Peer2Peer Pressure: How to Support Your Favorite Indie Artist

10 Simple Steps to Support your Favorite Artists

When The Musical Disconnect first started I had several readers ask me to provide some suggestions about what they could do to support their favorite DIY or Indie musicians. Now that we have looked at some of the challenges facing artists in today's music environment, this might be a good time to look at what you can do to help. Most of these suggestions will seem pretty obvious, because they are. As with many things, the best answers to a problem are the most obvious.

The following suggestions are not complete by any means, but they touch on the most important things you can do as a music fan to help your favorite artists.

Share, But Not All Sharing is Alike

I have put off writing this post for a long time. While this is a difficult and touchy subject, it is also one which I am very passionate about. I believe that most people want to do the right thing when it comes to sharing music, and would not willingly do things that might cause harm to an artist whose music they enjoy. I know this to be true about my fans and the fans of my peers.

I have the best fans any artist could ask for. Some of them travel hundreds of miles just to see me perform. They help me set up for gigs, sell CDs at shows, carry my gear, pack up my gear, and share my music with their friends and family by buying copies of my CDs as gifts for them.

In today’s world, however, it is easy to spread the word about one’s favorite artist, yet hurt them at the same time. Not everyone realizes the consequences regarding some types of sharing, and if no one tells them which types help and which hurt, how would they know? That is what this post is about. That spreading the word and sharing is great, but how a listener shares is as important too.

Music has always been a social glue. Wherever and whenever people gather to celebrate or commemorate an event, there is music. You hear music at events like parties, weddings, funerals, graduations, as well as in social locations like restaurants, night clubs, bars, concert halls, and jams on the beach.

Music gives people a sense of “Identity”, and people want to turn their friends and family on to their music, both to share their love of it, as well as to say something about themselves and their tastes.