So much of what I write comes from my life experiences; either having worked with bands or from my being a fan and consumer. Life is full of many great lessons. Here is a lesson that hit me over the weekend.
KISS just announced that their upcoming new album is called Monster. I immediately jumped onto Godaddy.com and checked the availability of the domain www.kissmonster.com… available. In my opinion this a failure. How does a major international recording artist not have a plan to purchase all of the related domains for the upcoming release of a brand new album and world tour? Guess what happened, within minutes someone else purchased the domain, it was not the band. Maybe this person is going to do nothing, maybe they are going to take the traffic and try to generate affiliate sales. As a band you don’t know what the intentions might be.
Buying a domain name these days is very inexpensive. If you ever think you should own a domain, get it. Better you own the domain than someone else. Everyone is always thinking about the domain for their band name, but how many of you are thinking about the domain name for your album? Get the domain for the album name as well as your band name and album name. You don’t have to build a website on these domains, you can easily do a redirect to your website or the album page on your website. It is better you control your brand online than someone else.
Yes you can get the domain back if you have the name trademarked, but that is going to take time and money. You also might not get it back in time to help with the promotion and launch of your album.
Don’t let others squat on your brand, don’t give others the opportunity to make money off of your brand, don’t give someone the chance to setup a site that could be negative to your brand. All you have to do is think ahead, do just a little bit of planning and spend less than ten dollars to buy the domain.
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