Website Research

To help me design my website, I researched into Female Solo Artists websites to look for generic features as well as unique ones.

The generic pages that appear to feature on the majority of professional websites are;

- News
- Tour Dates
- Gallery
- Log in/Community
- Video/Music

Other features include things like -
Links to social networking - facebook, twitter etc
(often with a live twitter and facebook feed)

Design;

The design and graphics used on the websites change to fit the artists current album.
For example, Rihanna's website changes constantly. During the time of her Rated R album, the website was very dark, using blacks & deep reds as the colour scheme, with pictures that tied in with her album and music videos.
Now rihanna's genre has changed to pop and electric dance, her website has changed themes and now ties in with her current album 'Loud', with graphics used from her hit single 'Only Girl'.



Another example is Jessie J. Jessie J's website uses the same picture and typography from her current album cover.







Features;

Social Network feed;



Many artists use social networking sites to promote themselves, and links to these often appear on their websites.
Links to twitter, facebook, myspace and youtube are the most common links to appear on a website for a music artist.

Live facebook and twitter feeds also feature on the majority of professional websites, where fans can keep up to date with the artists live posts. These feeds aso link to twitter and facebook, and allows advertising for the social networking aswell as advertisement for the artist to get extra followers on twitter or extra fans on facebook, allowing them to get their name known and their music heard.



Many sites now provide the option to login with your facebook account, allowing you to comment on their gallery via your account.
This also shows up on your facebook profile, allowing your friends to see the activity you have done on the website, which again, promotes the artist.



News;

Many home pages of the artist's websites were full of news, either about new singles/albums, tours or dates for public appearances etc.
This allows fans to keep up to date with their favourite artist and not miss out on exciting news or competitions etc.





Gallery;



Galleries allow the artist to promote video shoots, magazine cover shoots etc.

Tours;

Artists will always display the dates of their up and coming tour, and often have links to where you can purchase tickets from. It's a simple and quick way of promoting their tour and selling tickets.
Often, there will be a partnership with ticket sites such as tickermaster.com and if the artist puts a link to their site they will sponsor the tour.



Login;

Artists website, nearly always allow you to sign up for extra features. Most of the time, when you sign up, you can access fan forums, receive exclusives newsletters and the chance to enter competitions and receive exclusive videos, songs etc.
Many also allow for fan pre-sale on tour tickets.



Music/video;



Artist websites also allow you to listen to their music or watch their latest music video, again for the art of promotion. Fans can hear tasters of their music and then decide whether to buy the single or album. Music videos can consumed a lot through the internet, including the artists websites.


Video blogs are also sometimes featured, allowing the fans to view messages from the artists or to watch the activities they have been up to recently.