Websites of similar artists

As I know we will go on to create our own website I felt it was important to research the websites of some similar indie pop artists so that I can see the most common features of indie pop websites and from there I will write down the things which I feel we will need to have in our own website in order to attract the indie pop audience and what they will expect to be on the website once they are on it. This will include things such as the look and layout of the page, and the features, links and, sub pages on it.

Anni b Sweet's main website features

     

 The artist name is at the top of the page, and has the largest font out of all the words on the page to make it more noticeable.
Sub pages include biography, photos, engagement, discography and news - the different things that the audience may want to know about the artist.
Below the links to the sub pages a photo of the cover of, and the name of, her next album is displayed, along with a link to spotify where the audience could listen to it.
Just beneath the link to her current album there are links to her previous CD's, so that anyone on the website can find access to all of her work.
A large picture of Anni takes up the most room out of anything on the page, this makes the photo the most noticeable thing on the page, making it more likely that you will remember her face-another example of creating a star image for an artist.
Links to news stories on the artist are displayed below this picture to that the fans can read more about what she's been up to recently.
In the top right hand corner there are links to Anni's social media pages, such as Facebook, twitter, and google+ so the audience can post on it and feel more connected to the artist.
Her next concert and more information on it are displayed below this, offering a chance for the audience to see her live, as many indie pop audience members would want to do.
Finally there are links to her music videos on youtube beneath the ticket links for the audience to watch and therefore listen to more of her music.

Ellie Goulding's main website features

The first thing along the top of the page which can be seen is links to various social media sites such as facebook, twitter, google+, youtube, spotify, instagram etc. These link could lead anyone on the website to more of the artists work, such as their music and music videos, or to the artists social media pages so that the audience can feel more connected with the artist. The easy access to social media sites could also allow the audience to easily share information about the artist on their own social media pages, therefore increasing awareness for the artist in the general public without having to pay for marketing.
Beneath this is the sub pages of home, biography, news, videos, live, lyrics, music, vocals, and store, these headings will lead to pages which will let fans know almost anything they could want to know about the artist and their work, as well as links to music videos so that they can listen to more work by the artist, to when she is next playing live, and where the audience can get her merchandise.
The artist name is then in all caps and is the largest piece of text on the website, making it the most noticeable to the audience so they are more likely to remember the name.
Below the sub pages there are visual links to more news, video, photos, and tweets on Ellie and you can choose yourself which of and how many of these options are represented visually.
The visual representations of the links include many pictures of Ellie to create star image and make her more recognisable as an artist- the top link show her latest albums, music, and videos for the audience to check out.
The pages has a dark yet colourful colour scheme so both the indie and the pop conventional colours are represented. The background picture is one of Ellie which means the audience is always able to see her. The picture of Ellie which has been used is from the cover of her latest album which means that is constantly in the back of the audiences' minds as they look through the website.

Florence and the Machine's main website features
At the top of the Florence and the Machine website their latest music video is displayed which takes up most of the page and plays automatically as you go on to the site. This serves as both having a large image of the star and getting the audience to listen to their latest song and watch their newest music video.

As you scroll down the page these two side bars follow you and remain at the same positions at the sides. The left hand side show the logo for the artists' and the different sections of the website you can scroll up and down to. Lower down on that side there is also a link to the store where fans can buy some merchandise. Along the right hand side there is a link to sign up to their newsletter, links to various social media sites including Facebook, twitter, instagram and youtube (put in for the reasons I have mentioned before) and lower down than these links there is a link to spotify so that the audience can listen to more music without having to watch the music videos.

 

 After scrolling down from where the music videos are shown you can see this page which has a large picture of the cover of their next album. This album cover picture also allows there to be a large image of the artists' name and a picture of the main artist just below it. All the singles on their new album are listed so that the audience could buy or listen to these somewhere else, and you can also see the difference between what and the amount of singles you get on the normal and deluxe versions of the CD. Below the CD cover there are links to pre-order the CD in various different formats such as digital, CD, and vinyl. There is also a link to listen to more of their music on spotify below this.

The final page then shows a list of the artist's live events so that the indie pop fans can see when they are playing next as many will want to see them live, there is even easy links to buying the tickets right beside this list of tour dates.

Common and other features which I think should appear on our website

There should be links to social media throughout the website so that the audience can feel that the artist is sociable and wants to connect to her fans, and to allow cheap advertising for our star to be spread from the audience on to her social media pages. If possible I think it would be good to have a sidebar like in Florence and the Machine's website which remains constant as the audience scrolls down so that it is always in their sight.
As well as this we should include links to subpages such as home, biography, news, videos, live, lyrics, music, vocals, and store,  so that we have information on anything our audience may like to now about the artists. These links should be somewhere near the top of the page.
Somewhere still near the top of the page but below the links the artist's name should be presented, it should be the largest text on the page and be a different colour from the rest of the text while still keeping in with the chosen colour scheme, This will help to make the artist name noticeable to the audience and let it stay in their heads longer.
At some point on the page there should be a large image of the artist to aid in the creation of their star image, either in the fore or background. I feel that our background should be fairly plain like that I'm the websites of most of the artists I studied but matching with the colour scheme we choose for the website. In the foreground I feel that we should include an image of the album to remind fans to buy it while still including a star image, and have our music video embedded onto the page which plays automatically, as with the Florence and the machine website, to get the fans to watch it while still being able to see a large image of our artist.
The colour scheme should be the same as, or similar to, the album cover's in that it should either be a mix of dark and colourful or be 20th century American glamour vintage.
There should be links to websites were the song can be listened to or bought for the fans which are interested in doing such.
At the bottom of the page there should be a list of tour dates and links to tickets beside each one, as many indie pop fans enjoy going to see the artist live.
Links on the page should be presented visually as images rather than text to aid in capturing the audience's eye.