If you’re a working musician, and you don’t have a fully-functional website (more on that later), you are building your proverbial house without laying down your foundation first. Yes, having an active presence in the social media sphere is an essential component of your business, too. However, it is NOT a viable substitute for having your own webpage.
Here’s why:
1) At prices ranging from $500-$10, there are options of all shapes and sizes for everyone out there. No excuses!
2) The best way to interact with fans is to bring them to your turf. Facebook and Twitter are great places to update your status, but when you are trying to spark interest in your fans to check out what you’re doing, those platforms are full of distractions. As we all know, people don’t need many of those before they start chasing rabbits.
3) This gives you an opportunity to share news updates, exclusive downloads, upcoming shows, merchandise, blogs, and just about anything else you can imagine with your fans. The sky’s the limit.
4) This will give you an opportunity to streamline every social media outlet you have, not necessarily to sister social media outlets, but to your own stomping grounds. Let people find your other feeds through your homepage. The goal is to drive traffic to you.com so you can “mind your business” first.
Ariel Hyatt has a great article on her website, Ariel Publicity, regarding affordable websites. See here: http://arielpublicity.com/2011/03/10/the-musicians-guide-to-affordable-effective-websites/