How to Build a Band Website That Actually Works

A band website is the new music press kit. It is an important part of your music promotion.

Most networking occurs online in today’s music industry. So you have to be searchable. And the search outcomes have to be updated, fascinating and well designed.

Why? Because when you release your music, that’s how you interact with followers, make an impression, get seen and finally change into profitable.

However, let’s face it—you may not have time to make a site. Or even know where to begin or how to do it.

Here’s what you should know about build a band website that actually works and how to do it step-by-step.

Table of Contents

‘But I Already Have Social Media Profiles!’

Maybe you already have all of the essential social media profiles. That’s nice!

Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. SoundCloud. YouTube. It’s good to have them and to keep them up to date.

However, when you do not have a proper site you are missing an enormous chance.

Linking all of your social media to a well-made site offers essential people (A&Rs, labels, agents, managers, bookers, journalists) exactly what they should find out about your project.

Plus putting everything in one place – biography, gigs, contact data, music– will save them time and make you more bookable. That’s what a press kit is for, and sites are the new press kits.

It also shows that you are serious about your project. Professionalism is a major asset nowadays when there is so much amateur music out there. So make it count!

What You Need On Your Website

Plan before you begin. A great music marketing technique needs some serious thought.

The info you include will differ depending on your project.

However, each artist site should have:

An about page: your artist bio, your background, latest press, etc.
A contact page: your email or booking contact and links to your social media profiles
A music page: where people could hear (and even purchase) your music and download your sets or radio shows
A page with upcoming gigs: Fans need to be able to find out about your shows and get tickets. Embrace your past gigs to show that you are active.
A pictures page: with high-resolution press pictures that journalists could download (aim for 1200 pixels in width).
A shop page: where you sell merch like t-shirts, records, posters, and so on.

How to Make a Musician Website

Step 1: Select how you will build your website

Are you searching for a free website to begin with? Try:

Each of those tools provides useful themes for getting began. Customization is not a must. However, when you wanna add some personal flair you will need to know basic HTML/CSS.

Or you can always ask a web designer friend for some help. Customizing your artist site is an effective way to put your band fund to good use.

Starter websites come with a free domain name, however, it also contains the name of the platform. For instance, you will get www.yourband.wordpress.com or www.yourband.tumblr.com.

When you are serious about creating a great band website that’s searchable think about buying a custom domain name. Websites like Dreamhost> and Bluehost make it simple to do this (and there are plenty more).

After you purchase a domain you could slap it on your WordPress or Tumblr website no problem.

Are you searching for something that comes with musician site templates and requires zero codings? Try:

These websites allow you to easily design each page of your site by dragging and dropping blocks of content.

There is no coding needed here. However, in return, there’s a small monthly fee.

Most of those site builders come with a custom domain name included in the price – so you do not need to buy an additional one.

Are you looking to also sell merch and records online? Try:

These are online shops for artists. They are simple to arrange. You get to keep most of your revenue from sales of CDs, vinyl, cassettes, t-shirts or other any other merch you wanna sell.

Making a Bandcamp artist account is free. Bandcamp takes a percentage of your sales: 15% for digital and 10% for physical merch. Learn how to customize your Bandcamp domain name here.

Big Cartel allows you to sell 5 different products in your store with the free plan. When you have more stuff to sell, they have other pricing plans as well.

Add an eshop page to your site and embed your Bandcamp or Big Cartel marketplace. Or use the built-in e-shops from a website-making platform – up to you to choose what’s greatest.

Step 2: Fill in your About, Contact, and Photo pages

A well-written music bio is crucial for a great artist web site.

Make it humorous, creative, informative and whatever feels like you. Do not write your whole life either—think milestones!

Generally, it’s hard to write about yourself. When you are stuck get somebody you trust to write a bio for you. It will help to make your bio come off more genuine and fascinating.

For the Contact, page add your email address (or your booking agent’s). Some site platforms allow you to add an email form where people enter their name, email and the message – that’s good for avoiding spam.

Additionally, add buttons that link to all these social media platforms we talked about before.

Here’s how to do it:

Squarespace
Wix
Bandzoogle
Bandcamp
For Big Cartel all you must do is select a theme with Social Media links,/li>

On the picture page put a selection of good resolution pictures of you, say 1200 pixels wide.

Hot tip: Do not cheap out on artist pictures! They represent you across the web so they are super essential. Think about hiring a photographer for a few pro pictures.

Step 3: Put your music on the website

Time for the most important part: your music!

All streaming sites (SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp) permit you to embed a player by copy-pasting a bit of code.

For instance, here’s how you embed a track or mix from SoundCloud into a Squarespace site:

Go to your track on SoundCloud
Click on the ‘Share’ button below your track, a box will appear.
Click on ‘Embed’
Customize: Select from three styles of gamers, click on more options to change colors
Copy the code
Open up your Squarespace in admin mode (yourwebsite.com/congif)
Add a ‘Code’ block
Paste the code you copied from SoundCloud

The same concept applies to any site builder. Just paste the embed code from step 5 in the HTML of your website editor.

Here us a guide on how to do it in WordPress or Tumblr.

Cannot find the embed code for your album on Spotify? Here’s how:

Click on the three dots (for a song or a whole album)
Click on Share
Choose the icon that shows </>
Click on ‘Copy Link to Clipboard’
Paste it on your site in an HTML window.

Step 4: Put your shows on the website

There are free concert listing services that will allow you to save time. They let you build a fanbase and notify them once you play a show nearby.

The two most prevalent ones are:

Bandsintown (requires an artist Page on Fb)
Songkick Tourbox

Sign-up for free as an artist. It makes it simple to list all of your shows on your music site. Songkick easily integrates with SoundCloud and Spotify—so people could see your upcoming shows on your streaming platforms.

When you add a Bandsintown or Songkick block to your site or even SoundCloud, it will automatically get refreshed.

Right here’s how to add a Bandsintown or Songkick block to your site:

Bandsintown for WordPress
Bandsintown for Squarespace
Bandsintown for Wix
Bandsintown for any website or Tumblr
Songkick for any website
Songkick for Wix
Songkick for your SoundCloud sidebar
Songkick for Spotify

Need Some Inspiration?

Okay, you are ready to begin designing. Right here are eight websites to get inspired:

What Now?

Making a site is like having a pet, you gotta keep it clean and well-fed.

A poorly maintained band site will do more harm than good when you forget about it. So be sure to update your site frequently with new gig dates and pictures.

Keep in mind to put the link to your site on all of your social media profiles. That method people will actually go look at it! Plug the link in your bio on Fb, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, and so on.

Having a great web presence is vital for getting these gigs in real life—and going global!