunities for a newcomer to the stage, each of which needs to be taken advantage of. Groups on social networks, accounts on YOUTube and Instagram are sure to hook their target audience. But to summarize it and allow you to find all the information you are interested in in one place, you need a website.
Why does a beginning musician need a website and what do visitors expect from it?
Сайт музыкантов-исполнителей – важный инструмент для коммуникации с их поклонниками. С помощью ресурса любой заинтересованный в творчестве эстрадного исполнителя человек может узнать все, что его интересует: биографию, расписание выступлений, посмотреть фотографии с фотосессий или выступлений, послушать и скачать музыку.
But a young musician’s website does not require such complex functionality as an online store or connection to paid services for downloading music. After all, he is just a beginner and his main goal is to tell about himself and his work in as much detail as possible, and to introduce visitors to it. Those who first heard a singer in a bar, club, or accidentally on a social network are unlikely to download paid music (only if the cost of the song is very low) or buy anything on his page. Therefore, the development of all the “bells and whistles” that are available on the resources of popular pop performers will only be a waste of time and money.
Over time, your website can be developed by introducing new features and functions. Well, for now, it should become a tool for getting to know the performer. And to do this, it is necessary to think through, develop and include only a small number of elements that will certainly benefit visitors.
6 elements that will make a website interesting and useful for a musician
The most important component of a new musician’s website is content. This is what you should focus on by developing really interesting content that will help the visitor get all the information he is looking for.
Detailed information about yourself
Any website of a pop performer must contain a biography about him. The target audience is always interested in learning more about their idol. And visitors to a resource dedicated to an aspiring artist are no exception. People want to know who, where they come from, what they love, how a newcomer feels about creativity, when and where he was born, what he can offer his fans, what musical genre he performs in. Of course, it is unlikely that visitors will be interested in information about the performer’s family life or favorite color, but here is the story of how he began his work and where he has come to this moment – quite. And later, when the star’s popularity grows, you can update the bio by adding information that is interesting for a crowd of fans: about your significant other, favorite films and other details that fans cling to.
Photo, video
High-quality photographs of a star always highlight a site and attract attention. It’s nice to look at professional photographs of the performer. It’s really beautiful. Therefore, an aspiring star should think about ordering a photo shoot. It may not be at the VIP level, but the photographs should be of good quality. It’s even better if the photo shoot is created specifically for the site with a selection of images and colors that match the selected resource design. Such photos will hook the visitor and interest him. In addition, high-quality photos are always more in demand by visitors. They are more often downloaded and used for personal purposes.
Posting videos will not be superfluous on the artist’s website. Recordings from performances and events, video messages to your listeners, recorded excerpts from the life of a performer or performer will attract attention, which is very important for a beginner planning to become a world-class star :-).
Events
A poster for any offline performances must be present on the website. Perhaps this is precisely why the visitor came to the site – he wants to attend the artist’s concert again and is interested in when the next one will take place. Therefore, it is absolutely not important that the next performance will take place not on a big stage, but somewhere in a themed bar. You should definitely tell your target audience about this. The poster must indicate the place, date and time of the performance, as well as list other events in which the performer will participate.
Due to the decision not to develop or include a poster on the site, some of the listeners are lost, which is very important for the star in terms of promoting her work. To increase interest in the individual, you can post on the website photographs taken during the concert.
Contacts
An important section on the star’s website that you can’t do without. The performer may be contacted by press representatives or event organizers with various offers. And they need to be given the opportunity to communicate with the star or his representative (manager). The contact block should be as complete as possible. Here you need to specify a phone number, email address, and integrate social network groups using icons. In general, offer all possible communication channels for the convenience of the visitor. A feedback form with a call to action would also be useful here.
Block of reviews and wishes
It is very important for an aspiring star to know what the audience thinks about his work. Why not give her a chance to speak? At the stage of “climbing the showbiz ladder,” you can provide your listeners with the opportunity to express their emotions about a past performance or event, express wishes, ask a question, and so on. This will create a strong connection between the listeners and the performer, which is very important for a beginner.
Links to them posted on the site will help increase activity on social networks.
By subscribing to the social network, the user can view current information about the musician, get to know him better, discuss it with subscribers and always be aware of the latest news. It is also necessary to place a link to the site on social networking pages, thereby increasing traffic to the web resource.
What should a songwriter’s website look like?
The design of a new website dedicated to a rising musical group, singer or singer requires no less attention than the website of world-famous music performers. After all, the visitor’s perception of the resource, its convenience and further desire to be on the page and surf it depend on the design. What are the main requirements for the high-quality design of such resources?
The right choice and combination of colors
Needless to say, it’s stupid to choose a pink background color with white flowers for a rock musician’s website? The colors must fully correspond to the image of the performer, his temperament, and musical genre. The target audience must perceive the artist correctly. Therefore, the combination of colors must be chosen wisely. Let it be a standard combination of black and white, white and gray. The main thing is that it looks beautiful and matches the type of performer.
Even if the appearance of the site is luxurious, but the resource itself has unclear or complex navigation, the project will never see success and development. It should be convenient for the user to navigate the site. He must understand where to click to find the information he is interested in. Everything should be logical and understandable. Development of structure and navigation is carried out at the first stage of website creation. Therefore, it is important not to miss anything, so as not to reap the fruits of your mistakes later.
Readable fonts
No matter how interesting information content is, if it is presented in small or unreadable font, it will not be useful. The font should be large enough, not excessive, and not cause pain in the eyes due to the parsing of letters.
Adaptive design
If you want to reach your entire target audience without losing a single visitor, you need to develop an adaptive version of the site. Most Internet users use mobile gadgets to surf the Internet. It is logical that it is more convenient for them to view the site of an aspiring star through their smartphone. That is why the resource must be displayed correctly on all existing mobile gadgets, which is what adaptive design will help with.
A few words about functionality
The scope and type of functionality of the site directly depends on the level of popularity and capabilities of the artist. For example, if he is sure that the artist’s songs will be downloaded from paid resources, then the site should allow the user to do this here and now.
A similar requirement applies to the placement of the audio player. If the singer already has studio tracks or even released an album, then you should definitely place the player on the website, giving visitors the opportunity to listen to the star’s work. This also includes subscribing to the newsletter, posting a forum or blog, and other functions that are relevant to users.
For a beginner performer, as a rule, such complex functions are not needed. At the moment when he is just beginning to develop his creativity, the star must interest the public in his work, offering to find out information about himself and his performances. In the future, when popularity increases, the site needs to be improved by introducing all the key functions that can not only retain fans, but also bring additional income to the star.
5 Examples of Good Websites for Aspiring Stars
Using the example of newcomer performers on the Russian stage, we will show what websites can be like that contribute to the popularity of singers.
Example 1. Singer VladiMir
Let’s start the review with the website of a young Russian singer who wants to grab a sweet piece of the pie called “Show Business”.
The site makes it clear from the first page that we are not dealing with a beginner who sings in local bars, but with a young professional performer. At least, high-quality design and functionality tries to emphasize this in every possible way.
With a claim to success, the content contains the most common blocks. There is a poster, a biography, and high-quality photographs. And even though the volume of content is very small, and the poster indicates that the singer is still a beginner, the site looks decent.
From a functional point of view, the site only has the ability to download only three songs from iTunes. There is also a built-in audio player with which you can hear catchy pop tracks.
At first glance, the site creates a pleasant impression. Unobtrusive design with a large amount of white background and accents on bright pictures, simple and clear navigation, accessible functionality. Everything is simple and interesting. Well, what else does the user need?
The peculiarity of this site and other quality sites for aspiring musicians is that the resource gives the user a general idea of the singer or singer. This is very important, since most newcomers to show business make money from corporate parties or small events. Therefore, the site helps the visitor understand whether the performer likes it or not, whether he is ready to cooperate or not. And if you like it, order his performance. This project can easily become an example to follow.
Example 2. Max Lidov
Here is a striking example of a singer’s website who has relatively recently started his career.
The first spread hints to us that this is a real local celebrity! The main page, consisting of this spread, reveals a photo of the performer, information about the upcoming event and a functional button for purchasing a ticket. This is quite convenient for fans – there is no need to look for resources for selling tickets to a concert of a rising star.
From a functional point of view, the site is quite simple. There is a page with videos, including professional clips…
and a page with audio tracks that can be listened to online.
There is no complete poster on the site and this is a big minus for the developers. There is no photo gallery and there really isn’t enough content to connect with visitors. For example, a blog, LJ or reviews. But there is a huge sheet of biographies about the performers, which at least partially helps cover the lack of content.
In general, the site leaves a good impression, but, objectively speaking, it looks crude. Needs improvement. However, this is all fixable and most likely the revision will be carried out in parallel with the growth of the singer’s popularity.
Example 3. Olga Buzova
We couldn’t pass by Olga Buzova, a singer with a long history of climbing to the hot music TOPs in Russia, Ukraine and foreign countries. At the moment, the performer is very popular in the CIS countries and has millions of fans. It would be really weird not to check out her website. By the way, it is quite specific.
The specificity of the resource lies in the fact that it consists of only one spread. There is no functionality and content that we are used to. Instead, there is only a background screen in the form of slides of photographs of the singer, a series of videos from Instagram and links to social networks. It is in them that the performer is active. Therefore, in this particular case, the site is a kind of bridge between the singer and her groups and social network accounts. But on the Wikipedia website there is a direct link to the site, which is important for users.
Example 4. Najmiddin Mavlyanov
An aspiring opera performer with a very simple but informative website.
The site is very simple in terms of design and functionality, which indicates that the performer is just beginning his creative path and development. At the same time, the information provided is exactly what the target audience needs. Without pathos, biography of the singer…
and his awards as proof of his professionalism.
Of the minuses, I would like to note the ill-conceived navigation. The categories that should have been included in the main menu are for some reason placed in the “More” tab.
Because of this, some users may be lost, since few will think to look into this category to search for videos or photos.
In general, the site does not cause a storm of emotions. But, taking into account only the initial path of the artist’s work and his low popularity from a global point of view, this resource is quite sufficient for a narrow circle of fans and admirers of the artist.
Example 5. Group ME.DIGITIZED
A Russian rock band that wants to join the ranks of foreign showbiz.
This is evidenced by domain zone, and English-language content.
Very brutal design, little functionality – the site mostly plays an introductory role. Only the key elements are collected here: biography, contact block, news block and gallery. By the way, the gallery is made in the form of slides. Not very convenient if you want to look at the photo in more detail.
Among the interesting things – playlist on home page and its design. By hovering the cursor over a song, social network icons pop up, with which you can make a share.
The resource can hardly be called professionally developed. It is quite simple and discreet. But, referring to the target audience, perhaps such a decision has a place to be. And we will not argue with him.
Is a website for music performers required?
Finally, I would like to say just one thought. If an aspiring performer wants to become famous, receive excellent fees for performances and be an idol for millions, then creating a personal website is not a whim, but a necessity. This is a fairly simple but very effective tool that can become high-quality communication with your fans. Namely, communication with listeners is the most important factor for the personal and creative development of a rising star.