Conventions of Artist's websites

1. Conventions of Website
By Ciara Ferreira

2. Features
•The artist’s logo (usually displayed on every page of the website in the corner)
•A menu bar/ navigation bar at the top of the page
•A picture of the artist, usually located in the middle of the page
• Sometimes the album cover, if the album has been released recently
•A list of track names or link to songs to listen to either on YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify.
•Sometimes an automatically playing music video, usually linked via Youtube.
•Tour Dates and venues
•Store for merchandise related to the band/ artist
•Photos of the artist from tour, music video shoots or out and about in public.
•Latest News on the artist
•Links to social media and contact details for management
•At the bottom of each website page, there is usually the record label and the copyright symbol.

3. Artist’s Logo
The artist’s logo is usually located
on every page of the website as it
gives the website a sense of
continuity. Bands like The Drums
who are part of the indie pop
genre, usually have black and white
logos, or vintage style logos.
Personally, I think the logo needs to
go in the top corner of each
webpage underneath the
navigation bar, in order to create
continuity.

4. Navigation Bar
This is usually at the top of the
webpage and again is on every
page, this makes it easier for the
users to navigate around the
website. The bar makes it more
user friendly and also means there
is a clear layout of where
everything is. The bar doesn’t
necessarily have to lead to a page
on the website but to their YouTube
channel or to their store.

5. Pictures of the Artist
The picture of the artist is usually quite
large compared to everything on the
website. It sometimes is the album
cover as it has the artist on it. I have
noticed however when looking at Indie
Pop bands websites, is that there are
hardly any images of the band unless
directly necessary. The bands usually
put their album cover and images are
normally associated with that, for
example, if there is a book on their
album, they might put other images of
books on their website.

6. A list of track names
In some websites, the artist lists the
track names from their new album,
so that they can let their audience
know about what songs will be
singles etc.
Some artists advertise singles from
their album.
However, when looking at Indie Pop
bands/artists, I noticed they don’t
usually list their track names.

7. Music Video
Most artists webistes have their newest
music video playing or a link to it at the top
of their website. It is almost like an
advertisement for their band. It gives the
website background music as sometimes it
carries on playing while the user scrolls
past it.
Indie pop artists sometimes don’t contain
their music video, only a link to their social
media accounts, as they like to keep their
websites more simplistic.
As you can see from the websites to the
right, they contain arrows so the user can
skip to other videos, that they might
prefer.

8. Tour Dates and Venues
Having the tour dates and venues is a
very popular item to put on artist’s
websites as it means users can see
when their chosen artist is playing in a
town near them. In more advanced
websites, it allows the user to click on
the venue and the user is redirected to
a ticket buying website if the show
isn’t already sold out.
When looking into Indie Pop artists
and their websites, it has shown me
that quite a few just have their tour
dates on their home page and no
navigation bar.

9. Links to Merchandise Store
In most popular artist’s website,
they contain a link on the
navigation bar to either a store
page on their website or to a
separate page which is their
merchandise store. They do this to
create a brand and it means they
can collect revenue from this.
Smaller bands, normally have
merchandise but or a lesser
selection mostly only having their
album signed or a simplistic t shirt.

10. Latest News on Artist
More popular well-known artists, mostly pop
artists contain news from official websites
about them, such as when they are filming
their latest music video and where they are in
the world due to their tour or festivals or shows
they are performing at.
Smaller indie bands don’t usually contain large
sections of news, sometimes there websites are
more like blogs and they post as they go. Some
indie bands don’t have an official website as
such but mostly use twitter as there means of
communication to their listeners.
Some bands ask users to sign up to a news
letter rather than have their latest news on
their website. This means an email sent
monthly would be sent to users who signed up.

11. Links to Social Media
All artists have links to their social
media on their page because of the
growing importance of having a online
profile. Social media has helped artist
to attract a wide range of people to
artists making them more and more
popular.
The links to their social media are
usually logos of the website and if the
user clicks on them, it will redirect
them to that page.
They are normally on every page at the
bottom or the top near the navigation
bar.

12. Digipaks & Websites
After looking at the conventions of both digipaks and websites, I came to the conclusion that
for indie bands like my chosen artist, The Drums, they usually have a dark, sometimes black
background for their website. The digipak and website are not always closely linked, for
example they may not be exactly the same colour theme or contain everything that is on the
album cover. However, they usually contain the same font as the title of their digipak.
Due to artists regularly releasing albums, their websites change with the newest album, In
order to advertise and promote the newest content. The problem here for me is that the
album I have chosen my song from, is from one of The Drums older albums and so I cannot
compare the same website with the its digipak as the websites have changed. This is why for
my digipak analysis and now my websites analysis, I have chosen my favourite websites, some
from the genre and some from not the same genre, in order to get a larger view of what
websites and digipaks should look like. This means I won’t copy exactly how the artists
website or digipak looks now, meaning I have more creative freedom and can choose what I
think the band should do. I am re-branding them to fit my own style.