Is Social Media Good For Local Bands?

Even before the recent rise of AI “artists”, musicians have been fighting an uphill battle on the internet. Big music labels have been controlling the conversation through paid media, public relations firms, and bot farms to ensure their latest artist goes viral.

It’s not just the record industry though. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are constantly adjusting their algorithms, showing posts to some people, and hiding them from others. One of the most painful tricks that these companies currently play is “deprioritization of external links.” That means that even if people follow you on social media, they might not see your posts that contain a link outside the site. These companies don’t want you clicking away from their carefully-crafted ecosystem, and they intentionally bury posts with outside links (unless you pay them!)

Combine this with the fact that users are cutting back on their social media usage, and you start to see the bigger picture - you cannot fully rely on these services to connect with your fans.

Bad For Fans, Bad For Bands

Companies like Facebook keep their main product free and make lots of money by harvesting people’s private data. However, not every music fan wants to participate in that exchange, so they avoid such social media platforms. By depending on social media for your local presence, you’re completely shutting these types of people out from your audience.

Even then, users who regularly use Facebook or Instagram are constantly subjected to a barrage of annoying ads, sponsored posts, and flat-out scams designed specifically to get them to buy something before they ever make it to where they were initially going.

Personally, I don’t want my fans to be subjected to that kind of garbage just to learn about my music. And here’s the thing - music fans don’t want their favorite bands to be held hostage by these services either! Music lovers would much rather have their bands focus on doing what they do best: making more music and playing it for them.

BandAlert Cuts Out The Middleman

With all of these platforms now playing by the same unfriendly rules, artists have to take a different approach, and a return to simplicity is inevitable. Connecting directly to fans is what both bands and fans want, which is why we started BandAlert.

It’s a simple idea that just works. When someone texts me about their upcoming show, I’m likely to make it. But when their gig is hidden below pages of AI slop, scam ads, and rage-bait posts, there’s little chance that I’ll ever discover it.

On top of its simplicity, BandAlert is dedicated to bucking the trend of predatory tech services. We do not sell people’s data, or use it for anything shady; see our privacy policy. We don’t use ad-trackers, tracking pixels or any of the other shady practices to identify users across websites without their knowledge.

Basically, we’re not doing anything as a company that we wouldn’t want to see as a customer - you can hold us to that!

Join BandAlert

If you’re a band who wants to connect directly with your fans, or you’re just a fan and want to experience more local music, create an account here and join the BandAlert community. The quicker you start growing your fan list, the more people you’ll start seeing at your shows!