Conventions of website
- 1. Conventions of Website By Ciara Ferreira
- 2. Features •The artist’s logo (usually displayed on every page of the website in the corner) •A menu bar/ navigation bar at the top of the page •A picture of the artist, usually located in the middle of the page • Sometimes the album cover, if the album has been released recently •A list of track names or link to songs to listen to either on YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify. •Sometimes an automatically playing music video, usually linked via Youtube. •Tour Dates and venues •Store for merchandise related to the band/ artist •Photos of the artist from tour, music video shoots or out and about in public. •Latest News on the artist •Links to social media and contact details for management •At the bottom of each website page, there is usually the record label and the copyright symbol.
- 3. Artist’s Logo The artist’s logo is usually located on every page of the website as it gives the website a sense of continuity. Bands like The Drums who are part of the indie pop genre, usually have black and white logos, or vintage style logos. Personally, I think the logo needs to go in the top corner of each webpage underneath the navigation bar, in order to create continuity.
- 4. Navigation Bar This is usually at the top of the webpage and again is on every page, this makes it easier for the users to navigate around the website. The bar makes it more user friendly and also means there is a clear layout of where everything is. The bar doesn’t necessarily have to lead to a page on the website but to their YouTube channel or to their store.
- 5. Pictures of the Artist The picture of the artist is usually quite large compared to everything on the website. It sometimes is the album cover as it has the artist on it. I have noticed however when looking at Indie Pop bands websites, is that there are hardly any images of the band unless directly necessary. The bands usually put their album cover and images are normally associated with that, for example, if there is a book on their album, they might put other images of books on their website.
- 6. A list of track names In some websites, the artist lists the track names from their new album, so that they can let their audience know about what songs will be singles etc. Some artists advertise singles from their album. However, when looking at Indie Pop bands/artists, I noticed they don’t usually list their track names.
- 7. Music Video Most artists webistes have their newest music video playing or a link to it at the top of their website. It is almost like an advertisement for their band. It gives the website background music as sometimes it carries on playing while the user scrolls past it. Indie pop artists sometimes don’t contain their music video, only a link to their social media accounts, as they like to keep their websites more simplistic. As you can see from the websites to the right, they contain arrows so the user can skip to other videos, that they might prefer.
- 8. Tour Dates and Venues Having the tour dates and venues is a very popular item to put on artist’s websites as it means users can see when their chosen artist is playing in a town near them. In more advanced websites, it allows the user to click on the venue and the user is redirected to a ticket buying website if the show isn’t already sold out. When looking into Indie Pop artists and their websites, it has shown me that quite a few just have their tour dates on their home page and no navigation bar.
- 9. Links to Merchandise Store In most popular artist’s website, they contain a link on the navigation bar to either a store page on their website or to a separate page which is their merchandise store. They do this to create a brand and it means they can collect revenue from this. Smaller bands, normally have merchandise but or a lesser selection mostly only having their album signed or a simplistic t shirt.
- 10. Latest News on Artist More popular well-known artists, mostly pop artists contain news from official websites about them, such as when they are filming their latest music video and where they are in the world due to their tour or festivals or shows they are performing at. Smaller indie bands don’t usually contain large sections of news, sometimes there websites are more like blogs and they post as they go. Some indie bands don’t have an official website as such but mostly use twitter as there means of communication to their listeners. Some bands ask users to sign up to a news letter rather than have their latest news on their website. This means an email sent monthly would be sent to users who signed up.
- 11. Links to Social Media All artists have links to their social media on their page because of the growing importance of having a online profile. Social media has helped artist to attract a wide range of people to artists making them more and more popular. The links to their social media are usually logos of the website and if the user clicks on them, it will redirect them to that page. They are normally on every page at the bottom or the top near the navigation bar.
- 12. Digipaks & Websites After looking at the conventions of both digipaks and websites, I came to the conclusion that for indie bands like my chosen artist, The Drums, they usually have a dark, sometimes black background for their website. The digipak and website are not always closely linked, for example they may not be exactly the same colour theme or contain everything that is on the album cover. However, they usually contain the same font as the title of their digipak. Due to artists regularly releasing albums, their websites change with the newest album, In order to advertise and promote the newest content. The problem here for me is that the album I have chosen my song from, is from one of The Drums older albums and so I cannot compare the same website with the its digipak as the websites have changed. This is why for my digipak analysis and now my websites analysis, I have chosen my favourite websites, some from the genre and some from not the same genre, in order to get a larger view of what websites and digipaks should look like. This means I won’t copy exactly how the artists website or digipak looks now, meaning I have more creative freedom and can choose what I think the band should do. I am re-branding them to fit my own style.