Marketing Strategies and Band Websites

Is it essential to have a website for your band? I mean let's face it, with MySpace, Facebook, Sonicbids alone you have enough information out there for people to find what their looking for whether they're a promoter, agent or fan. If this is all true, then WHY is it so important for a band to have an official website? Is it the fan/band relationship that people long for? There's something about going to a bands website rather than their MySpace page that feels more personable. A band can fully control their website rather than use cheezy layouts, and can also post as many songs as they like as opposed to just 6. A band can also more accurately track their popularity by charting hits and unique impressions on their website, as opposed to MySpace's inaccurate "friend" list. In the dog eat dog world that we live in it's important to set yourself aside from the pack, and having an official site is the best way to do that.
I've recently been checking out a site that hosts websites for bands and also makes it extremely easy to design and operate. It's called Bandzoogle. There are a few different plans, the most exensive one running you at $19.95 a month, but you don't have to pay anyone to design the site and you also don't have to be an html wiz to get a great product. I highly recommend checking out Bandzoogle and giving it a 30-day from trial.
Part of what a website does is brand the band. Branding is so important to a young band because essentially it's getting your name out there and creating a prior sense of knowledge when someone hears the name. When you release a new album, you can use your website in so many different ways to help promote and drive traffic to and from your other social networking sites such as MySpace.
One great way of doing this would be to have a music store on your site where fans can buy your music for a nominal fee. At the same time when releasing an album, every day or every week you could have one new free download. Essentially if a fan came back just once a week to download that free track you would 1. Have steady traffic to your website and at the same time get your entire album out for free to all your fans over a 10-12 week period depending on how many songs you had on the record.
This is just one of many ideas a band can use to help promote and brand themselves. I'm always finding new ways and always looking so please drop a line if you have any innovative ideas on how to get your music out there!