[Editor’s Note: This was written by Jesse McCracken, Social Media Manager for Rightside, and it originally appeared on Rightside’s blog. Visit tunecoredomains.band to get “.band” or “.rocks” web addresses that capture your band’s and you brand’s personality and voice.]
Van Morrison is a music legend. As a singer-songwriter since the late 1950s, he has seen the industry go through a lot of changes. He’s quoted as saying, “You can’t stay the same. If you’re a musician and a singer, you have to change, that’s the way it works.” Well, get ready for a big change to how musicians can present themselves on the Internet, one that every artist needs to know about: new top level domains—alternatives to .COM—that are geared toward the music industry.
In my day job I manage social media for Rightside, but I am also a lifelong musician. When I learned that Rightside was adding the .BAND domain to a portfolio that also includes .ROCKS, I started thinking about all the ways my fellow artists can put a music-specific domain name to work.
Make it super easy for your audience to find you
To make a living in the music industry, you need an online presence that’s easy to find, be it a website, SoundCloud profile, or Facebook page. Don’t bother saying a long, ungainly URL from the stage; no one is going to remember it—they may not even remember your group’s name the first time they hear it. As entertainment journalist Hugh McIntyre noted in his recent article in Forbes, music acts can use .BAND to “make it immediately clear who they are and what they do with a short, snappy domain name.”
Jeff Pollack, CEO of Global Media & Entertainment for Pollack Music & Media Group, knows the importance of recognizable branding for bands and musicians. Pollack has been at the forefront of music trends for nearly 25 years, and his clients have included MTV and VH1. “Artists require not only talent, but also a strong, creative identity that will allow them to stand out in a highly competitive musical landscape,” he said. “New domain name options, like .BAND, give musicians exciting new opportunities to extend a unique identity online.”
Synth-soul group Keeper grabbed the URL keeper.band and redirected it to their existing site, keepermusic.com, which isn’t as easy to say or remember. That short, memorable web address will come in handy.
Match the brand to the .BAND
Your band name probably doesn’t include the words “dot com” or “dot net,” but if you’re like Dave Matthews Band, KC and the Sunshine Band, or the Steve Miller Band, your name has the word “band” in it, and if so, there might be a perfect match in the form of a URL ending in .BAND. Having your band name exactly match the words people type into search engines can positively impact your search-engine ranking.
Improved discoverability, artistic expression and having the perfect online name are potentially big advantages for today’s artist.
Visit tunecoredomains.band to get “.band” or “.rocks” web addresses that capture your band’s and you brand’s personality and voice.
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