To Website or not to Website….that is the question.

[MuscoSound]

I think it is important to have a website, but a lot depends on your own personal end game. For me, it was very important to have a site because at first I wanted it to be a tool for custom work. I made it myself using webstarts, which was pretty simple. It was all kind of point and click and very little code. As things have evolved over the past 4 years so has the site. I’ve gotten a lot better at coding and designing websites so now it’s a lot more advanced and does a lot more. The main thing is you have to promote, market, and everything else or it will do virtually nothing for you. If that is something you don’t want to do then get a site for the sole purpose of submitting to libraries. Give yourself a little professional credibility that you take this stuff serious. I don’t know if that would make a big difference or not but I know it’s something I look at when people email me. Whether or not they have a custom email, and webpage. If they do I will check out there site and see who I am talking to before I email them back if I don’t know them. I take them more seriously then if it’s just a generic @gmail or whatever without a website.

[Musicmatters]

I have had a website since a few years. I have a music player on it and it seems to have been of the same utility as SC, except it makes you look a little more professional and invested. If someone searches for you, it makes you a little easier to find. For those of you concerned about SC piracy, i usually post private for private auditions. Has anybody had any music stolen through that way ?

[guscave]

I got a free Soundclick account several years ago as well as a domain name from Godaddy for like $10 a year. I set up the domain name to forward directly to the Soundclick account.

It’s a cheap way to go, but you do get a lot of ads which might take away from the professional look so might be looking at another way of presenting my music soon.

[GaryW]

Thanks to everyone for the great input. Really helps. It’s really about ROI, and looking at it, I doubt if having the website per se has brought me any income directly. I think in doing what we do, as many said, it is all about the music. not really about us.

[mscottweber]

It is pretty simple to create a basic site with a bio and music player on WordPress.com. The site/blog itself is free, and then to get a domain through them it costs about $18 a year. So for $1.50 a month, you can have your own simple website with your own custom domain. Hard to argue with that in terms of ROI.

I use Weebly for my personal site. It costs me about $75 a year and is very easy to use.

One of the bands I play in uses Squarespace. Its about $100 a year and even easier than Weebly to use (in my opinion).

[Sean]

I don’t do SC either. What are you using for audio?

@MichaelL

Wix has built in audio players that you just add to the site. Two different ones. Usually I have between 8 and 10 cues on there at a time. The storage is 500 mb with the free site so it covers what I need at the moment.

[tawmy]

Hey GaryW,

I am closing my website after five years of expense with little return. It’s so difficult to get traffic to a personal website unless you’re touring, famous or notorious.

That’s exactly why I’ve come here MLR … to get information from fellow web composers on how get my creations more into the public domain and generate the revenue they may or may not deserve.

I have material on SoundCloud as well, but it’s not good for getting music placed anywhere that’ll generate revenue. I’d also like a website where I could host all my creations (1000+) for free, without the risk of them being ripped for free. I pretty well give away all my creations for free at my site, but you have to give a legit email address to do so.

Best Regards,

tawmy

[tawmy]

I’ve had a website for years and have never sold a thing … even the free downloads are few and far between. I’m probably going to shut it down in 2016, but will keep it up until i do more research here on MLR.

Good Luck Everyone,

tawmy

[Mark Lewis]

There are lots of reasons this website did not work for you Tawmy.
There is no text on the home page telling the visitor what your site is about.
This is also why search engines probably never found your site.
The super wide banner does not fit into a normal browser width and you have to scroll to read it.
Music plays automatically (a bad thing, customers should choose to play music)
There is no obvious sign of what to do from the home page, just a spinning graphic with no navigation links… ah I see if you scroll all the way to the bottom it says ‘enter here’ (that should be at the top)
So actually this should have been your home page
http://www.tawmy.com/music
It has navigation links and music to choose from.

If you change your mind and would like to continue trying to sell your music via your own website I would suggest tying the free MLS software we have available here
http://www.musiclicensingsoftware.com/
The default site that this software creates is designed to sell music and to give you a chance at showing up in the search engines.

– Mark

[tawmy]

Hi Mark.

My website is rather enigmatic right now. I’ve tried different formats, including one like you described. I appreciate your time and energy to direct me back to a more ‘buyer friendly’ site. I’ll check out the MLS software and see how it will work for me.

In Appreciation,

tawmy

[tawmy]

Hi Mark,

I redesigned my website once again, as per your recommendations.

I did not use your software as I’d care to see some samples of users who have used it. Maybe you could send me some links of sites of users that have used your MLS. Does your MLS include traffic reports ?

I also changed my meta tags with Google and will register with more search engines.

We’ll see if this gets any more traffic.

Thanks Again

Tawmy

http://www.tawmy.com

[Mark Lewis]

Looks much better now. Easy to know what your site is about and what you have to offer.

The title tag is one of the most important elements google looks at when choosing where to rank your page. Your current one is very general…
<title>MUSIC</title>

I would update your title tag to something more specific, like…

<title>Download Free Music to Use In Your Videos</title>

The description meta tag is not important as to where you rank in Google but is very important for users of the search engine to know what your site is about. It is something you have direct control as to how your site is listed.
Right now you do not have one.
I would suggest putting something like…
<meta name=”description” content=”Free soundtrack music to download and use in your videos. If you use our music please consider making a donation “/>

Also, you’re kind of burying the headline by putting the free music notice and the donate button at the very bottom of the page.
I would move that up front and center. Free music downloads will get you links from other sites. And links from other sites gets you more traffic and better search rankings.

In regards to MLS software it does not have traffic reports as the free service from Google Analytics does an amazing job of doing that already. No need to recreate what they do so well.

For examples of what the MLS software looks like in use here is Art’s site
http://cueteam.com/

and another recent install…
http://jingleworks.com/

Hope this helps.
– Mark
http://www.musiclicensingsoftware.com/

[tawmy]

Hey Mark,

Thanks again for checking out, and offering
constructive criticism for my site.
I inserted the meta tags as you suggested.
Could you please verify that I did it correctly ?

I also moved the donate button closer to the top.

CueTeam and JingleWorks are pretty generic sites but
work well for someone searching for specific music.

I will revamp my site in the near future to emulate the format
for both my music and photography.

I’ve paid my Bandzoogle subscription until next June,
so until then I will use their platform.

In appreciation,

tawmy

[StevieBlunder]

I realize I’m bumping a year old discussion, but I found this in a search and music player info is exactly what I need. I’m currently building a site using a Godaddy template and I would ideally like a music hosting source that I can link my songs to so they will play from the GD site. GD has a music player but it seems to be setup as one player for many songs on a page. I want something to have individual links for each song. Any ideas?

I’ve had a Soundcloud account for a long while and even SC Pro the last 3 years. To me ,unless I’m sending a specific link to a known individual, SC is not acceptable. Since they’ve decided not to allow songs to play from remote sites, every click sends the listener back to SC which is not the tedium I want to subject people to.

I basically want to know what folks are using to play songs on a site.

[Art Munson]

I want something to have individual links for each song. Any ideas?

Trying to work with a GoDaddy template might be tough. If you are using a WordPress install at GoDaddy you would be able to find a plugin that would allow you to do just that.

[Author]

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