Websites Similar to our Artist

• Louisa Johnson only just recently got into the music industry. This happened because she won X factor in 2015. Therefore she is not an old music artist; she is upcoming 
• It was appropriate to look at Louisa's website because it is an example of a new artist, just like Dani is 
• Her website it simple, yet effective which is what we were aiming for. Therefore we are going to use this similar design with a basic picture
• The vignette is also very effective for the front page, we are going to attempt this technique in photoshop. 
• The layout is also very simple with clear tabs on show. Therefore because they are both upcoming artists we will make an easy website which is clear to understand. 

Ultimately for pop stars in the last couple of years, a website is largely redundant and it used for to send target audience onto other social media networks. For example, with Louisa Johnson, the website is just a front page with a picture, however its links take you to other social media forms, which is where she interacts with her target audience. If we had the opportunity, we would be trying to engage our audience across social media platforms such as Snap Chat, instagram, Facebook and to a lesser extent Twitter. It is these media forms that an audience of teens would naturally converge on, not a website. 

Mike Masnick argues that pop stars in the 21st century need to connect with their fans and to give them a reason to pay. What this means is the audience expects everything for free, or at a massively reduced costs to the 20th century. So, in order to get our audiences to pay, you need to encourage the audience to connect with you. Social media platforms are key to this form of engagement as artists can directly interact with the audience. For example, you can tweet a pop star and they may respond. Equally, they can update you 24/7 and give you access to the unseen footage that would previously be designed from platforms such as Instagram and Snap Chat. As universal music groups, Chief executive officer, David Joseph  states "For pop stars to succeed in the 21st century they need to havre a carefully co- ordinated campaign across all social media platforms as music is now only one part of an artists appeal" Therefore, as we can see with Louisa Johnson the website itself is just a platform used to send potential fans towards her social media accounts. 

For our artist, Dani Alexander, we will be integrating these social media links as well as Spotify so that we can sell her across a range of platforms. As Henry Jenkins states "media convergence is the ability to tell a story across a range of platforms" We aim to demonstrate that our artist is using convergent technologies In order to sell her story across a range of platforms. In addition, we feel that as music no longer makes money for the artist and the record company we need to create merchandise in order to market and sell her to the audience, therefore we have added a merchandise page to her website as well as a tour page so that fans can also see that she is an artist that will play live. As live performance is one of the keys ways artists makes money in the 21st century.