Do I need a newsletter if I have Instagram?

Instagram’s probably still at the top for artists and musicians, because it’s the most accessible, with the most people on it and the most discovery, and people are more likely to share something there or see it on your stories.

The standard newsletter is a dying art, no one does it but people should, a website with your own newsletter that isn’t connected to something like Substack, because it goes straight to people’s inboxes and they don’t have to log in to go and look at your content.

Unless you’re annoying, people who sign up for your newsletter are unlikely to unsubscribe, and I’ve been on heaps of artists’ mailing lists for over 10 years because I like hearing about what they’re doing every now and then. It doesn’t have to be perfect either, and if it’s got a spelling mistake in it, people love that these days, because everything is AI.

It’s also what keeps people thinking about you between albums, and if I get your recipe in my newsletter, I’m going to go and listen to your album, because I haven’t heard it in ages.

If you’re collecting emails, you can use them for ads targeting on Facebook and you can give them to a label, because an email address, a postcode and a first and last name are the most raw, transferable form of data you can have. I like that the number isn’t visible too, so a fan can see how many Instagram followers you have but not how big your mailing list is, and it isn’t a vanity platform.

So I wouldn’t be super platform bound: I’d start with Instagram and a mailing list, and if you’ve got your own headline show (you can’t do it as a support), ask the venue for the opt-ins, the people who bought tickets and didn’t untick the marketing box.