In the digital age, musicians need to have a strong online presence to showcase their music and gain a wider following. With physical sales declining, online promotion is essential for musicians to get their music heard by more people.
Thankfully, WordPress offers a plethora of plugins that musicians can utilise to create an impressive website and showcase their musical talent to the world. WordPress plugins provide an opportunity to customise the look of your musician or band site, enticing visitors to stay longer and engage with your content.
To help musicians enhance their website and achieve their online goals, we have compiled a list of the top 7 WordPress plugins for musicians that can help elevate their online presence.
7. Event Organiser
Although not exclusively designed for musicians, Event Organiser is a valuable plugin for keeping fans up to date with your gig schedule. With Event Organiser, you can create custom events that have the same functionalities as posts.
Using the built-in custom post type from WordPress, Event Organiser assigns venues to events, syncs with iCal, and allows for discount codes to be added. With over 500,000 downloads, 30,000 active installations, and a 4.7 out of 5-star rating, this plugin is sure to meet your needs.
The basic package is free to download and use, but if you require more advanced features, there are pro premium plans available starting from $45. The premium plans offer booking management functions, payment options, and event search shortcodes.
6. GigPress
GigPress is a powerful plugin that enables you to list and manage all your live performances. This plugin is perfect for live musicians, allowing them to manage past and upcoming gigs and display them using WordPress shortcodes.
GigPress is user-friendly, allowing artists, tours, venues, and other related posts to be added seamlessly within the WordPress admin. You can manage multiple artists simultaneously and create a combined list or group them separately.
Scheduling data can be easily imported from a CSV file, making it easy to get started with this plugin. Best of all, GigPress is 100% free and open-source, giving you the flexibility to customise the source code to suit your specific needs.
5. FoxyShop
For musicians, selling merchandise online can be a great way to increase revenue, and FoxyShop is a highly effective plugin that can help with just that. With FoxyCart’s hosted service, you can manage and price your inventory for online sales, giving you greater control over the selling process.
FoxyShop includes a fully customizable theme file and CSS with widget support for featured categories, making it easy to create an online store that fits your branding. The plugin also enables you to manage your inventory directly from the WordPress admin and classify products by category and subcategory, simplifying the process of organizing your merchandise.
While the basic FoxyShop plugin is free to use, access to Foxycart hosting services requires a $15 monthly subscription fee. However, the added features and benefits of the hosting service make it a worthwhile investment for musicians looking to sell their merchandise online.
4. NextGen
If you’re a musician looking to showcase your talent and promote your brand, having a visually appealing website is crucial. NextGen is a highly recommended plugin that can help you achieve this by providing industry-standard image gallery capabilities.
Since its launch in 2007, NextGEN has amassed over 1.5 million downloads and 900,000 active installations, making it one of the most widely used image gallery plugins available. The plugin’s complete gallery management system allows for batch uploads, metadata imports, and photo editing capabilities, enabling you to easily organize and showcase your promotional and live event photos.
The core NextGEN plugin is free to download and use, but its features are relatively limited. To unlock its full potential, premium plans are available for $79 (Plus), $99 (Pro), and $139 (Full). These premium versions offer additional functionality and support beyond the base version, making it a worthwhile investment for musicians seeking to create a professional-looking website.
3. Thank Me Later
Maintaining an engaged audience is a crucial aspect of running a successful music website, and Thank Me Later is a plugin that can help you achieve just that. By automatically responding to anyone who leaves a comment on your site, you can keep them informed about new shows, recordings, and merchandise, encouraging them to return to your site.
Thank Me Later also lets you specify the amount of time before sending emails and set up specific mailing lists for your followers. Additionally, you can link to your RSS feed to gain more followers and link to your Twitter and Facebook pages, making it easier to connect with your audience on multiple platforms.
With over 100,000 downloads and a 4.5 out of 5-star rating, Thank Me Later is a highly recommended plugin for musicians looking to cultivate an online following. The best part is that it’s completely free to download and use, making it an affordable and effective tool for engaging with your audience.
2. bbPress
If you are a musician, online forums are a fantastic way to connect with your fans and build a community. One of the best forum plugins available for WordPress is bbPress. Developed by the same team that created the popular WordPress content management system, bbPress is a reliable and high-quality plugin that is compatible with all WordPress themes.
bbPress is not only free to download and use, but it is also highly customizable. With some coding knowledge, you can easily tailor the plugin to suit your website’s unique requirements. With over 5 million downloads and more than 300,000 active installations, bbPress is an excellent resource for any budding musician looking to establish an online presence.
One of the best things about bbPress is that it is fully compatible with other WordPress add-ons. This means that you can easily manage your forum using a plugin and add other features to your website without any issues. bbPress is easy to learn, easy to use, and is a great way to manage discussions about your music.
1. Contact Form 7
As a musician, networking is key to finding potential gigs and building your career. However, posting your email address online can attract scammers and spam. To keep your information safe, Contact Form 7 is a highly recommended plugin for any musician.
Contact Form 7 allows you to add a contact page to your website that keeps your information secure. The plugin creates a separate site page that includes a contact form that visitors can fill out. This form does not display your email address, ensuring that you are protected from spam and junk mail.
Contact Form 7 is a free plugin, but the developers recommend making a donation to support their hard work. With over 100 million downloads and more than 5 million active installations, Contact Form 7 is a reliable and widely used plugin for musicians looking to manage their email needs.
To establish a strong online presence as a musician, it is essential to have the right tools at your disposal. The plugins mentioned in this article can help you get started and build your online following, giving you the chance to connect with your fans and grow your career.