I quit social media a few years back and one of the things I lost was the ability to keep up to date on some of the indie artists I liked that basically only post their music to instagram and spotify.
Recently I have been emailing some of them asking if they might consider
- sending release updates to an email list or posting to an RSS enabled blog to help support the neu-luddites.
and
- Printing some CDs so fans could purchase their music without supporting spotify.
Everyone who has responded has been very nice so far. I thought I would share in case this strikes a chord with anyone else trying to exit socials or spotify.
Totally onboard.
I have never really used any major social media. I feel pretty strongly that it is a solid waste of time and a real mind toxin to the user. And for what it’s worth, CD’s are still king to me.
I gotta say though. Youtube does have just about every song I’ve ever searched for. They are likely not the only one either.
If you’re looking to discover something new, word of mouth is generally king due to a lack of bias. Make friends with common strangers like workers at your grocery or retail stores. Ask around. Find someone who has a similar slant to your earhole and ask them for suggestions. I usually go with the ol “Are you into <band>? Whats another good band in a similar vein?” I discover a LOT of new music this way as well as share some too.
My intention is partly to directly support the artists but also partly also to help create inroads for fans to quit social media but stay connected with some of the good that has come out of those platforms.
If you didn’t really mess with instagram or tik-tok you might not be aware that there’s a somewhat large cohort of younger indie artists whose followers are primarily on those platforms and who primarily self publish songs on spotify. If people are also connected to artists via email lists and such it makes future transitions away from those platforms more plausible for the artists!