I have a friend in a website crisis. The story is that after years of having no website at all, my friend Jen was approached by a enthusiastic fan who wanted to set up her website for no charge. This fan had a solid background in web design and seemed legit enough, so without much more thought Jen said yes.

Fast forward 2 years and after countless botched attempts, a half conceived website was launched. Jen wasn’t satisfied and asked for some changes. All of a sudden charges started creeping up and the free site started to cost Jen more money than she was ready to spend.  So Jen asked to take back her site and domain. Now the fan is a little insulted, so a time consuming battle for her domain freedom has ensued. Bummer.

Another classic reminder to know everyone on your team. Especially your web developer. If you’re fully embracing the New Rockstar Philosophy then your website will be a huge part of who you are, and how you make money. If you don’t have control over that, things can become increasingly difficult.

At the very least as an artist YOU should own your domain. The files of the site are replaceable, but when someone owns your name, things tend to get even shittier.

From your manager, to your web developer, to your merch help, make sure you have trust worthy and non crazy people working with you. And how do you find out if they are cool or crazy? Spend some time with them. Don’t just hand over they keys to your world to someone with good intentions. Do your research, spend that time, build a solid team around you.

Music Consciousness
Voyno