Facebook and other social media sites are a great way to promote your bands and it’s music but they should never be used as your website. You want people in the industry to take you seriously? You need your own website. I know it cost a bit of money but this also shows how serious you are to the people looking at your band.
Make sure you have your own domain name. Using others company’s like yourbandname.manybandscanada.com is also a big mistake for a few reasons.
(It’s ok to use a place like them to help you promote your band and music but not as your main website.)
1. If that site goes under you have nothing and you have to start from scratch.
2. Your stuck playing by their rules and not your own.
3. Your email looks like yourbandname@manybandscanada.com. You want it to look like this yourbandname@yourbandname.com
(if your name is taken in a .com you could always try a .ca) PLEASE READ THIS: If your band name has a trade marked name in it avoid using it in a .ca, as you could be sued over this. Ways around it is add something on to the domain name like YourBandNameCanada but still I would talk to someone who can help you with domain name laws.
You want full control over your website. Cookie cutter sites are easy to grab and drop things where you want it and follow their format and templates.
You really want to stand out as much as you can especially in the music industry.
I suggest using stuff CMS (content management system). WordPress seems to be the most used one today but there are others and they are free to use.
One thing to remember from this article is your website should stand out, as it represents your band. 24/7 365 days.
I know a lot of people don’t like to hear this but treat your band, as a business. This doesn’t mean you can’t have fun anymore. This will help you make the right choices when designing your website.
A little about me:
I have been online way before the internet existed and have run many BBS & Message Forums spanning over 25+ years
A few sites I run http://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf & http://www.RacingTraderOnline.com
CanadianRacingOnline.com is 17 years old this year. This site was started to promote racing in Canada. The local racing scene is dying off slowly. So I create Kat’s Metal Litter Box, as my daughter and I enjoy listen and attend Rock and Metal concerts and want to help promote Canadian Rock and Metal local bands, as there are so many of them across Canada that no one has heard of and this includes my daughter and I.