When it comes to a musician’s hustle, nothing yells legitimacy as a muso with their own website. I’ve met a few artists that have asked me what’s the point of having a website if you can put all your data on sites such as Reverbnation, Facebook and other social media sites. I've summarized the conversations into five reasons why a musician should really consider getting their own website:
1) Professionalism
I mentioned this earlier, nothing screams legitimacy as your own url. When writing business cards, invoices or proposals the impact your own website will have will be “okay, this person is the real deal” compared to a reverbnation.com/yoururl which has a “okay, he’s still an upcoming artist”. This is regardless of how your music sounds.
Don’t get me wrong, having these accounts is advised but these other websites should support your main website. You want all these sites to have your website clearly visible and drive traffic from these sites to your website.
2) Structural Freedom
One of the main reasons I decided to start up my own website was the lack of freedom the other artist-oriented sites were giving me. Twitter gives you an X amount of characters, Facebook has its own limitations. Imagine a space where you can have a page with as many videos as you want? Yes, it exists… Your own website.
It’s not 100% freedom because there’s usually a limit on how much space you’re allowed to use but you’ll have a lot more freedom to how you present yourself on your own website vs. a facebook page. When it comes to releasing music, it's easier to use your own website's url than a "datafileshare" link and you won't have to compete with all the other advertising that's being used on the site.
When I released my EP, Jumped On A Plane & Wrote This EP, I was able to come up with a custom structure for the page.
3) Zero Competition
The greatest thing about your website is that once someone is in that space, it’ll be all about you. You won’t be competing with someone who has 1000 more fans than you or the other advertising that could distract your audience.
Nothing wrong with competition but if you could have a monopoly on a site, I am sure you’d prefer this.
4) Focused Marketing Home
When you don’t have a central “home” you tend to have split focus. You’ll have to choose one supporting site to be your main “home” for your releases. When it comes to online searches on say google, your website will be more inviting than a reverbnation link. You can customise your url so that it's easier to remember.
When you have a website, all roads lead to your site. If you have a lot of content, then you can set up other supporting sites that will help increase the chances of selling a product.
5) All Your Money Is Yours
Some side sites have a lot of tempting packages to help artists get money. An example of this would be a tip jar by MusicXRay. All is good but the dreading 10% commission is undesirable especially if you aren’t making a lot of money as is.
If you set up a tip jar on your own site or sell merchandise from your site then you will get 100% of the money. I would prefer this way more than anything.
There are a lot of other good reasons why an artist should invest time and some money into getting a website. One thing that I’ve learnt since skillmusicsa.com has been online is that once you have a site, the leads you get are from all sorts of directions and all over the world. If you’d like to talk about other details with regards to getting a website give me a shout on whatsapp @ 0835709602 or email me info@skillmusicsa.com
Skill