Is it worth while for a band to have a website anymore? With all these networking sites like myspace, friendster, garageband, purevolume, blogger, youtube and so on, what's the need for a band to own their own domain name? These sites allow mp3 hosting, image hosting, video hosting, and many of them are fully customizable to suit every users needs. Why pay a designer thousands of dollars to design you a professional looking site when you can design your own myspace page for free in an hour or so with the help of a template. I have both. I have 2 websites and many myspace pages, and they all serve their purpose. I find it convenient for networking with other bands, musicians, or organizations on myspace, but I always want to direct them to my website for the "real" information. To me, myspace seems like a "club" and you have "network" a certain way to fit in. Or you can cheat and use these friend adders. I see bands on there that have over 30,000 friends and 2 plays a day. What's the point? It looks cool I guess, or makes you feel good as a band i guess. I would rather have 1000 + hits a day on my bands website, where they can see how professional we conduct ourselves, and they can find all the information, videos, images, mp3's easily and quickly. But how do I get traffic to my site? Myspace and blogger and garageband will bring me traffic without having to do anything. It's not hard, but it is time consuming. Not being an expert on the subject, I only know what my web optimizer tells me, and take her advice. I spend on average probably about 10-15 hours a week working on my websites, and am just starting to generate some traffic. With myspace, all I have to do is add 100 random users and I will get at least 50 of them looking at my profile. It depends on how seriously you take your band. I would always recommend that a band purchase their domain name and have a pro website designed. Everyone and their dog has a myspace page and/or a profile elsewhere. I believe that in this industry you have to stand out, and a pro looking website is a must. This is an expensive, competitive racket we're in, but if you're creative and innovative, you can find lots of ways to save money, and maintain quality and professionalism.
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2 comments:
I agree. MYspace gets a little wanky. All that adding friends for what purpose. The buzz can't be faked. Having my own site in addition to GarageBand, Myspace, Soundclick, etc. is worth it. I pay $100/yr. to maintain my own site. Thewebsiteinabox.com is what I use. My site is: wonderfulwonderfulworld.com and for $100 a year, it's worth it.
Not to mention, half the time you try to use myspace, it doesn't function properly.
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