website research

 

I had a look at different indie websites to get an idea of the layouts themes and colours they used to promote their music and themselves as an artist or band. This gave me a good idea of how we could set out our own website for Ed Sheeran and what sort of style we should go for. All websites have near enough the same links on them which are always made very clear for whoever has come onto their website so they have easy access to other parts of the site. Links to the; Homepage, Tour dates, Videos, Gallery, Shop are near enough always available along with a link to be able to contact the band in some way. Quite often there are links to the bands Facebook Twitter Youtube and Myspace pages a long with other social networking sites the band may have. This is very good for promotion and makes the fans feel a bit closer to the band. The first two sites i researched had  no images or videos of themselves on their homepage, may be they do not want to be in the limelight and prefer their fans to focus on their music rather than their image. I think this is good however i think they way Keane's site has videos of their performances on their site is very good free advertisement and promotion and i think that the other to bands are missing out, so i think our website will contain images and videos of our artist.
The colours used in the sites vary, however all of the colours are washed out or pale and keanes is in black and white to be very subtle, this goes along with the indie conventions well so i think we should also go for dark colours or washed out colours. The layout of the websites are very organised so it is easy for the audience to navigate themselves around the webpage which i think is extremely important as it makes it a stress free browse for the audience and reduces confusion.
On all of the sites i looked at the band or artists name was the first thing that is seen on the homepage as its a lot larger than the other writing on the page and bolder with alot of contrast to the background making it clear and stand out so we shall do the same for ours.