Website Research: Katy Perry

Website Research:

Katy Perry

Katy Perry's website at first seems really simplistic and minimalistic. Everything is spaced out and small except for the hash tag in the middle over her face '#THISISHOWWEDO'. This definitely makes it the centre of attention because instead of her face being seen (like on most websites that are artist-focused) she is promoting her song on twitter. Twitter is an important tool in marketing and promotion because when lots of people talk about the same thing using the same hash tag it becomes a trending topic which means that the topic is seen worldwide. Katy Perry uses this to her advantage because even though she is internationally famous, she wants her album to be as popular as she is.

Her navigation menu is quite hidden, in the very corner of the screen and includes a news page, a music page, videos, images, updates and a store. The reason that the dropdown menu isn't easy to find is because there is a navigation menu at the bottom of the homepage and you have to scroll down to see it. I would prefer a website that has a clear navigation menu that takes you to separate pages, because it saves time scrolling through all the other content. On the other hand this could be a smart technique used to draw in the audience because while scrolling to find the navigation bar and the content that they want, they might cross something else that they find interesting, and stop to read through it. This way there is more of a chance that the audience stumbling across something that will encourage them to promote her album and increase album sales which in turn means success for her record companies and the people behind her public image.

On opening the homepage of Katy Perry's website, a pop up appears displaying information about a programme on TV that shows her 'Prismatic Tour'. Showing her tour on TV reaches an even wider audience than her Twitter fan base that tweet using her hash tag. Her promo for the TV slot means that she is working with more forms of media in order to guarantee that people talk about her. The audience of the programme will be people who are fans and have found out about it through her website or who have signed up for updates, but also she will have viewers that are flicking through channels and happen to find it. Then these people might listen and enjoy her music, and end up buying the album.

 Katy Perry's music page allows you to view all of her albums and live album recordings. When you click on the album it gives you the album's track listing and institutional information about the record label, its release date, the producers that worked on it, the musicians and vocals featured etc.

 When you click on a song title it displays the writers of the song, the lyrics and for some of them it even includes a lyric video.

For her most recent album 'Prism' she included play buttons next to the song titles, so that when you click them they play small snippets of the songs instead of having to go to another page to hear the song in full (even though that is an option). The option to buy the songs or the albums are on every page at the top. I personally like that the songs link to lyrics but I don't like that it takes you to a different page for every single song. I think that if the track lists were on the same page as the albums, and a pop up window showed up when a song was clicked, the website and navigation would be a lot neater. Of course, lyric videos are just as accessible on YouTube, but on the website, the lyrics come with more detailed information about the song, like the song's writers, for the more dedicated fans of Katy Perry.

The entire site uses Katy Perry's new album 'Prism' as a theme/motif. The cover photo is the same and the lighting and colours used in it is the same on different pages, even if the picture is different. The colours are pale and light to match her star image that she changed after the release of this album. Before 'Prism', she was known as energetic, bright and fun, but this album connotes a more vulnerable and honest side.

The layout of the websites follow the usual website conventions. The artist photo is the dominant focus, the tabs at the top for navigation and the logo in the top left corner, like any brand website.