The weblog system already provides an excellent infrastructure for the basic installation and can be easy extended with additional plugins or widgets, especially for musicians.

Finally, WordPress is just a weblog system. No, it is not. WordPress is one of the most powerful open-source editing systems on the Internet. But still say a few unbeatable arguments for WordPress:

• WordPress is easily installable and configurable

• WordPress is free open source

• WordPress is continuously programmed by professionals

• The WordPress community has a crowded arena with plugins

• There are thousands of free themes and layouts

The following plugins are of course for free!

Contact Form 7

Actually, every website needs a contact form. Even more important are contact forms for musicians and netlabels, they have to be reached yuickly and easily. If you want to have a functional, good working plugin you should choose Contact Form 7. It’s simple but flexible, also you can manage multiple contact forms. To be protected from Spam, the plugin supports Captcha, Akismet and more!

Download Contact Form 7

Podcast and Audio Streaming with PodPress

Astonished I stumble about the fact that many musicians’ websites doesn’t provide audio samples. Audio samples are one of the most important things on a artists website! No visitor wants to download something without having heard the music before. Therefore there is no way around the music plugin PodPress. Originally thought as a podcast plugin PodPress expanded blog entries quickly and easily with a form, enclosing a contribution which is for MP3s. All MP3s of an article are possible to build in an additional entry via Flash Player, so that visitors can quickly and easily play the songs and sounds. Service is everything, PodPress delivers it easy.

Download podPress for WordPress

Events Calendar

Events Calendar is a widget based plugin to keep track of your events. You can change settings in the admin section and add/delete your events.Events-Calendar is a versatile replacement for the original calendar included with WordPress adding many useful functions to keep track of your events. The plugin has an easy to use admin section that displays a big readable calendar and lets you add and delete events. At this moment, the developers are overworking the plugin to add more functions:)

Download Events-Calendar

GD Star Rating

I personally used GD Star Rating a little time to test it out. I really liked it, but for this blog it was not as good as it should be. There was no sense in it, but I think that GD Star Rating can be used on some other music sites in a good way. It’s extremly functionally and has a lot of things to set up. It allows you to customize the rating and review system for posts, pages and comments. You can turn it off on some pages, you can turn it on on some pages- great! Also there is a widget ready way to display results. The plugin can be used in different languages.

Download GD Star Rating

WP Double Opt-In List Management This plugin allows your visitors to subscribe to your blog. I use this plugin for Akon-Online as well, as you can see in my sidebar of the Homepage. When a user subscribes, the system sends a confirmation mail automaticly to the mail adress. If the user confirms his subscription, the plugin sends a welcome email to the new subscriber. You have the permission to change some fields, you can add fields, this makes the plugin a real highlight.

Download WP Double Opt-In List

WP e-Commerce

e-Commerce is a shop system for wordpress. It’s not some plugin, it is the best plugin in e-commerce. You can customize your plugin in a few minutes and set up your own store area on your website. You’re thinking of selling your own band shirts, ringtones or music? No problem! The payout collaborate with Google Checkout, Paypal, Authorize.net, Payment Express and many other trusted payment processors. You want to customize the design? Go and have a look at this great plugin.

Download WP e-Commerce

GigPress

GigPress is a powerful WordPress plugin designed for musicians and other performers. Manage all of your upcoming and past performances right from within the WordPress admin, and display them on your site using simple shortcodes, PHP template tags, or the GigPress widget on your WordPress-powered website.