A website vs. Facebook for musicians
Can social media replace a personal website for a musician? It looks like the majority of producers prefer to have a Facebook page rather than a website. Is it necessary to have a website at all? What is the best strategy on this matter?
Fabio Souza
Indeed, for the last several years many artists moved their web space away from regular websites to social media. Facebook became a new main website, Twitter — a new blog, Instagram — a new photo album. And it’s so attractive.
On social media, It is so easy to upload and manage your content. Plus, it’s way cheaper: creating a page cost nothing, and you no need to pay for hosting service and domain name. On top of that, all your audience is there!
“Why on earth someone may want a regular website? We’re live in the 21st century!” — this is something that I hear all the time. However, there are two important things that usually people forget to mention.
You do not own the content on social websites. All your posts, photos, videos, music, blogs, and everything else are owned by big companies. Basically, it means that your content can be deleted anytime just because it’s against someone’s policy, or because the company went bankrupt, or any other reason. In fact, these giant companies are like soap bubbles. Do you remember what happened to Myspace? That’s the lesson we’ve learned. Don’t solely rely on social media.
You cannot organize the content. Simple question: can you find anything that you posted on a specific date two years ago? I can’t, seriously. Once you post something, it pops up in news feeds over a few days, and then it’s gone almost forever. Unlike of Facebook, you can organize your website whatever you like: make a structure, create sections, add tags, filter, search, and highlight important things.
Don’t solely rely on social media
A small remark. I’ve noticed that website constructor services like Wix become more popular these days. Don’t fall into this trap: having a website using 3rd party service is no better than Facebook, it has exactly the same two downsides as described above.
Yes, I have to admit that making a proper website isn’t cheap. Also creating a good website is just one side of things, but keeping it up to date throughout the years — this is where the real hard work comes in.
Remember, all your posts are your time and your efforts. If you care about it and think your content is worth to ever get back to it again, I definitely recommend keeping it on your own website.
What should be on a musician’s website
Answering your question, I found the best strategy is to have all your important content on your own website and link it to social media. This allows you to reach a broader audience, not risking and having everything under control. I won’t hide, this is exactly what I’m doing with this blog and my website in general, and it works pretty well.
