Best WordPress Themes For Bands

Posted July 17, 2009 | by irene | in Web Design | 36 responses

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[Updated: May 2012]

Here are what I think are the best WordPress themes for bands, musicians, rock groups, chamber orchestras or  anyone else involved with music that needs a web site. They are designed to make your band website look hot, and have the  features that every band website needs.

The below are all premium themes, which means they aren’t free. But, IMHO,  they aren’t expensive either – the prices range up to $99.00, and in most cases, include free theme upgrades for life. This is important, because WordPress gets updated often, and at times, the updates can break your theme. These premium theme developers are quick to find the bug, and update their themes accordingly – which will keep your site running smoothly. You also get more features and functions in a premium theme, and usually better Search Engine Optimization.

Spend the money on a premium – it says to the world your band is for real. More importantly, you say to yourselves that your band is for real.

Gorilla Themes: Fan Club Theme

 

This is great, new premium theme by Gorilla Themes  – built especially for musicians, bands and rock stars. It has some great features that make it easy to use, and especially suitable for bands.

It’s easy to build, and features one-click installation, a Logo Uploader, Theme Localization. It includes a tutorial on how to set it up, and extensive help.

It’s widget-ready, you can add  your own logo and CSS styles easily, or choose from 5 preset Color Styles. There’s also a stylesheet switcher. To make a hot home page, there’s a Carousel Featured Article Slider, Video Widgets, and an image auto resizer

For fans and the power of word-of-mouth advertising, it’s Social Networks Ready with easy Twitter and Facebook Integration

Plus

• Customized Archives and Search Pages
• Banner Management
• Spanish & English files (Premium)
• Theme Localization

Click here for a Demo and more info on the Fan Club theme >>

Gorilla Themes: Tribal Music

 

Tribal Music By Gorilla Themes will get you a cool site with built in music player from Mixpod so that you can stream your music.This theme will need some graphic work to swap your own logo and background into the design, but once you do that, you will have a super cool site which places your music up front and centre.

The theme, like Fan club above,  features dynamic menus, widgets.

Start engaging your fans with this theme that also has automatic integration with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and a gorgeous featured article slideshow. Add your own music or video player to the theme.

Build your band site in Spanish! The tribal theme  features localization and translation in the developer package.

Genesis: Amped

This is a child theme for the super popular Genesis framework by Studiopress.

The Genesis framework is one of my favourites for building websites. It’s a rock solid framework, featuring superior coding and Search Engine Optimization. The Studiopress team has been around for a long time, solidly committed to updating their themes, and providing great client services. They are also now updating all their themes to be responsive themes – that means they will work on mobile phones and tablets too.

As you can see, Amped is made for bands – and their fans who want to keep up with what’s new with the band. The home page is built to change often, showing the latest updates to the site. You want your fans to come often, and so it’s important to give them new things to read.

WordPress plays nice with all Social Media tools too, so you will be able to integrate with Twitter, Facebook with just a few plugins. You can also import your widgets from Reverbnation and other music sites.

Here’s how to easily customize Amped for your band:

• Just put your latest video, or a video of your band performing at a gig, or rehearsing in the top spot.
• Swap the background image
• change the colour of the links.
• upload your logo

Click here for a Demo and more info on the Studiopress themes >>

BTW, here’s why I think you should you use a Studiopress theme using Genesis:

• The Genesis framework means your WordPress theme is built on rock solid code and excellent built in Search functions. You will have very little problems with this one – no headscratching errors or hours wasted troubleshooting.
• Great support via a members-only forum. If you do have questions, you have access to the support team 24/7 – included in the price of the theme.
• Your theme will work in the future. The Studiopress team continually updates their themes and that means they will still work with every WordPress update, and will be up to date with the latest security fixes, browser and CSS changes.
• Using child themes, like Amped for Genesis, your theme customizations will be safe whenever you update Genesis to the latest version. Very important.
• All the upgrades to the theme or Genesis are free and included in your original price. That makes it a super deal.
• Upgrading is super easy. It takes just one-click to update the themes  in your Dashboard.
• If you tire of the theme, you can use any of the other Genesis child themes available, or get one custom made.
• the price can’t be beat.
• Not only have they continued to upgrade their WordPress themes, but they have upgraded their services and conduct business in the most honourable way. I have been a lifetime member for years, and think they are tops.

Is that enough gush?

Foxhound: Indie Fest

Foxhound is a new company that is distinguishing itself by providing only premium themes for bands.

They currently have 3 cool themes on the go – each a unique design with features that a band site needs.

We picked Indie Fest because we think this theme has great potential to match your album cover – just get the designer of your album cover artwork to create a background graphic for this theme. They’ve even  included a .psd Photoshop file for you, to make it super easy.

Since Foxhound is specializing in WordPress themes for brands, look forward to these features:

GigPress plugin for your tour dates,  a SoundCloud player for your music, the option to upload mp3s, a newsletter sign-up, social media integration with a Facebook feed, a customized twitter feed

Check out the demo, and the other Firehound themes here>>

Woo themes: UnSigned

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woothemes is another long time Premium theme developer that has earned its stripes to become one of the most trusted premium theme developers. They are famous for their super designs as well as easy-to-use dashboard and back-end.

Unsigned is their powerful, premium theme designed especially for bands to be able to showcase their music, tours, photos, videos and band members. The big plus here is you will be able to  sell your merch, too. The theme comes with WooCommerce integration.

Click here for a Demo and more info on the WooThemes >>

Why do I think these make the Best WordPress Themes For Bands? Let me tell you:

• these are image heavy – people want to see pics of you when they come to your band site. They also want to see NEW pics of you when they come, so keep on adding pics. That’s why WordPress is cool. It is easy to update. Update your band’s web site often, and your fans will come by more often. And they will love you more.
• the sites are easy to customize – for the StudioPresss themes, just switch the background for a totally new look. Switch is so that it matches your most recent CD (you’ll actually need to also change the CSS for some of the themes, so they display an image vs a colour only, but it’s not that difficult – most web developers can help you with that.)
• StudioPress sites have great Search Engine Optimization capabilities. That means Google love.
• sign up to our mailing list right up top. That is numero uno. Get your fans’ email addresses so you can send them news. They want it. They want to hear from you. They want to hear from you often.
• they’re more than a blog, allowing you to control your home page so it looks more like a traditional web site.

Have I missed any? What do you think are the best WordPress Themes For Bands?

To see some of these WordPress themes in action or why I think WordPress makes excellent sense for musicians, check out my article where I rave about WordPress Blogs For Bands.

And help me out. I am currently designing a WordPress theme for band sites. What other functions do you think would be cool for WordPress themes to have for band sites?