Having your own musician’s website might seem obsolete when you already have a social media presence and YouTube account. But the selling power of having a website as a musician shouldn’t be overlooked. A website will stand the test of time and give you a permanent online presence, among lots of other reasons why a website benefits an artist.
#1 You have full ownership and control of your website
You own your website and the right to control everything on it. Having a website creates a permanent digital presence for yourself on the internet. You can choose your domain address and once your webpage is up and running, it’s completely yours. You’re in charge. If you want to change website provider, you can just carry your domain across and keep all of your content.
You can design and stylize your website in any way you want. A webpage can be used to really showcase your personality as an artist and promote your brand. You can customize your layout, content, and design and make all the decisions about what you want your fans to see.
You have total control over when the viewer sees your content and how they see it, too. A website will promote your brand with no ads, restrictions, or distractions for your audience.
#2 You can make more profit with a website
Your website is a great place to sell your music and merch. Just set up an E-commerce store through your webpage and direct fans toward your webstore section to boost your sales.
Selling your merch through your website will also give you a higher profit. If you sell your merch through a service, they’ll subtract a service fee from your proceeds. But if you handle your sales yourself through your website, the service fee will be cut out and the profit will go directly to you.
You might still have to pay a payment processing fee when collecting the payment from your customers, but it won’t eat into your revenues as much as a service fee.
You’re always in complete control with your website, so you can choose what merch you list. You can also list your merch alongside music you have available to download to keep everything succinct and in one place. This makes your fans more likely to multi-buy.
#3 A website shows you’re serious
Anyone can create a social media profile. But having a website as a singer shows that you’re serious about your career and you’ve put time and effort into creating a solid online presence for yourself.
Having a website will make you look professional. It will show industry professionals like journalists, agents, and resellers that you know what you’re doing, and you have the confidence and skillset to put yourself out there. This will give you credibility as an artist and make music profilers more likely to get in touch.
What to put on a musician website
It’s not enough to have a website; it has to be a webpage that ticks all the right boxes and stands out from the crowd. These are the crucial things your website needs to impress your audience:
- A music player – you need to have your music available to listen to directly on your website.
- Potential fans and industry reps want to hear a taste of what you have to offer.
- A bio section – create a page on your website where you can upload your short and long bios. Make sure you update your bios regularly, so promoters can easily copy it into any content they write about you.
- Links to your social media platforms – the more traffic you can direct to all your different online platforms, the better!
- A mailing list sign–up – put a sign-up form on the main page of your website so readers can’t miss it. Email is the most direct and effective way to contact your fans, so you have to make it easy and appealing to join your mailing list.
- A contact form – make it easy for industry professionals to get in touch with you by including a contact form on your website.
- A music and merch store – selling your own merchandise will make you look professional and serious about your music career. You can keep a higher cut of the royalties this way, too.
#4 Industry professionals expect you to have a website
Google is one of the first places industry professionals will search for you. Promoters, venue bookers, journalists, and the media will expect to find a website when they search for your name. If they don’t, you may become a name lost in the crowd.
When an industry professional makes their way onto your website, make sure they have all the information they need readily available to them. Set up a contact form so they can get in touch, using a plugin for a WordPress website or using a third party service like 123 Contact Form or Wufoo.
Make sure you have a press page set up on your website, too. This will provide profilers with video coverage of your past gigs, press quotes, and your most up-to-date press release. Sourcing this content from your website makes things much easier for promoters and makes them more inclined to give you coverage.
Musician website tips
A website is a go-to place for your existing fans and potential new fans. But you have to give them a reason to keep coming back and refreshing the page. There are lots of ways you can make your website the best it can be.
- Choose a good domain name
- Use clear titles for your pages
- Pick a simple, professional design
- Keep your content updated and relevant
- Avoid sounding like a salesman or advertisement
- Don’t leave your audio player tool on auto–play
#5 You can use your website to collect data
If you set up a website, you can access a wealth of data. You’ll be able to look at your webpage’s traffic and view statistics about the people visiting your site. Seeing this data will help you tailor your content to your audience and get an insight into your fanbase and their likes and dislikes.
By looking at your website’s traffic, you’ll be able to see statistics like how viewers found your site, how many people streamed your song, and which song was most listened to. You can also see how many times a blog post or video was viewed and know what content your audience enjoys most.
How to view your website’s traffic will depend on what platform you created your webpage with. WordPress has built–in webpage statistics that can be viewed through the Dashboard section, under the My Blogs heading. There’ll be a graph icon which displays the traffic across your website.
You can also use plugins and websites to track your website’s traffic. Google Analytics offers a free service that can track the visitors to your site to see how they were directed to your webpage. Studying this data will help you know your audience and how to reach them.
#6 A website’s a great one-stop destination
Your website is the hub of your online presence. It’s the most detailed, in-depth look into you as an artist and should be where all your other platforms link back to. You can use your website to keep everything in one place – think of your webpage as your virtual portfolio.
Your website is where existing fans can find you, new fans can discover you and industry professionals can contact you. Having all your information in one place makes for a more immersive, impressive portfolio. It’s easier to edit and keep your information up to date when it’s all in one place, too.
Having a website means you can show your achievements to date, the things you’re up to now, and your future plans all in one place. You can appeal to fans with a mailing list and merch store, and to resellers with bios and press releases. It’s the one-stop destination that appeals to all your target audiences in one hit.
How to create a musician website
You don’t have to use a website builder aimed at musicians to create your website. You can also mainstream sites like WordPress and Squarespace to forge your online presence.
Website Designing, Web Hosting, Domain Name
Your website should always tell the story of your talent. That means it must reflect your style and personality. As for choosing a domain name, many domains are available online. Most of the top ones are dedicated to celebrities like Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Drake, Selena Gomez, Ellen DeGeneres, Ellen Pompeo, and much more. Each of them has great stories and is memorable for its memorable names. With each domain, you can choose from three main plans: Personal (for $1.99 per year), Business (for $10.99 per year), Professional (for $19.99). Choose wisely and make sure to keep the price under the minimum amount that you need.
Themes
If you however choose to go with WordPress then you'll probably need themes that are specifically made for artists. A good place to look would be AudioTheme. They make templates and more stuff for artists just like you. Checkout their themes here.
What About SEO?
(brace yourself for some technical nonsense😉)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential way to grow your business because you not only provide good services to clients, you increase organic search results. SEO helps you rank higher on Google's organic SERPs. On top of that, when you include keywords in your text and meta descriptions, users can find any song on Spotify. Many other factors influence the position of your site on Google. For example, you can try using hashtags to target specific searches. But remember that you can't afford to forget about your site visitors through search engines too. Use tools like sitemap generator and link builder and ensure that they’re updated regularly. Creating original and unique content is crucial if you want to gain visibility and get the most engagement. Keep in mind that a website shouldn’t just tell the truth about your craft. Every single one of your blog posts will tell the same story. However, they should have a certain twist and element that might surprise your audience and bring them to your website. It can work wonders too for keeping your page fresh with new and interesting content. Make sure to keep your website up-to-date and always update your website so that visitors can discover new areas to browse without waiting long minutes to load the page. Don’t overlook social media either because they can drive traffic to your site. So consider taking social media websites into account during designing.
Conclusion
Creating a website is relatively easy and inexpensive. However, knowing how to manage it properly and be authentic should be a priority. If you are having trouble finding success among others, know what you can do. Follow the steps that we’ve outlined here, and you won’t regret your decision. Try and implement what we said earlier and use some professional help to improve your performance. We can guarantee better results than relying solely on your skills. Take your best chances at being discovered, so don’t wait anymore and start promoting your talent. After all, a well-designed website will help you gain visibility and build a brand. Nowadays, the internet provides lots to love and enjoy and a good home on it. Let us be a little bit more realistic and start looking beyond our comfort zone. Maybe we are missing something bigger and deeper and this is exactly what makes you worth it. Look forward to hearing from you soon!
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