Musician Website Design With a 3D Record You Can Spin

Good musician website design does one job first. It gets a fan to press play. Then it gets them to come back. This week I built a music artist website for a job post on Upwork. The artist wanted a site that felt like their music, not a page of links. This post shows what went into it, what broke, and how I fixed it.

What the artist asked for

The post was short and clear. The artist wanted a site that felt immersive, like a reference site they sent. They asked for 3D visuals, custom animation, smooth scrolling and a discography. They also wanted music players, videos and a site that works on a phone.

They did not name the artist. So I used a working name and labeled the songs, videos and show dates as samples. A demo with an invented artist must say so on the page.

Start from the reference site

I read the reference site before I wrote a line of code. It used big rounded cards stacked on a dark red background. Each card slides up over the one before it. The first screen was a grainy night photo of the artist, with the name large and glowing.

The reference had almost no motion. It was a still photo and some tabs. The artist asked for 3D and motion, so I kept the reference's structure and added the motion on top. The client's structure stays. The craft goes on top of it.

The 3D record

The first screen has a real 3D vinyl record floating over the night photo. I built it with Three.js. The record is a flat cylinder with groove lines drawn on a texture, and the latest album cover is the label.

It does three things:

• It tilts toward your mouse.
• You can grab it and spin it.
• It spins faster as you scroll down the page.

A metal surface needs something to reflect, or it looks gray and flat. My first version looked exactly like that. I added a soft room reflection, and the grooves started to shine like a real record.

If a phone cannot run WebGL, the site shows the album cover instead. Nobody sees an empty box.

A band website with discography tabs

Most music sites list releases in one long column. Fans have to scroll past every single to find the album. This band website with discography has three tabs: EPs, Albums and Singles. Each release shows the cover, the tracklist, the release date and links to listen.

Each release is its own item in the WordPress dashboard. The artist adds a new single in one screen, and it appears in the right tab. They never touch code.

The album covers tilt toward your mouse and catch a small shine. It is a small effect, and it makes the covers feel like objects you can pick up.

Music players and videos

The first screen has a Spotify player in a glass box with "Listen on" icons for Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube and Instagram. A green card further down has a huge blurred copy of the newest cover. That blur moves slowly with your mouse.

The videos section has two players. The show dates are drawn as ticket stubs, each with a Tickets button that can link to the venue's ticket page.

The fan list

The last card is a join form with first name and email. It saves each fan to the WordPress dashboard, so the artist owns the list. I tested it with a real name and email, saw the entry in the dashboard, and deleted it.

What broke on phones

I check every site at phone width before I call it done. My QA partner checks it again on the live site. He found a problem I missed.

On a phone 390 pixels wide, the show dates were cut off on the left. "NOV" read as "OV". The cause was the animation that slides each ticket in from the left. It finished its run, but it ended 60 pixels short of where it should be. So each ticket sat partly off the screen.

The fix was to give the animation an exact end point, and to stop a CSS hover effect from fighting it. After the fix, every ticket sat inside the screen, from 20 to 355 pixels. Nothing scrolled sideways. He checked it again and passed it.

This is why I test the live site and not only my own computer. A fix is only done when someone has looked at the real page.

What a musician website should have

Here is the list I build from:

Part	Why it matters
Play button in the first screen	Fans came to hear the music
Discography by type	Fans find the album fast
Release items in the dashboard	The artist adds music with no code
Show dates with ticket links	One tap from the date to the ticket
Fan email list	The artist owns the list, not a platform
Phone check at 390 pixels	Most fans arrive on a phone
A fallback for 3D	Old phones still see the cover

Is 3D website design worth it for a musician?

3D website design is worth it when it fits the music and does not hide the play button. One object is enough. A record you can spin says "music" faster than any headline. A page full of moving shapes makes fans wait and drains phone batteries.

I keep the 3D to one object, cap its quality on phones, and keep the text in calm places where nothing moves behind it.

Questions people ask

What should a musician website include?

Put a way to play the music in the first screen. Add a discography, show dates with ticket links, and videos. Give fans a way to join a mailing list, and show your social links.

Can I update my music website myself?

Yes. On a WordPress website for musicians, each release, show and video can be its own item in the dashboard. You add a new single in one screen, and it appears on the site.

Does a 3D website work on phones?

It can. Keep the 3D to one object and lower its quality on phones. Show a still image when the phone cannot run it. Then test it on a real phone width before launch.

Do I need my own website if I have Spotify and Instagram?

Those platforms own your audience. A website with a fan email list lets you reach fans directly when you release music or announce a show.

If you are a musician or a band and want a site like this, tell me about your project. You can see other sites I have built on my work page. Hosting is available too, on managed hosting.