Research In To Existing Music Websites

I can start to show how I have begun utilising the media technologies available to me to help aid my understanding of them. Music websites, for example, are a key part of a band's overall technical make-up and is something that needs to be reflective of the group. 

During recent research I have explored many existing music websites in order to gage what content MUST be included in my own website and what parts can be experimented with by each individual band/artist. I've studied their professional layout and themes to give me a greater idea of just how mine should look when completed.

As the song we are creating a video for belongs to a specialist band (OutKast), I need to create a website that is distinctive and unique. Here are some of the websites, from a broad range of genres, that I have looked at and found to be of a similar niche market;

Hard-Fi Official Website  – The website is clearly laid out and crammed full of informative content. Online audiences would find it easy to explore the website and pinpoint the pages they want to read. Epitomises the nature of the band as it’s ‘out there’ and full of colour.

Digitalism Official Website - As the band are an electro group that attempt to conceal their personalities until they get on stage, their website gives little away in terms of extra information, unlike Hard-Fi. They are a German group and the text on the site is predominantly German, as you’d expect, but it’s still easy to navigate.

Fenech-Soler Official Website - Fenech-Soler are a unique modern band that are surrounded by a shield of obscurity – fans find that it’s hard to define them specifically as a group. They play on this and make their official website reflect their mysterious nature. It’s a non-standard layout and set-up but it works in tandem with their inimitable style, ensuring that online audiences won’t be disappointed (you have to navigate an interactive pyramid on their home screen in order to find links to other pages within the website, see below).

So, content-wise, it quickly became apparent what sort of things I’d need to include in my website; a ‘news & blog’ type page, a photo gallery, a music video section, a podcast page and a link to the dates of our ‘tour’. Aside from these basics the rest of the website can be specifically reflective of our band and as we are a 'funk' group, we can initiate a stylish home page with many different colours. I instantly feel as though a patterned, bright webpage would fulfil the criteria of a band in this genre and satisfy the desire of our audience. Alongside this I'd search to find some fonts that are recognisable and relatable online and implement them on to the webpages. I won't use too many different ones though as that would result in a lack of coherency and continuity - something that doesn't exist on professional websites.

The research has come in very useful as I've a much greater understanding now of what items must feature in my own design. I've found that before my study in to this subject, I'd never really paid attention to music websites and the way they look, which indicates that I've never had a reason to doubt its professionalism or authenticity. However, I do think that if a website is eye-catching it would prove memorable and initiate a larger number of regular views - I'd like to ensure this is prevalent in mine. I've got a lot to consider but I'm better equipped to begin the creation process having undergone this studying.