One of the things I love most about what we do at MBD is that we’re pretty industry agnostic.
One week we’re working with a nonprofit. The next we’re helping a growing business improve its digital marketing. Then we’ll find ourselves building a website for a touring band getting ready for an album release.
That’s part of what keeps the work interesting.
We’re also pretty bespoke in how we approach our clients. We believe in best practices, but every business doesn’t fit into the same process. We spend time getting to know the people we’re working with because the better we understand them, the better solution we can build.
That’s why we never really decided to specialize in the music industry.
In fact, if you had asked me five years ago whether we’d be building websites for touring artists, I probably would’ve been surprised.
But somewhere along the way, one project became another.
One Project Became Another
It all started with a good friend over at Handwritten Records who needed a website for one of their artists.
That first project was for Mustard Service, and we had a blast working on it. Since then, we’ve redesigned their website a couple of times as the band has continued to grow. Every new album, merch drop, or announcement creates another opportunity to improve the experience.
From there, one artist became two.
We did a redesign for Jean Dawson and managed paid media campaigns on Google and then Meta to increase streams for different artists. We had the opportunity to work with Myles Lloyd and his team. More recently, we redesigned the Senses Fail website under some pretty tight deadlines ahead of a major announcement. We also have a few more artist projects on the horizon that we’re excited about.
None of that happened because we decided to become a music agency.
It happened because we kept getting introduced to the next project.
Artist Websites Solve a Different Problem
One thing I’ve learned from working with artists is that they don’t use their websites the same way most businesses do.
For a typical business, the website is often responsible for attracting visitors through search engines, educating potential customers, and generating leads.
Artists are different.
In many cases, they already have their SEO.
Their audience is coming from Instagram, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, or wherever they’re asking, “Should I drop this?” Social media is the engine.
The website becomes an extension of it.
Instead of trying to compete with those platforms, we’ve started thinking about artist websites as digital hubs. One place where fans can find tour dates, merchandise, streaming platforms, videos, social media, and everything else surrounding that artist.
The website brings everything together.
Adapting Our Process
That realization changed the way we approach these projects.
We start with whatever story the artist is already telling.
The album artwork often influences the design. A new release becomes the visual direction. Tour announcements shape the homepage. Merch drops become featured content.
The website evolves alongside the artist.
That also means every project comes with its own challenges. Sometimes managers have changed and nobody knows where the hosting account lives. Sometimes passwords are missing. Sometimes we’re working against a release date that simply can’t move.
That’s just part of the process.
The goal is always the same.
Build something that feels like a natural extension of the artist and have it ready when it matters most.
The Bigger Lesson
Working with artists has reinforced something I’ve believed for a long time.
Every industry has different needs.
The mistake is assuming every client needs the same solution.
The reason we’ve enjoyed these projects so much isn’t that they’re in the music industry.
It’s because they challenged us to adapt our process instead of asking the client to adapt to ours.
That’s really what bespoke work is.
Whether we’re managing a Google Ad Grant for a nonprofit, designing content for a growing business, or developing a website for an independent artist, we start in the same place.
We try to understand what success looks like for them.
Everything else is built from there.
