How do you support indie artists?
How likely are you to buy music from an indie musician? Do you buy merch from bands you like? Have you ever bought anything from someone's Bandcamp or other digital download sites? Do you go to local shows?
If you don't, what's stopping you? Personal financial troubles? General anxiety about the economy? Something different?
I'd like to get a broad view of Lemmy on this. I see a lot of people promoting piracy without elaborating around here. Their position on big labels is clear to me, but I'm always curious where they stand on indie art.
Are they only mad at the likes of Universal and Warner, or do they think "making music shouldn't be job"?
EDIT: While we're at it, feel free to recommend some albums too :D
I think people who torrent and people who buy from Bandcamp can be the same people.
I do make a priority to buy around $20 of music every month on Bandcamp because those are small artists who deserve it, and who I enjoy to listen to. For the rest, I cannot legally buy FLAC files for mainstream artists, which means that I have to get discographies on TPB. If I could, I would buy. I cannot buy because it's legally forbidden in every country. Their loss I guess.
In exchange for cancelling my Spotify a long time ago, I try and buy about one-two (?) albums a month on Bandcamp.
I do download a lot of music off YouTube, though. I used to buy merch and go to shows a lot, but I don't make nearly enough as a grad student to justify that anymore. I also used to live a lot closer to a great music scene and venues to where that was super convenient for me, and I never paid more than $30-40 for a show. Not the case anymore.
I will say, I don't really draw a distinction between major labels and indie labels for any of this. Often major label records are not on Bandcamp so I tend to either not listen to them or just play them off YouTube, really. I wouldn't go out of way to buy merch or vinyl for them, maybe CDs if I can find them for cheap enough. It really is just a financial thing of, "is it affordable for me to support this properly", indie or not.
I buy indie when I can, and try to match up with the bandcamp days where all proceeds go to the artists. When I can make it out to a concert or live performance, I load the fuck up on merch. I don't buy corporate backed music at all, and pirate the fuck out of it.
At the end of the day though, I'll still pirate indie I want it now but don't have the cash to burn. It's not like listening to the track "legally" through YouTube or Spotify nets the creators any significant income, so I'm not going to feel bad about them missing out on what would literally be a fraction of a fraction of a cent from me streaming the track vs playing a local file copy.
I'm also not egotistical enough to believe that my personal actions would be the make or break for a band I enjoy.
My wife is a trained vocalist who has "created roles" (been the lead role in the first performance of some musicals, so her performance is the reference for all future runs) and runs in very musical groups, and while people should be able to support themselves through creative pursuits, money is rarely the deciding factor about whether some creative pursuit sees completion or not. It's time and passion. Money can be a proxy for time, but isn't always.
I buy music on Bandcamp (1 to 5 albums/EPs/etc per Bandcamp Friday). Nowadays it's mostly stand-out local acts. I also go to their gigs when I can. I might buy their CD and occasionally buy merch.
I also subscribe to 2 local community radio stations. They are awesome pillars of the local music scene. Run by incredibly passionate people who care. Very happy to give them my money, rather than big corps.
I no longer pay for streaming. Just radio, BC and local files. One day I'll make a server (maybe...)
I did pirate in my student days - mostly larger artists. I wouldn't feel right doing it now with small bands, and being a music-maker myself. Nah. But not against it in general.
I Op shop (thrift store) for CDs too, but super rare to find anything good. Was in New Zealand recently and a lot of their record stores had good CD selections, so bought a bunch. That was cool.
Just this morning I signed up to Subvert as an artist and may do so as a member too. Interested to delve into it a bit more.
Some albums i bought last year that i really enjoy:
DJ Set by Mouseatouille
Self Titled by Piggietails
The Apartment by Snowy Band
Love and Fortune by Stella Donnelly