How To Create A Music Website

Welcome to CreateAMusicWebsite.com, the place to be if you want a free step by step guide on how to easily create a music website. If you want to get right to it, click here to be taken to the start of the guide. Otherwise, read on for more information.

No matter how good your technical skills are, you can use the guide below (And throughout this site) to make your own professional, high converting website within the hour. In fact, the guides on this site work even if you’re not in the music industry. You can be a model, someone starting up their own business, or someone that just wants their own site built.

The reason I’ve targeted this site at musicians though, is because I’m involved in the music industry. I’ve helped many musicians, music managers, and others expand their online presence and get much better results. This is why I’ve now created a site on the subject, so everyone can make their own quality sites without me having to be there walking them through it.

So if you’re a singer, a rapper, a music manager, a producer, a composer, someone who want to start up a music news website, someone who wants to start up a music business website, or anyone else that requires a top quality site without paying someone the big bucks, this is the guide for you.

Read on below to see how to create your own music website fast!

Making A Music Website Overview

Initial Stages:

1. Getting Web Space And Your Website’s Name:
   Below.
2. Getting The Right Content Management System For You (So your website’s easy to make):
   Below.
3. Making Your Website Look Professional:
   Below.

Complete these steps and you will have a good looking website ready to add your content to.

1. Getting Web Space And Your Website’s Name

The first step when making your own site, is to buy yourself some web space (Also known a ‘hosting’, or ‘web hosting’). Web space is space online where you can keep all the files from your website. Without web space, it’s impossible to have a website.

The best place I’ve found to get hosting is via JustHost. Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, and I will make a small commission if you go on to sign up to them. This is not however why I’m recommending them. CreateAMusicWebsite.com is hosted via JustHost, as are most of the other websites I own. They offer cheap hosting, which I have found to be very reliable.

Not only are they reliable and very cheap to use, but they also allow you to host unlimited websites without paying any more money. This is not something that all web hosting companies allow, so if you could potentially want to make more sites in future, this is definitely the choice for you.

Another good thing about JustHost is they allow you to pick a free domain name when you sign up for hosting. A domain name is the web address people type in when looking for your site, so for example www.YourMusicName.com. This is essential; A good domain name will make it easier for people to remember how to find you online, so think carefully about the name you choose.

Step By Step:

Ok, so let’s get going. First of all, click on the above link to be taken to the JustHost website. On the main page, you’ll see a button entitled ‘Need Website’, so click on that. Next, you’re given the option to pick a domain name. Choose one that you like. You’ll notice there’s a section which says ‘Coupon Code’ which is already filled in. This will give you a free domain and a discount over the normal hosting cost.

Next, click continue. On this following page, you’ll have the choice of choosing how long you want the web hosting for. The longer you take it on, the cheaper the monthly fee will be. Choose one that is suitable for you.

JustHost try and get you to buy other things when purchasing your web hosting, although I’ve found none of them are worth getting except for Domain Privacy. What domain privacy does is hides your information from people who are looking into your website. Without domain privacy, people can see the name and address of the person who owns the website (You), and I’m sure you don’t want that. So un-check all the other options, but pay the small yearly fee to keep your personal details safe.

2. Getting The Right Content Management System For You

Once you have the web space and a domain for your website, the next step is to choose the content management system (CMS). Your CMS is the tool that allows you to create a website, and allows you to choose how your website works, looks, and how you can edit it.

By far the best content management system available to use is WordPress (Don’t check it out just yet, I’ll show you an easy way to set WordPress up in a bit). As well as being easy to use and the top used CMS on the market, it’s also 100% free! That means you can set up and run your website without buying one of the other content management systems which usually aren’t as easy to use anyway.

Step By Step:

Once you have signed up with JustHost, it’s pretty easy to set up your WordPress account. Simply go into your JustHost dashboard, and look for a section that says ‘Popular Choices’. Under this tab, you’ll find an icon that says ‘WordPress’. Click on this, and it’ll guide you through setting up WordPress on your domain name.

You’ll want to choose ‘New Installation’, and add your login details, your website’s name, and anything else they ask you for. Once you have done these things (It’ll take you say two or three minutes maximum) you’ll find that WordPress is now set up on your site. You can then login by typing your site name followed by ‘wp-admin’ in the address bar in your browser.

So if your website for example is www.MyBand.com, you’d login to edit your site by going to www.MyBand.com/wp-admin and entering your login information.

One of the great things about WordPress, is you can login to your site no matter where you are in the world. As long as you have access to the internet and have your login details, you can enter and edit your site as you please. This is great for if you go on tour and want to add something to your site as is happens, think of how much your fans will appreciate this!

No one else can log into your site however, as they don’t have your username and password.

Now that you’re entered the back-end of your site via www.MyBand.com/wp-admin, I suggest you have a look around at the WordPress Dashboard. Here you will be able to do everything from add new pages, add a blog, add plugins which will allow your blog to do a lot more things, add pictures and other media, change the layout of your site, and a lot more.

Get familiar with all the options available to you, then read on for how to make your site look super cool.

3. Making Your Website Look Professional

Ok, so now you have your own website with a professional .com name (Or other extension if you chose that). You’ve installed WordPress on it, and your site is starting to take shape. Next, it’s time to give it a professional look within a matter of minutes.

You can do this via the use of WordPress Themes. WordPress themes are pre-made designs that you can use on your site to get it looking different within a minute or two. There are thousands and thousands of themes available for you to use, you just have to pick one which suits the style you want on your music site.

Be warned though, some themes are better then others, both in terms of looks and what they can do. I’ve actually written about the 41 best WordPress themes for musicians here.

You have two options here:

1. You can go to the WordPress Theme Market and get a free theme (We’ll show you how to easily do this below), or
2. You can purchase a premium theme created by professional designers and coders.

I always go for the premium themes for a few reasons. Firstly, they look a lot better then the free themes. The free themes often leave a lot to be desired in terms of looks, so aren’t ideal for giving the best first impression to your fans and visitors. You are trying to build up a strong brand after all right?

That’s reason enough for getting a premium theme, although other reasons include the usability and the additional support. In terms of usability, premium themes allow you to do a lot more. They allow you to layout your theme in multiple ways, give you different color options, allow you to fine tune how you want your site to appear to search engines (Very important) and much more. On top of that, they often also give you support in case you need help with setting anything up.

In terms of premium themes, for this website I personally use the Genesis Framework. In fact, the way CreateAMusicWebsite.com looks is down to this premium theme, although there are multiple other ways you can make it look with a few clicks of a button. After you click the above link, go to the ‘Themes’ section via the first button in the top navigation bar. Here you will see a selection of the themes that are available for you to use.

Step By Step

Whether you choose to go for Genesis or a free theme, the set up method of both is pretty much the same. In your WordPress Dashboard, you will need to go to ‘Appearances’ then ‘Themes’.

At the top of the following screen, you’ll see a section that says ‘Install Themes’ which you need to click on. Next, you will do one of two things:

• If you’re going for a free theme, here you can search for one of the themes in the WordPress Theme Marketplace using the options that are displayed. When you have found a theme you like, click for it to be activated, and the new design will instantly appear on your website for all to see.
• If you are using a premium theme which you have bought however, instead click on the ‘upload’ button near the top left hand side of the screen (Just under the ‘manage themes’ and ‘install now’ tabs). If you choose to upload a theme from your computer (Which you’ll have to do if you’ve purchased a premium theme from Genesis), you’ll have to upload the two files in the order they mention. When you buy your theme, Genesis will tell you exactly how to do this.

An Alternative Method For Making A Website

If for whatever reason you don’t want to use the above method, you can always use a tool like Bandzoogle. They’re specially made for musicians, and allow you to set up your music site relatively quickly and without being too tech savvy.

If you want to see if that’s an option for you, you can check out some of their great looking website templates here.

Build A Music Site – The Next Steps

And that’s it! Now you have your own website that is fully functional and looks great. You now simply have to add the pages you want, and build out your website from there. I’ll be adding a lot more tutorials on this site teaching you how to do a lot more with your music website, so if you want to be informed when they’re put up, please enter your name and email address in the ‘Make A Better Site’ area in the top right hand site of this page. Good luck creating your music website.