Simple Website Creation Services for Independent Artists

As our numbers increase (those of home recording musicians), the number of services jumping at the chance to cater to our needs increases as well. Over 100 services now offer webhosting solutions to musicians and garage bands looking for a way to market and promote their music online. Many offer a simple, easy-to-use “control panel” interface that requires zero HTML knowledge, allowing artists to spend more time creating art. Rather than bore you with 100+ services, I’ll describe three well-known examples: Hostbaby, Nimbit (recently mentioned in thedigitalmusicweblog), and CNET. > Hostbaby: Owned and run by CDBaby, the most successful retailer of independent music, Hostbaby charges $20/month for 500 MB disk space, unlimited email accounts, a free blog, an event calendar, an email list manager, audio streams and downloads, and a channel through which to sell CDs. See full list of features here. > Nimbit: Nimbit offers a whole series of “artist development services” including webhosting, CD duplication, and online sales. Nimbit’s webhosting services cost between $12.95 and $23.95 per month, depending on the features included. The standard plan includes 500 MB disk space, 50 email accounts, 5 gigs of bandwidth, an event calendar, an email list manager, and more. See full list of features here. > Music.download: When CNET purchased Mp3.com, the free independent music hosting site, thousands of musicians rebelled. In response, CNET constructed its new music site, Music.download.com. Posting music is free, but music is reviewed before being posted, and functionality and control of content on the site is limited. Many more examples exist. The more you pay, the more you get. What music services have you used or seen, and what do you like about them? ]]>