Website Research: Demi Lovato

Website Research:

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato's website has a feature different to many other pop artist websites. Before it opens the website's homepage, the page displays a personal 'thank you' from her to her fans for believing in her. Demi Lovato is like Taylor Swift in that she connects with her fans like they are close friends with her. This page is also a reminder that she struggled through rehabilitation after revealing she had an eating disorder and bipolar disorder, and another part of her image is helping fans of hers who are struggling in situations of their own. Just in this first page she inspires her fans by saying they are the reason for her success.

Another interesting thing about this website is that as well as a navigation menu at the top of the page, there is also a footer with social media sharing and music buying options. Both the top and bottom bars frame the screen no matter where you scroll on the page or across the entire website. I think this is good because keeping the top navigation means that the website is easy to get around and the bottom bar is advertising the music in a subtle way without drawing too much attention to it.
Other than that, the homepage includes many of the same features typical in a pop artist website - News, Tour dates, Biography, Videos, Music, Store, Photos and the Lovato Club which is an alternative to the contact page.

The News, Tour Dates and Biography pages on the website are similar to other pop artists, the  news page included newly released music videos, products she is promoting, events she attended, and also includes an instagram feature which shows her most recently posted photos, and a tour dates features which shows a few upcoming dates on her world tour. The Biography was written by someone else about her, her musical career, the projects she is involved in and her achievements. The tour dates are displayed on its page, but it doesn't show any other events like TV interviews and CD signings, which she instead shares with the 'Lovato Club'.
The music page has a typical layout, with the album covers and the track list next to it, and the ways you can purchase the album available too. Something that this page doesn't have is a snippet of the songs or lyrics. I think that this is a waste of a chance to gain more sales. Someone may not know what one of the songs sounds like and may want to listen to it to get a feel of it. If they like the sound of it they are more likely to buy it. However the link to Spotify is in the footer so they could listen to the whole album for free and decide if they want to buy it or not.

Demi Lovato has a fan club that she connects with, but instead of having a mailing list that people sign up to for free to get updates about concerts and news, you have to pay for a year's membership in order to get the benefits. I think this is clever marketing because they make it seem like people have a chance to gain a lot buy paying for the subscription, and dedicated fans would be willing to pay for it. In this way more money is made, but I don't think I would include a subscription that costs because it would feel like exploiting fans out of their money.

The style of the website matches Demi's most recent album, with its monochrome colours and slim blocky fonts. I can tell that this is a common technique used for most pop music websites. This means that it would be better if I modelled the website after the digipak.