5 Ways You Can Support Your Music Friends
Make a huge difference to your friends music career without spending money.
Making it in the music industry is tough.
If you have friends who are trying to build a career in music there are many easy ways to support them that won’t cost you any money or take much of your time.
Follow the 5 simple steps below and you might just help the next music superstar get the shine they deserve!
1. Comment and/or share on Facebook (don’t just like)
It hopefully goes without saying that if an artist you like posts something about their music on Facebook it’s nice to give it a ‘like’ to show them your support. What you may not know, is that Facebook makes it very difficult for artists to reach their fans timelines on Facebook without spending on advertising.
The Facebook algorithm decides what content you see on Facebook. One of the key factors it looks for to determine if a post is quality and worthy of being shown to more people is the amount of ‘meaningful engagement’, shares and comments help posts get seen by more people.
It’s not just the Facebook gods will be appeasing with your comment or share, it will mean much more to your artist friend than a like ever will..
If your friend posts their music on Facebook, comment on it and share it!
2. Don’t ask for guestlist / freebies
If you want to watch your friend perform live, buy a ticket.
If you want to listen to their music, stream or download it legally.
If you want to wear their merch, buy it.
Every time they give away a guestlist spot, track or t-shirt they are loosing out on potential income. Artists often feel pressured to give things away for free to their friends but this shouldn’t be the case.
Show your support and put your hand in your pocket!
3. Pre-save / Follow / Playlist.
When an artist is promoting their music on social media you will often see them asking you to pre-save on Spotify, follow their profile on music platforms or add their music to your playlist or library.
Please don’t assume that because you are their biggest fan you will listen to their music anyway so there is no point in adding their tracks. The reason for this is again, algorithms. Platforms like Spotify and Apple Music use intelligent computer algorithms to decide which tracks to add to their playlists. Adding, saving or playlisting your friends music will count as a good signal and can potentially help them land the big playlist placement of their dreams!
When streaming, make sure to also listen to your friends music often and in full (skips half way through a song are a bad indicator that the algorithms factor in).
4. Spread the word
Nothing beats word of mouth, if you really like a song your friend has made tell some friends about it. It’s amazing how much time and energy we all spend talking about pop stars and how little we support our friends.
Spread the word about your friends music as much as you can, here are just a few ways you can do that:
- Play their music to friends, at work or at your next dinner party!
- Share the music smart link to their latest release.
- Invite other friends to see them play live.
- Send links to their music in your Whatsapp or Messenger groups.
5. Care
This one is most important. Working in music can be very challenging and unfortunately there is a long standing and well documented history of musicians suffering with mental health problems.
Check in with your friends often, if you think they are having a tough time be there to support them. Having a strong support network of friends and family can make a huge difference.
There are also several charities and schemes to help support artists struggling with mental health. Here in the UK, Help Musicians UK run a 24/7 mental health support line for the music industry. They also provide several other services to help musicians at all stages of their careers. Music Support also operate a 24/7 helpline, run workshops, events and offer resources to help with a range of mental health problems in the music industry.
There are several international support options for mental health problems both specific to the music industry and not.
A global list of Suicide crisis lines can be found here.
Be there for your friends.
