How to support the musicians and music scenes you love

Music
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I was drafting notes for my next newsletter (might do an audio ramble as a podcast too) and decided to post it on social media earlier in case I had missed something. I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve not thought of.

Would love to include some of the suggestions of the DiS community when sharing this if you have ideas you’d like to share?

5 ways to support your favourite musicians and local music scene in 2025

  1. Support Your Local Venue

Goto your local venues websites and
• buy a ticket to an upcoming show
• or set a reminder to buy a ticket on your next pay day
• join their mailing list
• bookmark their listings page
• follow them online

  1. Support record labels as they’re the people who invest in music

Go through your favourite albums of recent times and
• check the names of the record labels
• You can click on the album on streaming or look them up on Discogs
• Follow those labels online and join their mailing list
• Set random calendar reminders throughout the year to browse their Bandcamp or label playlists or website for acts you’re not familiar with

  1. Support the acts you like

If you listened to an album more than 5 times on streaming
• treat yourself to some merch (or set a payday reminder to)
• goto their social feeds to engage with and share their recent posts to help them cut through in the algo
• join their mailing list

  1. Support the acts you love

If you listened to an album more than 10 times
• check the acts listings and grab a ticket to a show within travel distance
• sign up to their Patreon or see if you can make a small donation
• sign up to their show alerts on BandsInTown and Songkick
• check if they have an Instagram broadcast channel, Facebook group, Discord or WhatsApp group you can join

  1. Support Music Media

Look up who has written about or made videos or podcasts about your favourite acts
• subscribe to their social channels to get more music in your feeds
• set a payday reminder to become a paid newsletter / pod supporter
• treat your to a magazine subscription
• boost independent media online

For all of these things you’ll get more info and opportunities to discover music throughout the year

If you’re skint, spending 10 mins a day actively looking at pages and signal boosting social posts can make a huge difference. Increasing an artist’s digital footprint increases the number of people discovering them but it also makes them feel less like they’re posting into an abyss

Buying tickets in advance really helps the entire music ecosystem as it gives certainty to everyone involved and ensures promoters have cashflow for booking more shows, especially at this time of year when traditionally turn outs are lower

:tickets: Thank you to everyone who has become a supporter of my work with Drowned in Sound during 2024, as it allows me to free up time to advocate for the music I love and focus on creating systemic change http://drownedinsound.org

Note as someone tasked on Facebook: I didn’t include buying records, which could obviously be seen as good for the music scene to buy from labels or record stores but there are lots of confusing ways that it doesn’t directly support an artist if they’re not recouped or local music scenes if they’re signed to major labels etc, so I shied away from mentioning it as buying records is probably a bit obvious to suggest. Does that make sense?

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Some of the suggestions on social media (mostly Bluesky)

• Going to see a random artist you’ve never heard of every month at your local venue (Ross from How to Build A Festival podcast)
• Check out a local open mic night for up and coming artists and enjoyable covers. In my experience, a welcoming and supportive atmosphere and a brilliant evening of live music for the cost of a pint. (Purple Larley)
• If the artist has a CD or a vinyl or a T- Shirt , buy one … at the merch table , on bandcamp, if the artist has downloads on a website …, every little bit helps (omnipoprecordshop)
• Always get there for the support act. At festivals, get there early and visit the smaller stages. Check out artists you’ve never heard of on YouTube/streaming in advance and make yourself a schedule. You never know who you’re going to discover! If you see an act as support /festival filler you really like, buy their CD/vinyl, go to their show next time they’re in town… share your discoveries on social media… (Paul Goodall)
• Drop your phone and talk to people about the local music scene, music from smaller artists…. Do this in the line to get your coffee. (Franck Martin)
• Also sharing albums and acts you find and like and sharing events you might go to makes a massive difference (Matt McCartney)
• This is fabulous! I would add buy the music directly from the artist on CD or LP formats! (Frank Smith)

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If tiny band X is coming to town, and you’re a fan, there’s no better gift than the gift of floor/bed/sofa space.

Well, I guess floor/bed/sofa and breakfast is better. And by ‘breakfast’ I mean 'cheap sliced brown loaf, flora and marmite. And tea.

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I’ve found following specific promoters to be more fruitful than following specific venues.

Like in Oxford my local venues mostly put on stuff I have zero interest in, but the good shows at those venues are almost all booked by the same promoters

So I’d say if you go to a gig you enjoy, have a look at who put it on and check out other acts they’ve booked

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That’s really great advice and will adapt my newsletter. Thank you.

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Thanks for your ideas so far, have popped them in this article which just went out for free to newsletter subscribers

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Really excited to share the insight of over 800 grassroots venues on the artists they recommend you should see this year. 58 Must See Live Acts: Meet The Class of 2025 Longlist