Best WordPress Band Theme In 2024 (A Musicians Perspective)

Discover the Best WordPress Theme for Your Band Website

My 9 Top Responsive WordPress Themes For Bands & Musicians – Ordered From Simplest To Complex…est

Now here’s a dingus and a half.

The WordPress theme you choose for your band’s website is almost as important as your domain name or hosting; it will greatly affect the way your site looks, feels, and functions.

Luckily, if you ever decide to change a WordPress theme you can do so quite easily (domain names and hosting aren’t as simple, though still possible).

About Band WordPress Themes

Whenever I have a new client who wants to work from a pre-existing theme (the benefit for the client being it’s cheaper), I always make a list of about 5-15 top WordPress themes that I think are appropriate for their band or business. I figure it makes complete sense for me to give you guys a similar list, that way when you go to make your website you aren’t left in the dark.

I’ve seen a lot of lists of band WordPress themes like these online, but they often stick only to “band” websites. I’d like to expand that, and include the best WordPress themes that are suitable even though they were not specifically designed for a “band” or musician.

Difficulty Of Using A WordPress Theme

It’s important to consider that the more options a theme has, the more difficult and more time it will take to develop that theme into a tight, cohesive website that is your band’s new homepage.

So that I don’t have to keep boasting basic features as “options”, I’m going to assume that these WordPress themes:

are responsive
have social media built-in
have contact pages
have a blog setup
have at least some degree of customizability
have a built-in audio player

…unless I note otherwise.

“I’m Worried That Someone Will Know I’m Using A Template.”

Now you might be thinking at some point “if 1000 other people have bought these band WordPress themes, what if someone runs into another website with the same template?”

Well…

they probably won’t. There are hundreds of millions of websites on the internet, and the chances of someone running into 2 of the same templates are slim.
even if they do run into two of the same good WordPress themes, an average user won’t even remember, besides…
…it’s likely that it will be months if not years apart from when they view each duplicate theme, so they DEFINITELY won’t remember!
once your band’s WordPress theme is customized, it will be less recognizable from the demo site.

Most people who are keen enough to notice a similar theme probably have a decent understanding of how web design works, and will probably be quite forgiving. The bottom line is that it won’t affect the impression that your fans get from you.

Here’s How To Judge Each Theme

When you’re looking at each theme and trying to pick one of the best WordPress themes for you or your band, try not to get caught up too much with features, and just examine how you feel as you go through each site. Are you overwhelmed, or do you know exactly what to do?

Try and find a band theme that represents your band as much as possible, and find one that seems fairly user friendly. Always think about your fans 100%, and don’t get caught up with “all the fancy technologies”. Any one of these WordPress themes can do most of the functions that a band needs (and if they’re missing something, I’ll let you know).

My Top 9 Best WordPress Themes for Bands

Without too much further ado, here are some great WordPress band themes I’ve found in my travels. I’ve ordered them from simplest to complex…est. The first theme you’ll see (it’s a wonderful little thing called “Billboard”) is good to use if you just need to get your site up TODAY.

The last theme (called “The X”) is a fully customizable framework that you can develop your own themes out of. It requires quite a bit of tinkering, but can get you the complex and artistic website that you’re looking for.

Here’s Billboard…

1. Billboard

If you need a site up really quick, then Billboard is going to be the easiest way to do it. Install the theme, shove a big image in for a background, upload a track, and you’re pretty much done. So quick, and so easy.

You can also create a playlist, link directly to your social profiles and online retailers of your music (eg. Amazon, iTunes and Spotify). It creates a great little hub for your fans to access all the necessary links you want them to from one simple page.

It’s not the fanciest theme out there, but it certainly won’t embarrass you. Minimalism often gains a certain amount of respect, so if you can’t do something big (because you need to get it up quick, or you’re just not good at this stuff), then go intentionally small. Your band will look professional for it.

Difficulty: 2/10. Minimalism to the max!

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2. Encore

A great step up from Billboard is “Encore”. It’s still quite minimalistic, offers a home page music player (right up front), but in addition has some more flexibility for showcasing your band or as a WordPress theme for musicians.

Personal opinion here: I REALLY like this theme. I would easily choose this theme over some of the more complex themes unless they’re done really well, but that’s because I’m a sucker for minimalism.

Social media icons are immediately apparent which means your fans will be able to easily find the links to your social media profiles.

Difficulty: 3/10.

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3. Ovation

Ovation is a very unique theme that’s a small step up from Encore when it comes to complexity. Once again, it has a somewhat minimalistic design (don’t worry, I’ll be getting to the more maximalistic stuff as we go on)

It comes with the AudioTheme framework so you can manage music, gigs, videos, and other music stuff pretty easily, which is a bonus.

The overall feel of this theme is that there’s more going on in your website than there really is. The blocks alternating between text and images give you a certain mysterious vibe.

I would consider changing that white background to black (with white text) if you can manage it. You might need to know a little CSS to make it happen

Difficulty: 4.5/10. Utilizing the blocks throughout the site in an effective and creative way could prove difficult, but getting a basic site up (using very little of your brain) should not prove too difficult, though it will be a challenge if it’s your first site (like any theme would be).

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4. Nowell

Nowell isn’t too much harder than Ovation to put together, it’s reasonably classy and has a slider that’s extra tall on the home page (I would recommend using this).

I could see this being a top WordPress theme for a folk band, or any band related to a folk-type genre.

Notable features:

gig listings & gig filtering (view the “shows” page to see how this works)
really beautiful video player
nice full page photo lightbox
also includes audiotheme framework (like the Ovation theme)

Difficulty: 4.5/10. As with any theme, take the time to poke around and learn how the theme works. It’s not a “set it and it’s up” type of theme that you can finish today; it’s going to take a bit of time.

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5. Merchato

Merchato is quite the step up from the previous 4 themes because it integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce. That means that if you are planning to sell anything through your website (rather than send your fans to a third party retailer) this is likely going to be the best theme for you.

Whether it is your music, merchandise or a downloadable product, using a theme that is already set up to integrate with WooCommerce will make your life much easier.

Merchato also looks great with the option to use a mosiac or block grid of featured content on the homepage, alternating images with navigational blocks (check out the demo to see it in action).

In addition to the shop features (product pages, cart etc.) Merchato also has:

upcoming/past gigs page
discography page
single record pages
video library page
media-rich header (allows you to add a video in place of the header image on the homepage)
color and font customization

Difficulty: 6/10. The theme itself isn’t really much more difficult to use than Ovation or Nowell but you are going to have the WooCommerce plugin to become familiar with as well. The theme makes this as easy for you as possible but it does add to the overall difficulty of setting up the website. If you are selling products through your website you will also need to make sure you are using a reputable hosting company and have your site secured with a valid SSL certificate (which any decent web host provides free these days).

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6. Ironband

Now we’re moving into some more difficult territory. Ironband is a really full-fledged theme with some great home page options, and a whole lot more:

customizable color palette
album discography page
soundcloud integration
photo album filters (so you can have your audience see only photos from a specific show, or use some other method to categorize/filter your photos)
easy newsletter integration
multiple video listing formats
nice little boxes to put your contact information in (see the contact page)
smooth scrolling (FOR GOODNESS SAKE TURN THIS OFF!)

Difficulty: 6/10. I see Ironband as a no-nonsense kind of theme. There’s a certain amount of complexity in it, but all the aspects you see (music, videos, photos, news/blog) are all very necessary for a band website. It’s a good trade-off between my more minimalistic themes above, and the more complex themes below.

Note: Since Ironband has not been updated since August 2018 I would recommend choosing one of the wordpress themes for musicians listed above. Wordpress is constantly evolving and being updated, no more so than the past couple of months thanks to Gutenberg, so it would be better to opt for a theme that is continually updated to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress (the ones above are regularly updated).

7. Flycase

The biggest weakness about Flycase is that it has just TOO MANY options. It’s the type of theme that you’ll likely get a bit lost in, and will be referring to the demo site often in order to make “that particular element” that you saw possible.

Actually, I change my mind. The biggest weakness about flycase is that the demo band looks lame as nads. Look at those jerks on that front page, whadda buncha dinguses. I digress…

There are a whole lot of skins that I recommend you play with in the demo site (it’s on the right hand site). Most notable are the “transparency”, and the “dark/boxed” layouts.

The discography grid is actually really gorgeous, and each album’s individual page has a neat audio player, with options to buy the music on the website, or from Amazon/iTunes.

The theme also includes the revolution slider, which is a pretty simple and effective slider that you can put on nearly any page.

There’s a tour dates option, which is very professional looking and something I would feel reasonably comfortable buying tickets off of (you can just link to ticketmaster or wherever else you sell your tickets).

To summarize some of those options in a bulleted list (for you skimming readers):

multiple style skins
discography grid gorgeous
revolution slider included
“buy music” links
“tour dates” page
big tweet option (have your latest tweet displaying in a gigantic font on your site)

There’s also a login feature for…I have no idea at all. Who the heck wants to login to a band’s website? What are you going to do there, all logged in and such. You wanna update your relationship status on Katy Perry’s website?

Oh I get it, you can be like muse and only include 30 seconds of your tracks unless they “register” or “log in”.

Frick, don’t be a frickin dick. Just put a newsletter form on your website if you want some email addresses, no need to hold me hostage if I want to listen to more than a 30 second sample.

Uh, yeah, so don’t put any stock in that login feature. Good news is, you don’t have to use it at all.

Note: Flycase has not bee updated since July 2017 so I would recommend choosing a different theme until is it updated. WordPress has undergone some very big changes in the past few months and you want to make sure you choose a theme that is updated to handle those changes.

8. Muse

No, this theme is not a replica of the progressive space rock band’s website. I think it has something to do with BEING a muse; you can use this theme to show off what a deep thinker you are (*cough* douche *cough*).

I actually find that the demo site for Muse Shop is a bit messy, but once you get in there you can calm things down a bit.

For example, the recent news section is a bet of a mess but you can tweak your setting a bit to tidy that up. I would also recommend adjusting the color of the social media icons and some of the text as it all tends to blend into the background a bit.

Standout feature:

great shopping cart for selling merch and albums (seriously though, sell your albums on a paid distributor of some kind; fans are more likely to buy if you have it on iTunes, Amazon, or Bandcamp).

Difficulty: 7/10. Muse Shop is a theme with a very particular style that you’ll want to make sure fits your band’s image before you start using it. It will take a keen eye to keep the overwhelming amount of options in this theme from totally taking over the screen, and keeping your fan’s eyes on what’s important: the music.

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9. The X

This one is for someone who is willing to take on a big challenge, and really plunge into the “web building world”. If you’re just looking to get a site up and get a move on, then “The X” is NOT the theme for you.

The X is all about customization. It’s about being the most flexible Wordpress theme ever. And the more flexible your theme gets, the more complex it gets; you’re going to have to put some real effort and design work into creating a site that really reflects your band. It will require mad photoshop skills, and possibly some HTML/CSS knowledge.

Not to say that The X is a difficult theme to work with. What I’m saying, is that it isn’t going to hold your little baby hands (gosh those hands are small…AND soft, have you been moisturizing?) and just say “cut and paste here to get a great band website” like a lot of other themes do.

There are about 40 demo sites that they’ve made, which is very similar to having 30 different wordpress themes. If you click on “demo sites”, you can see 4 designs, each design having 10 different demos (making a total of 40 demos). For bands, I recommend the following demo sites as they make great WordPress templates for musicians:

Icon 5 (very cartoony)
Renew 2 (also very cartoonish)
Renew 5 (minimalistic with a left-hand sidebar)

I don’t really think any of their demos are completely suitable for a band site, but those 3 are the closest. They would probably work for some colorful electronic folk act or something along those lines.

Remember that the point of X is to create your own site. You need to have some creativity and put on your thinking cap. You’ll have to do the unthinkable and…

…actually come up with a design idea yourself.

The X makes it much easier to make that design idea a reality, but it takes work. It does have some superb documentation, and is one of the more popular themes on Themeforest at the moment.

Difficulty: 9/10. The bottom line is that this is the theme for someone who wants to go further with their band site. (Although you might be better off engaging the services of a website designer if you want something this complex – and sticking to what you do best!

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Get the Best Wordpress Band Theme

Any single one of the other options that I’ve listed on this page will give you a really professional presence that will far surpass any amateur musicians. Beyond that, you’d just need to learn to code or use dreamweaver, but that’s a pretty long term (not to mention professional) solution that should only be taken by those that really like web design.