Whether you have a music business or want to start one, you need a website. A good website can do a lot of things for you.
As great as social media can be, it will never replace a website. You can use both to help grow your business.
Before we get into the reasons why you need a website, this post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy to learn more.
1. Own the Platform
You can do some good networking for your business on social media. However, you don’t own your social media. Instagram could shut down tomorrow, and you’d lose all of your followers.
With a website, though, you will own your content. If your website host shuts down, you can move to a new host. You can use some sort of backup plugin to have a recent copy of your website available.
If you want to build a successful business music, you need some sort of platform where you can always send people to learn more about you. As much as I like social media, it will never be the place for that.
2. Have a Home Base
Your website can also serve as a home base for your music business. You can list all of your projects, products, and services. Plus, you can link to your social media profiles and vice versa.
So even if you are active on social media, you can refer people to a more comprehensive place. Social media usually limits what you can put in your bio, but you won’t have that problem with a website.
I use SiteGround to host my website, and I use WordPress as the software. That makes it really easy to update my website whenever things change.
3. Build Your Brand
Another reason why you need a website is that you can build your brand. Sure, you can do that to some extent on your social media. But you’ll face a lot of limitations.
With a website, you can customize the colors and layout to make it look how you want. You can add branded photos and graphics as well to make your website unique.
Having a brand can be a good way to set yourself apart from other people who do the same thing as you. That way, you can show potential clients or students what makes you the best person to work with.
4. Develop a Portfolio
You also need a website if you want to have a digital portfolio. Maybe you want to be a performer. You can upload recordings of yourself playing to YouTube and embed those YouTube videos on your website.
So when potential clients find your website, they can hear how you play. You can upload a variety of videos showing you playing different styles.
A portfolio website is also useful if you want to be a composer. You can share perusal scores of your works. Then, you may be able to get more commission clients.
5. Sell Stuff
Another excellent way to use your website is to sell stuff. You can sell your services for teaching, performing, or composing music. Many website platforms let you add a contact form so that people can email you.
Or maybe you want to sell digital products, such as sheet music or private lesson plans. I use a plugin called Easy Digital Downloads to sell sheet music and eBooks on this website, and it’s free and works great.
Depending on the website platform you use, there may be other options. You can also use a third-party platform, like Gumroad, to list your products.
6. List All of Your Projects
A lot of musicians have a portfolio career. That involves doing a lot of different things to make money. If you want a single place to list everything you do and share details on those things, you need a website.
You can list all of your current and future projects, from concert dates to repertoire you’re working on. Composers can list works they’ve written, and performers can share an existing repertoire list.
One way to do this is to add a projects page. However, you can also add different pages for your various projects. Then, you can add details and tell people how they can work with you on each thing.
7. Let Clients/Students Contact You
Any good website needs a contact form and/or a contact page. That way, people who want to work with you can contact you easily.
I have a contact form that people can quickly fill out. But I also list my email and social media handles.
That gives people options regarding how they want to contact me.
8. Implement SEO
Another reason you need a website is to use search engine optimization (SEO). With SEO, you can start to get free, organic traffic through search engines. I use this website to host a blog where I write about different relevant topics.
You can use SEO with just a few main pages. However, you’ll have a better chance of getting more traffic from SEO with a blog. Each blog post gives you one more opportunity to rank highly in search results.
Write blog posts related to your main product or service. Then, when people have questions about the topic, they can look it up. Your website may show up, and you can get traffic and convert those visitors into students or clients.
9. Easy to Create
Websites are getting easier to create each year. You can choose from a variety of platforms, so you can go with the one you like.
As I mentioned, I use WordPress. With WordPress, you can choose from a few themes, such as Astra. Themes are easy to customize with different colors and other brand elements.
Of course, you can hire a website designer to do all of the work. But doing it yourself is cheaper. And you can make sure you choose a flexible platform that you know how to use in case you ever want to make updates.
10. Pretty Affordable
Another benefit of having as website is that it’s not too expensive. You can choose from a variety of hosting platforms. Some cost as little as a few bucks per month.
Then, you can buy a domain for around $12 per year. My first year of hosting cost me $48, so that was a total of $60.
With all of the things you can do with a website, that cost is well worth it. Sure, social media is free, but you “pay” with all of its limitations. Plus, you can easily upgrade your website hosting as necessary.
You Need a Website Now
If you want to grow your music business, you need a website. That way, you can send people to your home base with a list of all of your offers and projects.
Be sure to choose a platform like WordPress since it’s flexible and easy to use.
And to help start promoting your website, you can use your existing social media platforms. Take the Instagram Marketing & Sales Academy to get specific strategies to use.