Musicians are often folks on a low to no-budget plan when it comes to marketing. Plenty of people would rather craft a website themselves or have a friend do it for free than pay a webmaster a few hundred bucks or more to make one. While I have no argument whatsoever against saving money, having a website sufficient to meet the needs of your product is absolutely essential to moving forward in your career.In 2010, the top two income streams for independent recording artists comes from record sales and live show ticket/merch sales. Yet, you’d be surprised how many artists don’t have their touring or live gig info easily available on their websites. You’d also be surprised at how many artists don’t have their music readily available to stream and to purchase on their websites.
If your music is your product, it’s very important that your intended audience be able to reach that music literally within seconds of getting to your website. Go with the five second rule – if it takes more than five seconds for a user to find out 1) Your band name, 2) A functional button to stream your music, and 3) Where you’re playing next, you might as well go ahead and send the user on to the next website. Not being able to capture a user’s attention in under five seconds greatly increases the chances of your new potential fan to leave your site.
Monitor your own browsing habits the next time you’re on a website. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, how quickly do you exit? If you’re required to click through several pages to get to the product, you’re likely to go somewhere else and complete a purchase from a vendor who’s made it easy. Music is, unfortunately, enough of a commodity in the mind of certain fans that he or she isn’t going to click throughout your site looking for something just for the sake of art. Trust me – if you have a kickass live show and/or a great CD worth selling, you want to make it easy to find.
Musicians tend to obscure their “product” by creating an artsy website that showcases the band’s image as opposed to the “product” (the music). I’m completely supportive of having a really cool and artistic website but economic and brand function should never be ignored.
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