Knowing how to create a music website will go a long way in furthering your musical career and interests.
If you are a musician or music producer, or are planning on being one, then looking into ways to turn your music into a successful and thriving business should be of high priority to you… and website will certainly help you with that.
Let’s take a look at the potential a music website has for you, and how to go about creating one for yourself, or for your music business.
See more helpful articles:
- Learn Music Production Online
- Start a Music Publishing Company
- Careers in Music Production
- How to Record Your Own Music
Why Create a Music Website?
One of the essential steps of getting into business or establishing yourself as an artist is to create for yourself a website.
This post is for people who are serious about starting a music career from their hobby or passion. I will be the first to encourage you to do so. You deserve to turn what you enjoy doing to something that grants respect and a following. You will feel better about your craft, gain support, and discover the freedom that you previously were unaware of.
There are a few basic steps to take, but you will fill in the necessary details as you move along. You will know what is important for you and what you need to accomplish for yourself and for your talent. In addition to that, you will know the importance of a website so that, moving forward, you are able to create one with a specific mindset for success.
The Importance of Building a Website
It gets you followers and makes your music discoverable
Let’s go over a few reasons why having a website is important (if you didn’t know already).
Having a website gives you a place where people can connect with your music.
Picture in your mind an ideal scenario.
Imagine having an awesome place where fans can come, engage with your music. Imagine creating a safe place, a “world” away from the outer world – an inner world that you can craft and build to your liking, sharing your creations, all the things that you like with the people appreciate your creativity. Imagine that your website is, in essence, a social network of YOU, where fans engage with your creations and with each other within the environment you create for them.
Your Own World
YouTube and SoundCloud are great places to share your music, and you should use them. But a user can quickly click away from your music to something else, or just add you to a playlist. Most often, when people come to your website, it is because they were searching for something like you. 
As time goes on, you get more people trickling in, and then over time you have, what in the marketing world people like to call, a “tribe” of loyal supports that you know and engage with. These people are your audience. Nothing is better than sharing your music with people who actually love and appreciate you from the outside. And having a website gives you the ability to allow those people to gather for you.
This is simply what your business is about, it is about serving your listeners with your music by providing a space where they can come and be a part of your world with you.
That “world”, of course, can be one out of many things.
- You could be a singer with a message, or with something from your heart to express. Chances are very high that the very thing you want to express is what someone else wants to hear.
- You could be a composer or beat maker and you want your musical instrumentals to connect with others who like the sort of style you create.
- You could be a musician or a producer of royalty-free music. With a website, clients can come directly to you when they search on the internet for music for their projects. Even though you can still sell through various other channels with I have mentioned, you can combine them with a website to increase sales, so that you’re not simply lost in the huge amounts of music in those large libraries.
- You could be a producer who wants to record other talents. Maybe you have a love of music, and you enjoy the idea of combining them together, directing projects on your own, and then sharing them with the world. That way you service not just people searching for music on your site, but also musicians who want to get themselves heard.
Whether that world is your beats, your message, you get to create a safe space where others feel comfortable embracing who you are on your own terms. While social media is great, and is essential, it is filled with distractions. On a website, people can embrace who you are and everything you seek to express yourself.
Is Creating a Website Difficult?
No, it is not.
There are a few options.
WordPress is a very popular option. It offers a lot of functionality and control, but it can also take a lot of setting up to get running. If you simply want to get a beautiful site up and running in no time, the options to go with are Weebly.com and Wix.com.
When you sign up for either Wix or Weebly, you’ll be asked what sort of site you want to create. They will have many beautiful designs for you to choose from, and options for online store integration to sell and share your music.
You can also create a blog, which will be useful for letting your fans know your thoughts.
In addition to that, it’s a good idea to couple your website with an email marketing campaign. Get your fans to join your newsletter, so that they can keep in touch with you and stay in the loop. Two good tools for having and running a newsletter are mailchimp.com and sumo.com
Communicate With The People That Love Your Music
Why are email campaigns important? Because these people are the first people who will buy your music when you release them. These people will be the people who, once they have your music, will share them on their social media, increasing followership and the growth of your fanbase.
Don’t worry, when you start out, you might have no one paying attention to you. But over time, when you share your music on YouTube, SoundCloud, social media, with a link back to your website, people that like you will be more interested since you’ll have a place for them to visit. If you have a website, that will give them the opportunity to experience more of you, and to get updated on music your music.
What Are The Other Ways of Earning on Your Music Website?
- Voice Tags
Let’s say you’re a singer, or you’re a producer who works with singers. On your website, you can provide what is called “voice tags” for people who need to buy them to protect their instrumentals.
- Session Musician
If you’re a session musician, you can advertise your services as a session musician for people looking for instrumental recordings. If you have a digital audio workstation, you can record your tracks on them and sell them to clients needing a pianist, guitarist, vocalist on a track. And you can do it all from the comfort of your bedroom or home studio!
- Merchandise
You can sell to your fans merchandise through your website, with some lyrics on T-shirts or accessories.
The possibilities are endless in your own online musical world.
What Sorts Of Music Will You Be Selling On Your Music Website?
You can sell beats online through a beat store, or you can sell your music through TuneCore or CD Baby. You can also sell through other royalty-free services. On your website, you can direct users to make their purchases there. Or, you could just use Weebly.com’s built-in online store to sell your music. Read more here: How To Sell Your Music Online.
