As part of its ongoing mission to empower independent creators, Tornevall Networks now introduces ArtistStore – a WordPress-based hosting domain for musicians who need an official presence without the burden of managing their own domain. While the setup is currently manual, this launch continues the network’s broader initiative to offer artist-centric digital tools and services, now hosted under artiststore.se.
The Backstory – A Clash with Spotify
The Sonic Syndicate was initially described in this blog post as a collaborative project, but the real turning point came during a frustrating attempt to register an artist profile on Spotify. Tornevall discovered that Spotify behaved less like an artist support system and more like a record label with gatekeeping tendencies. Instead of allowing artists to join freely, Spotify requires identity verification, usually in the form of an official artist website.
“Spotify demands that you prove you’re who you claim to be” – and if you don’t already own a personal domain, the process comes to a grinding halt.
Tornevall clarifies that while he understands the intent – to protect artists from impersonation and fraudulent claims – the execution remains deeply frustrating.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. I get why they want to verify identity, but having to buy new domains every time I try to represent someone gets expensive fast – and frankly – really painful.”
The result? ArtistStore – a shared but personalized hosting solution designed to be a digital home for those artists left behind by verification bureaucracy. The frustration with Spotify’s inflexible requirements, documented in forums like Spotify Community, made it clear that an alternative was needed.
A Lightweight Alternative to Bandcamp
Unlike Bandcamp, which is heavily focused on music sales, ArtistStore is designed for presentation and promotion. Each artist gets a pre-configured WordPress site to serve as an EPK (electronic press kit), portfolio, or bio page – no sales functionality required. And we’ve added a few new templates that hopefully fits the needs for an artist to promote themselves.
“You can still sell merch via Bandcamp or another platform. ArtistStore is your digital press kit. Period”, says Tornevall. This alternative is just a kind of front page for artists, to make it easier to be seen.
Additional details about the broader philosophy and vision behind the project can be found on the Representation page.
How It Works
- Subdomain – each artist gets a .artiststore.se
- SSL and CDN – when registering a custom domain, we normally require DNS to be pointed to Cloudflare. This allows us to automate SSL provisioning using wildcard certificates through the Cloudflare API – everything hosted under artiststore.se. Note: if the artist manages DNS independently, our API-based automation won’t function, as we bulk-renew domains via Let’s Encrypt. This setup avoids the mess of self-signed certificates and ensures seamless, secure delivery globally. For artiststore.se, this is already taken care of. No self-signed certs or manual setup. This ensures secure, fast, and globally cached delivery with minimal hassle.
- Themes – by default, each WordPress site is provisioned with the standard ‘Twenty Twenty-Five’ theme. Artists are free to choose any other installed themes afterward, depending on their needs. A curated list of recommended themes – especially useful for artist profiles and promotional use – is published at wordpress.tornevall.net.
- Pricing – free for now, as the platform primarily exists to solve problems I’ve encountered myself. If demand increases, some cost may apply in the future to cover hosting and infrastructure – especially since things can get expensive fast if many artists join.
What’s Next
ArtistStore is already live and operational. While there’s no formal signup process at this stage, anyone interested in joining can reach out via the contact form at wordpress.tornevall.net/contact/.