This site runs on Klonkt — a lightweight platform that lets a musician build their own place on the internet: blog, music and audience on your own domain, with no algorithm or ads in between.

Below is an honest overview of what it can and can't do. (This is a demo, so feel free to look around.)

What it can do

  • Own domain & own data — you're the owner. No platform in between, no ads, no algorithm deciding who hears you.
  • Blog & updates — short notes and longer stories, with a cover image, tags and the option to pin a post to the top.
  • Host your own music — a built-in player with individual tracks, albums and playlists. No bare download link: the audio is deliberately hard to grab.
  • Embeds in your own style — YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify appear as tidy cards in your style, instead of raw platform iframes.
  • Fediverse — your posts federate over ActivityPub: people on Mastodon (or another Klonkt) can follow, like, boost and reply, and you get a home timeline + notifications. Visitors like a post straight from their own fediverse account with the ⭐.
  • Themes & colors — adjust the look so the site is truly yours.
  • Installable (PWA) — visitors can add the site as an app on their phone or desktop.
  • Roles — a password-protected admin and a read-only "viewer" role to let someone look along.
  • Circles — connect your site with other Klonkt sites and show each other's latest posts, decentralized and without a central platform or algorithm. You stay on your own site while browsing, and you decide who's in your circle.
  • Solo or circles — run it as a single artist, or link up with other makers through Circles (federation, no central platform).
  • Light & fast — no heavy frills; loads quickly, on mobile too.

New: grow your audience

The latest round of updates is all about direct contact with your fans — things you'd normally need Bandcamp, Linktree or Mailchimp for, now in your own site:

  • Mailing list & newsletter — fans sign up, you send updates straight to their inbox.
  • Download-for-email — give a track away for free in exchange for an email address; your list grows by itself.
  • Link-in-bio — one tidy page with all your platforms (Spotify, Bandcamp, Insta…), including click statistics.
  • Press kit (EPK) — a shareable press page with bio, top tracks and booking contact, ready for press and bookers.
  • Agenda — your shows in a row with ticket links and a "notify me" button for fans.
  • Release scheduling — schedule a post or track to go live automatically on the release date.
  • Embeddable player — put your music with your own player in an <iframe> on any other site.
  • Statistics — cookie-free and without a banner: visitors, views, where they come from and your most popular tracks.

What to keep in mind

  • You host it yourself — you need hosting/a server and a bit of technical know-how (or someone to set it up). In return you get full control.
  • You bring your own audience — there's (not yet) a central discovery network that brings in new listeners. No algorithm also means: no free reach.
  • "Hard to grab" isn't watertight — you can make audio hard to download; protecting it 100% isn't possible. That's true for any website with sound.
  • Spotify embeds — you can control them but not fully restyle them; Spotify's own player stays visible.
  • Ad blockers — may block YouTube/SoundCloud/Spotify embeds; the site then falls back neatly to a plain player.
  • Email needs your own setup — for things like password reset you connect your own mail provider.
  • Circles is pull, not a live feed — other sites are fetched periodically (about every quarter of an hour), not in real time, and it's deliberately asymmetric: you choose who you follow, regardless of what they do.
  • No app in the stores — installable as a PWA, but not via the App Store or Play Store.
  • Maintenance is on you — you handle backups and updates yourself (security updates do come in automatically).

In short: Klonkt trades the convenience and reach of a big platform for ownership, control and a site that's truly yours. If that fits you, you're in the right place.