Do you plan to create a music website but are unsure how to begin? Or are you thinking of updating your existing website to turn it into a music website? Either way, this post is for you because it’s a guide in creating a music website. Once you learn how to create a music website, you can impress your fans and industry professionals. But before that, let’s discuss why it is essential for every musician to create a music website.
Importance of Creating a Music Website
You might have wondered whether musicians really need to have a music website in this age. There are so many social media platforms available these days that one might think those would suffice to build their presence on the internet. But that’s not true.
Creating a music website of your own will make a much better impression for you in the eyes of your audience. Merely having a social media profile is not enough if you are serious about growing your followers and reach. A website will show that you are serious about your profession in the music industry and plan to go on with it in the long run. It is vital to have your own platform not controlled by another giant platform like Facebook.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Now, that doesn’t mean the social media apps don’t give value. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others also provide immense value in growing your audience, but they cannot do what a music website can for a musician.
Here are a few ways a music website will help you boost your career as a musician.
1. You Own the Experience
When you have your own music website, you get to have complete control over its design, branding, and content. Unlike social media channels, there will be no limits to the design or layout that you choose. There will be no sudden changes to the policy of use and no distractions like links and ads encouraging visitors to opt-out and visit another domain unless, of course, you place sponsored ads willingly on your site.
Your site visitors will be there because they voluntarily read about your experience and view your portfolio. Once you have some traffic on your website, it will be up to you to direct their attention and what to offer to turn their visit into a meaningful experience.
2. You Own the Website Address
Your fans and followers will be able to find you on the internet at your official website address. If they need information about your music, they will know where to go. Your music website will be under your control because you own its domain. That’s like owning a property on the internet, the address of which can be viewed by anyone from everywhere..
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
3. You Make More Money
If you sell music or merchandise, creating a music website is even more crucial. You can make more money by having a music website selling your albums to your fans. This will give them a means to directly support your personal brand and help you grow your followers further.
If you are selling products on your music website, your fans can also join your mailing list when they shop from your online store. This way, you can start sending them a newsletter every month to update them about your new releases, upcoming shows, crowdfunding programs, and more.
4. You Own the Data
The best way to keep regular contact with your fans is by adding them all to your email list. Creating a music website allows you to collect email addresses and own that data. This allows you to maintain direct communication with them. You don’t need to export any list of fans from a social networking site because you own the entire database.
By having a music website, you also get to own your website stats and audience data. This will help you understand their behavior by analyzing which age or section they spend the most time on. When you know what kind of content drives your visitors the most.
How to Make a Music Website?
Now that you know why you need a music website to grow your music profession and followers, let’s go through a step-by-step process of creating a music website. We will walk you through the process by the example and illustrations of using Strikingly as your website building platform. Strikingly is a website builder that offers simple techniques of creating professional websites that are good for building and promoting a brand. Let’s see how to create a music website on Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly
1. Choose a Music Website Template
The first thing to do is visit Strikingly and register for your free account. Once you are done and have verified your email address, you will get access to your Strikingly dashboard. Click ‘Create New Website’ on the dashboard. You will be taken to the template selection page. Here you can choose a template from the many options given, which will serve as a ready-made design for your music website.
The most suitable templates for a music website will be found in the ‘Personal’ category. Most musicians build a portfolio of their music, songs, albums, and shows on their websites.
Image taken from Strikingly
If you want, you can change the color palette of the template that you choose. The Strikingly editor is quite user-friendly and provides options for you to change your site’s color theme.
2. Create Your Profile and Portfolio
Now that your music website design is ready, you can add content to it. You can begin with writing about yourself to introduce the kind of music you produce. Give a brief overview of your passion for music and past experience in this profession. Then create a portfolio to showcase your musical albums.
To create a portfolio, click ‘Add New Section’ from the left panel in your Strikingly editor, and select ‘Gallery’. Here you can upload as many images as you like. You can also add videos to your portfolio by adding the ‘Big Media’ section. Once you insert the ‘Big Media’ section, click the small ‘Edit’ button that appears, and toggle to ‘Video’. Paste your Youtube or Vimeo video link in the given field, and hit ‘Save’.
Image taken from Strikingly
3. Add Your Contact Details
Your music website must provide a means for visitors to get in touch with you. You can either create a separate ‘Contact Us’ page or create a section for it on your home page. Instead of providing your email address and contact number, you can create a contact form that’s more convenient for your followers to just fill up and send.
To build a contact form on your Strikingly website, add a new section in the same way described above. This time, select ‘Contact Form’. The template of the form will appear. All you need to do is choose and set up the form fields the way you want them to be. You can also click ‘Add Map’ to share your office or studio location if you want.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
4. Integrate Your Website With Your Social Media Pages
Integrating your music website with your social media profiles and pages will help you drive traffic back and forth from all your marketing channels, which in turn will boost the growth of your overall audience.
Strikingly allows you to do this integration in a couple of different ways. First, you can simply add social media icons on your site’s footer or a dedicated section on the home page. These icons will direct the visitors to your corresponding social media page.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Second, you can insert part of your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed into one of your web pages. This is interesting because your visitors will not have to leave your site to view this.
5. Promote Your Music Website
Even though this is not really a step for creating a music website, we feel it’s worth mentioning it in this guide in creating a music website. Nothing on the internet can grow without any promotion or some organic marketing efforts, at the least. Once your music website is ready, you will need to promote it to your followers and other people in your target audience.
You can do this by working on your on-site and off-site SEO, telling everyone in your personal and professional network about it, and updating it regularly to keep its content interesting.
The best thing about using Strikingly to create a music website is that we free you from the burden of all the coding and technical job behind it. We will take care of all the programming at the back end of your site while you continue promoting it and growing its audience. This will prove very fruitful for your profession or business in the music industry.
