Jazz brothers and sisters, it’s time for us to admit that we have a problem: our websites. A musician’s website has a limited number of tasks, and most websites out there are failing at them. I’m convinced that Jazz and the arts in general are losing out on tons of hungry people because of our inadequate web presence. It is my dream to solve the problem of horrible Jazz websites.
Creating a website can be daunting, and most people don’t have the interest or the time to study design principles, learn how to code, and make a website on their own. Many musicians don’t think they have the budget to hire a professional to make them a website and end up doing it on their own, which is why we end up with tons of Jazz websites that make me angry and sad. I get it—not everyone cares as much as I do.
I would like to see a web publishing platform created especially for musicians. It would cater to the specific needs of a music site and serve as a community for musicians and fans. I would like to create this, but in the mean time, here are a couple of good alternatives for making a music site that doesn’t suck.
Squarespace is the least offensive of the create-your-own-website-in-minutes services that I’ve seen. In fact, Squarespace sites are really good. Their themes are often responsive, pretty, and have good typography. I must admit I’ve never signed up for an account with them, but I hear they the backend is easy to use.
WordPress is a blogging platform turned massive content management system and is used by over 70 million websites. They offer free hosting at WordPress.com—or $13 a year to use your own domain name—but I recommend hosting it yourself which gives you more control and ownership over your content. It’s pretty easy. Here’s what you need:
This is a good, relatively inexpensive foundation for a website that can grow with you. You can also pay someone to customize your chosen WordPress theme which is far less costly than a totally custom design.
The best thing to do, of course, is to hire a professional web designer or design agency if you can afford it. If you hire a good one—which is its own unique challenge—you’ll end up with best best for the littlest headache.