Music Ally Sandbox Guide: Substack
Big thanks to Robyn Hitchcock and team, Kat Kennedy at Big Life Management and We Are Scientists, Connie Rose from Partisan Records, and consultant Emily White for their expert input on this one:
“I like to think that whatever my brain distills can be effortlessly poured out on Substack, into a cocktail for the mind,” says musician Robyn Hitchcock of Substack, a platform that has shown significant growth in the music space over the past year.
Launched in 2017, Substack has traditionally been used by authors and journalists to create newsletters directed towards paying subscriber bases - but in recent times, the platform has seen the arrival of a large (and increasing) number of musicians looking for a new way to communicate with their audiences.
Using some social media platforms might feel for some artists and marketing teams like a daily game of “beat the algorithms and adverts” when aiming to get content in front of their target audience - a task that can be both costly and unpredictable.
For them, Substack might offer some breathing room and a different approach, by offering a direct route to fans. Paying-subscriber models can not only generate new revenue streams, but also offers access to “a sort of open, kindhearted community that I only dreamed was possible before Substack,” as Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, who is one of the platform’s most prolific musicianusers, put it. “