Create a Music Review Website that Pays You Back

Do you want to create a website to write song reviews and review music albums? Want to create a music blog?  Wondering how to create a music website? In this article, we will cover how to create a music website with WordPress and how to review misc in your blog.

A music review site will have review content such as Album reviews, Live music reviews, Music festival reviews, and also other music-related content such as Latest music releases, Album release dates, Artist interviews, etc., Could also have some guides like Vinyl guides, Best songs for the season guides and some more.

Best Music Review websites – 2023

If you’re looking for a site to give your ratings to the music you like, you can do it in any of these sites. Here’s a list of best music review sites. In this article, we will talk about how to create review sites like them. They review music albums of all genres.

1) Pitchfork

It’s a very popular music review site. The difference of Pitchfork from other music review sites is that other sites only review full albums but Pitchfork reviews even individual songs. So you can save your time spent on the full album and focus on a song of your preference.

PitchFork is so popular that there is a post called “The Best Music Blogs That Aren’t Pitchfork” that trended in Reddit. I suggest that if you want a PitchForm alternative you can easily create it yourself.

2) NME

It’s another popular music review site, which reviews popular music albums. They also have other type albums and songs listings such as Halloween songs, 80’s songs, Best albums of 2023, etc., This site also has some other news content in the Entertainment industry.

3) AllMusic

As the name suggests, this site has reviews of “All Music”. It is a very systematic music review site, where you can find the best music based on Name, Release date, Genre, and Ratings. The great thing about the AllMusic review site is that it allows users to give ratings and reviews of the music albums.

4) MetaCritic

MetaCritic is a very popular review aggregator, which aggregates reviews from all the review sites. It not only has music reviews, but also has other reviews such as movie reviews, TV shows, Games, and more.

The good thing about MetaCritic is that it allows for user review, where any logged-in users can write a review. You can see and compare the over-all Critic score and User score for all the music albums.

5) Album of the Year

It is another review aggregator like Metacritic but it only has music-related content. Besides the music reviews, it also has other music content like Best Albums of the Years (2023 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, etc,),  New album releases, and latest music news.

You can create a review website just like these popular sites with the solution in this article.

Genre Based Music Review sites

If you think the music review sites are a crowded market, then you can split them into more specific niches. You can create a music review site for different genres such as Rock, Metal, Indie, Classical, Electronic, Independent, Ambient, etc.,

Also, you can create a location-based music review site such as Best Music on USA, UK, Australia, etc.,

1. Indie Rock Cafe (Hip music)
2. Robert Christgau (America Rock)
3. Dancing Astronaut (Electronic Music)
4. EarMilk (Hip-Hop and Electronic)

Also See: the best product review sites in the world

Creating a Music Review Site

Before you move on to creating a website, you need to know what features a music review website needs. So that you can decide what features your own music review site will have.

Features of a Music Review website

Here’s a list of features you one would expect in a music review website.

1. Author review – the author can post a review post with a detailed review of the song / album, along with a rating score.
2. Embedding music – should be able to embed the music which is being reviewed on the post. Could be embedded with iTunes, SoundCloud or other streaming services
3. Multiple criteria rating– ratings should be given for multiple criteria and a cumulative score (average) should be seen. You can add different songs as multiple criteria and rate each song individually. You will get an average cumulative score.
4. User ratings and reviews – users should be able to rate and review the songs/albums
5. Submit Music – users can submit new songs and albums that they want to be reviewed, mostly for a cost
6. Top 10 lists – create a Top 10 list of songs and albums based on their ratings

Monetizing Methods of a Music Review website

You can create a music review site that pays you back. There are multiple sources of income such as:

1. Get affiliate commissions by posting referral links of the music albums which are reviewed. iTunes has a good Affiliate program that you can join.
2. Write sponsored reviews of new albums and get paid to review music on your site.
3. Display ads on your site.
4. Add Featured music on your lists.

Creating a Music Review site with WordPress

WordPress CMS is a  beginner-friendly software to create any type of website. It provides some powerful tools for creating a music review site. You mainly need 2 tools for creating a WordPress music review site.

1) StarCat Reviews plugin

StarCat Reviews plugin converts a normal site into a review site.  It is a user-friendly tool that provides your website, a high performing review system. It comes with all the necessary review features such as Author review, User review, Multiple review criteria, Top 10 lists, etc.,

You can earn affiliate commissions from iTunes and other music providers.

With this plugin, you can easily create review posts with Star ratings. When people search for song /album review your post will be seen on Google search results with a star rating which will bring more traffic to your review site.

Also see: the best WordPress review plugins

2) Blubrry PowerPress plugin

When writing a music review post you much include the songs into your post. The song could be from popular music streaming site such as iTunes, SoundCloud, etc.,

The PowerPress plugin is a free tool that helps to embed the songs from these streaming sites into your review site. You can also upload music files such as MP3, WAV files, etc., which will also be played by this plugin.

When you combine both these plugins, you can create a powerful music review site with modern design and appearance equal to that of all the popular music review sites.

Also see: the best WordPress themes for Podcasts sites

Creating a Pitchfork Clone Review Site

You can create a music review site just like Pitchfork, can even create a site better than Pitchfork. Music review sites like Pitchfork also have the latest news related to the world of music like the interview with artists, music festivals events, etc.,

To include this functionality you can use a free News / Magazine WordPress theme such as the NewsCard theme to give your site modern and minimalistic looks.

Then you can use both StarCat reviews plugin and PowerPress plugin for the reviews and song playing. Thus you will have a great music review site that has great looks like Pitchfork.

Creating a User Review Site like Metacritic

The important feature of MetaCritic and Album of the Year review sites is the ability for users to give ratings and reviews of songs and albums.

StarCat reviews plugin has an excellent review system that allows for users to give ratings and reviews. Both the Author and the Users can give reviews and people can see them side by side. It would be like Critic opinion Vs. the public opinion.

So what you think? Are you ready to create your music review site? Do you have any questions? Share with us in the comments section.