Website design inspiration: best record label websites

When you’re building your record label website, beyond page structures and essential website content, you’ll get the chance to set the stage for your artists with a design that sets the tone for your label.

How do you design a record label website that balances your roster with your label’s vibe? Let’s take a look at some examples of great record label website design.

Create a cohesive palette  

Record labels bring together artists that are ready to make music that pushes the boundaries of their genre. The best record label websites translate that vision into the overall design elements of their site. 

A customizable record label website template helps you set the foundation for your website content, since it allows you to choose the colors, fonts, and other theme-specific elements across your site. When you’re deciding on a template, take the opportunity to think about how you’re branding your label - whether it’s an avant-garde, underground label that distributes music from the fringe, or your label serves the independent pop community, you can create a design that represents your overall vibe. 

Nvasion Records is an alternative hip-hop label that plays up their name with imagery of aliens and a dramatic green, white, and black color scheme. They also use a futuristic font throughout their website to amplify their visual statement. 

This record label website has also added imagery in their section backgrounds, and in the content of their Homepage. This is a great way to bring attention to their latest compilation record, which features artists across their roster. 

Record label: Nvasion Records

Club 44 Records is a label which features jazz, orchestral, and adult contemporary artists. With their record label website design, they’ve gone for a classic look, drawing colors from their logo across their site. They use a simple palette with black and white backgrounds for their sections, and the turquoise from their logo throughout the text of their website.

Record label: Club 44 Records

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Easy to navigate 

A record label website will naturally be content heavy. From featuring each artist in your roster and issuing press releases, to accepting inquiries and submissions - having a website that is easy to navigate is key to letting your visitors discover everything you have to offer without being overwhelmed. 

Pensador Records does this well by adding main pages in their menu, then nesting related pages in a submenu. For instance, beneath their ‘Shop’ page, they added subpages for digital albums, t-shirts, and stickers. This organization is especially useful for their artist pages. 

In their main menu, they added a main artist page and created subpages for each of their artists. On the ‘Artistas’ page itself, they’ve also added images of each artist which, when clicked, links out to the unique artist pages. 

Record label: Pensador Records 

Another way to lead visitors to content across your website is by using buttons. On their Homepage, Spaghetti Records has added info and images for their latest label releases. Beneath the info, there are clickable buttons which go directly to the track page. 

Record label: Spaghetti Records

Make each artist stand out 

A record label website is the best place to organize all of your artists in one place. With social feeds every square will be different, so carve out space on your website to promote music, events, and what your artists have to offer. 

Once you’ve decided on how you’d like your visitors to navigate to artist pages, you’ll want to make those pages relevant for both industry professionals and fans. Finding the balance between these audiences is key to a great artist page.  

Deep Life Records strikes the balance perfectly by having a main page for their artists, then individual artist pages. The individual pages feature an artist bio, social links, and a preview of their work on a label-specific mix. 

Record label: Deep Life Records

Share the latest news 

With so much buzz around your artists, you’ll want to keep your website visitors up-to-date on their latest releases. It’s also a good idea to write about the achievements of the label itself, like getting an exclusive deal with a recording studio or changing the location of your headquarters. 

OKWorld makes their news stand out with section background images, a combination of text, buttons, and images. This gives visitors multiple ways to process the information and a way to learn more with the ‘Listen’ button. It’s totally spell-binding! 

Record label: OKWorld

Design your distro

Whether you represent one artist or have a number of talented musicians in your roster, having a strong e-commerce profile on your website puts you in control of your merch and artist sales. Getting placement in brick and mortar stores is more difficult for independent labels and artists, so having the ability to sell music and merch directly from your website is something you don’t want to miss out on. 

Lisbon Lux does a great job organizing a boutique on their website. They’ve sectioned it out by merch type, including vinyl, CDs and clothing. They’ve also arranged it in order of release, starting from their newest releases at the top of the section, which is a great way to subtly keep fans up to date.

Record label: Lisbon Lux Records 

Share your vision

So far, we’ve talked about branding your website, putting a spotlight on your artists, sharing the latest news, and curating your distro. At the center of these elements is your record label story - why you’ve signed your artists and what your vision is for the genre. 

Worldhaus Music provides a detailed profile of their record label from starting out as Punch, one of the first independent labels, to the Worldhaus Music of today. They contextualize their label within the movement in a clear way by using a simple white background paired with a crisp black font. This makes the text easy to digest. The page itself is balanced with the black menu bar, creating a cohesive look that’s pleasant to the eye.

Record label: Worldhaus Music 

We hope these tips inspire you to carve out your own identity with your record label website design. It’s important to strike a balance between representing your artists, and creating a website that inspires confidence in your vision to make industry professionals take notice.