6 things you can do FOR FREE to support an independent musician.
Times were tough for indie-artists BEFORE pandemic. We were already struggling, knowing that live performances was the only consistent way to earn actual money. Then pandemic hit, and there went our only source of income. Perhaps you, too, have lost your entire source of income since the pandemic (and if you haven't, then what is stopping you from joining Patreon? It's $10/year, friends!), and in that case, here are some TOTALLY free things you can do to support an indie musician.
1. Follow them on Spotify. Seriously, just clicking that "follow" button is a MASSIVE help. (Could you do that for me, please, like right now?? I've only got 225 followers as of this posting. Please help those numbers grow!)
2. Subscribe to their YouTube channels. YouTube has stopped paying artists for views, unless you have 1000 subscribers and thousands of hours of views. If you hit "subscribe," that gets artists closer to getting paid for their music, and it doesn't cost you anything.
3. "Like" them on Facebook.
4. Follow them on Twitter.
5. Follow them on Instagram.
These social metrics aren't terribly important in and of themselves, but they add up. Brand collaboration is a potential source of income to an artists, but they can't get paid by brands until they have a certain number of followers. The same goes with spotify and other streaming platforms: you have to have X number of followers before the algorithm starts adding you to playlists or suggestions.
6. Leave their YouTube channel or Spotify albums playing in the background of your device. If it's on mute it doesn't count, but you could really help an artist by just streaming their albums all day long on that random old iphone that you let your kid play with. Put it in a closet, but stream, stream, stream.
7. Shop their Amazon Storefront. If you shop on Amazon (and yes ... I understand how problematic Amazon is, but also, having been disabled during a pandemic, Amazon made my life liveable, so I consider the ability to boycott a massive privilege), then please just click on a musician's Amazon affiliate link if they have one. Amazon will give a few pennies from each purchase to the musician, and we never know it was you who shopped or what you purchased. You don't even have to buy from the recommended products -- just use the musician's link to get to Amazon and they will earn click-revenue.
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