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18 Ways Fans Can Support Musicians
Keep the music playing.
[I originally published this on the LUCKYKAT publication, The Electronic Music Producer ].
When I started producing electronic music as LUCKYKAT, my biggest goal was to become financially independent as an artist. This sounds counter-intuitive and the polar opposite of what most musicians preach — that you do music for the love of doing it, not the money — but I always wanted to be my own boss and make music on my terms.
I wanted to devote 100% of my time to my craft, not do a meaningless job to support that pursuit.
So when I launched my first releases, I was focusing on the sales of the songs (about $2 per digital copy) instead of the streaming revenue (about $0.003 per 1 minute of listening on Spotify) to help keep the lights on.
This strategy worked quite well but then I realized that because I was not producing traditional, physical music using a medium like vinyl or CD, it was harder to sell. Human behavior has changed and music fans have migrated towards streaming and “all you can listen to” deals with music platforms.
I started researching alternative ways to generate revenue in the music world and was pleasantly surprised to find that live streaming is one of the top ways to do this now because fans can interact with artists in real time, tip them, buy emotes (Twitch specific emoticons) and get recognized for being super fans. In addition, fans can by virtual products like NFTs and even invest in a stake of the artist’s brand so as the musician grows, so too does the fan’s shares.
The pandemic completely crushed the music industry for about 2 years so I thought it was a good time to come up with a list of ways you can support artists during this tough time:
1. Follow On Social Media
Start by following your favorite up and coming artists, not just the big name celebrities who don’t care for their fans (sorry Travis Scott, the world is calling you out!).
