How To Use Your Music Website as a Tool for Your Next Release

You might make music that causes rivers of tears or hounds of laughter, music that gives people hope and joy. But if you don’t have a website, all of that could be for naught.

If you only have a SoundCloud page, you’re missing out. Your official music website is the easiest way for fans to hear your story, connect with you, find you onstage, and most importantly, Learn about your upcoming music.

In this post, you’ll learn five ways to use your music website to boost the reach and engagement of your next release.

1) Get Personal About the Music

Humans connect to stories.

Whether it’s a story song or the inspiration behind a song, people want to hear a tale — true or false (as long as you reveal it’s fiction at some point).

And the more connected fans feel with you and your music, the more likely they are to support you.

So share what makes you unique. Share your story.

Use your Bio page to tell people how you got to where you are. What obstacles have you overcome in your career and as a person?

Here are some other ideas for how you can include story on your site:

Share photos from a concert and tell the story of that night
Post behind-the-scenes videos of you recording your album
Tell a story of how your song affected one of your fans

Basically, go deeper into your story than you normally would. And do this on your website because your website has no distractions, unlike social media.

2) Give Fans a Way To Support You Directly

Your website is the most profitable way to earn a living from music. Every other method has a middleman.

Think about it. Streaming, performing live, sync licensing. They all have someone you have to go through who also takes a cut of your earnings.

But you can give your fans a way to support you directly through your website.

Despite what you might assume, people still download music, especially if they get to support an artist they love. It costs you nothing and it provides a way for fans to support you. So why not offer downloadable music for sale?

Speaking of selling online, you need to offer merchandise.

And there are plenty of ways to offer merch with no upfront cost. Namely, you can sell print-on-demand T-shirts, mugs, hats, stickers, and a bunch of other stuff.

Lastly, you can launch a crowdfunding campaign.

This is when fans contribute toward your project and in exchange, you give them exclusive goodies. Signed merch, meet-and-greets, shoutouts — anything that would reward super fans for supporting the project.

3) Build Your Mailing List

You cannot rely on your social media followers. Yes, they’re helpful in spreading awareness. But algorithms keep your content from many of your followers.

But with email, your message goes right to them. So you know they’ll at least see you emailed them.

And the best way to build your email list is through your website.

The people who visit your site are likely to be more invested and more interested in your music. And that means they’re more likely to subscribe to your email list.

There are ways to encourage these people to sign up. Here are some things to offer in exchange for an email address:

A free download of unreleased music
An exclusive PDF download that shares the inspirations behind your songs
A shoutout on social media
A 10-second phone recording of you thanking them

You can get really creative with this process. Offer something unique to you and your brand in exchange for fans’ email addresses.

4) Share News and Blog Posts

Leaks are intriguing. You can use this to your advantage by sharing exclusive news about your upcoming release.

You can write something announcing your next release and share a snippet of the single.

Or you can write a blog post telling the story behind the album pre-release.

This helps build buzz around your music.

And you can do it all on your website, driving newcomers and veteran fans alike to your online home.

5) Promote Your Upcoming Shows

When you want to see if your favorite artist is touring through your city, where do you go?

Their website. That’s where most people think to look first, and often it’s the first search result.

So you’ve got to clearly list your upcoming shows directly on your site, complete with date, city/state, door time, and a link to buy tickets.

This is especially important if you’re having an album launch concert. That needs to be front-and-center on your site and your Shows page.

Final Thoughts

To recap, the first step in creating buzz around your upcoming release is to have a music website.

Then, make sure you open up and get personal, make it easy for fans to support you, use a mailing list, and update your website with news, blog posts, and upcoming shows.