FOR MUSICIANS & BANDS
YouTube for Musicians: Channel Set-Up, Shorts and Live Sessions
How independent UK artists can set up a YouTube channel, apply for an Official Artist Channel, use Shorts, go live, organise playlists and build a community.
Streaming profiles and link-in-bio pages do a job, but they are not yours. Here's when a musician needs a website, and what belongs on it.
Most working musicians do need a website. Streaming profiles and link-in-bio pages are handy for sending fans to one place, but someone else owns them and they say little about you. A simple site gives promoters, journalists and fans one page you control. It holds your music and story alongside your dates and press materials, with a mailing list sign-up.
Release music, play live or hope to get written about, and people will search your name. What turns up decides whether they take you seriously. For lots of independent artists that’s a streaming profile and a social account, plus a list of links. Which works, up to a point.
Below we cover when a website is worth having and what it should include. We’ll also tell you what you can safely leave out, so the site is quick to build and easy to keep current.
Early on, often yes. A link-in-bio page does one job well. It sends people from a social profile to your latest release and your tickets, or on to your other channels. Instagram has also let you put up to five links in your profile bio since April 2023, so around a single release you might not need anything more.
The cracks appear the moment someone wants more than a button to press.
Say a promoter wants to know whether you can fill a room. A list of links won’t show your live history, your press or your draw. A journalist after a bio and a photo has to message you and wait, and they may well move on to the next artist in their inbox.
Fans are the same. Someone who wants to hear about your next gig is relying on social reach. Reach comes and goes. A mailing list you own doesn’t depend on an algorithm. And when someone types your name into a search engine, a page with your name and story on it, plus your music, is far more use to them than a bare list of buttons.
There isn’t one fixed moment. These are the usual signs:
If none of that applies yet, put your energy into the music and a tidy streaming profile. If two or three do, a website will start paying its way.
Keep it lean. A good musician’s site can be five or six pages, or even a single long page split into clear sections.
You need one strong image and your name, plus a one-line description of your sound. Add your latest release with a play button. Within seconds, a visitor should know what kind of artist you are and where to listen.
Embed or link your releases on whichever streaming platforms you use, newest first. Got a back catalogue? A simple discography with artwork, release dates and credits will do the job.
Write a short bio in your own voice and put a longer version underneath for anyone who wants it. Say where you’re based and who you sound like or play alongside. Mention any milestones that count for something. Keep your “for fans of” comparisons honest.
List each upcoming gig with a ticket link. Include the venue and city as well as the date. Take past dates down or move them to an archive. Nothing makes a site look abandoned faster than an old gig list.
Bookers and journalists use this page more than any other. It needs your bio and high-resolution photos they can download. Add a few press quotes, your best live or session video and your contact details. Our guide to what to put in an EPK takes you through it section by section.
Put a sign-up box on the home page and another in the footer. Offer people something concrete, like first news of tickets or an early listen, or a behind-the-scenes note with each release. In the UK, the ICO says organisations normally need consent before sending marketing emails to individuals and have to give people a way to unsubscribe. So ask clearly, and keep a record. If you’re unsure how the rules apply to you, read the ICO guidance itself.
Give separate contacts for bookings, press and management if you have them. Industry people like to see who they’re writing to, so a plain email address beats a contact form.
This covers merch, vinyl, signed copies or tickets. If you only sell a couple of things, just link to wherever you already sell them.
Skip the blog you won’t keep up. A news section whose only post is two years old does more harm than good, and your mailing list and social channels can carry the news instead.
Don’t autoplay music either. Let people decide when to press play, because autoplay annoys visitors, especially on mobile.
You don’t need lots of pages. A separate page for each release or video, or for each band member, is rarely worth it early on. Avoid heavy animation and huge files too, since most visitors arrive on a phone from a social link and slow pages lose them.
Last, avoid anything you can’t update yourself. If adding a gig date means waiting on someone else, the site will drift out of date.
| Channel | What it is good for | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming profile | Listening, follows, release discovery | Tell your full story, collect fan emails |
| Social media | Day-to-day contact, short video, reach | Guarantee anyone sees your post, hold press materials |
| Link-in-bio page | Sending people from a profile to a few places | Show who you are, rank for your name |
| Your website | Bio, press kit, dates, shop, mailing list, search | Replace the platforms where fans actually listen |
Your website doesn’t replace any of these. Think of it as the hub they all point back to. While you’re at it, claim your profile on each streaming platform you use. Spotify explains how to claim your artist profile through Spotify for Artists and then customise it with images and more.
Three things do most of the work. The first is good photography. Build a site around one or two strong press images and it looks credible straight away, whereas phone snaps make even great music look amateur. Professional photography often does more for a site than any design decision.
The second is consistency. Match your images and colours to your release artwork and social profiles, and stick to the same typefaces, so a fan or a booker recognises you wherever they come across you. The visual side of this overlaps with our guide portfolio website or Instagram?, which we wrote for visual creatives, though it applies to musicians just as much.
The third is restraint. Put the music and the dates where people expect to find them, with the contact details close by. A clean layout like that will always beat a clever design that makes visitors go hunting.
You can build a perfectly decent site yourself from a template, particularly if all you need is a home page and a bio, plus a music section and your dates. That’s a sensible way to begin.
Paying for a site makes more sense once it has a job to do. Maybe it needs to help you get booked or support a bigger release. Maybe it’s there to sell merch, or to present you at the level you’re now working at. At that point the copy and photography count for as much as the design, and so does the structure.
We design and build personal brand websites on WordPress. We do the copy and search foundations properly, and we can photograph you for both the site and your press kit. If you’d like help keeping your channels busy around a release, our social media management covers Instagram and Facebook. Every project starts with a clear brief, scope and fee, agreed before any creative work begins. For the full picture, see our website design for musicians and marketing for musicians.
Yes, most do. Spotify is where many people will listen, but a booker or journalist can’t find your bio and photos there alongside your dates and contact details, and it won’t give you a mailing list. A website fills those gaps and sends people back to Spotify to listen.
For fans, it’s the home page with your latest release. For the industry, it’s the press or EPK page. If you only have time to do one thing well, make sure a visitor can download a photo and read a short bio, then find your contact email, all in under a minute.
Use whatever name you release music under. Solo artists with a stage name should use it for the domain and the site, and only mention their real name in the bio if they want people to find them by it.
Update it whenever something changes, whether that’s a new release, a new gig or new press. At the very least, check it before each release and take down past dates. Looking current counts for more than being updated often.
Not by itself. Gigs come from the music and the live show, and from relationships. Once a promoter is interested, though, a clear site with live video and press quotes on it, plus a booking contact, makes it much easier for them to say yes.
How independent UK artists can set up a YouTube channel, apply for an Official Artist Channel, use Shorts, go live, organise playlists and build a community.
How function and wedding bands can get found and booked: website and video, Google Business Profile, directories, honest reviews and fast enquiry handling.
How independent UK artists can use TikTok: choosing sounds, writing hooks, posting consistently, getting your own track onto the app and learning from analytics.
Four quick questions, and we’ll show you where we’d start. Your answers come straight to us with your message, so you won’t have to explain it twice.
A 30-minute introduction call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Your answers come with the booking, so we’ll be ready for you.
Prefer to talk it through? Make an appointment for a 30-minute call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
A closer look at the work behind each part of your plan.
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