Local musicians are a treasure to every community. They make our ceremonies more beautiful, our night life more entertaining and our social gatherings more engaging! Often, these same performers further enrich our community as music educators or private instructors sharing the gift of music with our youth. Covid-19 has gravely hurt the performing art industry. All is NOT lost and you can help! Here are a few fast and easy ways to support the music you love.

Visibility
Today’s musicians are judged by their online presence. Our success is measured by our Facebooks ‘likes’, YouTube subscribers and Instagram followers. Every time you ‘like’, ‘follow’ or hit the ‘notification bell’ you add to the perceived popularity of musicians. This is a remarkably important credential in today’s world. You can also help by sharing or commenting on posts. This increases musicians exposure, allows their content to reach more feeds and helps them to draw new listeners.

Streaming Services
The music available online is incredible. Take time to discover new artists. Especially consider listening to local Fort Wayne musicians. There are some insanely talented musicians here! Seek out local talent that records and writes material. This music is often available for free on a number of different platforms. Don’t be a mindless slave to the radio station or your Spotify feed. Go out and discover the talent in your own community! Listen often because streaming services send royalties back to the recording artists and provides income for them.

Support Your Favorites
When you find a local band or artist that you really enjoy, please consider supporting them financially. The most direct way of helping local talent is to hire them for a private event, business party, holiday gathering, wedding, etc. Secondly, always consider tipping live performers or live streamers (cash or Venmo). In addition, I know this will sound old school, consider purchasing music. This matters because companies like Spotify, Pandora and YouTube pay suspiciously low revenues to the artists you love. Therefore, for your favorite artists, you should consider purchasing and downloading their music.

My Personal Favorites!!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0MWEUwYPDXLaQmdHmU3MnF

Fort Wayne Metal Artists – by Tim Kenefic

Adam Baker’s Fort Wayne Playlist

Please add your own links in the comment section!!!