Other than your music, your website is the most important tool you have to promote yourself as a singer. It’s the Web that made it possible for singers all over the world to have equal opportunity to self-promote without relying completely (or at all) on corporations. It’s now in your hands.

Hundreds of millions of people are surfing the Web and any number of them could be discovering your music right now. Your website plays multiple roles: promoter, salesperson, agent, publisher, distributor, DJ, news reporter, and more. It’s the hub of your fans and a store that never closes. Even if people see you live and then can’t find you on the web later, you might as well not even exist.

Don’t Rely On Free Sites

Thousands and thousands of musicians have set up camp on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and the like. They create accounts and expect these sites to represent them as artists and then call it a day. Why? It’s quick, easy, and FREE. They have advantages of streaming music and posting blogs and videos but they do not have the benefit of owning your own website: control. They are even advantageous when the site is en vogue. But the flavor of the day changes quickly as we have seen in the decline of MySpace in favor of Facebook. However, you should definitely have profiles on those sites but only as extensions of your own website.

Three Major Reasons You Should Have Your Own Website

Content – Content is KING. It is the driving reason people will return as fans again and again. You will want to control how many songs, videos, and blogs you are able to post. You want control of how you sell branded merch, offer downloads, display your calendar and promote anything critical to fans, booking agents and other media. Free sites or social networking sites are poor places to host important information about your band such as press releases, stage-plot, or to effectively promote your merchandise. Additionally, you do not want to compete with free sites’ advertising which can be downright annoying and off-putting to site visitors.

Branding – Consistent branding (logos, colors, images, merchandise) are important for creating and maintaining your unique identity. Free sites’ priority is branding themselves, which is why you’re limited to their choices, not yours. They force you to conform to their limited options in design and format. You also want a GREAT domain with your name in it to put on all your T-shirts, stickers, posters, and other materials. Additionally, you want your email to be from your website.

Marketing – By owning your own website you can gather information about when visitors arrive, how long they stay, what they read, listen to, their physical location, and who referred them to your site. All this information is critical to understanding your audience. Developing strategies for sponsors, advertisers and booking shows rely on important web statistics that cannot be gathered from free or social networking sites.

It’s Not Enough That You Just Have a Website

You must have a professional-looking site if you want to be taken seriously. Since many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase, your site is the best chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer. If your site looks like it was designed by a barrel of colorblind monkeys, your chance at making a good first impression will be lost.

Here’s the Exception to the Rule

It’s actually better to have no website at all than to have one that makes you look bad. Your site speaks volumes about your music. Most of the time you only get ONE chance to make an impression. Your site either says, “Hey, look, I take my music so seriously that I have created this wonderful site for my fans!” or it screams, “Hey, look, I let my 10-year-old nephew design my site. Good luck finding anything!”

Your website is an important part of your business. Make sure you treat it as such.