Independent Band & Musician
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For most artists I'd say the DIAY route is not the way to go. Luckily there are more band and musician web hosting options...
2 Do Part Of It For Me
- The more expensive, easier, less time-consuming option...There are hosts who cater to the specific needs of music artists and bands. These services provide template-driven site-building tools with special applications bands may need already included in the package.
You can have your own .com domain name with these hosts and you pay for the hosting so the site belongs to you. These hosts make it easy to add a music player, events calendar, videos, blog posts and other artist-oriented features to your website.
Two good examples you can have a look at are Bandzoogle and HostBaby.com. I've used Bandzoogle and found it musician-user-friendly with good customer service. I've not yet had a chance to use HostBaby though I believe they offer a similar type and level of service.
HostBaby offers you a slight bit more flexibility in design as you can use your own style sheets which I don't think is possible with Bandzoogle.
I feel most independent artists starting out will benefit from going along this route as it doesn't require super web skills or lots of time to get your website up.
The only downside is that it's a more expensive than traditional web hosting at about $150-$200 a year though I feel this is money well spent.
3 Do It All For Me
- The most expensive, easiest, least time-consuming route (well, mostly!)...Yes, you can hire a web designer to design and build your site for you. There are gazillions of freelancers and companies that will love to bid for your project. Ah, the easy life, at last! ;-)
Not so quick though...
Yes, a GOOD web designer can make life easier. A bad web designer can make a grown artist cry. You usually get what you pay for. This could range from $300 to a few grand depending on what you want done.
Price is not the only yardstick you should use when you choose a web designer. Look for examples of their work and see whether you like what they do. You can also contact artists with sites you like and ask them who designed the site.
Your web designer will usually be able to set you up with hosting which you'll pay for yearly, apart from the cost of the initial website design work.
Some designers will also train you on how to maintain the website so you don't need to keep paying someone else to do it should you not wish to.
Conclusion:
Most new independent musicians or bands should be fine using option 2 and then moving up to option 3 when the business starts picking up.First, make sure you know exactly what you want from your website and then look for a band or musician web hosting option which ticks all your boxes.
All the best,
Marius van Dyk
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