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Why Indie Artists should have Substack


Substack can be a great tool for indie artists because it encourages fanbase building, provides tools to reward current fans, is free, and could help turn a small profit. 


Substack is designed for our most creative minds. It is often described as an e-newsletter platform, but Substack is much bigger than that. While its e-newsletter tool is helpful for indie artists trying to keep their fans in the loop, Substack has several other tools to help even the smallest artists build up a fanbase to be sending newsletters to. 


For example, every user on Substack is handed their own website on a silver platter. Substack refers to this individualized website as a publication.


Publications can be customized to fit the user’s branding down to the color hexes, font, and layout style. While user's are unfortunately unable to customize their SEO optimization or domain, it is still completely free to build the website and each domain is simply the user's username ending in “substack.com.” Plus, user's are able to customize their subdomain by changing it in settings.


(I put in about ten minutes - if that - to make this. Proof that it is easy to make a decent looking site on substack)


Indie artists can utilize their publications as their own websites. They can add upcoming tour dates, post bts content, and even share unreleased songs. Plus, user's have the option to hide any content under a paywall. For a great example of an artist optimizing their Substack publication, check out Colin Meloy on substack (https://colinmeloy.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips)




Users are able to choose to subscribe to different newsletters as soon as they click on the title of another user's publication. If the user chooses not to subscribe they can still access the entire publication subscribe anytime. Subscribers are also automatically added to a group chat (similar to ‘channels’ on Instagram) where they will receive updates in the app and can connect with who they are subscribing to.



Even if it is free to subscribe to a newsletter, some users hide replies to their group chats behind a paywall. 



Substack is also a social media platform with a main feed similar to Threads. Users can scroll through their 'for you' feed or 'following' feed, and interact by liking, commenting, reposting, and/or sharing. Indie artists can utilize the feed however they see fit. They can share a post on their songwriting process for their latest single, an old song turned poem, or even a short note on how imposter syndrome is all consuming today.



So, as you can tell, indie artists have a lot to gain from Substack. They can build a fanbase by sharing their most authentic thoughts and content with the world on the main feed, and support those fanbases with a subscription to their newsletter, fan group chats, and exclusive content on their publication. And, as I mentioned before, it’s free! 


* For instructions on how to set up your substack account while optimizing all its features, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXWwMC_lao8 or https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055169471-How-do-I-set-a-custom-theme-for-my-publication 




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