As a musician in today’s marketplace, it is imperative that you make your music as accessible as possible. Gone are the days when music lovers would go to a music store, browse through available titles and artists, make their selections and bring the music home.
Many of us remember actually listening to music on records. The 1970’s brought in the now almost obsolete cassette tapes that were widely used to record and listen to music.
Remember the Sony Walkman, the first personal and portable cassette player introduced in the late 1970s? CDs became popular around the same time, enabling the listener to skip to a particular song.
Then of course, as technology advanced, so did the music industry with the introduction of mini disk players in the early 1990s.
The biggest change in how we experience music occurred in 2001 with the introduction of the iPod by Apple, an entirely new category of digital music players that enabled music lovers to put all their favorite music collections in their pocket and listen to whatever they wanted – whenever they wanted. Steve Jobs said: “With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again.”
Consumers today expect to be able to have instant access to what they want to purchase and this includes their music preferences in the form of online streaming. It is for this reason that ecommerce plays such an important role in the business world today.
The vast majority of people make their purchases online. Many musicians specialize in music and are not well versed in Internet technologies, trends, and best practices. So what is a musician to do?
Luckily there are many options available to easily enable musicians to share their music online. But how does a musician decide which option is best for them? WordPress was found to be the most popular platform with over 40% of sites by Audio Themes.
The more places your music is available for downloading, the better the chances your music will be heard. It only takes a few fans to help share your music across their social media followings. We all know the vast influence social media plays in sharing information.
You should definitely take advantage of the exponential growth of social media sharing. Imagine having just two fans who love your music and follow you around the web. They, in turn, share your posts, music, images, and videos with their social media networks.
Those two fans have now helped your brand grow simply by taking advantage of social media sharing. Facebook, in particular, is a great free social media resource for musicians. It is the largest social network in the world and offers a place to connect with fans to share your music.
You can create a Facebook band or artist page while you are creating your online presence. In addition, be sure to link to your WordPress site from your Facebook page and vice versa.
You should be using social media to share your music and your brand story. However, it is also important to brand yourself and your music. Your “brand” is essentially your “story” and what sets you apart from other musicians and connects you with your fans.
Having your own website to develop and share your music and your brand does not have to be a daunting task. There are many WordPress options available to help you. Two of the more popular ones are WooCommerce and Shopify.
Both are good ecommerce platform option for musicians looking for a relatively easy technology solution. With your own WordPress site, you can brand yourself and your music to your potential audience and your current fan base.
Writing a blog on your website is another way to keep your music and your brand in front of those who will want to hear your music. Google likes dynamic content over static content and writing a blog keeps your website dynamic.
Writing posts about your upcoming music and your brand creates a buzz and allows current fans to help you hype up upcoming releases via social media. You can share short clips and allow fans to pre-order your music – which is a great way of advertising.
You want to be sure that your ecommerce site is functioning properly. Speed is important – buyers don’t want to get caught in a time warp when trying to download your music. They will lose patience and move on.
Many musicians use ads to drive traffic to their website and the last thing you want to do is have errors on your ecommerce platform while paying for traffic to get people there.
Be sure that your online store is functioning properly and up and running at all times to increase your online profits and promote your music.
What are you waiting for? Get started creating your own ecommerce site for your music.
