If you’re planning on building a new website for your band or project, it helps to look at what other musicians are doing right.

In this article, we’ve pulled together 9 examples of musician websites which do a great job at keeping things simple, stylish and effective…

Whilst there is not one simple ‘right or wrong’ when it comes to an artist site, these examples should give some ideas of best practices that you can incorporate into your own plans, whether working with a designer or using one of the various website builders out there.

It doesn’t matter whether your #1 focus is industry promotion (ie booking gigs, getting press) or audience development and fan engagement: your website can play an important role.

When searching for these examples sites, we were looking specifically for musicians who incorporate these key features into their web design: 

• Strong visual imagery
• Simple, clear layout
• Streamable music
• A concise explanation of who they are and what they do
• Easy-to-find video content
• A way to buy their music
• Up-to-date gig listings
• A way of connecting with them (such as a newsletter)
• Links to their social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc)

So, with all that in mind, here are examples of just 9 of the best musician websites we pulled together! 

#1 Pick: Joshua Espinoza

Latino-American jazz pianist Joshua Espinoza’s website is a great example of how a striking visual design and careful use of content can combine to make a site that is both easy to view and totally informative. 

The full-page header does everything it needs to: tells the visitor who the site is about, what they do (“pianist”) and shows them a high-quality photo of the musician. On top of on an eye-catching yellow background, there are no other distractions, except for the social icons in the header that readers have come to expect. 

This site is also notable for being all on one-page. Whilst the long-scrolling homepage has become best practice in our mobile-first world, most sites tend to use a couple of extra pages for more details. 

This one doesn’t, yet misses nothing: 

• a prominent video allows the fan, promoter or journalist to quickly get an impression of the music.
• 4 well-defined boxes send people to his four preferred listening platforms
• A big list of tour dates are embedded from Bandsintown
• One effective quote from a known press source
• A short biography to give the visitor a taste of his story
• A signup form for his newsletter

Whilst the occasional visitor might wish for more detailed information about his biography, it’s a brilliant example of a well-thought out and well-designed musician website.

Key website feature: The video section is actually a ‘slider’, which means that on first glance it’s just a nice full-width video, but once you stop you have the option to scroll across for more video choices. 

Visit Joshua Espinoza’s website

Lakecia Benjamin

As with a couple of other examples in this article, the homepage is used to ‘tease’ content which can then be accessed by visiting a dedicated page:

• Upcoming events are limited to three, with a button to view more
• Two recent press cuttings are displayed, above a ‘see all’ button
• A short 1-paragraph version of the bio is alongside a ‘read more’ button

If you’re looking to quickly show the first-time visitor that you’re operating on a high level, social proof can be a valuable tool.

Whilst this is typically testimonials or quotes, Lakecia highlights her endorsements with saxophone brands such as Yanagisawa, Vandoren, Key Leaves, Conn & Selmer as a way of showing that she is an established name in the music industry.

The menu on this website is probably about as simple as it could be, which helps make it clear and easy to use:

• Home
• Tour
• About
• Press
• Music
• Contact

What more do you need?!

Key website feature: where a lot of sites feel the need to separate a video page, listening page and buying page, this one combines all together.

Each release is listed with a short description, the album artwork and a button which goes to a page which then allows the visitor to choose their platform of choice (Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes, etc)

Visit Lakecia Benjamin’s website

Anthony Strong

As with almost all examples of modern-day music websites, this site from British singer-pianist Anthony Strong favours a full-screen cover image which showcases a choice quote (from none other than blues legend BB King) to draw the visitor in.

After that is a tagline which sums up his music for the first-time visitor. 

The homepage (built on WordPress, rather than it’s drag-and-drop alternatives) is not a long one, but it incorporates the most important elements that a visitor might be looking for:

• A teaser-list of the next three tour-dates (via Songkick)
• An album cover image from Bandcamp which doubles up as a streaming player
• A video graphic leading to the videos page
• A signup form for the newsletter
• A ‘latest news’ thread pulled from his Twitter feed

Aside from this immediately-viewable homepage content, there is a clearly laid out menu which links to the necessary additional info on the rest of the site. 

Key website feature: the homepage is full of ‘teasers’ which draw people deeper without overloading the initial content.

For example: 

• The ‘upcoming shows’ section shows only the next three gigs, with a button to view the rest
• The video graphic links to the videos page to see all the videos
• The album artwork brings up an option to buy which links to Bandcamp 

Visit Anthony Strong’s website

Emma Rawicz

Made with the website builder Wix, this is yet another example of a scrolling 1-page site which pulls together all the key features a visitor might be looking for.

The prioritisation of a video (right under the full-width cover image) is a great idea for newer artists as it lets the would-be fan, booker or other industry contact immediately get a feel for the music and its style.

The images chosen all have a consistent theme in terms of colour and style, which gives the site a professional look without the need for fancy graphics (or an expensive graphic designer!). 

The inclusion of an embedded Instagram grid is also a nice touch as it allows the artist to keep the site fresh with visual content, without having to log-in and update it; simply post on IG and it will appear on the website.       

Key website feature: The bottom right corner of this site features a ‘let’s chat’ button which (in theory) connects a visitor to a live chat with the artist. This is common in many industries, but not something we’ve seen much on musician websites.

It would be interesting to know if this gets used and if it helps strengthen fan connections, but it’s a great way to try to stand out and give fans that VIP access they love.

Visit Emma Rawicz’s website

Gregory Porter

When looking for inspiration for your DIY website as a musician, it can be a useful exercise to check out what artists with a major label machine behind them are doing. 

Jazz singing superstar Gregory Porter (Universal Records) is a great example of this…

Firstly, note the beautiful full-page image which dominates to homepage; as long as you have some good quality photos (which every musician needs!) you can easily replicate this concept. 

The next part of the homepage is dominated by calls to buy or listen to his latest release; this makes sense for a big name artist where the likely visitor is looking for exactly that.

If your current goal is actually building that audience (rather than selling to them) you might not want to replicate this exactly, but it’s a good reminder that you should put what you think your average visitor is looking for most prominently on the site. 

The inclusion of a music video on the homepage also reinforces the idea that most people  – whether fans or industry – want to see an artist (as well as hear them) so should be able to do this as easily as possible. 

Whilst there might be one or two items in the menu that could have been combined for easier browsing, it does show the key elements that every musician website needs to display:

• About
• Music (Listen/Watch/Stream/Buy)
• Gigs
• Social Media links

Key website feature: The videos page includes a whopping 47 videos at last count. A good reminder that, whilst you don’t want to overload people with choices the moment they land on your site, if they go to a specific page such as ‘videos’ there’s no harm giving them *all* the good videos you have! 

Visit Gregory Porter’s website

Linda May Han Oh

Bucking the trend for long, mobile-first homepages, bassist Linda May Han Oh nevertheless presents her music and projects in a simple and visually appealing way.

The initial page you arrive on is actually a ‘landing page’ which gives the visitor the option to bypass the site and go directly to listen to or buy the album on Bandcamp. 

Whilst it might feel counterintuitive to send people away from your site before they’ve even arrived, if your end goal is a new follower on Bandcamp (for example) then why not put that front and centre?

This page also makes great use of a [blurred] video background which provides some action on an otherwise static page.

Whilst the news area is a leftover from pre-covid 2019, it’s an otherwise easy-to-navigate website which presents high quality images alongside key information such as a biography, press quotes, tour dates and contact details.

Key website feature: the site makes good use of sub-menus; rather than clutter up the header with 10+ items, the key ones (such as ‘About’) lead to the option of sub-menus (such as ‘Biography’ / ‘Press’ / ‘Education’).

Visit Linda May Han Oh’s website

Dave Douglas

Anyone who knows American trumpeter, bandleader, composer and record label boss Dave Douglas (who we interviewed here) will know that he has a lot of things going on!

With that in mind, his website is testament to the ability to make a simple online home with even the most complicated of careers!

Rather than bombard the first-time visitor with all that information, they are greeted by:

• A simple but high-quality full-width image (which is actually a slider, so it gradually shows more projects)
• A tagline which sums up what he does
• A call-to-action to check out his latest release on Bandcamp or Spotify

In terms of functionality, the homepage is largely used to embed or link out to the main things: 

• About/Trumpeter/Composer/Educator all link to their own pages
• A full-width ‘sign up’ module is hard to miss and easy to use
• Sheet music links to Bandcamp
• Latest news is covered with embedded content from Twitter and Songkick
• An embedded music player (also via Bandcamp) is used for on-site streaming.

Key website feature: This artist website is an excellent reminder of the basics of good visual design; it uses one primary colour (black) with a secondary colour (red) for buttons and highlighted text. This makes for a remarkably easy-to-skim site which pulls your eye to the key parts such as “listen here.”

Visit Dave Douglas’s website

Michele Thomas

Chicago-based singer Michele Thomas is using Squarespace to deliver a clear and stylish website.

As with almost every example in this article, the homepage is dominated by a full-screen image which sets the visual tone for the rest of the site. 

The homepage content is divided into clear sections, with the alternating white and dark grey background colours making it easy to navigate. 

Aside from promotion of the new album, the main feature of the homepage is a press section, pulling out quotes from various sources. 

For an artist building a profile and looking to connect with journalists and concert promoters as well as fans, this is a great way to quickly show the level of the project to first-time website visitors.

Rather than try to integrate an online store into the site, the ‘shop’ button simply links the would-be customer to Bandcamp which (in our opinion!) is the best way at converting that sale! 

Key website feature: Aside from a simple menu, Michele makes great use of the top right corner button (a typical Squarespace feature) to promote her latest release.

The simplicity of the header design, coupled with one simple call-to-action, gives the visitor a clear direction of where to click.

Visit Michele Thomas’s website

Little North 

This band website by rising-star Danish trio Little North is perhaps the textbook example of the clean and simple style which Squarespace allows musicians to easily utilise.

• Full-width cover art ✔
• Clean, white background ✔
• Consistent straight margins ✔
• One-page scroll ✔

The site makes smart use of embedding content from platforms that they want people to connect with: 

• Streaming is via the embeddable album-artwork-turned-player from Bandcamp
• Tour dates are via Bands In Town
• A secondary streaming option is via Spotify 
• The neat video grid is via Youtube. 

As long as you are uploading great visual content to these platforms, there is no need to ‘design’ anything further on your site as these embedded pieces take care of that.

Key website feature: For many touring bands, the website needs to be just as functional for clubs, festivals and agents as it does for fans. Little North take care of this through a simple button labeled ‘Download Press Kit.’

It links directly to a Dropbox where the keep all materials a would-be booker could want. Of course, you need to keep in mind that anyone can access this, but as long as that is not an issue, it’s a super easy solution for both you and the other party.

Visit Little North’s website

Round up: Musician Website examples

Hopefully these nine examples have given you some good ideas for how the next iteration of your website could do an effective job with plenty of style.

Of course, there are lots of other great examples out there and, if you’re working on a new site either alone of with a web designer, it pays to find ones that you love. 

If we zoom out and think about what similarities many of these great examples have, it’s probably this:

• Consistency in style (font, sizing, imagery) 
• Simplicity in design (space, straight lines, colour scheme, no excess content)
• Utilising other platforms (embedding from Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube, Songkick, etc etc etc) 

Got other examples to share?

Feel free to use the comments section or join us in the Jazzfuel community on Facebook.