Over the last year, I have had a significant list of stuff that I wanted to get done - and one of them was to migrate from having my URL point to reverbnation to having a standalone website. But frankly, it was low on my list for a bunch of reasons.
The main reason was that the Reverbnation site did everything I needed a website to do at the time. It allowed people to listen to and buy my music. It let me list and provide details on all my shows. There really wasn't, and isn't, any functional gaps for "fans" that needed to be filled.
I also felt that the stand alone web site as a destination was less and less important…
But it became clear recently that I needed to start moving down the road of having my own site. A significant factor is that people seem to be impressed more with people who have their own site. Appearances matter. 2 guys showing up for a job interview - equally qualified - most times, the guy in the nice suit has an advantage.
I personally hate that. But me hating it does not make it less real.
A second reason is that I looked far and wide for a service or site that could provide a good Electronic Press Kit for musicians - and found that no one is doing it well. There is a service out there called Power Press Kits (http://www.powerpresskits.com/), but my "trial" with them left me with too much uncertainty and too many questions to move forward with them.
Sonicbids remains ethically challenged as a business model (not necessarily as _people_ - since I don't know them!) and very generic. They lost me many years ago when they shut down their message boards because too many of their customers were complaining...I continue to use them only for what I need to...
Another reason is that Reverbnation, which started out really well with lots of cool metrics and potential, never really progressed beyond that early promise and, in fact, has really been short on vision and delivery. I still use and will continue to use them, but I am no longer a fan.
So, here is an initial website. Not perfect or fancy by any means…but another step down the road.
Next on the list? A good video shoot of a live show and concept videos of a few songs…
Any thoughts on the usefulness of stand alone websites? On what I should be doing on mine?