How to design a great songwriter website

Songwriters are hard workers. Behind the scenes they’re thinking up melodies, combining chords, and often composing lyrics as well. A website that will help you combine all of your talents in one place online is a helpful way to get more placements, writing partners, and reach your fans. Think of it as an online portfolio for your music, and use it to attract more work.

Choose a songwriter website template

When it comes to designing a great songwriter website, using a template is a good way to begin. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to create a design, especially if you’ve never made a website before. 

Selecting a songwriter template will make sure you have a base to start with, that combines colors and fonts that go nicely together. From there, you can customize the look to match your style of music.

Although you’re probably more comfortable constructing melodies, creating a music website is easy once you get organized. Let’s take a look at the pages you need to build out your songwriter website.

Homepage

A songwriter website’s Homepage should act as an introduction to who you are and what you do. Make a great first impression here by using a header image that conveys you - as an artist and creator - in just a glance. If you’re a more behind the scenes type of songwriter, add some imagery that shows your instrument of choice, or some sheet music.

Your Homepage should also include your name front and center to establish who you are. You can accomplish this with text that is in a contrasting color to your image, or, add a logo. Your menu should also be clear on the page, making an organized structure for your visitors to navigate easily.

To direct your visitor’s attention, include a call-to-action. This could be to listen to your latest song, to purchase your new album, or to check out your licensing page. In addition to getting your visitors to take a certain action, it also adds a nice balance to a large image, especially if you choose a text color that is reflected in your content area below.

Artist: Julian Simmons

About page

As a songwriter, it's important to create a focused About page that succinctly tells your story. When you set up this page, the first thing to do is write a strong artist bio. Start with a quick roundup of your education and experience, and then highlight your songs, and any awards you have won. You can also talk about song placements on TV and film, or any notable songwriting you have done with other artists.

Add an image to this page as well - of yourself, or something that represents your style of music. An image and text feature is a nice way to create a stylish layout that will render well on your About page.

Artist: Taylor Crawford

Music page

With a songwriter’s website, you can add much more than just music. If you record your own songs, add a music player to allow your website visitors to preview, play, and buy your tracks. 

Then, let people in on your process, describing who you have written with, and the resulting songs. Include lyrics on this page as well to show off your writing skills in addition to your music. It’ll provide a deeper connection between you and your fans, and will show how much work and effort you put into all aspects of your music.

When you design a music page on your website, keep in mind that you’ll want to balance out the header image with album art imagery. So pick a simple background to offset multiple colors, and then a clean, easy-to-read font.

If you’ve written and recorded multiple albums, you can also create a discography. Display each album, and link the covers to a more in-depth page about each one. Adding streaming links is a nice touch as well, making it easy for people to be able to listen to your music in their preferred way.

Artist: Bob Spring

Song placements/credits

If you’re a prolific songwriter, make sure to add a page to your website that includes your credits. List out the places where your music has been licensed and played. This will help add credibility to your songs, and will engage people’s interest. 

You’ll want to add details on this page, from the genre of music you compose, to how to contact you. If you primarily write music that’s ideal for commercials, note that. If your songs have been placed in films or TV shows, talk about that on this page as well.

You may end up with a fair number of placements as time goes on - keep a running list with the year to show that you’re an active songwriter. Adding logos or images to show the places your songs have appeared is a nice way to add visual interest to the page.

Artist: Nat Jay

Store page

Adding a Store page to your songwriter website is vital if you release music regularly. It gives people a way to support you, and shows you’re a productive songwriter with lots to offer. 

When designing this page keep in mind what your goal is. Have you recently added new music that you want to sell? Do you have leftover merch you want to put on sale? Or are you hoping to advertise your songwriting services?

Add your items into a grid view so that they cascade nicely on the page, and add an image for each store item. Even if you’re just listing a deposit fee to reserve you for a songwriting workshop, a photo will make the store items pop.

Artist: Nikia Yung

Press Kit 

If you’re a performer in addition to a songwriter, it’s a good idea to include a press kit on your songwriter website. This will help you get more work, either writing, playing shows, or both.

You’ll want to include a short, concise bio on this page, keeping your goal in mind. If you’re hoping to book more writing work, talk about your experience in composing songs and any placements you’ve had recently. If you offer songwriting workshops, mention how successful those have been. 

Think of a press kit page as a way to advertise yourself and what you can do, to someone who may not be familiar with you as an artist. Add a few photos and music samples as well. A press kit is one of the best ways to promote yourself as a songwriter, so make sure you check back on this page often and keep the information up to date.

Artist: Brigid Kaelin

Contact

Last but not least, you’ll want to add a simple Contact page to your songwriter website. Here you’ll want to use a contact form or place your email address on the page. You can also add your social media icons, in case your website visitor wants to follow you that way. A mailing list sign-up form on your Contact page is another good way to connect with people. 

Beyond that, add a simple image, but don’t get into too many details here. The Contact page is the last stop on your songwriter website after someone’s read about you and sampled your music.

Once you’ve added all of the content and pages to your songwriter website, and customized the look and feel to match your music, you’ll be all set to book more songwriting work. 

With your wide range of abilities, you will want to be sure that your songwriter website is simple yet concise, and tells a story about you, much like your music does. Then let your website do the talking online while you unplug and get back to composing melodies, playing your instrument, and writing those all-important lyrics.

Create your own songwriter website in minutes with all of these features and more. Build a website with Bandzoogle now.