As we head into Thanksgiving and take time to enjoy the ones around us, many small businesses are gearing up for what amounts to their Super Bowl weekend. They’re prepping for Small Business Saturday and hopeful that many locals will come and support what they do and help them end the year on a great note. Many bands are doing the same.
A lot of people forget that bands are small businesses and have things like taxes and expenses to consider. Many play shows that they are lucky to receive enough money to get gas on their way home. So we wanted to show some easy ways that you can help support these small business owners tho is coming Saturday and every day.
First and foremost, follow bands, venues and music related businesses, like instrument stores, on social media. It doesn’t hurt you to have bands pop up in your feed. And the more follows and likes they have the better their business will do. their merch.
Go to their website and buy the vinyl and t-shirt. Do it so you can say “I knew them when.”
Download their music and follow them on your favorite streaming platform. With new changes coming to Spotify it will mean more than ever to help these local guys get those streams.
Attend a show. Venues bring bands back based on their draw. If a band brings even a decent crowd of twenty people, their chances of coming back are higher.
Give them some love. Encourage them in what they do. Maybe it’s common knowledge, maybe it’s not, but musicians and artists are some of the hardest people on themselves. They tend to struggle with feeling like anyone cares. Let them know you do.,
Share WV music with your friends. This author has a statewide friend group and I’ve had many of them reach out and say thank you for promoting WV music, because they’ve found a lot of great artists through it. You have that same power to help these bands develop fan bases outside of the state.
Come check out one of the quarterly Born & Bred Concert Series. This is a great chance to see some of the best music our state has to offer in a fantastic setting at the Robinson Grand. Get tickets to the next one on January 20th by clicking here.
Add them to your playlist! And speaking of playlists be sure to stream The Born & Bred Playlist where you can find all types of West Virginian original music. And stay tuned for later in the week when we drop our second playlist of Christmas music from WV artists.
We want to see the music of West Virginia become known all across the world and we can do that with your help and you can start this Small Business Saturday.
