**Guest post written by Dre Dimura of Bandzoogle.

"With so many methods of promoting your music online these days, the importance of having a dedicated website can often be overlooked. Websites are still one of the best tools to drive fan engagement, curate your web presence, and manage the rest of your socials from a branded homebase.

Here are five reasons to have a website for your band or solo musical effort.

1. It will never become obsolete

New online platforms pop up on a daily basis, some stick and some don’t.

If you’re old enough, you might remember the ubiquitous Myspace page that every band and artist just had to have. That platform launched a lot of artists, but falling victim to competition and realignment, Myspace largely fell by the wayside. Or take Vine for example, which catered to shortening attention spans with (mostly) funny, sometimes musical, six second videos, spurring the growth of meme-culture and helping to launch the careers of future Tik-Tok stars.

These services left a mammoth graveyard of content behind. Some users went on to find success on other platforms, some did not—taking those fans with them is a different story entirely. But here’s the thing; while it might not be as viral as some of these highly-social yet fleeting platforms, your website will remain loyal to you without ever falling prey to shake-ups in the tech industry.

2. Funnel fans directly to your mailing list

The email blast is tried and true, highly effective for garnering conversions, and still the most effective way to reach your entire fanbase.

A mailing list isn’t subject to edge-rankings, algorithms, or the need to sponsor your posts on other social platforms. Paramore is a band that got a huge boost early in their career largely due to their effectiveness at creating a hefty mailing list, blasting updates directly to nearly 5,000 fans, who in turn helped them skyrocket to fame.

With a newsletter, you can measure your resulting marketing metrics such as open rate, click-through rates, and how effective your call-to-action (CTA) is. Promoting signups on the front page of your website can drive engagement, especially when paired with a free download, behind-the-scenes sneak peek or other fan-friendly incentive in exchange for a signup.

+6 Marketing Strategies Which Are Helpful for Music Promotion

3. Create an @domain email

When you own a domain name and operate a website on it, you can then create and manage a professional email account with your band or artist name. An @domain email account is both an effective organizational tool for your project, and a way to maintain an impressive level of professionalism when promoting your music or shows. Additionally, it helps with getting the attention of bloggers, playlisters, and others. 


4. Optimal SEO

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is a way to maximize the number of visitors to your website by ensuring that it appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. This is done by creating SEO “slugs” for each page on a website, which aids search engines in populating search results using keywords relating to your brand. 

When you operate a website, you can use SEO best practices to control the presentation of your search results. If you use the slug “about” for the page where fans can locate your bio, you will increase the ranking of the webpage associated with your bio on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing!. Learn more about optimizing your website with SEO here.

+Inbound Marketing and SEO for Bands and Musicians

5. Sell music and merch with no middlemen

This one is a no brainer. Having an online platform to manage direct-to-fan sales is paramount. With your own website, you can sell your music and merch directly to your fans, with more of the money going to you."

Related Blog Posts:

+Essential Elements of an Effective EPK

+26 Things to Do Before You Release Your Song or Album

+How to Increase the Conversion Rate of Your Music Website

Bio: 

Dre DiMura is a professional guitarist, songwriter, and author. While his friends were studying for the SATs, Dre was already touring the world with Gloria Gaynor, Dee Snider & Palaye Royale. He's a musician and he's played one on TV too. You may see him at your local enormo-dome on tour with Diamante.