How to help smaller artists

Josh Kinghorn, 20th Jul 2021
Tags: Music Blog Ambition Career

Everyone has been messed around by COVID-19 in one way or another, but the biggest impact has been the income of most professionals decreasing across every industry due to people spending less.

In music, it has shut down one of, if not the most important primary income sources a working musician has: live gigs. 

For some artists, like Jose Kelly and Will Allen, most of their income will have halted due to not playing to live audiences.

Unfortunately streaming on YouTube and Spotify isn’t quite as helpful as you might think due to low stream rates not paying a lot. So, as the country is opening back up here are a few easy ways in which you can help support smaller artists.

Buy the music

Whilst streaming gives you access to the artist’s music any time and any where, purchasing the music has a larger impact on their revenue. 

It might seem better to stream music to give a consistent income it can take thousands of streams to match the money made from one sale, so doing both helps the artist in multiple ways!

Buy from the artist/label

Following on from the previous point it is better to purchase directly from the artist, or at least directly from their label. This means the artist will get a bigger cut of the total revenue generated from the sale, possibly all of it if they are self produced and self marketed.

Go to their gigs

As shops and venues are starting to open up again musicians will be taking to the stage as well. For smaller artists these live shows will be a heavy source of income, so have a look to see if they’re performing near you.

Buy their merch

This one is harder to do as not all artists actually have this option, but if an artist sells merchandise, things like shirts, hats, badges etc. then it’s more likely they’ll get a decent profit from it, therefore supporting their music that way.

Spread the word

This one is less practical directly but word of mouth is still effective advertisement. If you really enjoy what an artist is producing then recommend it to your friends and share it on social media, because every artist loves free advertising.