Existing websites for music artists

Conventions of a Music website

• Menu Bar (Usually appear at the top of the page) 'Home', 'Videos', 'Tour', 'Gallery', 'Downloads'
• Artist name (All musicartists have their own brand with a consistent font use)
• Pictures of the artist in some form
• Videos/previews of songs from the artists
• Updates from the artist (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs)
• Information regarding the artist
• Contact details of the manager/record label
• Consistency of colours throughout

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This website is for the artist Colbie Caillat, is an American singer/song writer who broke onto the music scene in 2007. She has since had big success with a number of her songs most popularly 'Bubbly', 'Realize' and 'The little things'. She is currently signed with Universal Republic Records a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and is continuously selling records. As a record label, Universal are everyday producing and selling records on behalf of the artists signed to them. Their goal is for the artist to be successful by drawing in audiences globally as well as making money in order for their company to get bigger. Colbie Caillat isn't typically a global artist and therefore her promotional material is mostly aimed at her specific target audience which could be seen as mainly females ageing between 13-25. Her genre of music is similar to artists such as Ellie Goulding and reflects the sort of folk indie sound sometimes verging into pop.

This website would most likely attract young girls from the ages of 13 and upwards. She isn't a mainstream artist and the website reflects this as it isnt out there and shows the type of artist she is. Its important with all websites that the genre is matched as you wouldnt see a indie artist with an RnB themed website. It goes against all codes and conventions of the original genre.

One of the main features that could be see as a convention of a artist website is the menu bar that lists headings of some of the things that are included in the website. Examples of these are 'Photos', 'videos' and 'tour' these are included on Colbie Caillats website. Also the menu bar is always placed at the top of the page as that will be the first thing the audience will come across as it will navigate them to the correct information. Another convention would be pictures that relate to the artist some way or another. This is something that isn't done on Colbie's website however it does include a music video which shows a picture of her so the audience are aware it is her. Including a music video on a website allows the audience to listen and watch videos from the artist whenever they like. Also they can access it for free meaning it would draw more popularity for the website. Another convention would be frequent news on the artist them selves. For example Colbie Caillat has latest news as a sub heading on the website and then information regarding her. The information could be beneficial to the audience as it could draw them in with the artist more. Examples of this could be competitions and tickets to the artists concert. Consistency throughout the website must also be shown with colours, font and the artists brand name. The website above shows consistency with the colours and theme of it. This makes it look more professional as well as following conventions.

This website is for Ellie Goulding an English singer songwriter who has been on the music scene since 2007. Since signing to polydor records in 2009 she has had massive success with her debut album selling over 380 000 copies and reaching number 1 in the UK showing she is massively popular and a great asset to the music industry. Her genre of music is mostly Indie Folk and Folktronica resembling to the styles of Kate Nash and Laura Marling. As I have chosen to do one of her songs a lot of my inspiration has come from her. On her website she has conventionally got a menu bar with the typical headings such as 'Home' and 'Videos'. She also has a number of videos that up promoting herself as the singer she is. As inspiration from this I may choose to include a music video on my homepage as it will be the first thing the audience come across. A number of features that also stand out is the icons for the programmes such as blogger and my space. It shows the audience that they can have direct contact with the artist and this is something that will appeal to them. Also something that is fairly popular on many websites is the upload of the tweets that artists have posted. On Adeles official site there was a part that showed when she updated her tweets so audiences can see when she is online and tweeting fans. This has since changed with her writing a blog every so often. I may choose to do the tweet update on my website as I feel this is something that will attract audiences.