Got a band? Sing it out loud on your website

You sing, you play, you dance, and your fans love it. They follow you on all your social media accounts. There is a way to unify everything and increase your followers. How? The answer is:

Your band website!

Band websites are more than just staying alive

Many of you may ask yourselves: Do I really need a band website if I am busy on social?

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Tiktok and various streaming platforms are like your bands’ outer layer. Your appearance. But your website is your much-needed base layer that channels all your energy to the right places.

Websites aren’t zombies

They can be useful in many ways. Your website:

• is the core from which all your other accounts divert
• can be your first point of contact (from which people can reach you further: email, social, chat, forms)
• lets you guide your traffic further
• maximises your SEO
• helps you to build a coherent image and brand
• nourishes contacts with other professionals and employers (event managers, producers)
• provides you with a multi-faceted internet presence
• gives a continuous and consistent presence over several languages
• gathers all your media (documents, audio, video, links to other sources)
• provides the opportunity to sell your music online

See your website presence as a means to reach out to your potential collaborators. Producers and event managers may want to see your portfolio presence concentrated on a professional website rather than on an over-lively Facebook page full of comments.

Build your electronic press kit and your site is ready!

An electronic press kit (EPK) is a set of promotional materials. Use it to:

• launch your new band
• promote your tours and events
• release your new song/ album
• announce your presence at industry trade shows and other events

As all that is fresh is of interest to your fans, potential event managers, record companies, producers, and your proud mum, the EPK is the CenterPoint of your band website. Anything else will be supplementary extras.

Example of a one-page EPK

An EPK can be all on a single page or distributed to several pages. If you like to present your information as appetizers to the readers, we recommend creating a page per topic. Here is what you should not miss showing:

What is in it?

An about page

• Including photos reflecting your band identity and character (ideal are 3 key pics, not more)
• A super short biography highlighting where you are based, and listing your main milestones

PR

• Show off where you (and your band) were picked up by the press, cite articles, reviews and TV shows here
• You can also add the scanned prints as downloads

Contact

• All social and contact links, reaching you needs to be intuitive
• Contact Forms

Events

• Gig info (links to professional work, audio as well as song text snippets, and more photos)
• Upcoming events require a calendar and a booking form

Booking tickets from your website is most straightforward if you link a button to 3^rd party ticketing services like Eventbrite, Ticketmaster or TickPick.

Depending on how full your schedule is, you can simply list your upcoming gigs or display them in form of an embedded calendar, such as Google Calendar or Bravenet.

Share & stay in touch

You will bring a taster of your creations in the gig infos. Many artists dedicate an extra music page that lists the current Best of list on Spotify and co. To put up videos and photos, you don’t have to be a programmer.

Webnode already provides an overview for anyone wanting to add music audio to their website. Let’s get more specific for you professionals.

What is the best streaming platform out there? Should you use one or more? Beatport, Spotify… SoundCloud, Deezer etc..

Use your website to boost your fan base. You have several options to choose from.

Open a platform for discussions and polls

We all like to play. Include some discussions, questions (for example: how much you like our new song?) and polls linked in the form of buttons on your event page, gig infos or music page.

Newsletters

Keep fans posted by updating your news and including a calendar of events to show your upcoming gigs.  We recommend adding the call to action that lets fans subscribe to your newsletter platform appropriately on your contact and or event page. No one wants to be flashed with pop-ups.

“Fan out” with social

With your website, you purposefully direct your visitors to your social pages, which will increase your fan base. Your social contacts can be easily integrated into the header of your pages. To catch all eyes and increase your likes have them on your contact page and optional blog pages as well.

On your social media accounts, you mainly reach out to your fans and followers. The interaction here goes both ways. This can be up to a point where screaming fans post video clips of them stage-diving at your last concert. Information on your Facebook page is blended with the life of your fans. A website is more structured. It is content is controlled by you. Interaction with your visitor is no longer spontaneous but redirected to forms or social media.

Thus, we encourage you to establish a flowing two-way street between your social media pages and your professional band website. This way, visitors (like producers), who like to see a clear and neat presentation of you, will be led back to your website and fans forwarded to your social pages.

Tell stories in your band blog

Do you have a big fan clan? Consider telling anecdotes from your last tour in your blog. It can also be a blog about the insights backstage, on how you create your music or teach it. See blog posts about your music life as small stories. More information on how to create your blog can be found here.

Do you want to make your band more popular? Try 13 proven website traffic sources