In the age of social media, do musicians still need a website? YES! Having your own website gives you an a fantastic opportunity to connect with fans (and industry professionals) and even make some money. Probably a lot more than you’re currently earning with streaming alone. So if you haven’t already started building a website your your music, let’s get that done in 2022. Or sooner…..
Why Does Your Band Need A Website?
You might already be maintaining a profile on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or whatever else. And I won’t deny that these are all good and important ways to promote yourself or your music. But relying on social media alone for your online presence could be leaving a lot of opportunities on the table for you.
Even though it’s the easiest time in history for just about anyone to get started as an independent musician, it remains VERY difficult for most of us to find an audience, build a fan base, and generate enough revenue to keep the ball rolling. Even if your primary goal is not to make money from your music, having your own website is still a great way to connect with your fans.
Regardless of your primary other goals are for your music, there are a lot of benefits to having your own website. Let’s break down some of the big ones.
There’s a pretty good chance you’re missing out on some great opportunities to really connect with your fanbase, and actually make some real money from all that effort you put into your music.
5 Reasons Your Band Needs A Website
Turn Your Audience Into Fans
We should probably talk about the difference between your audience and your fans. Because having your website is all about serving your fans, and turning your audience into MORE fans.
Your audience includes everyone who is consuming a piece of content you put out into the world. This could be hearing your song on a Spotify playlist, or seeing a post on Instagram, or TikTok. A large percentage of this group probably has no idea who you are.
Your fanbase is made up of people who just want more. They gobble up everything you put out there. They want to know more about you, and your music. They tell others about your work, because they are passionate about it.
Your band’s website can be the central hub for everything you do. It’s a place for more in-depth content about the stories behind your songs. It’s a place to show people there’s more to your band than what they see (or probably won’t see) on social media. It’s a place to draw people further into your world. Make them part of the inner circle.
Keep reading, because we’re going to dive deeper into this when we talk about tracking and targeting.
YOU OWN EVERYTHING
With a website, you get to control everything from the appearance to the functionality. And most importantly, YOU can own the communication between you and the fans.
Social Media Has Flaws
With social media platforms, THEY own the platform. Which means they CONTROL the platform. Maybe you have a huge number of followers on Facebook or IG. How many of those followers see every post you put out there? It’s likely a very small percentage.
And that content you’re posting all the time? It’s temporary. If people don’t see a post when it first comes out, they’ll probably never see it, unless it somehow becomes ‘viral’.
And what happens when that platform becomes unfashionable, or changes their algorithm, or straight-up fails? All that content and engagement can dry up in a heartbeat.
Don’t think it can happen? Maybe you’re not old enough to remember MySpace. How many bands had to start over from scratch when that went away? I don’t know but it’s a lot.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is a great way to reach new people. Of course, it’s getting more difficult all the time to do that organically, but it still works. You can use those platforms to drive people to your own website, where you get to keep the data, and own the experience.
There’s a great article on Medium covering this subject, where the author refers to it as “owning the land”.
CONTROL YOUR MESSAGING
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the email addresses of your fans? Start a newsletter and send out meaningful, interesting content.
Start a blog and show them behind-the-scenes stuff they can’t get anywhere else. Encourage them to comment on blog posts. And those blog posts are going to be available as long as you decide to keep them.
When you’re giving them cool stuff for free, they’ll be much more likely to buy when you have something to sell.
Be Taken Seriously
You take your music and your career seriously, right? Having your own website, and an email address associated with it, makes you appear much more professional.
Maybe you’ve heard the expression “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have”. The same thing applies here. Even a simple, one-page website with a contact form makes it clear to music industry professionals (and fans) that you mean business.
Anyone in the industry who might be considering doing business with you is going to do some research. It could be a club considering booking your band for a show, or even a publisher or label who is interested in making a deal with you. It doesn’t matter who they are or how they found your site, it’s one more thing to make you stand out from the crowd, and it shows you are taking your career seriously.
Make More Money
Everything related to producing, releasing, and promoting has a cost associated with it. It could cost you time, it could cost you money, or both. If you are counting on streaming alone to cover these costs (let alone be profitable), that’s a losing battle for most independent musicians.
Merchandise
Do you know how many streams on Spotify it takes to earn just $100? Best case scenario, about 25,000 streams. See for yourself. You could sell just a few t-shirts to make that same $100. Adding a simple store to your website is actually pretty easy, and there are a number of ways to do it for free.
Getting Gigs
If you are a cover band (or any kind of band) looking for a way to book more shows, your own personal website is a great opportunity to do so. You can set up a business listing for your site so the Google will send folks looking to book some entertainment directly to you.
Your website is a great place to describe your live performances and provide booking details.
Selling Services
If you don’t play shows, but have a killer voice or can shred on an instrument, you can sell your services as a session player. With the right marketing and/or networking, you can get paid for your talent by people around the world.
Or maybe as a true DIY artist or producer, you have lots of experience recording, mixing, or mastering. These are all great services you can offer.
Sync Licensing
Sync Licensing is a great opportunity to make more money from their music. Getting your music placed on TV, Film, and more opens you up to a whole new revenue stream. Most indies don’t even know this is a possibility for them.
I wrote an entire article on Sync Licensing for independent musicians. It’s worth your while to give that a read.
Tracking And Targeting
We already talked about turning an audience into fans. And turning fans into customers. There’s a shortcut you can use to pull this off, and it’s all about tracking and targeting the people who visit your website. Then feeding them content they want to see from you.
And it doesn’t have to be spammy. In fact, it shouldn’t be. You want to give people something they WANT, not something that’s going to make them delete your email or start ignoring you.
Pixels and Analytics
You’ve probably already heard of a Facebook Pixel. Or Google Analytics. If not, these are tools you can use to see who, and how people are interacting with your website.
There are MANY ways to take advantage of this, but here’s just a few.
Let’s say you have a Facebook Pixel installed on your site. Anyone with a Facebook account that visits your site triggers an event in Facebook’s Ads Manager. Using this, you can create ‘Audiences’ of people who have visited your site, made a purchase, clicked a specific link, and more. And the most powerful part is… you can create “Lookalike” audiences, or people with similar interests, tastes, and behaviors to tho folks who already checked out your stuff. This creates a much more defined, target audience for your next promotion using Facebook and Instagram Ads
Another great opportunity is to use Analytics see what kind of content on your site people are engaging with the most. Then create more of that type of content.
NEWSLETTERS
We mentioned starting a newsletter, which is a great way to stay in touch with people and deliver exactly the message you want. You can even segment your email subscribers into groups, such as ‘Everyone’ or ‘Customers’ or ‘Repeat Customers’. You can then create incredibly targeted email content to send to exactly the right people.
For example, when you sign up for our Newsletter, you can choose whether you just want to receive emails about our music, resources for indie musicians (like this one), or both. Pretty simple, and pretty cool.
If you figure this out, you have a growth machine. You’ll turn a broad audience who knows nothing about you into fans. And you’ll be able to give those fans interesting, valuable content to keep them interested in you. The more interested in you they are, the more likely they are to turn into customers. Customers who buy merch, concert tickets, or whatever it is you have to offer.
It's EASIER Than You Think
Some of the things we’ve talked about might seem a little overwhelming. But it’s actually much easier to create a useful website than you think.
The first step is to find a web host. If you haven’t already done so, check out my article on web hosting for musicians. In that post, I talk about my preferred web hosting provider, and even have a discount available for you.
They have all the tools you need to get started fast. And I mean FAST. Even if you’re a complete newb at this stuff, they have the tools, information, and services to get a simple website up and running in just a couple of hours.
You can start out with a simple one-page website to establish your presence, then continue to build it as you go.