The music business (or any business) is a tough gig. There are so many steps involved in setting things up to be legit, not to mention the recipe for success can sometimes seem like a dark art in itself. Luckily, these days there is a wealth of information available online for anyone looking to step things up a notch and really professionalise their music business.
freely-music has always primarily been a ‘love’ project, started in the early 2000’s, it covered all things related to music- from beat making and music production to gfx and web design. Back in 2005 we designed a website for Natural Causes (Chance Waters first hiphop group) and from 2005 – 2012 the freely-music website hosted a kick ass ‘Featured Artists’ section that helped give a solid online presence for many artists who may have otherwise slipped under the radar (It actually helped Holly Terrens get contacted for a big music showcase in Melbourne back in 2011 for example). Needless to say, this all took a lot of time, not to mention actual cash ($$) supporting Australian independent music by purchasing albums and reselling them (with no markup!) and of course all of the associated costs of running and maintaining a website (hosting, domain names etc). Although extremely gratifying, after a while it got pretty exhausting web designing and mastering, hard selling, meeting, going to gigs, networking etc in a volunteer type capacity. This technical and creative diversity continued as freely-music up until 2009 when finally | the lost underground | creative collective was conceived which has now evolved into fully fledged studio as well!
These days, | t l u | creative studio takes care of all the web design / dev, art / photography, video production and technical aspects working from a humble (yet extremely capable!) home based studio on the Capricorn Coast.
Now… back to the point of this article- As a domain reseller, graphic / web designer and photographer I can tell you how important it is to get your website and online presence ‘right’. In this day and age of DIY websites it is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that anything will do “as long as it saves me money right?”. But, if it is not done right, it could actually cost you money. How? By turning away potential customers or worse… losing the ones you already have!
If you do decide to go the DIY route my ultimate advice is this: Take your time!
- Take your time to familiarise yourself with your domain name reseller and hosting provider so you are aware of the actual costs involved not just the ridiculously cheap, introductory first year prices they offer, but the actual costs after the first year (Trust me, you may be shocked!).
- Take your time to know what you want your website to look like and gather (or create) the necessary assets like logos, hero images, product photos etc and make sure they are of the highest quality! DIY is cool, but it’s best if your clients / customers can not actually tell it is DIY!
- Take your time to familiarise yourself with the DIY website building tools that you have decided to use (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc) and know what you are doing. With the wealth of learning resources available on the internet there really is no excuse. Rushing into website design / development and publishing an unfinished site may impress some people (and make you feel like you are achieving) but to the real industry guys and discerning customers, it just makes your business look amateur and unpolished.
- Take your time to know the market and your target demographic… once you know this, then nearly every step mentioned previously becomes a lot easier to judge!
If after all this, you decide that you would prefer a professional to do the job for you have a look around, gather some quotes, scrape some cash together and invest in your business! Remember: You have to spend money, to make money!
To make it even easier, why not contact | t l u | creative studio and see if we can fit your vision and budget? All the best with your music venture and remember- have fun!
