Goldmaster is a free, MIT-licensed Hugo theme on GitLab for music artists, DJs, and creators, generating a responsive static site with discography, news, side projects, and photo gallery sections.
What is Goldmaster?
Goldmaster is a Hugo theme created by the GitLab user Goldmaster, designed to build a static, responsive website for musicians and creative professionals. It takes Hugo content files in markdown and configuration from hugo.toml as input, and produces a complete static site with sections for news, discography, side projects, and photo galleries. The theme integrates with the MusicBrainz API for release metadata and the Internet Archive for cover art, and is released under the MIT Licence.
Key Features
- Responsive design — The theme adapts to desktop, tablet, and mobile viewports, with styles that work without a separate mobile site.
- Automatic dark mode — CSS media queries detect the visitor's system color scheme and switch between light and dark themes automatically.
- MusicBrainz discography — A Node.js script fetches release data from the MusicBrainz API and cover art from Archive.org, then creates a filterable discography grid saved to
static/data/discography.json. - Multiple content layouts — Includes a homepage grid, a microblogging-style news/blog layout, a two-level side-projects structure, and photo galleries with a lightbox effect.
- Breadcrumb navigation — Automatically generated breadcrumbs help visitors move through nested content sections.
- SEO friendly output — Hugo automatically generates a sitemap and RSS feeds for the site.
- Custom 404 page — The "Not Found" page integrates with the Wayback Archive to show historical snapshots of missing URLs.
- Federated social verification — Automatically adds
rel="me"attributes to Mastodon, Flipboard, Tumblr, and similar links when configured, supporting Mastodon domain verification and author attribution. - Privacy-friendly analytics — Optional GoatCounter integration is enabled by setting a code in
hugo.toml, and the tracking script is only loaded when a code is present.
Who is it for?
- Musicians and DJs — publish a discography that pulls release metadata and cover art from MusicBrainz, and announce tours or new music through the news layout.
- Developers and creators — showcase side projects in a two-level structure and keep a personal site without managing a separate CMS.
- Photographers — build photo galleries with lightbox viewing by adding markdown files to content folders.
- Anyone on the Fediverse — set your Mastodon or other federated profile URLs in
hugo.tomlto receive automaticrel="me"verification links for domain confirmation.
What can you do with Goldmaster?
- Music artists: maintain a filterable discography grid, display release artwork from Archive.org, and share posts with AddToAny buttons.
- Bloggers: write microblogging-style news posts in markdown and get automatic RSS and sitemap outputs.
- Site owners: add privacy-friendly GoatCounter analytics by setting a single code parameter in the theme configuration.
- Photographers: publish photo galleries with lightbox viewing by placing markdown files in
content/photos/subdirectories.
How does Goldmaster work?
The theme combines Hugo's static site generation with external data sources: a Node.js script fetches release data from MusicBrainz and cover art from Archive.org, then writes a JSON file that the theme renders as a discography grid. Content is added as markdown files in content directories, and configuration lives in hugo.toml with menus for navigation and footer links. To install, clone the theme into your Hugo site's themes directory, set theme = "goldmaster", and run hugo server to test locally.
Pros and cons
- Pros: Free and open-source under the MIT Licence, so there are no licensing fees and the code can be modified.
- Cons: The README states support is best-effort only, so fixes are not guaranteed.
- Cons: The discography feature requires Node.js and a MusicBrainz artist ID, and the fetch script should be run at most once per week to respect the free API.
Pricing
Goldmaster is free. It is released under the MIT Licence, and no paid tiers or premium features are mentioned.
FAQ
Is Goldmaster free?
Yes, the theme is released under the MIT Licence, so it is free to use, modify, and distribute, including for commercial projects.
Does Goldmaster require a CMS?
No, it runs on Hugo, a static site generator. You write content as markdown files, and Hugo builds the entire site. There is no database or admin panel.
How do I add my discography?
You need a MusicBrainz artist ID, create a configuration file named discography.config.json at the site root, and run node themes/goldmaster/static/js/fetch-discography.js. The script fetches releases and cover art, then generates the discography data file.
Can I customize the theme?
Yes. The README recommends copying any theme file into your site's layouts directory and editing it there, such as layouts/partials/header.html. This keeps your changes separate from the theme and makes future updates simpler.
Does Goldmaster support Google Analytics?
No, it uses GoatCounter, a privacy-friendly analytics service. The tracking script is only added when you set a GoatCounter code in hugo.toml.
