This guest post is written by Patrick McGuire for Bandzoogle
Because today’s musicians are working in the most saturated music industry in history, we need every leg up we can get when it comes to spreading the word about our music. In other words, your music might be amazing, but you’ll have a hard time getting anyone to notice without savvy promotion efforts and a ton of hard work.
But here’s the thing, your website can actually do a lot of that stuff for you.
As it turns out, having a professional band website is one of the absolute best career advantages a serious musician can have. From helping to make your music more searchable, to giving artists the power to shape their identity on their own terms, maintaining a sleek and engaging music website has never been more important for bands and solo artists.
The social media problem
Musicians have heard it a million times by this point: “You can’t have a successful music career without being on social media.” We can save the debate of whether that’s actually true or not for another time, but it’s become increasingly clear over the past few years that social media doesn’t help musicians anywhere near as much as it used to.
Today, if you want to make sure what you say or share over Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram actually gets seen by your followers, you have to pay for it. In an effort to chase profits, the world’s biggest social media companies have learned that there’s a lot of value in users trying to reach their followers and have adjusted their algorithms to make it harder and harder to organically share information.
Where does this leave bands? If you’ve got a new album or important show to promote over social media, you’ll probably need to pay for your efforts to be effective.
Band websites are a whole different story when it comes to promotion. Social media puts up barriers between musicians and their fans, but music websites remove them. In addition to being able to reach your audience directly, you’ll be able to shape your identity and narrative on your own terms through an artist website. Limitations like character limits and content restrictions don’t apply.
Band websites put everything an artist needs in one place
If you want to get the most out of your music career, you need an online home for your music. A professional website puts all your most important assets in one place: music, bio, videos, tour dates, EPK, blog entries, photos, merch offerings, etc.
Sure, a Facebook profile can tie together some of these features—and we would never say you shouldn’t create social media profiles—but if you’re looking for a place where they can all live together as an iterative archive of your project, nothing beats a website. Anyone that comes across your band can see what you’ve done, what you’re doing, and what lies ahead, all in just a few clicks.
From selling merch online to keeping fans up to date with blogs and photos, your website is your hub.
Searchability isn’t just for start-ups
Another reason band websites have never been more important is because they make artists and the music they create more searchable and accessible. If your music only lives on social media and Spotify, you’re essentially keeping your music hidden from fans and industry experts who aren’t users of those platforms. And in a way, you’re giving partial ownership of your brand to these platforms.
Making your work available for purchasing and streaming on your own website levels the playing field and makes your music accessible for everyone, no matter their tastes or preferences. Go independent, own your search status and your keywords, and take your marketing into your own hands by keeping it on your website.
Any way you slice it, in today’s endlessly complicated and competitive music industry, artist websites are a massive benefit musicians can’t afford to miss out on.
