· When you first enter the website, a pop up
appears promoting the band’s latest album (sense of commercial imperative). The pop up allows you to click on ‘Listen Now’,
which takes you to a separate site that then asks you to choose a music service
(including Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes Store etc.) where you can then
stream/download the music. There’s also an option that takes you to the music
video for ‘I Dare You’, one of the band’s latest releases.
· Another pop up appears when you scroll down to
the bottom of the website, offering you the opportunity to ‘Get on the list!’,
where you can input your email address to get on The Regrettes mailing list and
receive ‘exclusive information’ about their tour, video premiers and special
announcements. This mailing list offers fans the ability to be apart of a
community and makes them feel like they’re getting exclusive interactions with
the artist.
· The home page of the website has quite a
conventional layout, with the band’s logo (that acts as a home button when you
click it) in the top left-hand corner, and a navigation bar in the top right,
making the site easy to navigate.
· There is also a main image of the band that is
at the top of the website across all pages (establishes the band’s star
personas – links to Richard Dyer’s theory).
· As you scroll down the website, one of the first
things you see is an image of the band’s latest album, and two hyperlinks that
take you to a page where you can stream the music (again promoting the album
and encouraging people to stream/download).
· The band’s latest album cover features a bold,
80s style sans-serif font, and a primary colour scheme which is reflected by
the house style of the website (bold, sans serif fonts, colour scheme
consisting mainly of black, white, and primary colours) – this reflects the
band’s brand image, and is also an example of digital convergence.
· Below this, there is an option to subscribe to
the bands mailing list. Unusually, the band’s website doesn’t feature any links
to social media (other than YouTube), so this is the only way fans can
‘interact’ with the band directly from the website. However, linking social
media is the most obvious way to create digital convergence and would make it
easier for fans to interact with the band, so I do intend to link my artists
social media accounts to my website.
· This part of the homepage features videos from
The Regrettes YouTube channel (another example of digital convergence),
including recent music videos and home-made infomercials promoting their album.
These short videos could be seen as Easter Eggs, as most people would probably
just watch the music videos, and not take notice of the shorter promotional
videos unless they were fans of the band.
· If you click on the ‘Video’ text from the
navigation menu, it scrolls you down to this part of the homepage, rather than
opening a separate page.
· At the bottom of the homepage there is a list
showing some of the bands upcoming gigs, with hyperlinks to a ticket agency
where fans can purchase tickets.
· If you click on the ‘About’ text in the
navigation menu, it takes you to this page that tells you about the band, and
explains the meaning of their latest album. This is something I could feature
in my website, perhaps explaining the meaning of the latest video rather than
the album – this could even be done in video format with an interview from the
artist.
· This is the page that opens when you click on
the ‘Music’ option in the navigation menu. This page shows all the band’s
recent music, with hyperlinks to stream/purchase the all the songs/albums.
· As well as options
to buy/stream the music, fans can also view the lyrics to all the songs. The
play button next to the song titles also allows them to listen to the song
whilst reading through the lyrics. This encourages fans to listen to the songs
but also take a closer look at the lyrics.
· When you click on the ‘Store’ option in the
navigation bar, it takes you to a separate merchandise website where fans can
purchase the bands latest album on Vinyl and CD.
Cavetown website analysis
· This is the homepage for Cavetown’s website. The
website doesn’t have a very conventional layout, with Cavetown’s logo (that
also acts as a home button) at the top in the centre, and the navigation bar
not visible until you click on the circle in the top left corner. When you click
on this circle icon, the navigation bar shows options for ‘Tour’, ‘Store’, ‘Photos’
and ‘Music’. Personally, I prefer the navigation bar to be visible at all times
(like on The Regrettes website), as this makes the website easier to navigate.
· The first thing you see on the homepage is the artists
most recent music video (an example of digital convergence), promoting the
single and Cavetown’s upcoming album, and encouraging fans to engage with the
video. When you pause the video, an option for ‘more videos’ pops up, and four other
music videos from Cavetown’s YouTube channel can be seen.
· Below the video are three hyperlinks that take
you to different streaming websites where fans can pre-order the artist’s
upcoming album.
· The house style of the website is a mainly navy-blue
colour scheme, with white text in a sans-serif font. This colour scheme
reflects Cavetown’s latest album cover, which features mainly navy blue and
white (among other colours), creating a clear brand identity. The navy-blue
background of the website even features a repetitive print of a sleeping cat,
again reflecting the artists most recent album cover, which features a similar sleeping
cat. The majority of the text on the website does not include capital letters,
most likely for aesthetic reasons, but perhaps also because a lot of teenagers (who
the artist is most popular with) also type in this way.
· There is also an Easter Egg above the Cavetown
logo, which I will explain in more detail in a minute.
· Below the music video is the artists merchandise,
which is unusual, as most artists/bands have separate websites (linked in their
own websites) where their merchandise is sold. I like the idea of featuring
merchandise on the homepage of a website, as it means fans will definitely notice
it, and probably be more likely to purchase it than if it was on a separate website
that wasn’t as easy to find.
· A few of the clothing items are even modelled by
the artist (for example the hoodie in the top left of this screenshot), which would
probably make fans more likely to purchase merchandise, as it would make them
feel like they’re part of a community with the artist.
· At the bottom of the homepage, there are links to
all the artists social media, which is something very important in the digital
age, especially if your target audience is teenagers and young adults. I definitely
want to have links to my artists social media on my website as this is something
very important to my target audience, as it allows fans to interact with their
favourite artists/bands, and is also a good way to incorporate digital
convergence.
· This is the page that opens when you click on ‘Tour’
in the navigation bar, showing all the artists upcoming concerts, with
hyperlinks to ticket agencies where fans can purchase tickets. This page also
features an Easter Egg – if you click on the text that says ‘going to a show in
the us this fall? get involved!’, a separate page opens that looks like this:
· This page tells fans about a project the artist
has set up, where fans who come to their shows can donate items for animals and
people in need. I really like this idea, and if I set up a list of tour dates
on my website, I might do something similar.
· This is the page that opens when you click on the
‘Photos’ option in the navigation bar. These photos help establish the artists
star persona (Richard Dyer).
· The photos featured on this page are all from
concerts, encouraging fans to go to upcoming gigs by showing happy fans in the
audience watching the artist perform.
· This is the page that opens when you click on
the ‘Music’ option in the navigation bar. This page allows fans to listen to short
clips from all of Cavetown’s songs, and also gives them the option to stream the
full songs and albums on Spotify. It’s unusual that this page only give fans
the option to listen to the song on Spotify, as most artists websites give you
the option to stream/download from various different services.
· As mentioned previously, there is an Easter Egg
above the Cavetown logo on the homepage – if you click on the text above the
logo that reads ‘which cavetown artwork are you?’, it takes you to this separate
website. This interactive feature allows fans to take a short quiz to determine
which Cavetown painting they are, based off of things like eye colour, hair
colour and favourite animal. This is a fun Easter Egg for avid fans who know
that Cavetown is also a painter, and has painted a lot of his own album covers.
· This is the results page you see after taking
the quiz, where fans can then share the painting they got on Facebook or
Twitter – encouraging social media interaction. I really like this feature, and
I think it’d be nice to include an Easter Egg like this on my website (perhaps
a quiz like this one, or one that lets fans get to know the artist a bit better).
Conan Gray website analysis
Conan Gray website analysis
· This is the homepage for Conan Gray’s website.
The website has a conventional layout, with the artists logo (that also acts as
a home button) in the top left-hand corner, and a navigation bar in the top
right. The navigation bar has 4 options, ‘Tour’, ‘Music’, ‘Video’, and ‘Store’ –
‘Store’ is the only option that takes you to a separate website, ‘Tour’ takes
you to a different page of the website, and the other two just scroll you down
to the relevant section of the homepage.
· The first thing you see on the homepage is the
album cover of the artists latest album, and a hyperlink that takes you to a
website where you can choose which platform you want to use to download/stream
the album – as soon as fans enter the website they are encouraged to stream the
artists latest release. As well as the links to the latest album, there are also
3 other singles that can be streamed/downloaded if you swipe across your screen.
· The house style of the website is quite simple, consisting
of a black and white colour scheme, and a black italic sans-serif font. This colour
scheme is clearly reflected in the latest album cover, which is mostly black,
white, and grey. It gives the website a clean, minimalistic look, and creates a
clear brand identity for the artist (this is also an example of digital convergence).
The font used for the ‘Conan Gray’ logo is quite different from the other fonts
used on the website, but is similar to the one used on the album cover for the ‘Maniac’
single, so it still ties in with the overall look of the website.
· In my previous research, I looked in more detail
at a music video by Conan Gray, which has a very different aesthetic to this
current website, but this is because the video I looked at was from 2018, and the
style of his videos has changed a lot since then.
· Below the links to stream Conan Gray’s latest
album, there are two of his recent music videos, another example of digital
convergence. This also encourages fans to interact with the music video and acts
as a way of promoting the singles and album.
· Like all the other videos featured on artists
websites I’ve seen so far, this music video is from YouTube, confirming my research
that suggested YouTube is the most popular platform for music videos.
· Below the music videos is information about the
artists upcoming tour, which can also be seen in more detail by clicking on ‘Tour’
in the navigation bar. There is a personal message from the artist (establishing
his star persona) about the tour being postponed, followed by an image of the tour
poster (reflecting his brand identity).
· At the bottom of the homepage, there is the option
for fans to subscribe for email updates. This allows fans to receive more
information about their favourite artist, and gives them a sense of community. I
like this idea, and I intend on making it a feature on my website.
· Below this, there are icons linking the artists
social media, another example of digital convergence. This encourages fans to
interact with the artist, and allows them to be a part of a community where
they are able to interact with other fans, and share things such as fan art or
fan made videos (Henry Jenkins fandom theory).
· This is the page that opens when you click on ‘Store’
in the navigation bar. This store is separate from the artists website, and features
a range of merchandise, including the album on vinyl and CD, and lots of
different clothing items. I would like to feature a few items of merchandise
for my artist on my website if possible.
· This page also gives you the option to sign up
to a newsletter, similar to the one at the bottom of the homepage on Conan Gray’s
website.
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