How To Support Your Local Artists

Listen, Share, Like, Buy

In today’s digital age there are more and more artists stepping into the field of independent music. There are a few facts that they face: people don’t pay for music anymore and there is an enormous amount of competition. So the question any music lover has is “How do I support my favorite local band and help them make it?”.

Few people if any don’t know about Facebook. It is the largest social network in the world boasting 955 million profiles. Celebrities, business, governments and your favorite artists all have Facebook pages that they use to interact with their fans to share information and new stuff.   They only draw back to this is that Facebook only displays status updates, pictures, and links to the most recently engaged members. This means that if you liked a bands page 6 month ago and never went back then you probably are not seeing anything from that band. So the best way to support your local artists online is to like and share anything that they post, your one click helps tell Facebook that someone is paying attention and that post is relevant. It is the difference between 40 people seeing a post and 60 people seeing it, all because of one like or share.

The second best way to support a local band is to go to their shows and events. Most local bands play at bars and clubs were there is no cover or something like $5 to $10 a person. These venues measure the amount of people who each act will attract because that directly affects their drink sales. Most bands attract 20 to 50 people if they are good, if they are great and have a decent following they can bring in 505 to 100 people on a good night. One person is sometime the difference between a band being invited to play another show at a venue or being passed over for something better.

The best and final way to support local artist is to buy merchandise, this doesn’t always mean buying music. T-shirts, hats, bad, buttons, stickers and wristbands all help contribute to keeping a band playing and more importantly eating. Many countless hours are devoted by artists to create the music that you get to enjoy and that cuts down on how much they can work. So the more money that an artist can make helps them focus more on their music and in turn helps them get better.