The world, you’ve got concluded, could be a significantly better place if it have been listening to the songs and attending the performances of your favourite lesser-known indie band.
Whether you discovered this favourite musical act on a curated Spotify playlist or received hooked when serendipity put you close to their stage at a music pageant, you need to share these golden hooks and candy vocals with the entire world. These are your jams. You are a fan.
But with the music trade upended in the previous couple of a long time by the rise of MP3s and streaming, the pandemic shutdown of touring and live music, and now a future that might embrace AI-generated tunes, many musicians are struggling to make a residing. The pennies they earn from streaming companies mixed with live-gig ticket income, merchandise gross sales, and attainable promotional offers might barely cowl bills.
That’s the place the fandom is available in. Those who actually need the acts they love to succeed have numerous methods to present assist and be sure that the music continues and these creating it receives a commission. Here’s how one can be a greater fan.
How to Support Musicians in Person
The most blatant approach to assist musicians is by shopping for their music, shopping for tickets to attend their exhibits, and paying for official merchandise.
But there’s some nuance to spending these {dollars}. For occasion, in order for you to purchase posters, T-shirts, and vinyl albums for a musician, one of the best place to do that’s immediately, at a stay present, the place the artists might have the ability to pocket as a lot as 100% of merch desk gross sales.
That’s preferable to shopping for from, say, Amazon, and even the band’s personal web site, the place transport and different charges may apply, or printing and manufacturing prices might take a chew out of the underside line (for them and for you). The price of shopping for at a present may be increased, but it surely’s more likely these {dollars} will go to the musician, not the retailers and transport firms.
And should you purchase a T-shirt or hoodie, clearly, carrying it in public can elevate consciousness of the musician; it is free promoting for the artist.
Artists make a lot much less cash from music gross sales than they used to, however shopping for vinyl albums or CDs at a present nonetheless makes a distinction. You can stream your favourite artist all you need (we’ll discuss that in a bit), however buying bodily media is an efficient approach to put cash of their pocket.
Some bands may additionally have a donation or tip jar on their web site or might supply crowdfunding campaigns for brand new albums or excursions.
How to Support Artists Online
David Lowe, who performs as LUCKYKAT, has a great list of ways followers might help musicians, a few of them totally free. Among his ideas are following artists on social media, tuning in to livestreams they could be doing on Twitch or different video companies, signing up for his or her mailing lists, fan golf equipment, or newsletters, and sharing and commenting on their songs and posts. The latter few of these might help increase the artist’s publicity and encourage more and more algorithmic social networks to present their content material to different customers.
Streaming an act’s songs on companies like Spotify and Apple Music might generate solely a fraction of a fraction of a penny, however these streams do add up. It might only be a few hundred dollars for an act with an lively fan base, however that is not nothing. So even should you personal their vinyl album and play it religiously, maintain these digital streams going, particularly while you’re on the go. Write opinions or publish constructive feedback in locations the place that is an choice, akin to on YouTube or SoundCloud.
