Building a Website for Independent Musicians

(Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels)

So, you have thousands of followers on Instagram, dozens of retweets on X, and a million views on Tik Tok. Do you still need a website as an independent musician? The answer is yes! Of course, your fans will definitely follow you on social media, and you can announce the drop of your new album there, but a website is a place where people can learn about you. Think of it as your home base. Your website is the place where people can find all your official information. This way, people won’t have to spend a lot of time gathering your info. Imagine a journalist who wants to write about you, or a festival organizer wants to invite you to perform, but they decide not to because they just couldn’t find you. That would suck.

So, now that you decided that you need a website, here are some of the things that you need to put in there.

Your Bio

You might be surprised that a lot of musicians don’t put their bio on their website. How are we supposed to learn about you then? In your bio, you should include your background, the description of your style, your influence, and your latest project. You can also include the name of people that you worked with, where you have toured, if your music has been used in films or TV, and the awards and nominations you received. Here’s a tip. Think of your bio as an advertisement for yourself. So, instead of saying that you have performed in Vancouver and Seattle, you could say that your music has been heard live in multiple cities in North America. Same thing, right?

(Matthias Blonski / Unsplash)

Music

This is the page where people can listen to your music. After all, you’re a musician, so your product is your music. You can link your Spotify or Soundcloud to this page. Do not upload your music straight to your website because the files might be too big and it might cause your website to crash.

Photos and Videos

We live in a visual world, and that means that you need to provide visuals for your audience. Invest on a professional photo shoot so you can have great pictures that may be used for publications. You should also upload both your official music videos and videos of your live performances. This will especially be helpful for event organizers to decide if you are a good candidate for their lineup.

(Davide Baraldi / Pexels)

Contact and Social media

People need to find you. So, make sure that you are easily accessible. Put a contact page on your website using a form box, or simply your email. You should also link your website to your Instagram, Facebook, and X, as all of the social media needs to lead back to your website.

Of course all the stuff I just told you are the essentials, but that doesn’t mean that those are the only things that you can put on your website. Remember, this is where people can learn about you, so add everything that you think might be useful. You can include blog, tour dates, press coverage, testimonials, merch, or whatever you think is necessary. Good luck on building your website, and I hope it will lead you to bigger things in your music career.

This article was published on Evolution website, November 7, 2023