The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of the lives of everyone in our world. The music industry especially has had to come up with completely new ways of interacting with fans and making an income on what they love most...music. We all have moments where all we need is some good music, and during this time when concerts and festivals seem to be on quarantine themselves, the best thing to do right now is find ways to support our favorite independent artists so that they can keep rising to the top. Check out some of the ways that fans can help their favorite independents!
Stream! Stream! Stream!
The biggest way to help any independent artist is through streaming their music. While music streaming platforms average about less than a penny per stream, any time a fan streams an artist's music, that generates some revenue for that artist. Now artists have lost thousands of dollars with the loss of performance and tour dates creating a need for millions of streams to compensate for that loss, so turn your favorite artists on repeat and let it run!
Tap into their live streamed performances
Live stream performances have become largely popular amongst mainstream and independent artists due to the inability to perform live. We have seen artists from John Legend to Rich the Kid perform on Instagram Live keeping the world entertained during quarantine.
Bless their Cashapp!
Many artists have actually been posting their Cashapp, Venmo, and Patreon accounts in an effort to continue making money to support their ability to create. Artists' main source of income is live performances and touring, and when the pandemic hit they all became unemployed. Streaming does not nearly cover enough to compensate for such a significant loss of income. By donating to artists, their ability to create new content, purchase equipment, and plan for tours will continue to be possible.
Share their social media
Exposure is extremely valuable for artists especially when it can lead to creating new fans. Simply reposting and interacting with your favorite independent artist can help to get their image out to people who may not have heard of them before. Ways of sharing artists' platforms would be to share their posts to your stories and news feed on Instagram, tweeting about them, or posting their music on your Facebook.
Purchase their merchandise
Tons of independent artists have merchandise than can be purchased by supporters. This will help artists not only continue to make an income during a time in which they cannot perform but get their brand exposed to possible new fans. 3300+Climbing has had the opportunity to work with Creativangel the past 6 months and he just dropped new merchandise!
Buy artists music directly
Many artists have accounts with e-commerce stores such as BandCamp and Gumroad. By purchasing the artist's music straight from the source helps them to generate more money for their work. Since March, Bandcamp has waived their revenue share fee 3 different days, in order for artists to receive ALL of their revenue without paying BandCamp's percentage. In total, fans have paid more than $16 million to artists through BandCamp's relief efforts!
Donate to emergency support funds for musicians
Hopefully, concerts and festivals will be able to make a come back at some point because who doesn't love being in a crazy crowd vibing to some dope music? Spotify founded a COVID-19 Relief Fund which matches the donations made by users to a number of foundations listed on Spotify's page. Some of the foundations include the Music Health Alliance, MusiCares, and The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival & Foundation. Spotify has committed to matching all donations up to $10 million.
What have you been doing to support your artists? Let us know what you think on our Social Media!
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