I have Soundcloud why do I need a website? Great question. Music Sites like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, etc are a great way for an artist starting out to share music and start building fans but the more involved you get with this music and the bigger your portfolio get's you're going to need a website. A website is your center point. It is all things you. Not that soundcloud and other music sites aren't good platforms because they are. I even use them! But a website is your home! I know many of you are just starting out and you don't even know where to begin but that's ok. As I have said before. I'm here to help. In this Blog I'll share to you the benefits of your own website. Let's Go! Benefits of your own website.
1.You keep all your money: Since this Blog is primarily about making money as an Independent Artist let me start here. When you build your own website or have one built the first thing you're going to do is add your original music. You can set your own prices and add your paypal account to the site as well. On most websites you keep 100% of your profits. Whereas sites like Bandcamp they take a percentage. On Reverbnation and Soundcloud you can link a buy link to your song and what better link to have your fans go to than to your own website. Also, while you're waiting on those royalty payments from those Radio Plays and Distribution sites you always have your website.
2. Professionalism: If you're at the stage where you are starting to network with a lot of people and you are starting to need business cards you need a website. Adding a website to your business card is much more professional than adding your facebook page. People looking to book you will be much more impressed and you will be taken more seriously.
3. Domain Name: One of my favorite things about having my very own website is having my own domain name. Your website is the building of your brand. Your name is your brand. Nothing is better than telling people to visit yourname.com for all updates about you. It's short simple and sweet. To get your own domain name simply go to www.godaddy.com and do a search to see if the domain you want is available. Trust me it's worth it and you won't spend more than $15 for just the name it self. Keep in mind there are other features that can be added that will boost the price. But if you just want yourname.com be sure you pay attention to what is checked already before you hit checkout.
4. Email Lists: You may not care now but the more music you make and the more you start to do as an artist you're going to meet a lot of people. These people are going to want to keep up with you. Let's hope you have business cards or something tangible with your information to handout to fans. If you do many will add you on social media. This is great but the problem with Social Media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is that your posts aren't seen as often as you want them to be seen. To bypass this you build an email list. With this email list you send your fans updates about your shows and music releases. Your email list can be joined on your personal website.
5. All of your links are in one place: Many artists have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Soundcloud, Reverbnation, Bandcamp and many other sites that they use to engage and grow their audiences. When you have your own website you can add these social links to the website. When your visitors visit your site all they have to do is click the social icon or tab for each one and they can easily have access to you on all social media.
6. Tour Dates: You can connect your tour dates. I mean of course you can just use Bandsintown and share it to social media but you can also link Bandsintown profile to your website. It's much easier for your fans to just go to your website and look at what show you have next. I know I hate searching on social media to find show dates of my favorite artists. There are many reasons why you need your own website. These are just a few. I'm not saying just go out and put some crap together and add a domain just to have one but definitely look into getting one started. The website you are on right now I built myself. This website was first published in March of 2015. Those that follow me know that this website has had many different looks but they know they can always visit cymphanimusic.com to find out what I am up to.
A website teaches you about branding and organization and there are also many different types of website you can have. If you're interested in getting your own website you have lots of options. My two favorite are Wordpress: I love wordpress because it's very simple to use and it's free! They have many templates you can choose from that are free and once you find the style you are going for you just get to work. It's very good for bloggers as well as musicians. You can add photos, music and links. In the Free version you will not have a personal domain but a great thing about Wordpress is that you pay a yearly fee and you then can get your own .com and it will stay active that year. WIX: Wix is a very user friendly website. It caters to people with coding experience and without. If you have no coding experience you can make a pretty awesome website just by using a template or building from scratch with your own unique graphics. Wix is free as well to use if you do not have your own domain. But you can also use a domain by upgrading to premium. You can pay monthly or yearly with wix.There are many other web hosting sites out there but these are my two favorite. There are for people looking for a more advanced feel to their website. You can always search free websites in google to get more information. If you have questions for me. Please shoot me a comment :) #CymphaniSpeaks
Comments