Hi tony great read food for thought on what works and doesn’t as I’ve yet to create a fan base thanku

Rory – you make excellent points here. Thanks for the advice. – Ariel

TOTALLY AGREE!

I would say if you post personal stuff make it significant. Don’t just say, “I had an egg salad sandwich for lunch today.” My first thought would be, “I had two corndogs and some chips. So what?” Wait until you have an epiphany or as close to that as possible. Let them know things like how little Spotify pays or what it’s really like trying to get ahold of bookers at the venues in your town when you try to set up a show.

Great, less than 20%. I know they have been pushing ads instead of organic posts but from my experience and what people who are actually in marketing have said if you don’t know or have experience in marketing then the money spent on ads is wasted. I post very little for my band on Facebook honestly. Instagram works for posting our gigs and Twitter is a good source for people looking for new music. I would warn however to stay away from the marketing and promo people on Twitter and IG for that matter. The general consensus from the musicians I converse with is about 99% of what the “marketers” post is either an outright scam or the listens are just bots. They take your $5 or $10 and you get fluff. In some cases you may get removed by Spotify because of the bots and you would be totally unaware that was who your listeners really were.

This is somewhat true – they do only show to a percentage of your followers. I think it is probably less than 20% at this point. But I wouldn’t advise against letting people know there is a link in your bio for whatever you are promoting.

One issue with Facebook is that only 20% at most of your followers see your posts. I have 160 followers and when I post a song or video I routinely only get around 30 views. Both Facebook and Instagram will cut your post sends to followers by half if you mention anything about a link in your description. The reason being is they want to stay on their page and not go to Spotify or Youtube, etc.

So sorry that you feel that way, Diana. Unfortunately this is the new music business world that we are in. We aren’t the ones calling those shots, just the ones trying to help everyone understand it to the best of our abilities.

Hi Cadyfinlayson, Thank you for your comments! Wow, how I’ve suffered greatly from holding back my music for years. But I have good news, this year I’m really pressing in on myself to release my music despite what I may think others like or don’t like about it. The truth is, I really don’t know what people will think or not think about it, I just have to release it. So comes in the word “courage” and the word “faith” for me. I have heard comments about what fear does from some really awesome speakers, motivators, ministers, friends and my own family. And many of them have inspired me to push past my fears, believe and move forward with it.
I’ve contemplated for many years whether I was good enough or not and have suffered greatly from not doing it. So regardless of what people think or don’t think, I’ve suffered long enough not to move forward with releasing what I’ve written, created, orchestrated, composed and spent many countless hours to produce.

Thanks for letting me just chime in here. No more fear!