Backline

Free, self-hosted CMS for bands and solo artists

Shows. Records. Merch. Press. Two folders.

Backline runs your band's whole website from one folder of PHP and one folder of JSON. Shows, the store and the press kit are the product, not add-ons.

Get Backline See what it does
What you have to maintain Turned all the way down
0 Databases
0 Build steps
0 Plugins
0 Composer packages

01 / Show calendar

Fans subscribe once.

Every published show lands in their calendar with the venue address, map location, the rest of the bill and age limits. Change a show and subscribers get the update automatically.

webcal://yourband.com/shows.ics

The Ghost Notes at The Copper Room

8:00 PM

214 E Monroe St, Springfield, IL With Night Bus Ages: 21+

yourband.com/press

The Ghost Notes

Bios Hi-res photos Stage plot (PDF) Tech rider (PDF) One-sheet (PDF) Video and streaming
"Live, The Ghost Notes turn a Tuesday bar crowd into a choir."
Left of the Dial Weekly

02 / Press kit

Send one link to the booker.

Bios, downloadable photos, stage plot, tech rider, one-sheet, video, streaming links and press quotes, all at one address. It prints cleanly too.

03 / Store

Sell merch. Skip the plugin.

PayPal checkout, sizes and stock, a cart, and a queue that shows what still needs to ship. A bandmate with an editor login can post shows without touching any of it.

Orders

To shipFulfilledCancelledAll
Sleeping City — Vinyl LP$25.00Paid
Ghost Notes Logo Tee, Medium$20.00Paid
First Light — CD$10.00Paid
data/ shows/show-upcoming-1.json releases/ products/ venues/ uploads/ galleries/ press/
"venue_id": "the-copper-room", "time": "20:00", "age": "21+", "status": "published"

04 / Your data

Back up by copying.

Every record is a JSON file you can open in a text editor. There's no database to set up, and it runs on inexpensive Apache or LiteSpeed shared hosting.

Examples use The Ghost Notes, the fictional band that comes with Backline as optional sample content.

Also in the case

Releases and retailers

Your discography, plus the stores that carry it.

Photos and videos

Galleries, and embeds from YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify and Apple Music.

Lyrics and radio

Optional pages that stay hidden until you publish something.

Owner and editor roles

Bandmates manage content. Only owners reach the store and settings.

32 looks, no code

Mix 4 palettes, 4 heading fonts and 2 header layouts, then add your logo and hero image.

Custom themes

Build your own from the theme guide, then install or export it from the admin.

Backup and restore

Download a zip from the admin. A fresh install can restore one during setup.

Search and sharing

SEO settings, Open Graph tags and optional Google Analytics.

A security model you can read

No default passwords, CSRF checks on every change, checked uploads and a datastore blocked from the web.

Load in. Plug in. Play.

  1. 1

    Copy the files

    Upload Backline to your web host with FTP or your host's file manager.

  2. 2

    Open two folders

    Make data and uploads writable by your web server.

  3. 3

    Create your account

    Visit your site, set up the owner login, and start with sample content if you like.

Needs PHP 8.2+ and Apache with mod_rewrite, or LiteSpeed.

Built narrow on purpose.

Backline does a band's website and nothing else. If you need any of these, another tool will serve you better.

  • No blog or mailing list
  • PayPal is the only payment option
  • No digital downloads or complex shipping rules
  • No drag-and-drop page builder
  • No plugins, by design
  • No email password reset
  • Not for music distribution or link-in-bio pages
  • Self-hosted only, so you'll need a web host

Free. Yours. Forever.

MIT licensed, with no subscription and nothing to renew. Your content stays in files you already own.

Get it on GitHub