How to build a record label website

Whether you’re an established label, or you’ve just signed your first band, your website is a vital part of your marketing strategy. It’s the online hub where fans, industry, and media can discover and quickly connect with your artists.

So how do you build a record label website that’s well-organized, and promotes your artists?

1. Design a Homepage

The Homepage serves as a gateway to the rest of your website. It should be fairly simple, including a few highlights from your content.

First of all, you will want to think about your header image. You can either add a logo, a picture of one of the bands you represent, or a stock image that sums up your label’s style.

Under the main image, add a news section. This is a great way to highlight recent releases, showing that your artists are active. You can also write about upcoming events, or add a new video.

Updating this information regularly will keep people coming back to see what their favorite bands are up to. It also creates a nice introduction to the rest of your website.

Another thing you’ll want to add to your Homepage is a mailing list signup form. Offer an incentive like a free download of an exclusive song to encourage visitors to sign up. That way you can follow up by email with your latest label news, new album releases, and upcoming tour dates for your artists.

Label Website: Jumpsuit Records

2. Create an Artists page

One of the most visited pages on your label's website will be the Artists page. Make sure it represents your label well by creating a page with concise information on all of your artists.

The Artists page should include images, or image plus text, for each artist your represent. This will create a visual index of your roster. Link each image to a sub-page per artist with information about them. You can also list each artist in a drop-down menu from your main Artists page.

Once you’ve created the basic layout for an artist page, simply recreate it with the duplicate page content option. Then add the relevant details.

Each page should contain a short musician bio, a track or two, a video, their social media links, and contact information, including a link to their own dedicated website.

Label Website: Sargent House

You can create and manage multiple accounts for these websites with just one log-in. Switch back and forth to edit each site with a just a few clicks.

To get more in-depth with your content and design options for an artist's website, check out these tips on making a website for your music.

3. Add music

With so much scope for digital music, add a dedicated Music page showcasing your artists’ albums. Make use of columns to separate out playlists, and add new releases to the top of the page.

If one of your artists is dropping a new album soon, set it up for pre-order and sell it in advance to generate buzz.

If you use our built-in Music feature to add albums, these sales are reported to SoundScan. You can also use our Bandcamp integration to quickly add music from all of your artists without re-uploading their entire catalogue.

Label website: 15 Passenger Records

4. Add a merch store

Looking to sell music and merch for your artists? Set up a Store page to sell CDs, vinyl, and T-shirts, commission-free. You can use Bandzoogle’s built-in sales tools like discount codes and sale pricing to help clear out old stock in advance of a tour.
 

Label website: Lisbon Lux Records

5. About your label

Who are you? Why did you start a label? Are you a musician yourself? Or just a total music geek? How did you discover the bands on the label? What inspired you to sign them?

Use an About page to tell the story of why and how your record label was created. This is interesting to people who want to learn more about your label’s origins. It will also help with your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) for your record label keywords.

Make it easy for industry and media to contact you. Include some kind of call-to-action at the bottom of the page, which can be a contact form, or even just your email address.

6. Tour dates

Use a Calendar to list all upcoming tour dates for your artists. Bandzoogle has a built-in events feature where you can display upcoming shows in several formats. You can also sell tickets commission-free directly through your website.

You can also use our Bandsintown integration to display show dates for each band separately.

7. Contact and submissions

Include a contact page to accept inquiries about your record label. If you’re actively looking for new artists for your record label, add information that outlines the format that you will accept for demos.

Be sure to address some FAQs as well, such as the genre of music, what kind of experience they should have, where they’ve played shows, and what kind of a crowd they can draw.

If you’re not seeking submissions, some text here indicating that you are not currently accepting new artists will help clarify things for bands contacting your label.

This page can also include a contact form for general inquiries. Then add an email address for any separate staff: management, booking inquiries, and press.

Include the social media links for your label’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and any other social media platforms you’re active on.

Label website: Jazz & Milk

Streamline your design

A record label website will usually contain loads of content. With such a range of text, videos, music, and more, you’ll want to create a simple design that’s easy to navigate.

Make sure the menu is super clear. Avoid cutesy page names; use titles that get the point across. Use a clear, sans serif font that is big enough to read, and in a color that contrasts with the menu.

Within each page, separate out the different areas with sections. The background could be different colors per section, or you could add a background image for a little flair.

Make use of section titles to add more organization to the page. This will make it easier for website visitors to quickly pick out what they’re looking for.

Label website: Jazzland Recordings

Black and white is a nice starting color palette for a record label's website design. It allows for plenty of breathing room around your content. It also sets up your artists to shine with their colorful imagery, music, and videos that may not necessarily all coordinate in color and tone.

Now that you’ve got the basic idea of how to create a record label website, check out some of these record label examples to give you some design inspiration.

Then go ahead and create a website that optimizes your online presence, and puts your artists into the spotlight!