Website Design Inspiration: Best Singer-Songwriter Websites

As a singer-songwriter, time is a hot commodity. You not only have to record, perform and promote, but also write all your songs as well. This doesn’t even factor in writing for others, collaboration projects, and basic daily tasks.

With limited hours in a day, building a website may seem like a good idea, but one that keeps getting pushed to the back burner.

We know it can be overwhelming so we’ve made it as easy and painless as possible to build a singer-songwriter website quickly. Not only is the initial set-up a breeze, but adding updates on the fly is a cinch as well.

You can check out many website styles on our examples page, but to further help with this let’s go through some basic pages every singer-songwriter website must have for it to be a success.

Homepage

Your homepage is the most visited page on your website, so you’ll want to spend a bit more time making it just right.

[How to Build the Perfect Homepage for Your Band Website]

The first step is choosing the right theme and header image. The featured image on your page can really make or break the site style, so choose wisely.

Bandzoogle member Nikki Petherick has done an excellent job of this by using a professional image of her and her guitar.

This image tells a visitor right away they’ve arrived to the site of a singer-songwriter. The image is clear, warm and emotive. She’s also using our newest theme Meridian, which allows the image to be the focus with content separated underneath.

Although the header image is the star of the page, content is the opening act, so you want it to pave the way for the rest of your pages. You need to have enough content on the homepage that makes visitors want to explore more, but not too much to make the page look cluttered.

Kasey Williams’ homepage provides a good example of this balance.

Kasey uses a large fun image as her background, then adds just the right amount of content to fill out the page. The most important item being a CTA, or call-to-action. A call-to-action is the one thing you want the visitor to do while they are on your page. It’s usually a mailing list sign up form, a link to buy your album, or to watch a video.

Next, you’ll want to add a few samples of your latest work, some images, and links to your social media pages so fans can find you.

Bio

A biography is an important piece to any musician’s website, but it’s imperative for the singer-songwriter. Because you are competing with so many others in this genre you’ll want to share your story in a way that’s like, well…. telling a story! Your experiences are what separates you from everyone else.

[How To Build a Great Bio Page]

James Hill knocks it out the park with his entertaining About page. He combines humor and wit with facts and details of his musical journey to create a bio intriguing enough to hold the reader's attention.

Along with the bio text, you’ll want to include a few images to keep the page visually interesting. If you’ve worked on several writing projects it’s also a great idea to add a link to a Discography page on the sidebar as well.

Music

When a visitor comes to your website they want to hear your music. This may seem obvious but you’d be surprised how many musician websites don’t include any songs! Having a dedicated music page allows you to show off all your own tracks as well as tracks you’ve written on.

[How To Create a Perfect Page to Sell Music on Your Website]

Lindy Vopnfjord showcases his music in a two-column layout, maximising the space on the page. This gives his fans the option to buy his music either by the album, or by individual track.

A music page can also include a short post about the project, track notes, and lyrics. Remember the fan is not only buying your music but buying you, the artist. Giving them specifics about how the album came about and your process for creating brings them into your world even more.

Store

In addition to selling digital downloads of your music you can also sell physical CD’s and merch with our built-in Store feature (commission-free!). If you also create sheet music or video lessons, you can sell those as well (PRO plan.)

A great way to get fans invested is to make them part of your team with branded merch like mugs, stickers and t-shirts like Hannah Hoffman’s done on her site.

[The Ultimate Guide to Selling Band Merch Online]

Shows

For a singer-songwriter, performing live gets your name out to fans and collaborators alike. Make sure your Shows page is easy to read and clear about how everyone can come see you play.

Kaia Kater’s Shows page gives fans a detailed view of where she’s gonna be, and includes a nice show poster per gig. Adding media quotes in the sidebar is a nice touch and provides social proof that Kaia’s show isn’t one you want to miss.

Press Kit

To build a strong fan base you not only have to wow your listeners, but make them feel you are irreplaceable. This is where the media comes in. When you have magazines, blog writers, and promoters singing your praises, it creates a buzz around you and your music.

As you know, media professionals are inundated with singer-songwriters trying to get their attention. You need to roll up your sleeves and put in the work for them to notice you. Once they do, you need to make it as easy as possible to discover and feature your work.

Having a dedicated Press Kit page will do the trick, and Robert Bruey does a great showing us how it’s done. An EPK (or electronic press kit) is simply a few small pieces of content on one page that highlights you and your music. It will generally include a bio, upcoming shows, hi-res press images, a couple tracks, and a video.

[VIDEO: How to Easily Create an EPK with Bandzoogle]

Multi-Talented

Being a singer-songwriter shows you’re multi-talented, but what if you have even more skills you want to show off? No problem. Since it’s your website you can set it up in a way that best shows off your gifts in all areas.

Take Cheryl B. Engelhardt for example. She’s not only an excellent singer-songwriter, but also a speaker, consultant, blogger, and podcaster. To keep her site organized she uses one page for each area of expertise.

Take a little piece of each of these sample websites and you’ll have your singer-songwriter website up in no time. If you need even more inspiration we have a whole blog category dedicated to great websites as well. Once you have your website styled, it’s easy to add new music, shows, photos and videos on your computer or mobile device.

Build your singer-songwriter website in minutes with all of these features and more. Sign up free with Bandzoogle now.