Can an artist successfully promote themselves without FB/Instagram etc.?

I’m about to release some music. I’ve only ever used Bandcamp which has amounted to friends only, really. This time around I want to give a bit of a push and hope to get it heard by a few more people (no massive aspirations, I’m too old). I’m proud of the work and want it heard. Streaming obviously makes it much easier for even friends to add it to a playlist or save it instead of the effort to find it and put it on, ya know?

The dilemma I’m facing is I very much agree with the Zuckerberg blackout and morally don’t want to use these platforms anymore. Spotify as well - I would much rather say good riddance. I’ve stayed on them all though with this launch in mind, thinking I’ll need them when it comes time to promote.

I’ll also be looking to book some shows in the next few months and know that promoters will be looking there first to see if I’m worth it. CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT blah blah blah.

Is it possible to launch a new project and promote yourself successfully without these evils?

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Would imagine more bands with be returning to the old fashioned idea of having a website, but that doesn’t help at all with initial promotion, just maintenance of audience/mailing lists etc.

Have been wondering about this myself, but since the label that puts my band’s stuff out is fairly active on social media, anythjng my band does directly will be a bit half-arsed.

I know bands that just don’t do social media at all, but they tend to be very active gig-wise, and doubtless the promoters will use Meta etc, so again it’s hardly much of a stand.

Bandcamp or Ampwall could definitely attempt to expand into niche (music) social media to better help Meta-less artistists, but whether that would be effective, or worth their hassle who knows?

Is tricky, deffo. Would like to see a solution, but (as ever) it would require the potential audience to change their habits (away from Meta) which is maybe unlikely?

Presuming the people involved with the new project have no existing profile or established fanbase, I think the answer is sadly no.

The main benefit to being on social media as an artist is it’s what the vast majority of people use it to follow and keep up with artists/bands they’re interested in.

With the million other things competing for people’s attention these days, you’re ultimately making things even harder for yourself as an artist if you’re not on those sites, as most people just won’t seek you out elsewhere online.

This is the worry. With no existing profile or ‘followers’ it’s hard enough working from the ground up but having to rinse these sites and apps for the next few months for likes and follows is going to be soul destroying.

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Hiya, first of all I wish you luck with this. I often used to have a fantasy about being in a band that had absolutely zero online presence but still managed to gig, have a fanbase, release records etc, I just wasn’t very savvy and I think to successfully do what I was thinking of you’d have to be really, really great (which in hindsight maybe my bands just weren’t), have some luck in striking some kind of zeitgeist moment a al Arctic Monkeys or something.

One tip to maybe get around promoters is look for bands that are putting on their own shows, send some of them your music and ask if you could hop on the bill. Or see if a venue is willing to let you hire a room, you put the gig on, ask some bands you like to play, start networking that way. I used to print some very rough flyers with a QR code on it that linked to a free bandcamp download and leave them on the merch desk or hand them out at the door when folk left the gig. (Easy for me to say but if promoters are only going to put you on because of streaming numbers or followers on facebook then they’re not worth the gig anyway.)

Definitely get your music on here once you have it online! Whatever the genre is, find that subreddit and post it there. If you used a specific synth for example, find that synth’s user subreddit and post it there too. It’s not going to generate loads of plays but you’d maybe get a few and might start a conversation with like minded folk.

Lots of promoters (even the decent/non-shady ones) will be looking for artists to have even a basic social media presence before agreeing to book them, as they want to be sure the band have a means of promoting the gig to their fans/followers.

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This is genuinely the most soul destroying part of the process for me, I hate it, and it’s the one reason that every time I have a release just about complete I consider shopping it around some established labels, just to take some of the burden off. Haven’t to date, but it’s there in the back of my mind every time.

That said, I think it’s perfectly possible to build up a small following without Meta owned social media, I rarely post on IG but am reasonably active in a few genre-focused discords and on Bluesky (after bailing on twitter a year or so ago) and most of my (handful of) sales come via them.

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Loads of great stuff in here, thank you!

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Try not to be too dispirited before you’ve even started. :slightly_smiling_face:

In my experience, to build any sort of following you essentially need to do a combination of most of the things already mentioned in this thread.

I’d start out by trying to play some gigs with like-minded artists, if you’ve got decent recordings send them on to some DJ’s that play similar things along with a one page press release and a polite email.

Hopefully that’ll lead to some interest and some airplay, but to keep people interested and keep them updated you’ll likely need to use social media going forward.

It’s a tricky one, though I’ll say once got a track played on 6Music by just sending a Bandcamp code via snail mail to Stuart Maconie

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Also if you have time, submit yr album to Bandcamp Daily (there’s a how to on their website) cause placement there or in the Best New… listings can be pretty massive. My album got a Best New Ambient placement in 2020 and there was a burst of activity off the back of it

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Everyone should set up a neocities, add each other to a web ring

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specifically this was for my Missing Cat EP and I basically posted a fake missing cat poster with a Bandcamp code on it which I think all concerned agreed was quite cute

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This is very clever

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was planning to send more out to random places, but starting a new job kind of distracted me a bit - so I was quite shocked that the one bigger shot did pay off. My parents were very proud

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Gonna rip off your idea a bit I think

But do it Swedish style

This is absolutely great

also, there are still bits of music media you can approach! magazines, radio, blogs, webzines, stuff like that. start small, do a bit of digging, find out who’s talking about what and who is behind them - i’ve found these sorts of people aren’t hard to find and are usually very nice.

then, just play shows - if promoters aren’t interested, do it yourself! it’s always fun on the bun, and you won’t win every time, but it’s better than not doing anything.

but yeah, just find your scene and get in it. you can’t nurture an audience on facebook because the algorithm means no fucker will see anything you post anyway, so it’s a losing game from the start. IG isn’t as bad I suppose, the less said about X the better. Bluesky is good - plenty of bands and artists around on it, but again - you’ll have to do some digging. worth it though!

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