i disagree
I agree with the above poster who said instagram is a tool. it is what it is. use it how you please. another poster mentioned hastags. when going through my feed i see a lot of elektron hashtags and see lots of random people’s jams. some are cool and i follow, some aren’t and i scroll and move on.
It’s just a tool. don’t be mad that a hammer can’t screw down some screws.
But it’s a tool owned by one of the most dangerous and powerful companies on the planet. I wish more people cared about that. Facebook is not a neutral entity so it’s not just a tool.
Not a fan myself, but what keeps me there is that people have networked with me. I’ve gotten gig offers that turned into shows. I found nice promo photos people took at shows. At first I felt like I had to upload often or in a certain style, but now I pretty much ignore that. I just find friends of friends who seem like genuine down-to-earth people.
See what people you like use as tags. Follow that stuff and make that your community. You’ll get a small following.
Signed up to Instagram last weekend and amazed I haven’t instadeleted it yet. Horrible app. Really can’t be arsed blocking or twiddling away to make it work for me. Will be quietly dropping it shortly.
I’ve had a pretty decent experience with instagram, I never tried to game it though which sounds like nightmare. The way linking works on instagram is pretty bad unless you pay for an advertisement. I dunno, seems the easiest to just use and slowly build on and reach some new fans. I would say never invest too much into any social media though as any platform can easily be ruined.
I think Instagram is great, you can set up hashtags and have your own hashtags.
The most interesting aspect of Instagram for me is that it started to expand my view of music. Before I saw music of a collection of waveforms hobbled together in different sections that all have some resemblance to each other (intro, verse, chorus etc.) but as I started to really get captivated by some Instagram posts, it could be certain sounds, timbres and notes that tugs my heart strings. And I realized that making 1 minute clips is music as well. As long as your creating an emotional response, then your creating music.
That realization really changed my view (får the better) regarding Music and how I make music.
I always used to slam myself for not making “real” music anymore.
there are a lot of great musicians on instagram who give me a lot of inspiration and motivation to get better. Same with youtube. You just have to filter.
girls
i’ve gotten dates with lots of girls via instagram
“hey follow me on instagram”
“okay”
(DMs ensue)
And regarding getting a following, that stuff takes time. I’m just about 3 years in on making music on YouTube and Instagram and I just reached 900 subs on YouTube and 800 on insta.
I think the key is to be genuine, it’s a community not a marketplace, interact with the community you want to interact with you. Don’t go around promoting your channel on others posts, that stuff is not cool. Be happy for others and engage with others…
They have been directly or indirectly involved with facilitating genocide, spreading hate speech and dangerous conspiracy theories as well as the manipulation of elections. But I guess worrying about whether we are comfortable engaging with a company like that is to overthink things.
That said, I don’t blame anyone who use them to make a living.
I can’t really disagree, but so has your government.
Anyway, back to the topic of if IG can be a useful tool for musicians or if it’s just a den for fake IG models and wonna be rappers… I think used properly it can be a great tool to reach fans and make new connections, just don’t be fake.
I think the word “tool”, as a a inanimate object doesn’t translate what it is exactly. First, because it’s an app and, behind the seemingly harmless interface, there are algorithms that exploit human psychology and behavior. Second, because it’s a company, with people and specific sectors to plan that exploitation.
So there’s a lot of life and intention behind it.
I’m a British citizen, so, if I were to refuse to engage with any entities that did such things I’d… not get very far 
I have been, sometimes, a ‘social media manger/professional’, so, while I’m a bit conflicted with that work, a bit of advice might look like:
Only bother if you like it. If you can find some sense of interest or community, or if you genuinely enjoy (not all the time, like, but at least sometimes) putting your stuff out there, then do your thing. Find ways to use the platform that you enjoy.
If you don’t enjoy, you’ll either not bother, or you’ll find it a chore and resent it, and that’ll show. There’s enough social media accounts out there of people who think ‘I suppose I should…’ and post three times a month with some half-arsed comment. (I hope I never again have to deal with the account of a window frame company with a weekly ‘New frames looking great in store’ post…)
Really, a ‘might as well’ account comes off worse than no account at all, so, if you need it, this is ‘official professional’ permission not to bother 
If you want to have a go at it, spend some time lurking. Get to know the place - twitter, facebook, insta, tiktok, all have different formats and different cultures (and subcultures). Spend time finding accounts you like and, yes, hashtags you like.
To use the overly-naive metaphor of a conversation, consider it like hanging out listening to a conversation friends/acquaintances are having. See what they’re going on about, see what everyone’s got to say. If there’s something you want to add, join in, if not listen and nod politely.
After a few weeks of that, you should come to a farily solid assessment of ‘is this a conversation I want to be a part of?’ (Ugh I’m sorry I know I know. But my clients love this kind of talk 
) If it is, you should have a bit of a feel for how you might take part, how what you want to add might fit in, etc. Or you might decide to excuse yourself and go drink alone in a corner 
If you decide you still want to participate… From what you’ve said, it seems that it’s best to disillusion yourself of the idea of competing with, or playing the game like, the ‘big guys’. ‘Proper’ social media accounts are either run by someone who’s made their content their job, or by paid professionals. I’m guessing you don’t have the time to do the first, or the money to do the second.
This doesn’t mean your shit can’t be good, or popular, but it does mean you’re going to need it to be a long, organic effort. Posting stuff you enjoy posting (stuff you’d like to see), judicious use of hashtags (sorry, but you gotta), liking and commenting on posts you genuinely want to like and/or comment on. Etc.
Things like ‘follow everyone you want to see you’ and other spammy stuff, just doesn’t work. Even the middle-tier accounts are inundated with people doing the same thing. They’re not going to bother to engage unless there’s some other communication (usually, money) taking place.
It may be worth thinking about how you could engage creatively within the limits of the platform. There are people playing with the video length limit and making ‘microtracks’. Others are working on visually-appealing videos. This kind of thing will keep you engaged with posting, and may make you stand out. It’s extra effort tho.
But to repeat, if you’re doing it out of a sense of obligation, don’t. If you’re doing it ‘for the money’, know that you’re going to have to put in a lot more time and possibly money than it seems you want to.
If you can take part in a way that is fun and sustainable for you, go for it.
And, it’s totally fine if you don’t want to. These places are 90% shitholes, breeding grounds for mental ill-health, and quite possibly the destruction of our societies. Working in these platforms has paid for my synths, but I no longer have a Facebook account, am close to deleting my twitter account, and my insta is locked down.
These companies make billions convincing companies and individuals that secret fortunes lie there, and that they’re great places for the ‘self-made’, but they’re increasingly saturated and it’s more and more the case that the ‘old ways’ (press releases, chats with journos/publications, going to the labels, building up a personal fan base, etc) are more effective and sustainable. Don’t believe the hype.
I treat it as a media format of it’s own. Instead of using it to drive traffic towards somewhere else, I create specifically for IG. I find it interesting as an exercise of “compactifying” your music into the 1 minute framework and making it work along with some visuals. I like only stuff I really like and I don’t care if people are not liking/following back. That said, I’m not earning my living from music and there’s no such pressure involved.
Also - something I wondered about for quite some time until someone (thank you, random person!) told me how to do it:
If you want your IG posts to appear correctly embedded (as actual image and not a broken link) on places like Elektronauts or elsewhere, you need to get the “share link” from the post when logged from different account, or not logged in at all.
To make Money…Stop making music and Start making ASMR Videos…
I did like you, minus the fact I never tryed to go on insta, facebook, tweeter. These things are shit I don’t understand how the people can spend precious time on it. I prefere spend my time on Elektronauts 
I’m on IG for my music with a dedicated profile and I love it. It helps me to finish things instead of going round in loops and getting bored.
But I think it’s all down to expectations: I have no expectation of making it big. I have no expectation of a big following. I remind myself that it’s not shameful to follow more others then they do you. Most importantly, I’m on it for me, not for anyone else. Just a nice place to post stuff that I can look back.
To not get into the error of fake interest and liking for the sake of getting likes back etc, I have just one simple rule: I only follow what I like (what fits my taste, musically), and I only really follow music channels which post videos regularly. I’m not really interested in gear pics, I’m looking to get inspired by seeing other people in their journey.
Never been on Facebook. Never been on Instagram. I don’t like Forums but this is one of the few that actually speaks a language i understand(most of the time). Do i social network. Absolutely not. I have an Iphone 4 10 years old. Still works as good as new same battery. Old computer does the job including Ableton live. I’m not missing out. I wear old fashioned clothes. Live in a Victorian House. Writing my novel with pen and paper and old typewriter. What is Instagram again?
wtf 
