Building Your Own WordPress Music Store

on August 30, 2017November 25, 2022 General

When considering how to sell your band’s music and merchandise online, there are several options available. You can choose to use a hosted solution such as Shopify or BandCamp, or allow a third party such as Amazon or CD Baby to sell and fulfill your products for you. Many of these services charge monthly fees and/or take a percentage of your sales as commission. While these fees and commissions might not seem like much, adding them up over a few years can cut into your profit. An alternative that allows you to maintain control over your products and profit is to create a WordPress music store.

What to Include On a Band’s Contact Page

on August 2, 2017November 25, 2022 General

A well-designed contact page can convince site visitors to inquire about booking you, follow you on social media, or share upcoming opportunities.

Often, these pages are overlooked, underutilized, and contain only basic information. Many bands and musicians simply “check the box” of having a contact page. Unfortunately, they completely miss the chance to drive engagement.

We’ll cover how to create a contact page that will encourage site visitors to start a conversation.

Using Hashtags to Promote Your Music On Instagram

on July 21, 2017November 25, 2022 General, Marketing

Social media is one of the best ways for bands and musicians to connect with fans and communities on a regular basis. While Facebook continues its dominance as the most-used platform, the gap between it and others is closing. Given the fact that users share 95 Million photos and videos a day, Instagram appears to be gaining considerable ground in the social media world.

Designed to be the first mobile-only social network, Instagram found a unique way to tap into the 46 times a day the average American checks their phone. With Facebook’s acquisition, Instagram gained even more muscle behind their growth efforts. As of April 2017, Instagram had reached 700 Million active monthly users, and 35% percent of those users access the app daily.

The numbers are strong and the audience is there, so how can bands and musicians take advantage of Instagram’s growth? Let’s cover a few tactics for promoting your music on Instagram.

Speeding Up Your WordPress Site

on June 30, 2017November 25, 2022 General

Site speed is one of the most important factors to keep in mind when it comes to your band’s website. While it doesn’t sound like much, asking visitors to wait a couple of seconds while the page loads can be devastating to your traffic. The longer a page takes to load, the more likely your visitors are to leave. While we could get down to the nitty gritty details of WordPress, a few variables play a large role in WordPress site speed. In this post, we’ll cover some of the simple things that you can do to speed up your WordPress site.

Adding Images with WordPress Photo Galleries

on June 16, 2017November 25, 2022 General

In recent years, photos have become a dominating force in social media and the web in general. Images are a great way to show off a band’s unique style, venues, merchandise, and the energy of a crowd. Not to mention, they’re just plain cool to look at.

While AudioTheme has functionality for discography, gigs, and videos, many musicians and bands look for a way to add photos to their site. We’re often asked how customers can add beautiful WordPress photo galleries that complement the look of the theme they’re using.

In this post, we’ll cover four options for adding great looking galleries to your WordPress site. We’ll also explain how you can ensure your site loads those images quickly.

Getting Started with a WordPress Website

on May 16, 2017November 25, 2022 General

We often hear from folks who are both excited and anxious about the potential of using WordPress. They see a theme they really love, or get excited about having a site that includes features they really need. However, they’re hesitant to make the switch to the self-hosted version of WordPress because they are uncertain as to what it entails. As a result, they settle on a different website platform such as Squarespace, Wix, or the hosted WordPress.com version that they feel is easier to get started with. This means musicians end up lacking several key features on their website simply because they fear getting started with a WordPress website.

Even though we’re not able to offer WordPress setup as a service at AudioTheme, we want to explain what it takes. We’ve put together an overview on getting started with WordPress for all of those customers who want to learn more about it.

The Importance of Owning Your Data and Online Presence

on April 24, 2017November 25, 2022 General

What would it mean to your music career if Facebook suddenly shut down? Do you have another streaming platform available if SoundCloud decided to close your account? Would your fans be able to find you elsewhere on the web?

Those types of questions can produce a ton of anxiety for musicians. In the last year, we’ve been reminded more than a few times of the importance of owning your data and online presence. In early 2016, Facebook significantly changed its algorithm for displaying content on pages. This required page owners to spend money in order to share posted content with their audience. Musicians who worked for years to grow a Facebook following lost their point of contact with fans seemingly overnight. In mid 2016, it changed again. Again in late 2016. And well into 2017, Facebook is still constantly tweaking the formula to combat fake news and other content issues.

This kind of volatility is not exclusive to Facebook.

Customizing CSS in WordPress

Learn how using CSS snippets can make your site stand out from others

on April 3, 2017November 25, 2022 General

What is CSS?

CSS is what controls the style and layout of all your website pages and components. CSS is also responsible for the responsiveness that makes your site look good on mobile devices. Customizing CSS in WordPress is one of the most efficient and effective ways to make your website stand out from others using the same theme.

Adding a Social Media Menu to Your WordPress Site

on March 17, 2017November 25, 2022 General

Social media plays an important role in your online presence. While bios and lyrics are expected to be found on your website, when someone wants to find out more about your band’s day to day activities, they’ll likely look to social media. In this post, we’ll cover exactly how to link to your social profiles from your website.

How to Copyright Music

on February 28, 2017November 25, 2022 General

Copyrighting your original music can be a confusing task. Depending on who you talk to or where you look, you can end up swimming in so much information that you end up doing absolutely nothing. That’s exactly what happened to me. For years I had no idea how to copyright music properly.

Category General