How to support your musician friends

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How to support your musician friends

I believe everyone has at least one friend / family member musician or artist. In the case of musicians, we see them striving all the time to improve and promote their art, paying every week for a rehearsal space, buying strings / cables / sticks / reeds, paying for classes; paying for recording studio time; taking time away from family or rest to rehearse, and to find where to play; and finally, promote their gigs in all their networks.

And even if we wanted to, we can not always support them. Maybe due to time or tiredness we can not go to all their gigs (in Santiago at least, typical that they start not before 10-11pm on a weekday). We may not have money to buy the CD or have no place to play it. But there are many, many ways to support them, and many without money.

Tip number 1 if you want to support your musician friends: SHARE their content (music, videos, photos) in your networks, virtual and real.

This post is inspired by the image in the header, created by the artist Isadora Zeferino. Certainly several things seem obvious and they are, but many times we ignore them. This list is obviously incomplete, if you think of something else, please comment!

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITHOUT MONEY

Though liking and commenting on your friend’s posts in social networks is good, the following is more important and more useful:

SHARE their content. Better yet if you take the time to write something nice in the post and not only share the link.
Talk to your friends and family about your friend’s music; If possible, show them the music on a computer, cell phone, etc.
Publish on your social networks that you’ll be going to your friend’s gig; If you can not go, publish the event or flier for the gig and invite your friends. Even if they don’t go, the post or invitation will make some “noise” in their favor.
Post on your social networks if you liked a friend’s song. It can be an instagram video singing with the music behind; Share the Spotify link in Instagram, etc.
If you go to their gigs, take photos and videos, upload them to your social networks and tag them.
If they give you stickers or buy them, stick them in public places where people can see them. On the bus, the subway, the bus stop, etc. Do not hoard (if you want one for yourself, buy another one or ask him to give you one).
When they appear in media (radio, TV, press, podcast, Youtube show, etc), comment about it on the media’s social networks pages. If it’s a live interview or broadcast, comment at that moment: your friend will see the support and the media will know that s/he has audience.
If you get a flier, pass it to someone else when you’ve read it.
Subscribe to their YouTube channel, follow them on Spotify.
Do you use Souncloud? Repost their tracks and playlists.

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH MONEY

Go to their gigs and pay the ticket
If the gig is produced by your friend or band, DO NOT ASK FOR A DISCOUNT, DO NOT ASK FOR AN INVITATION, DO NOT ASK + 1. Every gig carries several costs that musicians often have to cover from their own pockets.
Buy their CDs, vinyl or cassettes, and merchandising in general, if you like it.
If you buy a t-shirt or other cloth, of course, wear them.
If they’re on Spotify, listen to them a lot. Each play of 30 seconds or more is a bit of money for your friend.

Can you think of more ideas? I’d love to read them in the comments!

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