Having a digital “home base” that you own (not borrowed, like your Facebook Page or Instagram) is vital. Your band website is an “always on, always available, always working for you” place for your fans and music industry contacts to easily find you, listen to your music, watch your videos, sign up on your email list, and directly contact you.
Can’t My Social Media Be My Band Website?
Social media is necessary too, but your own website and email list allows you the most control over your online presence and ability to communicate directly with your fans even if Facebook changes its algorithm and no one sees your posts anymore. Your social media posts, to a large extent, should drive your online audience to your online business storefront — your band website.
Also, consider this: Friendster disappeared, Myspace all but went away, and now Facebook is starting to see growth problems as younger generations start to focus more on “micro social media” channels like Instagram, SnapChat, and TikTok. If your Facebook page is your band website, it could be gone in a matter of months or years. If that happens, your “rented” followers and subscribers on these platforms would be gone, and your music career would be starting back at square one. The only way to future proof against that from happening: build a band website!
The Social Media Party Analogy
Put another way, think of social media as parties you might attend so you can meet new people. You go to the club, a bar, a networking event or private large gathering and meet people who might have things in common with you. At the end of the night, you swap information to stay in touch and you leave.
Once the party’s over, where can those new people find you? If you’ve built a close enough relationship with them, they can visit you anytime they want at your permanent address. Or in this case, your website.
What Kind of Information Goes On a Band Website?
Once you have your band website set up, what kinds of information should you include on it?
Here’s a quick list of suggestions:
- Your artist name (and logo if you have one)
- What kind of music you play
- A headshot of you or a professional photo of your group
- A very brief 50 to 75-word bio/description of you as an artist
- An embedded music player (Bandcamp.com or Spotify)
- Embedded video of you performing and/or your music videos
- Upcoming performance dates (virtual live streams or in-person live shows as they’re available)
- A way for site visitors to sign up on your email list
- A way for those interested in booking you to perform (again, virtually or otherwise) to contact you
- A self-hosted “Link in Bio” page (don’t rely on Linktree or other third-party sites)
Recommended Action: Build a Band Website Today
These days it’s pretty affordable and fairly easy enough to build a band website with your artist name as the domain (less than $100 a year to maintain in many cases). If you’re not a technical person there are plenty of services that make purchasing a domain name (your “.com” web address) and building your actual site about as easy as creating social media posts and email messages. Here are a few to check out:
Like any tool or service, there are pros and cons to each individual platform. However, their basic functionalities are pretty much the same.
If you would like to compare and contrast them you can Google each platform or a comparison between them and you’ll get several results that give you the similarities and differences. Our recommendation is to simply pick one that seems like it will work for your comfort level and go.
If you do currently have your own band website you may need to simply ramp up your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts to help increase traffic to your site. If you’re not familiar with SEO, simply Google “beginners guide to SEO,” and you’ll find plenty of resources.
SEO is something you don’t want to skimp on, but for our purposes here, we’re more concerned with getting a website up and running rather than tweaking and refining its ability to rank well in search. That’s an ongoing process that’s never one-and-done — that’s not something we’re going to dive into here at the moment.
Free Guide: 8 Ways Having a Coach Can Help You Become More Successful in Music
This guide shares eight ways hiring a coach can make you a more successful, profitable, and full-time music creator.
When you understand how a music career coach can get you farther, you’ll be ahead of other music creators growing their music career.
Free Guide: 8 Ways Having a Coach Can Help You Become More Successful in Music
This guide shares eight ways hiring a coach can make you a more successful, profitable, and full-time music creator.
When you understand how a music career coach can get you farther, faster, you’ll be ahead of other music creators attempting to grow their music career.