Are you an artist and how often do you use Wikipedia? If the answer is not at all or only a little, then this article will help you understand why you need to engage with it more. We will weigh in on the pros and cons of Wikipedia for musicians, how to set up your own page, and what are the notability criteria to ensure you are verified to create a page. There are plenty of artists who use this encyclopaedic platform to good use, so why not join them? Keep reading for all the best tips!
Why As An Artist, Wikipedia Is Important
The purpose of the page for artists is that the information is accurate so people can find out everything about you and your music. In short, the accuracy of the page is vital as usually, these pages will be at the top of Google rankings for people to search for your band, or you as a solo artist.
The better you are at creating an interesting Wikipedia page as an artist, it is a useful promotional tool for your music. You can even see how many views per month your page receives, so you really do need to spend some time on it and keep it up-to-date as much as possible.
Creating a Wikipedia page for a musician will start with a little blurb about the artist, a biography if you will. The better known the artist, and the longer they have been around, the longer the Wikipedia page will be. For example, Adele or Coldplay’s page will include much more content than someone who may be an emerging artist.
However, both share the same amount of meaning to a fan searching for info on their favourite artist at that moment. An example of an artist whose Wikipedia has now probably gotten more traction in the last few years is someone called Emily Bear, part of the duo Barlow & Bear. Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow created the sensation that is The Unofficial Bridgerton Album after the Netflix show and has won a Grammy due to their talent.
I’m sure there are plenty of fans researching the personal lives of Emily now on Wikipedia, who has been performing since she was 5 years old. Her first performance was at the Ravinia Festival at 5 years old as a pianist. I got that info from her Wikipedia page, so there you have it, you learn something new every day thanks to the encyclopedic platform.
The wiki page will most likely include the following on the right side of the page:
In the main part of the wiki page, it will follow a similar pattern, but it can change depending on the artist of course:
- Early Life
- Musical Style
- Discography
- Public image and personal life
- Tours
- Extra occupations (if you are an actor, or songwriter as well as an artist, it would be preferable to add it here)
If you want to know how to successfully create a Wikipedia for artists, then you need to follow these steps.
Fans want to know the discography of an artist, when they toured back in 2018, or where they were born and went to school to feel close to the artist.
Wikipedia’s Notability Criteria
There are certain guidelines that need to be followed if you want to know how to get a Wikipedia page. These are relevant to musicians or ensembles, which include; bands, singers, rappers, orchestras, DJs, musical theatre groups, and instrumentalists.
Wikipedia can be quite formidable when it comes to who they allow creating pages on their platform. For example, someone who did not fit the criteria a few years ago will now be eligible as music tastes have changed. In the instance of Frisco, a rapper who specialized in grime had his page deleted and blocked due to the fact that back in 2008, it wasn’t as popular as it is now.
He has now released more albums and people love this genre of music, so his page is more established and is racking up more views per month.
Wikipedia asks that artists meet at least one of the following official criteria:
- Has been the subject of multiple, non-trivial, published works appearing in sources that are reliable, not self-published, and independent of the musician or ensemble itself.
- Has had a single or album on any country’s national music chart.
- Has had a record certified gold or higher in at least one country.
- Has received non-trivial coverage in independent reliable sources of an international concert tour, or a national concert tour in at least one sovereign country.
- Has released two or more albums on a major record label or on one of the more important indie labels (i.e., an independent label with a history of more than a few years, and with a roster of performers, many of whom are independently notable).
- Is an ensemble that contains two or more independently notable musicians, or is a musician who has been a reasonably prominent member of two or more independently notable ensembles.
- Has become one of the most prominent representatives of a notable style or the most prominent of the local scene of a city.
- Has won or been nominated for a major music award, such as a Grammy, Juno, Mercury, Choice or Grammys award.
- Has won first, second or third place in a major music competition.
- Has performed music for a work of media that is notable, e.g., a theme for a network television show, performance in a television show or notable film, or inclusion on a notable compilation album.
- Has been placed in rotation nationally by a major radio or music television network.
- Has been a featured subject of a substantial broadcast segment across a national radio or TV network.
These guidelines were created by Wikimedia Foundation which owns wikipedia.org, and bring ‘free educational content to the world’.
How To Make A Wikipedia Page For An Artist
So, how do you actually put yourself on Wikipedia? First things first, you need to gain verification for your page.
- To get a Wikipedia artist page, you can create an account, which will be at the top right-hand corner of the Wikipedia page. You will then enter all your basic info and choose a relevant name as a Wikipedia artist. You can be notified whenever anybody views your page as well if you choose to do this. We would recommend this to stay updated.
- The title of the Wikipedia page needs not to already exist and needs to be unique. So what you need to do is ensure you click on the red-coloured link which means it is unused. Once you have done this, you will be taken to a blank page, whereby you write any text you feel is necessary for your music and this can include images as well of course.
- The final job is to click on the Publish Changes button and there you have it, you have created a Wikipedia page!
Pros and Cons of Wikipedia
Pros
Easy Use – In terms of creating a Wikipedia page for a person, in terms of an artist, Wikipedia is so easy to use, it is nicely organized and can be updated efficiently, at any time. Therefore, it has a proven success rate amongst musicians. As I have mentioned before, people want information fast nowadays and it has the infrastructure to provide this to any fan of the artist they are researching.
Wide access – it is widely accessible to everybody around the globe, and for any artist who may have their own website, this can be easily shared as a link on Wikipedia.
Another pro of creating a wiki page as an artist is that it is completely free.
Cons
However, it would be remiss of us not to mention the weaknesses of the platform as well as the pros.
Vandalisation – even if you have created a Wikipedia page for yourself, anybody can edit this if they are a guest editor or those with registered accounts, and may create false content on your behalf as a hoax. There have been examples in the past of people saying that an artist has died when it is clearly not to be the case. So I would advise that you create a fully-protected page which is edited only by accounts that meet certain age and activity thresholds or administrators respectively.
Audience – Your audience will vary and you don’t entirely know the readership demographic, but as an artist, it will be beneficial to make the content as general as possible, so you can reach as many fans as possible. Remember it is not an academic piece of work at the end of the day.
Closing Thoughts
So do you think you know how to get a Wikipedia page for your band, and how to create a page from scratch now, then what are you waiting for? We have given you all the basic info to be able to do this, so just wait for those page views to keep rising and carry on making music and doing what you love.
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