There are lots of options for musicians and bands to host music online. You don’t need to upload your music to every platform out there, but it’s good to explore your options and pick a few websites that make the most sense for your needs as an artist.
For example, some websites focus primarily on selling tracks, while others are more about building a community and finding new fans. Some of them can seamlessly integrate with your own band website, which saves you time, helps you streamline your promotional and sales efforts, and allows you to keep all of your stats in one place.
So, what are the best websites for musicians to host music? We’d recommend starting with these four:
1. Bandzoogle
If there’s a spot online where fans should be able to find all of your music, it’s on your own professional music website. This way fans are just a quick Google search away from finding your custom website, learning more about you, and supporting your music.
You should make a music website and set up a page dedicated to your music, to offer context and to sell your tracks as well.
Bandzoogle is one of the best website hosting options for your music — it is designed specifically for musicians. With music features that simplify selling music online, you get to keep 100% of your music sales. Robust design tools allow you to lay out your website pages how you like, so you can independently highlight and sell your music and merch. You might want to set songs for streaming, offer tracks for free download, sell albums and singles at a fixed prices, or encourage your fans to pay what they want — all options are available.
To date, independent musicians have used Bandzoogle to generate over $127,570,489 in sales.
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2. Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an online music community that is popular among independent musicians. It’s free to upload and sell your music on the platform (minus Bandcamp’s commission fees), and they do a great job of encouraging music discovery among fans.
Bandcamp has hundreds of thousands of artists and labels on the platform, enabling music sales to millions of listeners worldwide.
If you host music on Bandcamp and also build a website with Bandzoogle, you can easily add your Bandcamp music to your website in just a few clicks, eliminating the need to re-upload tracks, or use separate apps or widgets. The Bandcamp music player will automatically adjust to match your website’s theme, even if you make changes to your design down the road.
3. SoundCloud
SoundCloud has a large, active user base made up of creators and listeners alike. It’s a great website to host your music if you’re looking to build a community, especially if you like the idea of fans and fellow musicians leaving comments on your tracks.
As a creator on SoundCloud, you can both share and monetize your music. You also get access to detailed data on your plays, likes, comments, reposts, and downloads.
To add music to your website easily, you can also import your SoundCloud tracks to your Bandzoogle website using any music feature.
4. YouTube
YouTube remains a massive driver of music discovery, so it can only help you to have your music available there. People searching for your music online will know that any tracks you’ve personally uploaded to your YouTube channel are the official, high-quality versions.
You can make it even easier on your fans by organizing your uploads into playlists. It’s a great way to seamlessly introduce them to more of your music that they may not have heard yet, while building up watch time and increasing your opportunities to make money with your music.
Don’t forget about music distribution
All of the websites listed above allow independent artists and bands to upload their music directly, but that’s not the case for streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. In order to get your releases onto those platforms, you’ll need to go through a digital distributor.
We recommend using DistroKid – the easiest way for musicians to get music into Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Tidal, and more. In addition, with DistroKid you can distribute your songs to TikTok. Users can then embed your song clips in their videos there, earning you some income.
The platforms mentioned in this list are the best websites to host your music online. Upload music to your own website, choose a creator platform that offers community, and get your music onto popular streaming platforms — this will give you the most solid start to getting your music out there for discovery, to build your fanbase and start making sales.
