Website Research & Analysis

As we're making a website to go with our music video we had to do research on other music videos which are similar to the band we're doing. I chose to look at the current Futureheads website and four other websites of bands that are in a similar music genre to us. I had to look at 8 different areas when analysing these websites.

Images and logo’s:

The Futureheads: The Futureheads have their album logo from Chaos in the background, which dominates the whole of the website as it’s their latest promotion. They also have their signature “block writing” that they have on all of their CD covers and now on their website.

The Arctic Monkeys: They have the black Arctic Monkeys block title in a special font which is something that they are known for, but as the bands site is very simple it doesn’t have much else.

Mumford and Sons: They have a logo at the very top of the page which cannot be missed and below that they have Mumford and Sons in white writing.

Biffy Clyro: Once again the website has the band’s name at the top in capitals, but they do not really have a logo on this specific site. Behind the writing is a picture of the band playing live, which is something that brings the website to life.

Kasabian: The Kasabian site has a spinning logo at the top of the page which catches your attention straight away, they also have “Kasabian” underneath in writing which stands out from the background.

New technology and links:

The Futureheads: At the bottom of the Futurehead’s website they have lots of links to other websites and new technology. They have links to Banquet records, Amazon, Last Fm, iTunes, Recordstore.co.uk, play.com, Facebook, myspace and flickr.They also have a live Twitter feed down the left hand side of their website, which is quite important for their promotion. They have video’s at the top of their site to of previous video’s they’ve made.

The Arctic Monkeys: Arctic Monkeys have links to their store and a forum on their navigation bar; they also have a video at the forefront of the website. In the bottom corner they have links to Facebook and Twitter and it also has a button where you can follow the band.

Mumford and Sons: Mumford and sons have links to stores and videos; they have links to tour dates where you can buy tickets. Also they have a button where you can “like” them on Facebook.

Biffy Clyro: Biffy Clyro’s website has a lot of new technology on it, they have videos which you can play. Also on every article you can either like it via Facebook or share it with your friends on Facebook.  You can also view their Facebook. They have links where you can follow them on Twitter and a Twitter feed on their website. They also have a mailing list.

Kasabian: They have links on their website to an online store, also at the top of their page they tell you how many people like them on Facebook and tell you which friends of yours do. You can click on the like button and then like them yourself. There is also links to buying tour tickets.

Written Content:

The Futureheads: They have very little written content on their homepage, it’s mostly links sending you elsewhere for information. They do have a small news section with a very small article on there. They have tour dates on there, also.

The Arctic Monkeys: They only have small articles of a few lines on their website and links where you can expand. They also have tour dates.

Mumford and Sons: Mumford and Sons have more written content on their website, with four articles all on the front page with a few lines sampled. You can then click on them and they expand into a full article. Down the right hand side they also have tour dates.

Biffy Clyro: Biffy Clyro also have tour dates on their website and small article which can be expanded into full articles.

Kasabian: Kasabian have tour dates on their website as well as three or four articles which can be clicked on and expanded into a full article.

Target Audience:

The Futureheads: They have a range from around 16-40 year old males, they’ve been around for a while and they’re themselves older so they attract an older target audience as well as young.

The Arctic Monkeys: They have a target audience ranging from about 16-30 year old, they can be either male or female.

Mumford and Sons: They have a target audience of around 16-40 year olds as they’re quite a mature band with a more mature sound of music.

Biffy Clyro: They have a target audience of around 16-40 year olds and they can be from either the male or female gender.

Kasabian: They have a target audience of around 16-30 year olds and they’re from either gender, they’ve matured as a band as they’ve gotten older so attract an older type of fan.

Genre:

The Futureheads: They’re quite an indie/alternative band,

The Arctic Monkeys: They’re an indie band, they’re more mainstream than Futureheads which means they play on the radio, and are more popular.

Mumford and Sons: They’re an indie/folk band who are beginning to get quite popular and they’re now getting radio plays on their music.

Biffy Clyro: They’re an indie/rock band who are quite popular with the older fan as they’ve been around for quite a long time.

Kasabian: They’re a rock band that gets a lot of radio time as they’re quite popular.

Colour and Style:

The Futureheads: They have a very plain colour and style on their website, they have their grey and blue album art as a background and all the writing is in black or grey, which isn’t very bright.

The Arctic Monkeys: The Arctic Monkeys website has quite a plain style of just black and white colours that suits their laid back style as an artist. They have a clear old fashioned style to the website.

Mumford and Sons: The Mumford and Sons have a website with a black background with white blocks with writing on. They have quite an old fashioned style like their type of music.

Biffy Clyro: Biffy Clyro have a very upbeat type of website, it’s also very outgoing like their band members and their music. They have a picture from a gig behind them, with the band performing live. They have a very colourful website with white writing over the top of it.

Kasabian: Kasabian have a very old fashioned style website with Black writing on a white background which is something which is very popular the minute with indie/rock bands.

Font and Layout:

The Futureheads: Their title is a black block titled font which stands out and it’s recognisable as that is the font they use on everything that they do. They have a simple layout with a navigation bar at the top, important news and videos on the top of the page and links to elsewhere towards the bottom of the page.

The Arctic Monkeys: The website mostly block writing or just normal plain back writing. That’s because it suits it’s plain website style. They have their band name in their special recognisable font which is on their albums.

Mumford and Sons: The site has a very plain layout with a black background, they have a white block down the middle of their site where they have plain black writing.

Biffy Clyro: Biffy Clyro’s website doesn’t have a set layout really, they have things everywhere and you don’t know where to look. That makes the website interesting to look at. Their font is quite a simple font which fits well on top of their good background.

Kasabian: The Kasabian website is very plain, very much like they Arctic Monkeys website. They have a font which is very much like a type writer, it’s something which I don’t think really fits with their website.

Advertisements:

The Futureheads: They don’t really have any big advertisements, but they do have links to the likes of Play.com and Amazon where you can buy their albums from. They also have a link to a store on their navigation bar.

The Arctic Monkeys: They do not have a great deal of advertisements on their website, They have a link to their store, but it is very low key at the top and it doesn’t really stand out.

Mumford and Sons:  They have links to iTunes to buy their music, if you click on the picture of their album cover which is on their website it takes you to iTunes and gives you the option to buy the CD. They also have links to their tour tickets, also.

Biffy Clyro: They don’t really have any advertisements, they have a store and they mention how you can buy their merchandise. They have an advert which pops up at the top of their website about buying their new album which is album live from Wembley.

Kasabian: Kasabian have links to buying their gig tickets and they also have a link to their online store which is their only ways on advertising on their website, which I was surprised about.