What are websites and how are they used?

A website is one of the tools that an artist can utilise to market and sell their music as well as to establish their image in the Internet so the audience has a more clear outlook on their style and career. 

Any artist's homepage usually counts with the latest LP they have released and a direct link to buy it —a crucial business tool—, as well as their tour dates so that those who are interested can follow their journey and try to get tickets to see them. Musicians usually also publish a wide range of pictures of them which come from photoshoots or performances. This enables them to establish how they want to be seen worldwide, as they are to a certain extent in control of what they want to show instead of fans just going to Google Images and finding all kinds of uploads from gossip magazines or more unreliable sources. Websites usually also have news about the artist or band and some sort of forums were fans can share their opinions. Another increasingly important function of their sites is to provide multiple links that will take you to their social media. If the band is successful enough, they will also have a section were merchandise can be bought.

I will look at the webpages of two very different bands that I have been fond of since I was quite young. Muse is a British rock band, very popular among certain audiences. Although they started aiming for a more alternative public in the beginning, the sort of people who would still enjoy classic rock bands like the Beatles but would also crave for a more modern twist to it, they have moved with the times and evolved towards a more electronic sound lately. Regina Spektor is a Russian mezzo soprano singer who has released several albums of ballads in an alternative style which joins together jazz, rock and blues, but became renowned especially for taking part in movie's soundtracks like "500 Days of Summer".

Muse's webpage has a modern look, though it is caught up in the 2010s rock stereotype. The choice of dark colours is clearly to contribute to the convention that rock has a reckless, secretive side about it. Muse's style can be a bit extreme for the average listener at times, so maybe the dim colours and mysterious outlook of the page overall suggest that the music they create is not for everyone. The last single they released, some weeks ago, is prioritised above everything else via audio and video files, before even being able to enter the site. This is a good marketing strategy, as the temptation of watching or listening to the new song is almost unavoidable for a fan who did not know about it previously. Also, though it may seem obvious, the fact that the page is updated with the latest single —which wasn't released so long ago— implies that the band is popular and the team behind them cannot allow themselves to be out-of-date.

The members of the band are shown on top of the page once you log in, with a clear choice of giving protagonism to the most important member of the band, the singer Matt Bellamy, who is also the most popular out of the three.

Once you scroll down, you encounter a lot of information, like the tour dates, latest news, social media links and comments from fans.

In order to make their faithful fans happy, the marketing team have decided to include a variety of photographs from every concert of relative performance they performed.

Additionally, there is an online shop where everyone can buy merchandising in every shape and size you can imagine, with more than two pages full of treats.

Apart from all of this options, the forum and the map with all the destinations where the band have made history are worth pointing out.

 

Regina Spektor's website constitutes a contrast to Muse's mastery of marketing thanks to the years of monopoly in the rock industry and being a mass entertainment, even if it is an educated mass.

Her site is more empty, more orientated towards unsusual people. The first thing we encounter is Regina transformed into a centipede, with a button to access the main page. It is clear that she aims to impress an older fanbase with a more delicate taste, while moving out from the serious image of many similar singers who would not play that much with their image.

Her webpage is more simple, with a white layout and less options on top, as well as the information distributed along the page without bombarding the fans, as they are probably not as technological as the potentially younger audience of Muse. However, her strategy to sell is clear, her latest album being on top of the page.

Similarly to Muse, the site includes some news —more scarce and spaced out in terms of dates—, as well as tour dates.

One of the latest videos from her YouTube channel is included, with black and white photographs of the artists as a child. This indicates she wants to give out a very authentic image, supporting her music with her own background and childhood memories back in Russia. Although this is not the most commercial approach, the choice will certainly work with the most sentimental fans.

Regina Spektor includes her music, which you can easily listen to by a single click. This is a wise strategy to gain new fans who might have never have heard of her before. Artists who are fairly popular but not massively successful have the need to keep gathering audiences.

Regina's Instagram doesn't look incredibly stylised. In fact, it gives off a very home made image, as if the singer was completely in charge of it —for instance, we see random selfies without good lighting choices—.

Although Regina Spektor also has an online shop, she barely sells anything: the only page is not even wholy full of items. Also, the designs are less mainstream.

The themes discussed in the forums seem more run-of-the-mill, and Regina herself probably contributed with some ideas herself.