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How to design a great jazz musician website

How to design a great jazz musician website
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This article originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog.

The best jazz musician websites will have something in common: an organized structure that also allows your creativity to shine. Jazz websites are an important cornerstone to a musician's ability to reach an audience, book session work, and sell music.

Whether you're a jazz trumpeter or soulful singer, you can make a music website that showcases your melodic style. First, you’ll choose a jazz music website template, add some content, then customize the design. Let’s take a look at how to get started!

Choose a jazz musician website template

Making a website by using a template might sound restricting. But there are lots of good reasons to use a template- it adds structure to your site, and ensures that everything, including your store, will work seamlessly on mobile devices. Plus, just like the notes of a jazz tune, there is plenty of room for improvisation within the chords.

To choose what kind of jazz music template might work for you, think about the vibe you’d like to portray. Something elegant with a sleek side menu might work nicely if you play instrumental music. If you’re more into jazz standards, a playful palette with a large header area could work well. Get a few images that include you with your instrument, and you’ll be ready to start designing your jazz music website’s pages.

Homepage

As the most visited page on your website, a Homepage is your first chance to make an impression. Choose an image of yourself that tells your story with a quick glance. A high-quality image is important here; it’ll show that you put care and time into your career as well as your website.

Also, add a bit of text about you and a smaller image. This is a nice little snapshot introducing yourself to your visitors. You can make it as snappy or as long as you’d like, just be sure your text is concise here, and sums you up.

You will also want to add some music on this page. It could be recently recorded tracks, your best songs, or a video that shows your music. Remember that some people won’t know much about you when they get to your website, and you’re in control of the narrative.

Another feature to add to your Homepage is a call-to-action. If you are selling a new single, trying to boost plays on a certain video, or building your mailing list, use a call-to-action to direct your website visitors’ attention to do just that.




About page

First and foremost on your About page should be your bio. Not sure how to write out an artist bio? Grab a paper and pen to jot down your education, playing experience, notable collaborations, and anything else that sets you apart. From there, condense it down to a few recent achievements plus a bit of backstory.

Your About page can go into some detail- just make sure it’s all relevant to what you are doing currently, and that you update it often.

Once you’ve got your bio ready, add an image or two to the page for balance and visual interest.


Artist: Sam Wilson


Music page

Set up your jazz music page to highlight the thing you're passionate about—your songs! Whether you decide to set up your songs to stream, or for sale, your music page should have plenty to listen to.

Balance out your tracks by making sure to add album artwork to your music players, and make use of columns to create a page that’s easy to scan. You can customize your music player buttons so that they stand out, making your music easy to listen to.

Your music page is also the perfect place to add more information about your music. Drop some notes into your album description, or add more text about your music. Think about the details that set it apart. Whether it’s jazz classics or original tunes, putting some extra words on your website will make your music page an interesting place to get lost.


Artist: Chet Baker


Discography / Store page

If you’ve recorded lots of albums, you can lay them out in an organized way using a Store feature with a grid. You might present this as a discography, but you can also sell your jazz albums directly to your fans.

Videos page

If your goal as a jazz musician is to book more work—either live shows, composition, or sessions—video is a great way to convey exactly what you are capable of. Embed videos to play directly on the page, keep it organized by rotating out older videos, and add a bit of content to each one. This makes your Videos page easy to navigate.

Shows page

Many jazz musicians are busy gigging—either virtually, these days, or at small clubs. A dedicated shows page is a great way to be sure your fans know where and when they can find you playing.

Keep your Shows page uncluttered by adding a calendar with a time and date per show. To make the page pop, use complementary colors for the event name, details, and button (if you are selling tickets directly). You can also add an image or poster per event as an extra visual touch.


Artist: Eric Essix


EPK for jazz musicians

Adding little bits of everything about you and your musical stylings to date to one page is a great way to offer information to industry professionals and the media. An EPK for jazz musicians should include a short bio, and a long bio option as well. Add a few hi-resolution images for download in different shapes and orientations. Then pick your best music, or a recent live track, for this page. You can add a quote or two about your music to round things out.

Since this page typically contains a lot of text and media, keep the style very simple. A plain background and an easy to read font are essential so that someone looking around your EPK page can find what they need easily.




Contact page

Make it easy for fellow jazz musicians or your fans to connect with you. While you can certainly add your contact information and social media links to any of your pages, or in your footer area, a dedicated Contact page works well for a couple of reasons. With space on the page for a full email form, you can add in details to narrow down your inquiries, such as budget or date. You can also add a narrow column on the right to place additional contact methods, such as your social media links.

As a standalone page, your visitors will see the Contact button in your menu, making it easy for them to reach out to you.


Artist: Janet Evra


Whether your thing is smooth grooves and syncopation, or improvising at open jam sessions, you can channel that feeling into a jazz website that works for you. Gather up your content and put it into place, then customize the look and feel of your website to match the timelessness of your tunes.
Build your own jazz musician website in minutes with all these features and more. Design your website with Bandzoogle now.

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