Austin, Texas-based music2u is a Web design/promotion firm designed to meet the unique online needs of the music industry. music2u provides Web design/maintenance/hosting/consulting & genre-specific online promotion services to professional musicians (independent as well as signed)

On their site, music2u list "The Top 10 Reasons Professional Musicians Need Web Sites".

If you're a professional musician, a well-designed and effectively promoted Web site can:
10. Serve as your online press kit. It's much easier (and much cheaper) to hand out business cards printed with the URL of your site than it is to mail off hard copy packets to journalists, booking agents, venues, and label execs.
9. Increase your product sales. You can promote, sell, and distribute your CDs through your own site whether or not you already have product in online or traditional stores. You can also endorse gear or promote and sell collateral items such as instructional videos/cassettes/books, band/orchestra arrangements, and t-shirts.
8. Advertise your availability for gigs/studio work. It never hurts to advertise (especially when you're targeting an interested audience).
7. Introduce new fans to your music. With a Web site, you can give folks who wouldn't ordinarily have a chance to come out to a gig (potential fans on the other side of the ocean, for example) a chance to hear your music.
6. Increase your turnout. Announcement lists let you remind your fans of upcoming performances and make it easy for them to attend.
5. Strengthen your relationship with your fans. If you've already built a fan base, you can keep in touch through mailing lists and public forums attached to your site. (You can also post the behind-the-scenes photos and anecdotes that fans - and journalists - crave.)
4. Strengthen your existing promotion plan. Whether you're working with a label or as an independent artist, your Web site can reinforce and augment the promotional efforts you're already making.
3. Open new marketing opportunities. Most Internet radio stations, jukeboxes, and online CD stores require (or expect) the artists they promote to have their own audio-enabled Web sites.
2. Reinforce your professional image. One of the differences between professional musicians and hobbyists is that professional musicians make an effort to understand and apply any new development with the potential to affect the way they make, promote, distribute, or sell music. The Web falls into this category with a vengeance - on all counts. Your ability to use this new medium effectively will be noticed not just by music consumers, but by managers, record company execs, and even other musicians.
And the number one reason professional musicians need their own Web sites is to:

1. Control costs. Compared to offline promotional efforts, a professionally developed Web site offers far greater value for your dollar.