Do Musicians Really Need a Website?
Spoiler alert: Yes, they do.
Read on to find out what a website can do for your performing career in this day and age.
This article at first glance may just seem like a sales pitch, I do build websites after all. However, I started this service because I realized so few of my musician colleagues have taken this important step in establishing their careers online. I want to talk through the benefits and specific reasons why taking the time to build your own site (or saving time by hiring me to do it for you) is worth the investment.
Social vs. Website
You might have already gone through and built up a professional page on Facebook, Instagram, or even YouTube. You may have a wide enough social network to even have a decent following. But chances are after a time you hit a wall. Days, even weeks go by without seeing your followers increase, without anyone hitting that subscribe button. Why aren’t your friends recruiting their friends!? Why aren’t any of these people viewing your videos!? Because in the world of social media you are competing with just about everything and anything for people’s eyeballs. You are at the whim of Facebook’s algorithms even serving your content to your followers unless you hit that boost button and throw money at the problem.
Now that “free” social media account maybe doesn’t seem so enticing. The money you thought you might be saving by not springing for a website you end up just throwing at paid promotion, or severely limiting your reach.
But what if there was a product that allowed followers to find you from anywhere and not have to rely on your personal network to expand your reach? What if once you got people to your page you could keep focused on your content without being distracted by some shiny cat video that just popped up on another person’s page?
That is where a website comes in handy.
SEO and letting people come to you
“SEO” for those new to websites stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” In a nutshell, its the process of making your website Google friendly by focusing on various keywords (among other things) so that you rank higher to the top when people search for relevant content. For example: if someone where to Google “Portland cellist for hire” what would come up? Well, if you are a cellist and you have a website that is well set up you just might be that person that appears near the top. This is actually different than “paid” search and while Google keeps its algorithms close to the chest, they do say that paid search does not have an affect on a site’s ranking in Google. What is paid for are the results marked “Ad” that appear just above the results. How those paid ads work will perhaps be the subject of a different post some day.
Long story short, if you are looking for people to discover who you are and what you are about, a properly built website with the right emphasis and usage of keywords (search terms) will get you much farther than a social media page after you have exhausted your personal network. To be clear, I am not saying don’t have a social media account, they can and do serve a purpose and are often expected of your followers. However, relying on only social media will likely be limiting yourself and the opportunities you receive.
"Google My Business”
This one has relevance to many musicians for hire, but I want to specifically point this one out to my fellow private teachers out there. How do your students discover you in this day and age? Word of mouth? Fliers hung up at a coffee shop? ….Craiglist? (that last one leaves a sour taste in my mouth, I’ve received way too many bogus inquiries from my days using Craigslist). You know what is likely the first thing that most people do when they are considering lessons for themselves or their children? They search on google maps for people close to them. Put yourself in their shoes, would you want to drive to the other side of town in rush hour traffic once a week to drag your kid to a violin lesson? Location matters!
Now, if you are me, the next thing I do when checking out a business on google maps is hit their website button. For whatever reason a company taking the time and investment to build out a website goes a long way in making sure its a legit company and not just “Jim Bob’s discount tobacco shop and oboe studio.” So step one: build a website! Step two: set up your google business account. And Step three: sit back and watch those students roll on in.
A Business Card/Resume/Portfolio All Rolled Into One
A common phrase thrown around in the business world is “what is your elevator speech?” Sum up who you are and what you bring to the table in the 30 seconds you have when meeting someone in an elevator. As a musician, or really any artist, this is kind of an impossible exercise. The value you have as an artist can’t be summed up by saying “I play piano really well.” Your life is your art, your story, your background, your influences. All of these things come together to create your persona, your “product.” So short of trying to sneak in a 30 second concert next time you are in an elevator with a stranger, being able to tell someone “I’m a professional classical pianist, check out jimbobpiano.com to catch my upcoming performances” is much more effective than saying “find me on Facebook.”
Do you or does your group book yourself out for events? Websites are even more key. Unless the person booking the performance has specifically heard you before they are taking a real risk in hiring you to play. Help them feel better about the decision by showing them your site with video, audio, or even just pictures of you doing your thing in various settings to make it appear that you know what you are doing. Again, the website offers a chance for you to leave an impression that will last longer than the time they get to their floor off of the elevator.
Your website is You
More than any other digital medium your website is your space. Your office, your storefront, your man cave, your she shed, your dream home. And the good news is that putting in high quality finishes to your site are a lot cheaper than granite countertops or stainless steel appliances. Your website is key to showing the world that you take yourself seriously and so should they.
The even better news is if you have a bit of patience you can put together a decent looking site yourself. Check out my rundown on some different website builders out there in this previous blog post. If you don’t have the time or simply want to make sure you maximize its impact then I am here to help.
Check out my list of services here.
Or get started right away with a new site by filling out this form
