How Bands and Musicians Can Create a Website in 2023
In the digital age, a professional website is a must-have for musicians, bands, and artists. It's your digital home, the place where fans can discover your music, learn about upcoming shows, buy your merch, and connect with you.
A well-designed website also lends credibility to your music career. It shows that you're serious about your craft and gives industry professionals like record labels, booking agents, and music journalists a central place to find everything they need to know about your band.
But how do you create a free music website? And why should you even make a website as a musician? In this article, we review what you should look for in a band website and what's the best platform for musicians.
What to Look for in a Website For Musicians?
While there are many general website builders out there (e.g., Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace), you want to ensure that you're using a platform that is tailored to the needs of bands and musicians. When building a music website, you should try to include most of the following:
- Custom Website Design Templates. Every band is unique. Your homepage should be too. When designing a website, there are many no-code tools and drag & drop editors platforms like Fourthwall that allow you to turn a website template into a site that belongs to you and your fanbase.
- Digital Downloads. Selling digital downloads of your music and albums gives fans a way to support your work directly, and allows you to keep a larger portion of the revenue compared to streaming platforms.
- Merchandise. Tour merch has been a staple of in-person shows and online shops for bands for decades. We recommend launching your site with at least 1-2 product designs to allow fans to support your band. With tools like Fourthwall, you can design and sell 1000s of unique products on demand, meaning there's no inventory for you to manage.
- Custom Domain. A custom domain name adds professionalism to your band's online presence, making it easier for fans and industry professionals to find and remember your website.
- Spotify Embeds. Embedding your Spotify profile on your website allows fans to easily access and stream your music, increasing your plays and visibility on the platform.
- SoundCloud Embeds. By integrating SoundCloud into your website as an embed, you can showcase your tracks, mixes, and live sets directly to your audience, fostering a deeper connection with your fans.
- YouTube Embeds. Including YouTube videos on your website, whether they're music videos or behind-the-scenes footage, can boost engagement and keep fans on your site longer.
- Memberships. By offering memberships, you can create a steady stream of income and give your most dedicated fans access to exclusive content, early releases, and special events.
- Contact Us Page. A contact us page ensures fans, press, and industry professionals can easily get in touch with you, opening up opportunities for collaborations, bookings, and interviews.
- Tour Dates. Posting your tour dates on your website keeps your fans informed about upcoming events and gigs. Plus you can email fans that sign up on your mailing list about tour dates.
Combining most of these sections above into your home page (on your domain name) allows you to showcase your music in a professional way. While there are 1000s of musicians with amazing home pages, one of our favorite examples is that of artist and rapper Harry Mack:
For most bands, we recommend also looking at your artistic inspirations to see their "dot com" home pages as well to help inspire you to get started with fonts and themes that make sense for your band.
What's the Best Website Builder For Musicians?
Creating a website might seem like a daunting task if you don't have any coding knowledge, but with today's website builders, it's easier than ever. Here are a few popular tools that we recommend:
- Fourthwall. Fourthwall is free for creators, bands, and musicians. There are no monthly fees and no upfront costs, which makes it an excellent way for musicians to build a website for free. Fourthwall also offers everything you need to showcase your music, sell your music on your website, and build your brand (Spotify Embeds, YouTube Music Videos, Merch, etc).
- Bandzoogle. Bandzoogle is a website builder that is designed for musicians and bands. It's also a good tool that makes website design easy, but Bandzoggle costs between $9.95 and $19.95 per month ($19.95 if you want to offer print-on-demand merch).
Both tools make band website design easy, allowing you to create a stunning website with many different templates. Both allow you to upload your band logo, choose your fonts, pick a color scheme, edit CSS, and take full control of your brand with a custom domain name. Both platforms also allow you to embed your SoundCloud tracks, sell digital downloads, and are natively optimized for SEO to help fans discover your music.
We recommend that both aspiring and professional musicians try out both Fourthwall and Bandzoogle to decide which is the best musician website for you to build your home page.