Getting your own band webpage

Just wanted to emphasize once again that the best way to represent your music, your image and your website is to sign up for an account of your own instead of using free sites.

The main advantages of having your own website and server for storing your songs is that:
1) you look more professional.
2) you look like you have confidence in your music enough to represent it on your own site
3) your own website can be customized to your own band name: ie,
my own website is called www.schmange.com and all my email addresses end in @schmange.com
This is essential if you're trying to impress anybody that you are serious about your music

4) you need a way to store your music so that people can access it directly from any web page without delay, signing in or looking at advertisements.
For instance, I can store hundres of my own songs on my server and offer direct links through my website or even just post them here.
Where you can double click on them or right click to save the file to your own HD.
ie, http://s93744050.onlinehome.us/Songs/GoingHome.mp3
... takes you to a direct link to a high quality 320kbps file of a song called 'Going Home' that I wrote several years back.
With Quicktime and other plug-ins installed in your browser, you should begin to get playback of the song almost instantaneously or be able to downlod it to your hard drive.

5) Using Soundclick etc... is fine for amateur musicians, but the main drawback is that they store their copies of your songs in a very lo-fi format... even sometimes converting them to mono.
This results in an inferior representation of your music and offers a much less change that people will appreciate your band or purchase your music.

6) If you're concerned about copyright infringement... you can also just post 'demo' tunes of your songs. These can either be partial copies or MP3's with advertisements overdubbed in the middle of the song.
There's nothing worse than people just downloading your high quality MP3 from your own site and then not buying it because they got their own copy free off the net.

7) Basically what I'm saying is, do some research and visit a place like
1and1.com (this is the site that I use to post my website and songs)
The cost of signing up is next to nothing and you're guaranteed to always be able to give other access to your material.

Try here:
http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=6828651

... and read through the services offered, then try it out.
Upload your songs to their FTP server and try emeding links to your songs directly.

It's well worth the $5 a month or whatever it costs.

Oh yeah... I hate soundclick etc...

Also, if you're after a cheap option, you could use DynDNS or similar to point a domain to your PC. I used to do it a while back when I needed more storage than I was willinng to pay a hosting company for. It does mean your PC is on the internet and exposed, so you need to be able to secure it...

Anybody hear of bandzoogle.com

myspace is still better...

Great post about having your own website. Myspace and other scratch'n'sniff sites can do a whole lot for networking, but do not give a pro appearance.

First impressions mean a whole lot for your reputation. Which, sadly, also means that your website has to look professional. Just having one doesn't make you look good, but having a pro looking website can.

Templates are tricky, as they too can make you look professional, until someone finds out it was a template that other people are using too. If you're good at html or photoshop, templates can be a great starting point.

Learning about marketing, like in Michael Port's book, Book Yourself Solid, is what willhelp take you over the top and set you apart. For instance, making the page with a particular person in mind (your ideal fan), can do a lot for giving you a niche. Having your pic on the front page, and a pic of anyone your quote about your music, can give a great personal touch that makes people feel welcome. And having some way they can interact with you and other fans will keep them coming back. Those are just a few things.

Unfortunately, it takes money to take your band to the next level, and that means a lot of work for some. Fortunately, it takes money, and that cuts out some of the less serious so that not everyone and their dog is saturating the pro market.

Draven Grey, I dis-agree about myspace not looking professional. Every major label artist has one. It all comes down to presentation on there. If you have glitter sparkle hearts all over it, it's jacked up. Find a friend who can customize it for you and make it look unique and "professional".

You may be able to make a Myspage page look professionally done, but I'm more talking about the band itself looking as professional as possible. Have a myspace page, but please have your own website as well.

That is true... Having an actual dedicated website for an artist that you can link to from myspace is more professional. I have honsestly found that their myspace usually has much more stuff in terms of updates, pics, songs, etc. But I will agree that having that www.bandname.com is good too because is says "we paid for this site, because we're that professional". Good point.

Originally Posted by: renOh yeah... I hate soundclick etc...

Also, if you're after a cheap option, you could use DynDNS or similar to point a domain to your PC. I used to do it a while back when I needed more storage than I was willinng to pay a hosting company for. It does mean your PC is on the internet and exposed, so you need to be able to secure it...

Speaking of SoundClick, I've just cancelled my account there. (or tried to...They're not answering my emails again)
I was finding it really strange that after over a year being with them, I hadn't received any money from sales of MP3's or CD's.

CDBaby sends me weekly cheques from places like iTunes etc totaling in the thousands... yet SoundClick has never sent me a penny, which I find really suspicious.

I wrote SoundClick asking them for an accounting of what was going on and they completely ignored me for 3 weeks until I threatened to report them for fraud. It was only then that they finally answered me and gave me a link to a page where my sales reports were stored. It basically showed that not one MP3 or CD has been sold in over a year and I've had no hits on my page. (despite the fact that my link is at the bottom of every email I send out)

I don't know whether they're scamming people or whether it's just because they list all your song in their entirety for anybody to stream, but something weird is going on.

Would you say having a personal website is the better of these 2 options if you had to choose?

http://www.johndennerrocks.com

They serve two different purposes, for the most part. Something like myspace is more social, and allows for quick and easy access to fans for new songs, growing an audience, etc. A personal website allows for growing a cult following, as well as offering enough info, media, and freebies to create your own little fan heaven. It also gives you a more professional front.

I'm for having both, and having them link to each other pretty obviously.

Yea 1and1 is a good host thats what I use and its cheap.
more disk space then you'll ever need for a band web site.

Yeah, they had me sold when they offered 2 years free service a long time ago. I've never had a problem with them...or had my site go down plus it's like $5 a year for 5 of your own domain names and something like 1000 email addresses. The one I was with before was almost $40 a year just for one domain.

Originally Posted by: jamesplaysgitarmyspace is still better...

Better than what?

Originally Posted by: Draven GreyYou may be able to make a Myspage page look professionally done, but I'm more talking about the band itself looking as professional as possible. Have a myspace page, but please have your own website as well.

I agree, myspace is ok for networking but far from professional. Think about it this way... how professional would GT look if it were in myspace? ;)

Originally Posted by: johndennerWould you say having a personal website is the better of these 2 options if you had to choose?

http://www.johndennerrocks.com

Not sure what you mean but your website definitely qualifies as something better than a generic site on soundclick or whatever.
The basics here are professionalism. A site with your own name in the title like you have and a way for people to access your music without jumping through a ton of hoops like signing up for access are the way to go.

...and the look of your page does matter. Your page doesn't need to be the latest on web 2.0 design but it should minimally be pleasant to look at, easy to navigate (clearly marked links/menu) and sensible and informative for the user. For fun, I do freelance design on the side via referrals so I think I am hyper-sensitive to this.

You're selling yourself and that page is essentially your outward 'packaging'. Truth be known, while I have mostly extricated myself from the music biz, I'd been on the non-musician side of the biz for a long time from owning retail, wholesale, CD Manufacturing, design and running a small label.

Essentially what I learned is this; the music does come first. However, bad packaging on CD's and web sites kill more people than you think from even trying your stuff even when it's good.

If your getting a site set up, unless your buddy is a fantastic designer, don't get your buddy to do it cuz he just got Photoshop a month ago and wants to try it out. If you can't do professionally and on the cheap/free, you can go to freelance sites (ie - ifreelance.com) for bids on design and can describe your specs and needs. It is a reasonably priced way to go.

All this assumes that you are serious in your musical career.

I guess I'm saying that be sure that the quality of your visuals meets the quality of you music. Doing so communicates that you are professional about what you do...

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About having your own website... that's a good idea, but many musicians don't have skills to create a GOOD website. If you create bad website you will be serious with your music - alone.

My advise:
1. Buy cheap hosting anywhere (search the web) - there are many plans just for a few dollars a month.
2. Be sure you can create a database there.
3. Install a wordpress blog there. (Visit www.wordpress.org for more info)

You will get a design, a good system to upload/post/comment etc and it will work.

If you don't want to spend money at all - just create your blog - wherever you like :)

Regards,
Gvin.

Great ideas people. I'm looking into some places to build a simple website for myself. It really does ad to the whole professionalism. I would rather send people to my site as opposed to a myspace page when getting a gig.

I think having only a myspace in part has held me back a bit.

I am a budding, baby guitarist and have no asperations of ever being in a band. Being able to play respectably in front of family and friends at the family reunion or get together will be fine for me. :)

However, I do have several websites that I host and maintain and another good choice to look at is: http://www.indigopanther.net/

They have reasonable rates and top notch tech support if you have any problems at all.

Mike