Artist Websites in Velveteen

Build the website

1. 1

   Choose an artist

   Open Website in the dashboard and use the persistent Website artist selector to choose the artist whose profile and public releases should supply the site. The selection stays in the URL as you move between Website sections.
2. 2

   Choose catalog content

   Select a featured release, show the complete public discography or a selected set, and choose the album or release offered as a free download.
3. 3

   Upload website images

   Upload JPEG, PNG, or WebP files for the hero, artist portrait, and free download artwork. Images can be replaced or removed without pasting an external URL.
4. 4

   Set the design

   Choose Design in the editor toolbar to adjust fonts, colors, wordmark, pages, and homepage section order. On a phone, switch between full-width Edit and Preview panes.
5. 5

   Save or publish

   Save draft keeps the work private. Publish copies the current draft to the public site. A later draft does not change the public site until it is published again. The workspace labels Not started, Draft, Published, and Published with draft so the next action is explicit.

Use the Website workspace

1. 1

   Stay in one context

   Overview, Community, Store, One-sheets, EPK, CRM, Payments, Analytics, and Domains share the selected artist context. Use the Domains return link to come back without losing that artist.
2. 2

   Recover from a failed load

   If a Website section cannot load, it keeps the selected context and shows a plain-language error with a retry action instead of showing a false empty state.
3. 3

   Edit safely

   The editor shows whether work is saved, saving, or unsaved. Switching artists or exiting with unsaved changes opens a confirmation so a draft is not lost accidentally.
4. 4

   Review operational detail when needed

   Payments first answers whether fans can pay and shows balance and recent sales. Checkout blockers are separate from payout setup, and webhook or ledger diagnostics stay behind Advanced.

How free downloads work

The free download section delivers the selected release by email using Velveteen's secure download fulfillment. The release must belong to the artist and have its public release page enabled.

The free download is an artist mailing-list offer: the visitor joins the artist's email list and receives the selected release. The form explains that relationship before submission and records the acquisition source for the artist's audience CRM.

Fan accounts, community, and CRM

Anyone can open Community and read public posts without an account. A free artist fan account is needed only to react, comment, reply, vote, recover purchases and downloads, or carry supporter identity.

A new fan can use a secure email link or Google to create the free account; an existing identity may also sign in with its password. The session is bound to that artist and website hostname, does not grant Velveteen dashboard access, and does not expose another artist's audience.

The public Community page supports text, images, audio, video, polls, files, reactions, comments, replies, scheduled posts, pinned posts, and supporter-only posts. Fans with a paid one-time support payment or an active or trialing recurring membership can read supporter-only posts; free members continue to see public posts and interaction controls. Administrators manage the feed from Website, Community.

The fan account shows profile details, notifications, recurring supporter status, purchases, and available downloads. Website, Fans & contacts opens the canonical shared CRM while preserving a return link and the selected website context. The page clearly states that its contact list is not filtered by artist; new contacts default to the selected artist's email brand when available. Signing in or purchasing does not by itself create marketing consent.

Supporter payments and recurring memberships

Website settings, Payments & payouts lets an administrator choose an eligible artist administrator as the payment recipient, review the plan-based Velveteen fee, accept the payment authorization, and enable the site's one-time and monthly supporter checkouts. The artist does not need to create or connect a separate Stripe account.

A fan payment uses Velveteen's Stripe Checkout. After Stripe confirms a one-time payment or monthly invoice, the amount less the plan-based platform fee is credited to the selected recipient's existing Velveteen balance ledger. The recipient can request payout through the configured PayPal or Interac preference.

An active or trialing recurring membership is a durable supporter entitlement. Fans can open their artist account to review the membership and use Stripe's billing portal to update payment details or cancel. Refunds, disputes, cancellations, and out-of-order webhooks are reconciled idempotently.

Website, Payments shows publication, Supporters-section, authorization, service, recipient, seller, and payout readiness alongside balances and recent transactions. Payment and payout readiness are separate: checkout can be ready before a payout preference is complete.

A supporter-only Community post can always be saved as a draft. Publishing or scheduling stays unavailable until the Website is published, its Supporters section is live, payment authorization and service configuration are current, and the selected recipient is eligible. Existing locked posts never send visitors to an unavailable checkout.

Refund and dispute webhooks automatically reverse the corresponding artist balance credit. Duplicate and out-of-order Stripe deliveries are reconciled idempotently; an artist-site adjustment that arrives before settlement is retried instead of being silently discarded.

Sell digital products

A Coming soon product can collect availability requests without creating marketing consent. The product waitlist is separate from the artist mailing list and is used only for availability updates until the visitor gives any additional consent through a clearly described flow.

Administrators can see the waitlist count beside each product in Website, Store. Waitlist email addresses remain artist-scoped and are not exposed in the public store response.

1. 1

   Create the product

   Open Website, Store and add the title and public description. The Form sections control jumps in order through Product, Pricing & files, Presentation, and Review without hiding any entered values.
2. 2

   Upload fulfillment

   Upload the private product file before choosing Available. Public pages never expose the storage key; successful buyers receive a short-lived signed download.
3. 3

   Publish and sell

   Enable the Store page or homepage Store section and publish the website. Available products use the same payment recipient, authorization, plan fee, and balance ledger as supporter payments.
4. 4

   Recover purchases

   A signed-in fan can return to the artist account to see purchased releases and products and download fulfilled files again.

Create a release one-sheet

1. 1

   Start from the list

   Open Website, One-sheets to review existing pages. The editor stays out of the way until you select a one-sheet or choose New one-sheet.
2. 2

   Choose a release

   Starting from a catalog release is recommended because it prefills approved artwork and release facts. You can also start without a release for a general campaign.
3. 3

   Review and publish

   Complete the story and media, then choose Review to reach the contacts, listening links, search metadata, readiness notes, and final save or publish actions together.

Share an electronic press kit

Every published artist website includes an artist-branded /epk page. Before a custom EPK is published, that page is generated from the approved biography, facts, genres, press images, catalog releases, playable tracks, and Bandsintown connection used elsewhere on the site.

A published custom EPK keeps those artist and catalog relationships but lets an administrator choose the press-facing story, featured music, approved imagery, quotes, contacts, links, section visibility, and metadata. It includes artist-specific metadata and structured data and links approved images at full size for press use.

1. 1

   Open the EPK creator

   Choose the website once at the top of the Website workspace, then open EPK. That selected artist remains in context across sections.
2. 2

   Shape the press story

   Work through Basics, Music, Media, and Review one step at a time. Edit the biography, catalog selections, press assets, contacts, links, visibility, and search metadata while the private preview updates.
3. 3

   Save a draft

   Save draft keeps the current work private. If an artist has no custom published EPK yet, the public /epk page continues to use the catalog-generated version.
4. 4

   Publish when ready

   Publish replaces the public EPK for that artist with the saved revision. Unpublish removes the custom version while retaining the draft for later editing.

Domains and publishing

Every published site has a built-in {artist}.artists.velveteen.fm address. Open Domains from the Website workspace to see that address and the selected artist's optional custom domain before the shared domain inventory. Confirm public DNS before assigning a custom hostname.

A domain assignment and a website publication are separate actions. Assigning the domain chooses where the site can appear. Publishing chooses which saved configuration the public site renders.

Published artist hostnames serve their own robots policy and sitemap containing only that artist's public pages and albums. Album detail pages use the visitor-facing /albums/{slug} path; older /releases/{slug} links permanently redirect there so shared links keep working. Velveteen dashboard, guide, news, and catalog URLs are never advertised through an artist domain.

Measure website activity

Website analytics are available to administrators from Website, Analytics. Velveteen's native view begins collecting anonymous page, session, source, device, country, and interaction data only after a visitor accepts optional analytics cookies. Top pages combine query variants and never show query strings, fragments, checkout session IDs, API routes, or framework assets.

Google Analytics is optional and remains a separate reporting source. An administrator supplies the artist's GA4 web-stream Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX), and the published artist site loads that tag only after visitor consent. Velveteen does not request Google account access or Analytics scopes.

Native and Google totals are labeled separately because their consent rules, session definitions, attribution, filters, and reporting delays can produce different numbers.