1. A website gives your fans a place to find you…and all in one place

Have you ever seen a great band perform for the first time, only to be told to find them on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube? You may scramble to look them up right then, but odds are you will forget their exact handle. You can probably remember their name though. And a quick Google search would lead you to their website.

A website is the ideal place for fans to find out everything about you all in one place. Your bio, your gigs, videos, music, photos and more. Having everything all together makes it easy for fans to quickly learn about you, buy some merch, and look into your next show. Website visitors are much more likely to complete several tasks on one platform than they are to visit several different social profiles looking for information. So make sure it’s there for them to find.

2. A band website makes you look professional

When you’re submitting yourself for consideration to a new venue, agent, or label, you’ll want to put your best face forward. Having a great looking site that is well organized and packed full of quality content is the best way to do that. You’ll be miles ahead of other bands who don’t have sites.

3. A website means you have a real email address

If you’ve purchased a domain name for your site, you most likely got a few email accounts included with your hosting package. Sending emails from your own domain gives you a bit more credibility than your Yahoo or Gmail address. Your emails will also be less likely to get sent to spam folders if they come from a unique domain. That means more eyeballs on your prospecting emails and email newsletters.

4. You can sell things directly on your own site

In a past article, covered whether it makes sense to submit your music to a streaming service or sell the tracks yourself. We also covered best options for ecommerce stores. Having your own website gives you the chance to sell items directly online. You don’t have to rely on anyone else, or let another party take a cut of your sales. It’s all managed by you, directly on your own site.

5. A band website allows you to collect email addresses for your fans

Having your own site allows people to sign up for your mailing list directly on your site. You can then send newsletters about upcoming gigs, new releases or merchandise specials. While social media platforms may fizzle out over time, email is here to stay.

6. SEO can help people find you

Search Engine Optimization is a great way to help people find your band. You can optimize your site for the terms that you think people would search for most. For example, if you play a certain type of music, or are a wedding band, optimizing your site for those terms could mean more leads coming directly to you.

7. Analytics can help you uncover things you didn’t know

If you have Google Analytics installed on your website, you can see a huge amount of data. This data can be very useful in determining the demographics for your top visitors. You may discover that you are overlooking a key part of town when you are booking shows. You can also use Cue Pro’s playlist insights to determine your most popular songs and use that data to update your setlist.

8. A website allows for cross promotion

When you’re playing at a venue, your band will be listed on the upcoming events page of the venue’s site. Just like AudioTheme gives you the opportunity to add a venue’s website to your own site, most venues like to link back to the artist. Having a website gives people a chance to see if they’ll enjoy the show, and may result in more people coming out.

9. It gives you a place to host files for EPKs or special fan incentives

You can also create special pages with songs, posts, or media kits on your site. WordPress gives you the ability to set the visibility of each page. This will allow you to create special links which can be mailed to booking agents, or top fans. Create a landing page with tracks, videos, promotional photos, and availability, and you have an instant EPK. Or, imagine a video post where you are personally thanking your fans for coming out to a meet and greet. You can make your fans feel really special by creating content just for them. You could even go as far as creating an entire special portion of your site for fan club members. The possibilities are endless.

10. You will always own your website

We’ve covered the importance of data portability in the past. As more and more social media platforms are coming to market, some are sure to suffer the same fate as Vine and Rdio. Having your own site gives you complete control over the content in the event of a shutdown or suspension.

Should you only focus on your website?

It may seem as though I’m making the argument to avoid social media completely. That is definitely not the case. Social media is one of the best ways to find new fans, places to play, and inspiration. And generally speaking, being visible in as many places as possible is a good thing. In an ideal world, your band would be active on multiple channels of social media, and your website would be the always-present hub.