How to Go 100% Independent as an Artist — Own Your Website, Links, and Revenue

Published on Aug 15, 2025

Let's talk about becoming completely independent as an artist. No music distribution, no Spotify, maybe even no YouTube. Total digital control.

I’ve already given away the Ultimate Indie Artist's Guide, which walked through getting set up as an artist: distribution, publishing, publishing admin, digital performance rights, and more. This is the next level: setting up as a music business for true digital independence.

Step 1 — Secure Your Domain

If you don’t own the dot-com for your artist name, stop reading and go check right now. Go to Hostinger.com, run a search, and see if it’s available.

People make a business out of buying domains and holding them for ransom. The last thing you want is to start bubbling and find out somebody grabbed your name, waiting to charge you thousands for it.

Yes, there are fun domain extensions like .tv, .music, and so on. But .com is still king. If someone can’t remember your URL, they’re going to guess it ends in .com.

If your .com is taken and you don’t have a large, loyal fan base yet, it might be worth changing your name to something available. That not only makes domain ownership easier but also boosts your SEO — a name with no competition is easier to rank for on Google.

Hostinger charges about $18/year — $1.49/month — for a domain.

Step 2 — Own Your Hosting

Think of hosting like owning land. You can build whatever you want on it.

Using Linktree, Bandcamp, Squarespace, or Shopify is fine — but you don’t own them. You can’t download a backup and move it. Switching from Shopify to Squarespace means starting from scratch.

When I switched my site from GoDaddy to Hostinger, all I had to do was upload my backup, and it went live exactly as before. If I wanted to switch again tomorrow, I could.

Hosting gives you two key things:

A server
A database

With those, you can build anything.

If you’re not technical, you can integrate third-party tools or hire a developer on Fiverr to build what you need. Or you can do what I do — know enough to be dangerous, then use AI like ChatGPT to help you code.

Step 3 — Build Your Own Infrastructure

Here’s what I built for myself:

Release Links — A create page to set them up, a gallery page with edit/delete options, and optimized pages that integrate directly with Facebook’s API for precise action tracking.
Bio Links — My own create/edit/gallery system with fully customizable templates.
URL Shortener & Tracking — Not just for short links, but to track clicks to third-party sites like iTunes. This includes internal stats with clicks, sources, and location data.

Because I own it, I can make any customization — even spinning buttons if someone asks. And I could easily open this system for other artists to use.

Step 4 — Monetization Without Platforms

Owning your hosting also opens doors for side businesses. You can host websites for other artists or friends, charging less than Shopify but more than your costs, while keeping them on your server.

I pay Hostinger $95/year to host up to 250 websites.

Step 5 — Stay in Contact With Fans

Social media lets you post daily, but your website doesn’t work like that — people have to intentionally visit. Without return visits, you can’t update fans on new releases.

That’s where newsletters come in. No algorithms. Direct contact.

Now, there’s a difference between a newsletter platform and a full-blown customer relationship management (CRM) system like Mailchimp. If you just want to send regular updates, you don’t need all the heavy CRM features.

Here’s my quick take:

Substack — Monetization only through paid subscriptions.
Beehiiv — Like Substack, but with an ad network and affiliate network built in, plus tools to track opens/clicks for sponsors.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — Similar to Beehiiv but without an ad network. Integrates with SparkLoop for newsletter cross-promotion income.

Step 6 — Monetize Your Website

You can start immediately with Google AdSense — no traffic threshold, just insert a code snippet. Once you have steady traffic, higher-paying networks will open up to you.

Don’t like ads cluttering your personal artist site? Make a second site — a music blog that features your work and others’. Monetize that site with ads without affecting your main brand.

Affiliate marketing is another natural fit. Join programs for services like Amazon Music or Apple Music, promote their free trials or special offers, and get paid while driving streams to your own music.

You can also curate product collections from Amazon, Walmart, or other brands that align with your image.

Final Word

Everything I’ve laid out here comes back to one thing: ownership.

When you control your domain, hosting, links, tracking, and audience contact, you’re not at the mercy of Spotify, YouTube, or any platform’s rules. You decide how to build, how to monetize, and how to grow.

Mentioned in this post: Hostinger - 20% Off, Beehiiv 20% Off, Kit

I'll be sharing the code for everything I built after it's been perfected and simplified. If you'd like to be the first to know and join the journey to independence, sign up here: https://payusnomind.kit.com/635bd9ddaf

If you want help setting this up for yourself — from your website to your links to your monetization strategy — you can reach out for a consultation: https://payusnomind.gumroad.com/l/psfarg

Business General Music business